The San Francisco call., 1909-08-08

that of some unheralded deity who was
there who could tell her?
She tried to summon coherent
thought, but again it was only flash
out of the darkness.
Kerr Why, he knows more than
L. She looked at this stupidity for a
moment as if it were too large to take
in at once. OF course he must have
known! Why hadn't she thought of
that before? Why hadn't she thought
of it that first moment when he had
turned on her in the box with such
terrible eyes? She drew in her
shoulders, looking all around at the
dim corners of the room which the
lamp failed to penetrate. Behind her
present lively fear a second shadow
was growing, more dim, more form
less, more vast and dubious.
What series of circumstances might
have led up to Kerr's knowledge she
could not dream. He was one of
whom nothing was incredible. From
the first moment his face had shot
into the light, from the moment she
had heard his voice. like color in the
level voices around him, she had been
bewildered by his variety. He had
caught her up in the clouds. He had
whirled her along dubious levels, and
more than once he had shown her that
the lines she had supposed drawn SO
sharply between this and that could no
more be discerned than meridians on
green earth.
If she had noticed any earnestness
in him, it was his relish, his gusto for
the whole of life. He had no theory
to set up. Just as 1t was he
took it. If he persisted in requiring
people to be themselves it was for no
good to themselves, but for the pleas
ure he himself got out of it. If he
made society into a little ball and
threw it away it was only to show 1t
could be done
And where, she asked herself in a
summing up, might such a man not be
found? But there were few places in
deed. in even the broadest plain of pos
sibility, which could hold knowledge of
so particular and piercing a quality as
his look had implied. There had been
so much more than curiosity or sur
prise in 1t. She could hardly face the
memory of it, so cruelty it had struck
her. There was no doubt in her mind
that Kerr had seen the ring. Some
where in the pageant of his experience
he had met it. known it-bMt what he
wanted of it.
She broke off that thought, and
looked long at the little flame of the
lamp. 1t was strange but there was
no doubt in her. mind that he
wanted it, That had been the strongest
thing in his look. She felt herself
picking her way along a very mar
row path, one Step over either
edge of which would plunge her
chasms deep. Now she snatched at a
frail sapling to save herself. The fact
that Kerr knew her stone didn't prove
it belonged to the Crew idol. And if
it didn't--if it wasn't the crown of the
heather god, then her whole dreadful
supposition fell to pieces. But she
hadn't proved it and the simplest way
was just to ask Kerr. Her chance for
that was the chance he had fought SO
hard for. the chance of their meeting
the next day.
She hadn't wanted that meeting
when he had first asked her for 1t In
the box She had feared II then, and all
the more she feared it now, because
now she would have to do more than
defend herself She would take the
offensive; she would make the attack.
now that she had question to ask
Why should the thought of 1t frighten
her? If this was not the Crew sap
phire she would be no worse off than