Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-05-22
THE SECRET OF LONESOME COVE

letter with the copperplate-w writing
name at the bottom? WE'LL they all
came that way after this; the body
of the letter very bold and careless;
signature written in an entirely diff
ferent hand. l took it to Chorio, the
character-reader, and he said so, too.
What's more. he advised me to quit
the game. Said there was trouble
back of that handwriting. Those
character fellows amt such fools,
eitherl
But hundred-dolIar bills loose in
letters mean a big stake. I Wrote her
I would come, and signed 1t Her
man. just to play up to her lead z
Irene got on and threw a fit. She
said her woman's intuition told her
there was danger in it. Truth is, she
was stuck on me herself, and | was on
her; but we did not find 1t out until
after the crash. So l was all for pry-
ing Astraea loose from her money,
if l had to marry her TO do it. She
wrote some slush about the one des-
perate plunge together and then the
glory that was to be ours. That
looked like marriage to me-
you saw the last letter. 1t had
me ratified, but not ratified enough to
quit There was a map in it of the
place for the meeting. That was
plain enough. But the our and we
business in it bothered me. 1t looked
a bit like third person. I had not
heard anything about any third per-
son. What is more, 1 did not have
any use for a third person in this
business. The stars forbade it.
wrote and told her so, and said IL
there was any outsider rung in, the
stellar courses would have a sudden
change of heart. Then | put my
best robe in a bag and bought a
ticket for Cars Junction. You can
believe that while 1 was going
through the woods 1 was keeping a
bright eye out for any third party.
Well, he was not there; not when I
arrived, anyway. Where he was all
the time I do not know. I never saw
him. But 1 heard him later. | can
hear him yet at night, God help me!
'She was leaning against little
tree at the edge of the thicket when /
first saw her. There was plenty of
light from the moon and 1t sifted
down through the trees and fell
across her head and neck. As neat
a bit of Suggesting for my business
as l could have fixed up myself; and
/ am some hand at that. You have
seen my place, and you know. l no.
ticed a queer circlet around her
neck. The stones were like soft pink
ha like
them before. and l stood there trying
to figure whether they were rubies
and how much they might be worth.
While | was wondering about this
she half turned and l got my first
good look at her face.
"She was younger than 7 had reck-
oned on, and not bad to look at, but
queer, queer. Something about her
struck me all wrong; gave me sort
of uglyNshiver. Another thing struck
me all right, though. That was that
she had jewels on pretty much all her
fingers. In one of my letters to her
l gave her a hint about that; told her
that gems gave the stars a stronger
hold on the wearer. and she had
taken it all in. She certainly was an
easy SupJSSe-
"A bundle done up in paper was on
the ground near her. l ducked back,
very still, and got into my robe. The
arrangement in her Letter was for me
to whistle when / got there.
whistled. She Strengthened up.
Come she said. L am waiting.
Her voice was rather deep and
soft: but it wasn't a pleasant soft
ness. Some way | did not like it any
halter than I liked her looks. 1t was
too late to back out though.
stepped out into the open and gave
her the grand bow.
"oThe Master of fine Stars, at your
command. said.
Won are not as I expected to see
"That was a sticker. I might metp-