The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1915-03-10

quickly and snatched some
thing from the floor while five
strangers peered into every abb
surd nook and corner of the two rooms
and bath which comprised the widow
O'Keefe's top floor suit. The object
was small snapshot of June.
The deserted husband of pretty June
Warner was at the hall door with his
hand reached out for the knob, and in
another instant Ned Warner and June
would have been face to face! In that
instant the Widow O'Keefe whipped
the snapshot under her apron, and the
very swiftness of the motion struck
into the corner of Ned Warmers rest
less eyes He turned. and he and the
father. of June glanced at each other.
There was something suspicious in the
bent and warped and withered Widow
OKeefe and her tall slip of son. Ned
came abruptly from the door and re-
newed his search. AT that very mo-
ment June, just outside, had paused
on the third step from the bottom to
retie the bow upon her saucy little slip
per and to give it vigorous pat to
make it behave and stay in place.
Slim young Sammy O'Keefe walked
to the window, whistling, and glanced
out with an air of great indifference.
On the other side of the street stood
Officer Toole, and his eyes roved anx-
iously from window to window of the
narrow, dingy slice of a house which
was the Widow O'Keefe's. at sight of
Sammy Officer Toole pointed energet-
ically toward the door. He waved both
arms and pointed toward the doorway.
Sammy then slipped quietly out of
the room.
June! The listless Sammy used the
next quickest method to wireless.
With one noiseless spring he straddled
the banister rail, whizzed around the
curve and down to June, who was
halfway up the stairs, jumped off with
a footstep as light as a feather, grab
bed the astounded girl by the wrist
and dragged her down the steps at the
risk of both their neclzs. Sammy SHOW
ed June into the second floor hall
closet. Sammy locked the door and
stuck the key in his pocket and set
the springs in his thin legs to work
and was sitting lazily on the top step,
bored and whistling softly, when Ned
Warner and Mr.. and Mrs. John Moore
and Bobby and Iris BIethering came
out, Bobby extremely detected and Iris
explaining volubly that it was all a
mistake. June couldn't possibly have
been here. But she must have been,
after all, because Still, how could
it be?
June in the dark closet, shut off from
all light and sound, stood bewildered,
her eyes distended in the darkness,
while Ned stood not two feet away
from her. He had paused before that
very door, as if some delicate mag
netism had caught and held him there.
No trace of her anywhere; no trace of
Marie, the French Canadian maid with
the high cheek bones; no trace Of the
mysterious black Vandyked man, whom
none of them had cared to mention to
the Widow O'Keefe, Gilbert Blye! Ned
iclinched his fists, and his brow grew
black as his mind filled with the image
of that dark, handsome face with its
glowing eyes and suave smile. That
image had never been absent from
Ned's mind since the disappearance of
his beautiful bride. A thousand times
that succession of incidents had fash
ed upon his memory with vivid clear
ness-June asleep in the Pullman draw
ing room on their honeymoon trip,
while he, up forward, happily smoked;
the finding her gone after the train
had left Tarnville; the discovery that
she had been helped by the black
Vandyked man to board local head
ed to New York; Ned's chase after
them in an express train, and his train
pulling alongside them in the approach
to the Grand Central station; the sight,
through the windows of the parallel
cars, of that suave stranger bending
over June with his internal smile, and
her smiling up at him; Blye following
June's taxi in another from the sta
ton, and Ned's fruitlesS pursuit in a
third taxi; the chase out to Brynport
that same night, when June had stolen
her clothes and Marie; the return
chase, where Ned had seen June and
Marie step into Blye's luxurious limou-
sine and whirl away with him. Ev-
erywhere that Ned had found a trace
of June he had found trace of Gil
bert BIye. and he wished to live for
one fhing--to meet Blye face to face
and with his bare hands strangle that
scoundrel to deathi
Ned became aware of the Widow
OKeefe eying him from midway of
the stairs She was a frail looking
old woman, with her gnarled hands
clasped before her, but her beady little
eyes were as sharp as the unexpected
fires from dull jewels, and there was
not one move of Ned's party which es-
capped her. Sammy. still whistling with
overnonchalance. was so persistently
not gazing at the closet door that it
was a wonder no one asked for the
key.
Were wasting our time" finally
said Iris Blethering. Were prob
ably letting them get away" And
June's friend took her husband with
her. The rest of the party followed.
Meanwhile Marie, disguised in the
suffocatingly tight black mourning out
fit of the Widow O'Keefe, was many
blocks out of the danger zone, smoth-
ering in telephone booth and calling
up the place where June had gone to
work. Mrs. Willard was not in her
beautiful home up the Hudson. nor