Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1910-12-13
The Heart of the Dilemma.
CHAPTER XVI.

The Heart of the Dilemma.
There is, in the heart of each gale
of events, a storm center of quiet.
1t is the very deadlock of contending
forces, in which the individual has
space for breath and apprehension.
Into this lull Flora fell painting from
her last experience, more frightened
by the false calm than by the whirl-
wind that had landed her there. Now
she had time to mark the echoes of
the storm about her, and to realize
her position.
From the middle of her calm she
saw many inexplicable appearances.
She saw them everywhere, from the
small round of Clara's movement to
the larger wheel of the public aspect.
Clara was taking tea with the Buffers,
and the papers had ceased to mention
the Crew Idol
1t had not even been a nine days
wonder. 1t had not dwindled. 1t had
simply dropped from headlines to
nothing; and after the first murmur
OF establishments at this strange van
ishing, after little vain conjecture as
to the reason of it, the subject dropped
out of the public mouth The silence
was so sudden it was like suppress
| sion. To Flora it Swallowed some
| forces working so secretly, so surely,
| that they had extinguished the light
of publicity. They must be going on
with concentrated and terrible &C
tivity in cycles, which perhaps had
not yet touched her.
So, seeing Maj. Purdie among the
crowd at some ones afternoon" where
she was pouring tea, she looked up at
! his cheerful face and high bald dome
with passionate curiosity. He knew
why the press had been extinguished,
and what they were doing in the dark.
| She knew where the sapphire was
and where the culprit was to be found.
And to think that they could tell each
| other, if they would, each a tale the
other would hardly dare believe.
Amazing appearances! How far away
| how foreign from the facts they COW
| eredl But Maj. Purdie had the best
of it. He at least was doing his duty.
| He was standing stiffiy on one side,
| while she hesitated between, trying
! desperately to push Kerr out of sight
before she dared uncover the jewel.
But he wouldn't move. In spite of all
she had done, he wouldn't.
! Across the room that very after
noon she caught the twinkle of his re-
sisting smile He had had her letter
then for two days, and still he had
/ come here, though he'd been hidden
| to stay away; though he had been
/ warned to keep away from all places
/ where she, or these people around
her, might find him; though he had
been implored to go. finally, as far
away as the round surface of the
\ world would let him.
By what he had heard and seen in
the red room that night, he must
| know her warning had not been ridic-
ulous. And there was another threat
less apparent on the surface Of things,
| but evident enough to her. 1t was the
\ change in Clara after she had begun
her attack on the Buffers, her appear
I ance of being busy with something,
absorbed with, intent upon. something,
I which. if she had not secured it yet,
/ at least she had well in reach. And
that thing-suppose it had to do with
the Crew Idol: and suppose Clara
should play into Harry's hands!
For Kerr's escape Flora had been
holding the ring. fighting on events,
i, and yet all the while she had not
wanted TO lose the sight of him. Well,
now. when she had made up her mind
finally to resign herself TO the dreari-
ness of that. might he not at least
have done lis part of it and decently
disappeared? So much he might have
done for her.
He was playing her own trick on
her, but her chances for getting at
him again were fewer than his had
been with her. She could not besiege
him in his abode; and in the places
where they met. large houses crowded
with people, the eye of the world was
upon her. For how long had she for