Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-08-18

counts, my Bll, ne pISdCueu IL dt uSI
with his long white hand, the game
that is going on out here is the big.
red game Of life. That's the only one
that's worth a guinea; and there's no
winning or losing, there's no right or
wrong to 1t, and 1t doesn't matter
what a man is in 1t as long as he's a
good one"
Even if he is a theft" The ques-
ton was out of Flora's lips before she
could catch 1t. It was a challenge.
She had meant to confound him; but
he caught 1t as If it delighted him.
swell, what would you think"
He threw it back at her.
What hadn't she thought! How per
sistently her fancy had played with
the question Of what sort of man that
one might be who had so wonderful
ly put his hand under a glass case and
drawn out the Chatworth ring.
"Oh," she laughed obviously, II sup
pose he is a good one as long as he
isn't caught"
what" His face disowned her.
you think he's a renegade, do you?
A chap in perpetual flight, taking
things because he has to, more or less
pursued by the law? Bah! It's a
guild as old, and a deal more honor
able, than the beggar's. Your good
thief is born to it. It's his caste. It's
in his blood. 1t isn't money that he
wants. If he had a million he'd be
the same. And it isn't a mania eth
er. It's a profession" The English
man leaned back and smiled at her
over the elegance of his long, Joined
finger-tips.
She looked at him with a delighted
alarm, with an increasing e%lation; but
whether these arose from his lawless
declarations and the singular way
they kept setting before her more
wildly moment by moment the pos
sible character of the present keeper
of the Chatworth ring, or whether it
was just the sight of Kerr himself as
he sat there that stirred her, she
didn't try to distinguish.
But suppose he was your own
thief" she urged; took your own
things, l mean," she hastily amended,
land suppose he turned out to be-
some one you knew and liked" She
hesitated. She had come at last to what
she really wanted to say. She had
brought out a question that had been
teasing her fancy at intervals all the
while he had been talking, and he had
not even heard it. He wasn't " look
ing at her. She had caught him off
his guard. He was looking across her
shoulder straight down the dim vista
of the room to the little blaze of Dor
dering light. He was looking at Har.
ry. No, Harry was looking at him,
Harry was looking with g. steady, an
intent gaze, and Kerr meeting tit
might have been merely the blank
glare Of his monocle-seemed, to
Flora, to meet it a little insolently
She fancied in the instant something
to pass between the two men, some
r thing which, this time, she did no
mistake for jealousy-a shade too din
for defiance or suspicion, a deeI
scrutiny that struggled to place some
thing, some one.
Flora felt a sudden wish to breal
5 that curious scrutiny. 1t had broker
her little moment. 1t had shattered
the personal, almost intimate mott
that had been sounded between them
s The look Kerr turned back to her wa'
vague, and stirred in her a dim re
sentiment that he could drop it all 81
o easily.
"Shall we join the others?" 1t wa
l. the voice with which she had begul
with him, but her eyes were no
k through their light mist Of lashes, an
he threw her a comprehending glanc
n of amusement.
It ooh, no" he assured her, 1--WE can
If help ourselves. They are going t
join u.s."
Ella Butler, in the a of her pro
n, cession, was already descending upo
n, them. Her approach dissipated tn
70 last remnant of their personal MI
a. ment. Her presence always insiste
1T that there was nothing worth Will
,r but instant participation in her gel
iallty, and whatever subject it migt
j. at the moment be taken up witt
to This conviction of Elias had bee
It. wont to overawe Flora, and it sti
overwhelmed her; so that now, 6
Id she followed in the trail Of Ella
!" marshaled force, she had a guilty fee
o. ing that there should be nothing
re her mind but a normal desire for su.
re per.
ct Yet all the way down the grei
stair, "the Corridors of Time" whel
ut the white owl glared his CLASSY wi
ne dom on the passings and counte
passings, she was haunted with Il
IT. thought that Harry had seen the e
re t~raordinary Kerr before; not shake
be hands with him, perhaps-perhaps n
it even heard his name; but somewher
ne across some distance, once glimpse
,r, him. and had never quite shaken tt
re memory from his mind. For the
was something marked, notable, unfc
a getable in that lean distinctivenes
- Against the sleek form Of the me
g! they met and shook hands with, ]
nv flashed out--seemed in contrast fair
nv electric. She saw him, Just ahead
ad her where the crowd was thickenii
in the door Of the supper room, ma
lie ing way for Clara through the pre-
with that exasperating solicitude
* his that waa half ironic.
ed The room, not, polished, faring !
Elections of electric lights from !
gu glistening floor, announced itself Il
,e- heart Of high fastivity, through II
be midst Of which their entrance ma