Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-08-11
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cHAPTER l.
The Vanishing Mystery.

Flora Gilsey stood on the threshold
of her dining room. She had turned
her back on it. She swayed forward.
Her bare arms were lifted. Her hands
lightly caught the molding on either
side of the door. She was looking in
tentIy into the mirror at the other
end of the hall. All the lights in the
dining room were lit, and she saw
herself rather keenly set against this
brilliance. The straight-held head,
the lifted arms, the short, slender
waist, the long, long sweep of her
skirts made her seem taller than she
actually was; and the strong, bright
growth Of her hair and the vivacity
of her face made her seem more deep
ly colored.
She had poised there for the mere
survey of a new gown, but after a mo-
ment of dwelling on her own refiec-
ton she found herself considering 1t
only as an object in the foreground OF
a picture. That picture, see through
the open door, reflected in the glass,
was all of a bright, hard glitter, all a
high, harsh tone Of In its
paneled oak, in its glare of cut-glass
and silver, in the shining vacant faces
of its floors and walls, there was not
a color that filled the eye, not a shad-
dow where imagination could find
play. AS a background for herself 1t
struck her as i~ncongruous. Like a
child looking at the landscape up
side down, she felt herself in a for
.eign country. Yet it was hers.
She glanced over the table. 1t was
set for three. 1t lacked nothing but
the serving of dinner, She looked at
the clock. 1t wanted a few minutes
to the hour. Shima, the Japanese but
der, came in softly with the evening
papers. She took them from him
Nothing bored her so much as a pa
per, but tonight she knew it con
tanned something she really wanted to
see. She opened one of the damp
sheets at the page of sales.
There it was at the head Of the
column in thick black type:
AL AOClloGNy 40 4rI
PERSONAL ESTATE OF
ELIZABETH HUNTER CHATWORTH
CONSISTING OF -
She read the details with Interest
down to the end, where the name o.
the famous Chatworth ring" finished
the announcement with a flourish
Why famous? it was very provok
ing to advertise with that vague ad
~jective and not explain it.
She turned indifferently to the frs
page. She read a sentence, re-read II
read it again. Then, as If she coul'
not read fast enough, her eyes gal
Hoped down the column. 1t was tn
most extraordinary thing! She wa
sbewildered with the feeling that wha
was blazing at her from the column
of the paper was at once the wildes
thing that could possibly have haI
pened, and yet the n most to hav
been expected.
For, from the first the business ha
been sinister, from as far back as tn
tragedy--the end Of poor young Cha
worth and his wife-the Bessie, WHIT
before her English marriage, they ha
all known so well. Her death, tha
had befallen in far Italian Alps, ha
made a sensation in their little cit!
and the large announcements Of au
ton that had followed hard upon
had bred among the women who ha
known her a morbid excitement,
feverish desire to buy, as if the1
might be some special luck in Their
the jewels of a woman who had {
tragically died. They had been read
to make a social affair of the privat
view held in the Maple room" b
fore the acution. And nov the who
spectacular business was capped by
sensation so dramatic as to stra
ecredulity to its limit. She could n
believe it; yet here it was glazing
her from the first page. Still
might be an exag~geration, a mistak
She must go back to the beginnil
and read it over slowly.
The striking Of the hour hurri'
her. Shima's announcement Of di
ner only sent her eyes faster dov
the page. But when, with a fair
smooth rustic, Mrs. Britton came
she let the paper fall. She alwa
faced her chaperon with a little M
~vousness, and with the same sense
.strangeness with which she SO fl
4uuently regarded her house.
Its Is minutes after eight" Nj
Britton observed. I'VE would bett
mot wait any longer"
She took the place opposite Flor;
at the round table. Flora sat dow
still holding the paper, flushed a
bolt upright with her Jews.
'It's the most extraordinary thing
she burst forth.
Mrs. Britton paused mildly with
radish in her fingers. She took
the presence Of the paper, and t
suppressed excitement of her co
panion's face-seemed to absorb tn,
through the large pupils Of her lie
eyes, through all her smooth, pre-
person, before she reached for an
planation.
what is the most extraordins
<hing?" The query anne bland a
smooth, as II, whatever 1t was,
could not surprise her.
"Why, the Chatworth ring! AT
rriyate view this afternoon 1t sim
vanished! And-and it was all
ovn crowd who were there!"