The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-28
SEVENTH EPISODE. The TOrmentorS.
CHAPTER l..

LIE lUIm6MtVIS.
 CHAPTER |.
 @HE Widow OKeefe stopped quickly and
 snatched something from the floor while
 five strangers peered into every absurd
 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 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 OKeefe whipped the snapshot under her apron and the very swiftness of the motion struck into the corner of Ned Warmers restless 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 renewed his search At that very moment June just outside. had paused the third step from the bottom reie the bow upon her saucy little slipper and to give it vigorous pat to make 1t behave and stay in place.
 Slim young Sammy OKeefe walked to the win dow, whistng, and glanced out with air of great indifference. On the other side of the street stood Officer Toole, and his eyes roved anxiousy from window to window of the narrow, dingy slice of a house which the Widow O'Keefe's. At sight of Sammy Officer Toole pointed energetically toward the door. He waved both arms and pointed toward the doorway.
 Sammy then slipped quietly out of the
 June! The stless Sammy used the next quickest
 
 straddled the banister rail, whzzed around the and down to June, who halfway up the stairs, jumped off with footstep light feather, grabbed the astounded girl by the wrist and dragged her down the steps at the risk of both their necks Sammy showed 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 work and sitting lazily on the top step, bored and whistling softly, when Ned Warner and Mr. and Mrs. John Moore and Bobby and Iris Blethering ovfr dnin nd Iris blaming volubly that it all mistake June couldn't possibly have been here. But she must have been after a 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 Motstwo feet away from her. He had. paused before that very door, as if some delicate magnetism had caught and held him there. No trace of her anywhere no trace of Marie the French Canadian maid with the high cheek bones; trace of the mysterious black yandyked man, whom none of them had cared to mention to the Widow O'Keefe, Gilbert Bye! Ned clnched his fists, and his brow grew black as his mind filled with the image of that dark, handsome face with it's glowing eyes and suave smile That image had never been absent from Ned's mind since the dis appearance of his beautiful bride. A thousand times that succession of incidents had flashed upon his memory with vivid clearness-June asleep in the Pullman drawing their honeymoon trip, while he up forward. happily smoked; the finding her gone after the train had left Tarnvlle the dis covery that she had been helped by the black Van- dyked man to board local headed to New York; Ned's chase after them in express train, and his train pulling alongside them in the approach to the Grand Central station; the sight, through the win dows of the parallel cars of that suave stranger bending June with his internal smile, and her smiling up at him; Blye following Junes taxi in another from the staton and Neds fruitless pursuit in 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 Ma re step into Blye's luxurious limousine and whirl away with hm Everywhere that Ned had found trace of June he had found a trace of Gilbert Bye, and he wished to live for one thing-to meet Bye face to face and with his bare hands strangle that scoundrel to death!
 Ned became aware of the Widow OKeefe eying him from midwaysof the stairs. She was c frail looking old woman, with her gnarled hands clasped before her, but her beady little eyes were sharp as the unexpected fires from dull jewels, and there was not one move of Neds party which escaped her. sammy, still whistling with overnonchalance, consistently not gazing at the closet door that it was wonder one asked for the key were wasting our time" finally said Iris Bleth- ering. We're probably letting them get away" And June's friend took her husband with her. The rest of the party followed.
 Meanwhile Marie. disguised in the sufrocatingly tight black mourning outfit of the Widow OKeefe, many blocks out of the danger zone. smothering in telephone booth and calling up the place where June had gone to work. Mrs. Willard not fin her beautiful home up the Hudson, was Miss June there. They had gone into the city, but the maid gave Marie q telephone number. Mrs. Willard answered that call from a gorgeously furnished room where half dozen stunningy gowned young women sat smoking. and her kindly face showed i'm mediate concern when she learned that June must not come home to the Widow O'Keefe's
 'WhyT she naturally wanted to know.
 Well. you're friend of hers. aren't you?" hesi tated Marie.
 "Of course" smiled Mrs. Willard and before her rose the fresh young face of pretty June
 Well. then I'll tell you" Marie threw her thick black veil oyer her shoulder for the twentieth tme and drop 6f perspiration trickled down her nose I'm her matd Marie, and she mustn't come home" "But shea aaready staFted,' worried Mrs Willard. ''ehes psohanly there by this time Why mustn't she como honex