The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1914-04-23
CHAPTER ~.
The Face In the Crowd.

by a series OF mystifying incidents,
battling, to be sure, but bearing moth
ing sinister upon their face; and un-
less Van Vechten's more recent per-
turbation Cat sight of the yelled LADY,
be taken into account, neither had the
mornings queer events borne any
especial significance whatsoever.
But here. in the twinkling of an eye,
was tragedy stark and grim. Only a
minute or two ago and this man was
pulsing with the perfect vitality of
young, vigorous manhood; now the
spark of life was iown-extinguished,
as n might puff out the flame of a
candle.
Both were profoundly sobered by
the shocking END OF their brief chase,
n even Van Vechten's more active
mentality was slow to accept r~ealiza-
ton. AS for Tom Phinney, he merely
stood gaping at the still form. his
brain for the time being utterly be-
numbed.
The spell of horror was in a meas
ure broken by a p~oliceman's belated
arrival. He stopped and turned up the
man's face, and a thin crimson line
could be seen staining the left temple.
The features were composed, as If
death had been kind and mercifully
swift.
"Slugged," was the officers senten-
tious conclusion. Standing upright. he
shot a glance round the crowd. Who
saw this done? ?" he roughly demanded.
Nobody replied; only an uneasy stir
ring undulated through the small gath
ering, which promptly settled again in
to silent %immobility; and the blue-coat.
as usually happens in such cases,
sought to cover with rudeness his in
competency to handle the situation.
1t was at about this juncture, Van
Vechten forever afterwards emem-
bered. that he first became aware of
the face. He was standing behind
Tom, a bit to his left, and opposite the
alley mouth. His entire attention, nat
urally enough, up to this time had
been absorbed by the ugly scene at his
feet. II was all the more strange,
therefore, that his mind should have
been attracted and held elsewhere,
even temporarily. But nevertheless,
all at once he experienced an indefin-
able, irresistible impulse to glance up
ward at a certain point In the ring of
%onlookers. And his regard came to rest
upon a particular face.
~Straightway he became sensible of
an unfamiliar thrill. an abrupt quick
ening of the pulse, for which he could
not in the least account.
Perhaps he would have looked away
again at once had there not come to
him, as instantaneously as had the
impulse to glance upward, a convic-
ton that the face signifed something
far out OF the ordinary. The present
circumstances might in a measure ac-
but not for the despair. the terror.
which seemed gradually to be chilling
the faces owner into a statue of ice.
The face, Van Vechten told himself,
was rejecting emotions of a depth and
| potency for which the mans death
alone was wholly inadequate to ac-
count; the fixed stare was directed at
something beyond and behind the life
less figure.
Il was a girls face. 1t was refined
| and delicate OF contour, and was
framed in a nimbus of wavy midnight
hair. 1t was. moreover, a strikingIy
beautiful face-even hauntingly beau
tiful, for 1t was a face which the be-
holder would not be likely to forget for
many and many a day. Van vechten
knew that he had never seen the girl
before; still there was something
about her that leased and perplexed
him.
He knew dimly, later, hat she must
have been slender and not very tall.
for she was standing in the paved al
ley, on the crowds outward edge. and
1t was only an accident of relative po-
sitions that afforded her an uninter-
rupted view.
What terrible, gripping horror was
1t that seemed to be paralyzing all her
fancies? What did this mans death
signify to her more than 1t did to any
one else here present?
To one such as Van yechten. accus'
toned 10 reading the all but lmpercept'
IDLE indices OF schooled features, this
vision was like a naked human soul
Terror and despair parted the delicate
pink lips and widened the lustrous
dark eyes. they blanched her cheeks
and held her ~breathless. utterly OBJ
livious Of aught else save the dead
man.
And nov he discovered, suddenly,
that he was not the only person inter
ested In the agitated girl. His atten'
ton wae somehow drawn to a man
standing q half dozen or so feet from
her; q tall. raw-boned fellow with q
powerful frame and q sullen cast Of
countenance-a countenance Just now
scratched and bruised. a. II its owner
had recently met with = severe acci
dent Of some kind.
This man was staring angrily at the
GirL He too seemed to Be oblivious u