The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-07-16

lively dangerous"
She rolled her eyes at him, and
I could see she was making an
impression. OF course she was
free. She had a perfect right to
marry, but I will say this: Bella
is lot better looking by electric
light than she is the next morn
ing.
The upshot of 1t was that the
gentleman who built bridges and
looked down on society from a
lofty, lonely pinnacle agreed to
help one Of the most cleaning
members Of the aforesaid society
to outwit the law.
1t took about fifteen minutes
to quiet the policeman. Nobody
ever knew what M. HARRISON
did to him, but for twenty-four
hours he was quite tractable. He
changed after that, but that
comes later in the story. Any
how, the HARRISON man went up
stairs and came down with Bag
dad curtain and a cushion to
match, and took them into the
furnace room, and came out and
locked the door behind him, and
then we were ready for Bella's
escape.
But there were four special Of
ficers and three reporters watch
ing the house, as a result of Max
Reeds idiocy. Once. after trying
all the other windows and find
ing them guarded, we discovered
a little bit of hole in an out-of-
the-way corner that looked like q
ventilator and was covered with a
heavy wire screen. No prisoners
ever dug their way out of a dun
geon with more energy than
that with which we attacked that
screen, hacking at it with kitchen
knives, whispering like conspira-
tors, being scratched with the rag
ged edges of the wire, frozen with
the cold air one minute and boil
ing with excitement the next. And
when the wire was cut, and Bella
had rolled her coat up and thrust
it through, and was standing on a
chair ready to follow, something
outside that had looked like a
barrel moved and said, "Oh, !
wouldn't do that IL were you. 1t
would be certain to be undigni-
fled, and probably it would be un-
pieasant-later."
We coaxed and pleaded and
tried to bride, and that happened,
as it turned out, to be one of the
worst things we had to endure.
For the whole conversation came
out the next afternoon in the pa
per, with the most awful draw
ings, and the reporter said 1t was
the flashing OF the jewels we wore
that first attracted his attention.
And that brings me back to the
robbery.
For when we had crept back To
the kitchen, and Bella was fum-
bling for her handkerchief to cry
into and the HARRISON man was
trying to apologize for the Ian
guage he had used to the report
er, and I was on the verge Of a
nervous chill-well, 1t was then
that Bella forgot all about crying
and jumped and held out her arm.
"My diamond bracelet" she
|screeched. Look, I've lost It."
Well, we went over every inch
Of that basement, until / knew ev-
cry crack in the flooring, every
spot on the cement. And Bella
was nasty, and said that she had
never seen that part of the house
in such condition, and that If
had acted like a sane person and
put her out, when she had no
business there at all, she would
have had her freedom and her
bracelet, and that IL we were
playing a joke on her Gas If we
felt like jokingD we would please
give her the bracelet and let her
go and die in a corner; she felt
very queer.
TITS gone" I said. 81 don't be-
lieve you wore 1t here. No one
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