Evening star., 1912-07-16
Rhoda ohserved calmly

Rhode observed. calmly.
No she said, patiently: II NEAR
what I say. l am practically stranger
In. New York. was born in America
| but have been in this country for the
| last five months only, since I was 9
young child
The Red Man sat up at attention and
with a nod encouraged her to Go on
MY father she said, after a retro.
spective pause was scientist. wei wei
biologist. He was said to be we'll to do
We had our home in Paris.-everything
He died some years ago, and when his
estate was settled up it was discovered
that he had been speculatfng unfortu
nately on the bourse My mother and
had a bare living left. My mother
died last year. leaving me about a thou
sand dollars. I had no friends from
whom / could ask or accept aid.
Then there were other reasons why
here at length. hoping to be able to make
| money by painting ="
She concluded with an eloquent move
ment of her hands.
Rhode grunted unintelligibly, to signify
! he had heard and understood. jotted
down several more notes, read the whole
| over and took thought obviously. his
dense blue eyes staring away into the
night that lurked beyond the rail, his
| cigar (Which had gone out) quiverine
| violently to his ruminative champings.
| Cynthia took deep breath. sought
Crittenden's eyes with a smile both timid
and deprecating, and, suddenly made
conscious of her unthinking revelation OF
| self, looked away, confused, and waited
| in tense anxiety.
Crittenden helped himself to a cigar
| cite, assembling his interest, his mind
already engaged in profitless endeavor to
piece out the gaps In Cynthia's story.
She had been frank and candid-to q
| point. But there were gaps. He was not
| at all inclined to question the absolute
truth Of what she had disclosed about
herself, but he was very keen to know
| much that she had not told. What had
happened to that ''bare living" to reduce
| Cynthia's Inheritance from her mother
| to a lump sum Of about thousand dol
| lars? A living meant an income suffi-
cient for support from year to year. and
| meager. one must have more than 9
thousand dollars invested. And, that
aside. what were the reasons why Gym.
| thias bred to the ways of life abroad
almost wholly ignorant Of her own coun-
try, had preferred not to continue living
abroad. or trying to? = -
He made sure that he would never
know these things. It was a most un-
| likely chance that the employment Rhode
contemplated tsn plate .ng Offering the girl would
ceptance Of the Red Mans cautiously
| worded proposition he stood committed
to an enterprise of whose nature he knew
| little. save that it was probably hazard
| Gus and possibly lawless, and most un.
questionably no business for a woman
At about this stage Crittenden's profit
less train Of conjecture was diverted and
abrupted by Mr.. Rhode. In whose person
premonitory symptoms Of speech. like
| seismic tremors. were beginning to be
noticeable.
i He shifted suddenly in his chair and
sat back. giancing from one to the other
OF his companions. He grunted subter-
raneously and cleared his throat in q
most candid and public-spirited manner.
Then he slipped the Cynthia memoranda
into one breast pocket, and from the
other brought forth second considerable
handful Of letters and papers. mostly
more or less shopworn. asserting which