Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1913-05-14


Die little DISCUSSES which mask her yet
do not hinder her she has found the evil
dence which has sent many a man ana
many p woman 20 the penitentary. There
Is hardly q DANGEROUS dive OF the great
city which she. 81 her twelve years OF de-
foctve lie. hes not visited More than
once has her life been ia DANGER many
times has she been compelled 70 use the
dirk or the revolver that she carries Tor
protection And yet through it an, she
has Remained pretty, yivaclous. fun Of
iife and the love OF living-and always
deserving Of her name, Alice OF the
Smile" Too, she has always remained re-
ficent. nOn-comfnurlcative about her adj
ventures. until Mr. cooper persuaded her
10 tell her adventures Tor the first time)
PAIR Of large dark limo
cent eyes glowed laugh
= AY ipgly at me from across
iDtA ! the table. There was a
fs2 smile, too, on the childish
sAhA 81 face, an appreciation OF
VySl the goodness of life and
T the Joy Of living IA every
c feature Those about Us
in the cafe, where the
c0gS Lights FILTERED end the
walters hurried forth seem.
fA iney from nowhere to
staad p moment at their
tasks and dieapr " again,
knew nsaeht but thai we were en- or
binary young nam rl an ordinary
young woman Dtaa ae Che re-
frea,anents Of tag after tie theatsr
True q was Of myself thst ordinary
part-bpt lor che woman Who faced
me ,1ele WAS q great difference. !
leaned across the table
Il can't help saying it, had be-
gun, @hut you don't look like a de-
tectiveR
She laughed, intellectually.
Perhaps that's the reason I've sue,
ceeded," she answered. Then sud-
denly she bent toward me, her eyes
flashing, the fire of enthusiasm, Of The
hunter, in her face. 81 know what
you're going to say" was added
that it's no work for a woman who
loves the things that a woman
should love; that it is work that will
make me old beyond my time and
make me forget the good things Of the
world. Well?" she laughed. I've
been at it nearly twelve years now,
and if it was going to make me old it
should have accomplished something
by this time And so, one guess as
to my age-?"
/ tried to be truthful.
"Twenty-four," | hazarded.
you missed it" the eternal wom-
an came forth in its strength then
"but won't tell you how much You
see, person doesn't have to let
crime enter the soul, simply because
the business is that Of crime tracking.
But there was time once"
The eyes lost their softness. A
glitter, cold, steel-like, supplanted the
happy brilliancy. The diamond pen
dant at her throat shook and shed
forth its sparkling radiance against
the brightness of the lights. The
hands, folded on the table, clenched
hard. I noticed that the lips were
drawn in a straight line. l waited
and then:
when was that?"
The being of Alice Clement had
seemingly changed. There was bit of
remorselessness in her face now, of
determination. Those flashing eyes
were becoming colder and colder.
st was the only time in my life,"
she began, that ever tracked man
for revenge. More than one little
angle turned up in that case, for it
not only gave me the vengeance
sought, but 1t proved to me that a
woman can be as brave as man; it
proved to me that had the detective
instinct-and 1t also, later on, made
a municipal detective of me. 1t hap
pened twelve years ago, and that's a
fairly long time, but when l tell the
story the true names will be changed,
cause-well, just because, that's ALL"
She was still the woman, in reasons,
at least. l waited.
you remember that | laughed
when you guessed at my age" she
began, "and one reason for that is that
have out home little daughter, half
as old as you guessed my age to be.
When my entrance into the detective
world began that child was a baby in
arms. And she went with me.
Years before, my husband had
been slugged. He had been held up
at night, on street on the West Side,
knocked down, beaten and robbed.
had seen the face of the man who had
done the work-and that face burned
itself into my memory with a per-
manency that l knew would never
fade. The time came when | was sure
of that.
my husband had gone away on
trip that week, remember. Since"
she added with a tone of sadness In
her voice, he has gone on a longer
Journey from which he will not re-
turn. We were not the most prosper
GUS persons in the world then, and we
lived in a fat near Chicago avenue.
The neighborhood was squalid; thore
were characters around US whose re-
spect for the law was not of the high
est. It was a street Of mystery and
Of darkness and of danger.
"Asd someway, In daytime as I