The Washington herald., 1915-08-29

and such details as you are able to give
, me of Miss Vultee herself. AS you say
! this blackmailing business did not begin
until after her success in England was
assured. it may be. that its genesis lies
back somewhere in her past
oh. by George, I never thought OF
that Maybe it, does. Mr.. Cleek.- At all
events. her father was once prominent
in the anarchistic- movement. but SHE'D
! at murder and was banned by the sec
ton. Afterward. his body was found in
the Neva fairly riddIed with bullets. and
his widow, fearing for her life and theirs,
flew with her two children to Paris.
where she subsequently died. leaving
them all alone in the world and without
friend or a penny to bless them At
that time. Luella was thirteen years of
age and Alexis ten. but she even then
found a position in the corps de ballet
of the Eden Theater and was the sole
support OF her little brother, to whom
she was-and still is-devoted heart and
soul Deprived of a sound education
herself her one desire was to give him
one at any sacrifice. and she bent all her
energies to that end; for rs she rose IN
her profession her salary naturally in
creased and every penny not absolutely
necessary for the purpose of living went
to pay for his schooling. Her great
career: but that. of course. was never
within the possibilities until this year
when her visit to England and her sud-
den leap into popularity made all things
possible"
Il see. Then it is fair to suppose that
she lost no time in entering him for such
a career, is it not?'
Yes. He's at a local tutors estab-
lishment now. working hard for Cam
bridge and hoping to pass into Emman-
uel next term. Poor Lex, 1t will be a
vain hope now. I'm afraid, unless you
can get hold of the blackguards who are
draining my poor girl of her earnings be-
fore they absolutely pauperize her: for
she'll give up her last farthing rather
than have anything happen to him.
When it was just herself that was
threatened, she could stand that: but
now that they've found out about Lex
and are threatening him ii is positively
the last straw"
How did they find out? Or don't you
know"
No. I don't Nobody does. But pos
sibly it was-as Marceine suggested-be-
cause of her taking that furnished house
al MAZDA Vale and rashly insisting upon
bringing Lex there to live with her in
stead of letting him continue to board at
the tutors as formerly. AS Marceline
rightly says. they might never have
known of his existence but for that
Quite so. And who. please, is this
Marceline
Miss vultee's dresser and waiting
maid Marceline Dubois is her name"
HIM, French. Ell" Miss Vultee got
her here or abroad?''
.Oh, abroad. Has known her for
years. In the days when she was in the
corps de ballet at the Eden Theater she
and Lex used to have lodgings in the
same house with Marceline. and her
mother and Nine. Dubois looked after
the boy while Luella was away at the
theater."
II see So that this Marceline might
almost be said to have been raised with
the boy-that is. if she is young. Is
she?"
About Luellas own age-twenty-three,
should say
Just so. The boy ten, Marceline thir
teen. Just the ages for childish conf
dences. 1t is. then. quite within the pos
sibilities that from her little compan-
ions innocent prattle Marceline may
have learned a great deal of the family
former history-his birth in Russia, his
.ather's anarchistic connection, his sad
taking off with the rest
oh. as for that. she knew all about It
from the nrst. SO. 100, DID her mother
and father"
Mother and father still living
"No-dead. That's how Luella came to
take the girl into her service She was
left all alone in the world, YOU know,
and they had been so closely connected
in the old days. When Luella rose to the
point of needing a dresser and being!
a BILE to afford one, she naturally thought
of Marceline and-there you are"
Quite So agreed Cleek There you
are Marceline would naturally know
Just when the state of her mistress
finances rose. of course, and-there you
are again.
But good heavens above. Cleek do
YOU mean to say that you suspect"
Gently. gently. gently, Mr.. Narkom
May not a man in search of an idea de-
Gently unearth possibility without re-
gardipg it as certainty and gallopinE
of on it pellmell? 1t seems to me from .
the manner of the attack that there |
more than a mere likelihood that there
is n womans hand at the bottom of it. !
and that as the trouble did not begin |
until after Miss Eultee came to England |
and made her remarkable success il is |
at least probable that it arises from
some one who is in a position to know !
the actual state of her finances. and if |
il is or is not possible for her to be
squeezed I gather from what CAPT. |
Kennedy SAYS that the backmailing be-
gan almost Immediately her success was
assured
Absolutely Immediately Mr.. Cleek
She opened a the Frivolity on the un-
1erstanding that should her dance be
the success Mr.. Collingwood expected
from his private view of it her salary
was to he onO pounds a week for a season
IF three months. On the first night of
1er appearance she took the house by
storm. On the very next dav. the first
# the blackmailing letters turned up at
he theater. demanding that ~ that day
week she should place the sum of 50
7ounds in a hole at the roots of GER
ain tree in Hyde Park. walk away
without ever once looking hack or at
INV time mentioning the matter to a
living soul: otherwise she would meet
With a violent death on her way to the
heater the night following. Terrorized
ike this, she complied with that de-
nand. Mr. Cleek and carried the money
o the tree. believing that she had by
20 doing purchased immunity from the
wretch or wretches who had threatened
Ter She had not however. The next week
brought n similar demand: and so il has
continued week after week, ever since:
,nly that as time passed the sum re-
.uired of her has gone up and up until
Utmost all her earnings have gone into
he NAV of the Unsuitable monster that
s proving upon her. She has never let
ex know what horrible thing is prey
nC upon her-for he is a weak. deli
ate. highly strung fellow. and she has
Ilways feared the consequences-but to-
lay he has had to know. and the shock