The Winslow mail., 1911-02-18


Another sound" he finished, "and
you won't get out of here at all, un-
less you crawl up the furnace pipe!"
When he came back, Bella was rous-
ing. She lifted her head with her
eyes shut and then opened them one
at time, blinked, and sat up. She
didn't see him at first.
you wretchl" she said ungrateful-
ly, after she had yawned. "Do you
know what time it is? And that"
Then she saw Mr.. HARRISON and sat
staring at him.
This Is Mr.. HARRISON" I said to
her hastily. "He-he came with Anne
and Dal and he is shut in, too"
By that time Bella had seen how
handsome he was, and she took
hair-pin out Of her mouth, and arched
her eyebrows, which was always
Bella's best pose.
II am Miss Knowles" she said
sweetly (of course, the court had
given her back her name), "and 1
stopped in tonight, thinking the house
was empty, to see about "a butler.
Unfortunately, the house was quaran-
tined just at that time, and-here
am. Surely there cannot be any harm
in helping me to get out?" pleading
tone.) i have not been exposed to
any contagion, and in the exhausted
state of my health the confinement
would be positively dangerous.
She rolled her eyes at him, and
could see she was making an impress
sion. OF course she was free. She
had perfect right to marry again,
but will say this: Bella is lot bet
ter looking by electric light than she
is the next morning.
The upshot Of it was that the gen.
tleman who built bridges and looked
down on society from a lofty, lonely
pinnacle agreed to help one of the
most cleaning members of the afore-
said society to outwit the law.
1t took about 15 minutes to quiet
the policeman. Nobody ever knew
what Mr.. HARRISON did to him, but
for "a hours he was quite tractable.
He changed after that, but that comes
later In the story. Anyhow, the Har-
bison man went upstairs and came
down with Bagdad 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 we're four special officers
and three reporters watching the
house as a result Of Max Reeds idiocy.
Once, after trying all the other win
dows and finding them guarded, we
discovered little bit Of hole in an
out-of-the-way corner that looked like
ventilator and was covered with a
heavy wire screen. No prisoners ever
dug their way out Of a dungeon with
more energy than that with which we
attacked that screen, hacking at 1t
with kitchen knives, whispering like
ragged edges of the wire, frozen with
the cold air one minute and boiling
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 fol-
low, something outside that had looked
like barrel moved and said, ooh,
wouldn't do that If l were you. 1t
would be certain to be undignified,
and probably 1t would be unpleasant
later"
We coaxed and pleaded and tried
to brlbe. and that happened, as it
turned out, to be one Of the worst
things that we had to endure. For the
whole conversation came out the next
afternoon in the paper, with the most
awful drawings, and the reporter said
it was the flashing of the jewels we
wore that first attracted his attention.
And that brings me back to the rob-
berry.
For when we had crept back to the
kitchen, and Bella was fumbling for
her handkerchief to cry into and the
HARRISON man was trying to apollo
gize for the language he had used to
the reporter, and 1 was on the verge
of a nervous chill-well it was then
that Bella forgot all about crying and
jumped and held out her arm.
my diamond bracelet" she screech-
ed Look, I've lost it,
Well we went over every inch of
that basement, until l knew every
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 l had acted like a sane person and
put her out, when she had no busi-
ness there at all, she would have had
her freedom and her bracelet, and
that If we were playing 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