Evening star., 1911-06-04
IN TWO PARTS-PART II.

- kEEL Thought at hrSt that 1t was the same woman
~ he had seen before, the woman in somewhat
different apparel but he gaped out into the dimly
lighted room, he saw that he was mistaken.
1t young woman he could plainly enough see;
but it an entirely different woman She was less
angular than the first woman and not so dark. She
seemed less fitted for secret entrances and silent de-
partures Her audacity seemed something coerced
and achieved. Skeel he stared at her. could
there was something softer something more rounded,
something less mature, about this second figure. How
dubious unsavorv the hazard in which she was
engaged, she seemed without the metallic hardness the
worldly wise sophstication of her sister consprator
There something ncongruous in her costume;
for she gowned in what Skee took to be chiffon
blue silk low cut at the throat and with blue cloak
braided with gold hanging loose Her bare
neck and shoulders and her free shone white alur
ngly white against the green of the portere Her eyes,
wide and yet resoue, had the stare of child adventur
ing unlighted passagcway and through her slightly
parted lips her breath coming quick and short,
though her spirit conscious of peril she could
not define
Skeel watched her she stood there staring into the
room He watched her and promptly forgot his
predcament in the contemplation of figure radiant
and touched with mystery. He watched her as she
turned and stopped and quietly locked the door and ad
Sted the green velour curtain behind her He watched
her as she advanced slowly into the room, listening
every now and then, with her head little side,
IN movement strangely timorous and birdlike.
touch OF self possession seemed to to her as
her stare slowly crcled the chamber in which she stood
Then she dropped her cloak chair and crossed
quickly to the front of the safe the right of the bureau
Skeel slowly swung back his door inch or two to
get better view of her. He her thrust hand into
the bosom of her gown and from it draw slip of paper
This she bent over for and placed the safe
top in front of her. Then she dropped knee be-
fore the safe, and Skee could her fingers, white
against the black enameed steel, they slowly and
sudiously revolved the disk of the combination lock.
She stopped once or twice to consult the slip of paper
the Safetop then her hand passed from the lock dial
the metal knob 1t seemed to take all her strength to
swing back the two narrow steel doors.
She down on both knees before the opened
safe Skee could the white uter of her hands as
she dabbed and explored about the dark interior of the
srongbox rustng through papers, closing and opening
drawers, bending lower and lower her work. He
heard her catch her BREATH in something that was al
participate in her anxiety be sharing her peril with
her. He seemed to feel the weight of vast and un-
comprehended responsibility his narrow shoulders.
He found himself initiating her posture, as though he
too intent the discovery of the hidden secret that
defled her. The mere pose of the STOPPING figure the
snowy softness of the dropping shoulders, seemed to
win and claim his sympathy. The two of them he and
she, seemed bound together in a fraternity of guilt
They were fellow trcspassers
lie tired to carpenter together contingencies that
could make her invasion of that chamber innocent as
his own He tried to tell himself that the two of them
were IN the same boat that they involved in fel-
lowshp OF offense which should make him willing to
share anything she might be called face And as
ne peered out at her. blur of moving white and azure
against the black of the safe maw he was vaguely
oppressed by of her ragty the same time that
he was vaguely eated a. the thought of her loveness