Evening star., 1911-06-04
THE BUTTON THIEF
Continued from page 9

arm. He could feel the satinlike pressure of
her skin against his moist wristbone.
"He's dead!" she cried in broken voice;
for such things were new to her. Skeel him
self had more than once noted the effect of
patrolmens nightsticks and longshoremen' S
bilies. And more than once he had been
led to marvel at the solidity of the human
skull
ooh, he's dead-he's dead!' The woman
began to sob brokenly, swaying little from
side to side.
Skeel laughed laugh of happy hysteria.
His mild and sedentary soul was just emerg-
ing from its first red mist of atavistic delir-
ium. It'll do him good!" he cried, amazed,
moment later, at his own stupendous
audacity.
"But we've killed him. moaned the girl,
turning her terror wrinkled face to the
youth at her side. She stopped sobbing and
continued to look at him, as though reallz-
ing for the first time that he was stranger
to her.
mo we haven't" avowed Skeel, tinglng
at the thought of being bracketed, even in
that troubled moment, with being SO beau
tiful. "Look at his legs twitch! He's bound
to be out of that trance inside of three min
utes!'
She looked down at the Russian. He lay
there with his arms crooked up. like the
wings of duck shot in midair. what can
we do?' she said at last, turning back to
Skeel.
That youth, with his free hand, drew a
chair over to where she stood and let her
sink into it. Then he stopped and caught up
the crumpled papers from the floor. take
these" he commanded.
She took them, with look of wonder in
her eyes.
This look of wonder increased as she
watched him jerk framed print of Millet S
"Goose Girl from the wall above her head.
One blow on the safetop smashed into a
dozen scattering pieces the glass that COW
cred the face of the picture. He tore away
the picture itself, and drew out a layer of
blueprints pressed together behind it. These
he folded together into one packet.
"The coast defense plans and the projec-
tile test reports, he said, not wholly uncon-
scious of the dramatic values that lurked in
the laconism. "Stolen from your father S
desk"
He held them out to her. But her eyes,
instead Of studying the papers, were turned
up to his face.
@Quick, take them!' he bruskly told her,
little. disconnected by her stare. "Our
time is short
She was still studying his intent and ex-
alted young face. "Are you in the service?'
she asked.
He was compelled to confess that he was
not.
"Then why are you-" She did not COM
plete the sentence; for at that moment the
man on the floor moved one hand little.
1t was the hand on which glimmered the
heavily jeweled ring.
"Quicki' cried Skeel, thrusting the blue
prints into her hand. "You must 60 first.
You've got to 60 now, while you have the
chance!"
3And what will you do?" asked theyoung
woman.
Skeel felt little nervously in his vest
pocket. He wanted to make sure the bone
collar button was still there. ayes, he said
little vacantly. "I've got to 60 too. In
fact, I'm-I'm horribly late"
A T the precise moment that the moist
browed Skeel stepped into the banquet
ing hall and slipped into his place near the
end of the speakers table, the orchestra
struck up the national anthem, and the en-
tire company of diners, enthusiastically
cheering and waving their table napkins,
rose to their feet.
That astonished youth, for one breathless
and perturbed moment, imagined the DEM
onstration was in some way meant as trib-
ute to him; for the wine of his adventure
was still singing through the upper cham
bers of his giddy young head. Then it