Evening star., 1909-06-20


and plan campaign She had SO much infor-
nation, at least. Now what she had to do was
to find some plausible theory to utilize it.
Back she went to her room, and cried herself
to sleep as anv other woman would She
missed Astro more than ever. Before, she had
a hunger and thirst for his presence; now she
wanted his help and protection. Oh. she was
sure enough now, She felt lost without him
she saw how necessary he was to her, how he had
made life different romantic, picturesque.
TT was sad little Valeska that crept to the
studio next dav. She took up of the
cushions of his dvan and kissed it passionatelv,
buried her face in it for awhile, then sat reso-
lutely down a his desk to work out the mystery
of his location. The more she thought of it
now, the surer she became that he must have
left these clues on purpose to guide her IN her
search 1t would be like him to test her that
way, there was sort of humor in it that, at
last, she saw Well, then, she would be d
worthy pupil She would prove that his lessons
had not been without effect. She, too, would
be Seer of Secrets!
With smile on her lips now, she began the
problem. But again she stopped. 1t was
absurd to think of him as being away She was
SO used to seeing him here in the studio that she
could not take her task seriously. Could not
she go into trance, as he had SO often pre-
tended to- and summon him to her or project
her spirit to meet his, Could she not perceive
the radiance of his secret black light directly
through her intuitons, without this tedious
and stupid ANALYTICAL logical processe AS she
sat there she could almost feel him at her side
leaning over her shoulder, looking from the
door of his laboratory. She looked up with a
start from her revere, and was little fright
ened to find herself alone in the great studio
with its shadowy corners. Then she went back
conscientlously to her study.
What the meaning of the four addresses
1t was evident that he could not be in anyone
of the places Was there any esoterlc slgnltl-
canoe to the Weehawken ferry or Pier S3e She
laughed at the idea. All she could gather from
the addresses was that Astro probably in
New York. Well. that was something Her
mind jumped to the square with diagonals, to
the cross on the enveop. How did they tlt IN. :.
Why, for all she knew, the pattern on the car
pet, the legs of the chairs could solve the
mystery,
MO, there must be some relationship be-
: tween these things. If these evidences were
left purposely, they were correlated one to an
other. Her mind went back to memories OF
Astro. He used to Jump up and walk back and
forth as he considered his problems So up
rose Naleska and began to pace the room.
rs she passed the bookshelves, she noticed
that one book stuck out a little from the others.
1t was a volume of Poe's :" Tales She pushed
it back and continued her promenade. She
went the addresses agan,-Sant Pat
ricks. Pier SO, 800 Third-ave, the gas works.
1t came to her vaguely that these places were
about equal distances apart. Now could that
mean anything. Then she thought that she
could consider them more clearly if she had a
map.
She went to the shelf. therefore, took down
and unfolded large map of New York, and
lril it the table. She next took four pins
from the case in the top drawer and marked
each place. They were indeed equal dis
tances apart she measured them with ruler.
Then she noticed that they seemed to form a
square and tested it with little rubber trian-
gle Astro used for plotting horoscopes, and
found it was true The sides were about mile
and a quarter long, Again she dropped her
chin on her palms and her elbows on the table
and studied the pins.
But her thoughts wandered. 1t seemed as if
Astro should be there to help her he always
had. She thought, with a sad smile, that if it
was propinquity that had made her love him,
propinquity was what she wanted most. But
She forced her mind to the subject and remem-
bered the diagram drawn on the blotter of the
table. Why that was a square, too! And 1t
had its dagonals drawn. The hint reached her
at last and Selling pencil and ruler, she drew
in the diagonals on the map, and looked curl
ously to see where they intersected. On
34th-st between Seventh and Eighth-aves.
But the studio itself was at $50 West 34th-st
CHE jumped up then her hand on her beat
- ing heart Her intuitions, then, were true!
She had felt the black light of his presence,
though he was invisiblei He was in the studio,
and had been from the first! He had, perhaps,
even looked from the doorway, as she had fam
cied. She trembled as if at the presence of a
ghost and feared to see him.