Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1910-06-03

Would she understandable debt he
had felt he owed her long before to-
night. that sense of obligation to the
child who had reached out her hand
in a different life, a different world ?
No. She had of course forgotten. Still.
he would leave 1t. that talisman SO
precious. which he bad cherished al
most superstitiously.
When a few minutes later the girl
hastily re-entered the room she carried
on her arm a mans "a and hat. Her
appearance was feverish. her eyes
wide and shining.
"Your clothes are ~torn-would at
tract attention! These were on the
rack. l don't know whose, but | stole
them-stole theml'
She spoke quickly, with a little.
hard note of self moekery. Her voice
broke suddenly. She looked about her.
The Goa and hat slipped from her
arm. She looked at the window. The
curtain still moved as IL a hand had
but recently touched It. she stared at
it i~neredulously. He had gone. He
would have none of her assistance
then; preferred She listened, but
caught only the rustling of the heavy
silk.
She became aware of a throbbing in
her head, q dull pain, and, mechanical
ly seating herself near one of the ia
bles, she put up her hand and started
to draw the pins from her hair, but
soon desisted. Again she began to
think, more clearly this time, more
poignantly, of all she had experienced,
listened to, that night.
She, a Wray, sprung from a long line
of proud, illustrious folkl And he?
The breath of the roses outside was
waited upward. Her eyes, deep, self
scofing, rested without seeing on a
small dark object on a handkerchief
on the table. What was 1t to her If
they took ~him-what, indeed? Her fin
gers played with the object, closed
hard on it. Why should she care If
he paid the penalty-he, a self con-
fessed-
Something fell from the velvet COW
ering in her hand. She was vaguely
aware of it cleaning there on the cold
white marble, a small disk-a gold
coin. Then slowly she took 1t as If
asking herself how it came there on
her handkerchief, which, she dimly
remembered, had been lying on the
floor. Some one, of course, must have
picked up tho handkerchief, but no one
had been in the room since she had no.
ticed 1t except
More closely she sci tinized it. the
shining disk on her rosy palm. A King
George gold piece! Above tns mon
arch's face and head with It's fioS ing
locks appeared a tiny hole, as II some
one had once worn it. Beneath, just
discernible, was the date, 1852. She
continued to regard it, then looked
again at the bit of velvet near by. 1t
had been wrapped in that carefully
for what reason. Like something
more thar what it seemed-a mere
gold piece.
"1TG2." Why. even as she gazed Mt
the cloth, felt it. did the figures seem
to reiterate themselves in her brain2
'1762." There could be nothing esDe-
ciaily significant about the date. Yet
even as she concluded thus by some
interpretive process she saw herself
bending over, studying those figures
on another occasion. Herself, and
yet
She was looking straight before her
now. Suddenly she started and
sprang up. "a King George gold
piece!" Her hair, unbound, fell around
her, below her waist. Her eyes. like
sapphires, gazed out from a veritable
simmer of gold. Date She paus-
ed. "Why, this belonged to me once
as a child, and r.
The blue eyes seemed searching
searching. Abruptly she found what
on the Lord Nelson" She almost
whispered the words. "The brave,
brave fellow who sacrificed his life
for NINE" Her warn fingers closed
softly on the coin. She seemed wrap
ped in the picture thus recalled.
"Then how Her brows knitted
! she swept the shining hair from her
face. 'If he were drowned, how could
it have been left here BY Her eyes
I were dark now with excitement
Him? Him?" she repeated. I'm.
less" her breast suddenly heayed, ''he
was not drowned, after all. He
A sudden shot from the park rang
out. The coin fell from the girls hand
Other shots followed. She ran out
upon the balcony, a sti1ed cry on het
lips. She stared off, but only the
darkness met her gaze.
= >
Not far from one of the entrances to
Regents park or the hum of Camden
Towns main artery of traffic lay a lit
tie winding street, which because OF
it's curving lines had long been known
as Spiral row. Into this byway there
turned late in the night of the second
day after that memorable evening at
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