Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-08-26

Drawer things of you. The game that
counts, my GIRL he preached it at her
with his long white hand, the game
that is going on out here is the big,
red game of life. That's the only n
that's worth a guinea; and there's no
winning or losing, there's no right or
wrong to it, and it doesn't matter
what a man is in it 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 it. 1t was a challenge.
She had meant to confound him; but
he caught it as if it delighted him.
We'll, 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 and under a glass case and
drawn out the Chatworth ring.
"Oh," she laughed obviously, 81 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. It 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, b
didn't try to distinguish.
But suppose he was your own
thief" she urged; took your own
things, 1 mean," she hastily amended,
land suppose he turned OUT to be-
some one you knew and liked h
hesitated. She had come at last to what
IL ASdAAy "d11ISo " say. ohS Tau
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 even 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-
~. No, Harry was looking at him.
Harry was looking with a steady, an
intent gaze, n Kerr meeting tit
might have been merely the blank
glare of his monocle-seemed, to
Flora, to meet it q little insolently.
She fancied in the instant something
to pass between the two men, some
thing which, this time, she did not
mistake for jealOusy-a shade too dim
for defiance or suspicion, a deep
scrutiny that struggled to place some
thing, some one.
Flora felt a sudden wish to break
that curious scrutiny. 1t had broken
her little moment. 1t had shattered
the personal, almost intimate note
that had been sounded between them.
The look Kerr turned back to her was
| vague, and stirred in her a dim re-
sentiment that he could drop it all so
easily.
Shall we join the others?" 1t was
the voice with which she had begun
with him, but her yes were hot
( through their light mist of lashes, and
he threw her a compromising glance
Of amusement.
t "Oh, no. he assured her, Eve can't
help ourselves. They are going to
join u.s."
Ella Butler, in the a of her pro
/, cession, was already descending upon
, them. Her approach dissipated the
last remnant of their personal mo-
ment. Her presence always insisted
t that there was nothing worth while
but instant participation in her gen
iality. and whatever subject it might
: at the moment be taken up with.
D This conviction of Elias had been
: wont to overawe Flora, and it still
overwhelmed her; so that now, as
4 she followed in the trail of Elias
marshaled force, she had a guilty feel
ing that there should be nothing in
e her mind but a normal desire for sup
e per.
t Yet all the wa down the great
r stair, the Corridors of Time" where
t the White owl glared his CLASSY wis
e dom on the passings and counter
passings, she was haunted with the
thought that Harry had seen the ex
e ~traordinary Kerr before; not shaken
e hands with him, perhaps-perhaps not
t ever heard his name; but somewhere
e across some distance, once glimpseC
him, and had never quite shaken the
e memory from his mind. o there
was something marked, notable, unfor
a getable in that lean distinctiveness