The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1916-12-14

unable to spare time from her gun
chewing and her appraisal of Gloria
looks and clothes to impart any use
full information.
Gloria said she would like to leav'
note for Mr.. Mulry. The stenog
rapher pointed to a table whereon LAY
writing materials. Gloria sat down tt
invite Mr.. Mulry to call upon her.
Now Lois Stafford had also an i'm
portant errand at this Office. Hel
whole future and reputation lay in the
packet of letters that Freneau had
promised to return to her. She was
sure that they were not on his body
for had they been found the newspa-
pers or the police would have men
toned them soon enough. To recover
those letters was now her prime pur-
pose in life.
She thought of Mulry as the one
most likely to be in possession OF
Freneau's effects, so she called on
Mulry, never dreaming that Freneau
had told him of her own interference in
his plans to wed Gloria, or that Mulry
collaborated with Freneau in his elab-
crate scheme to trick both women
Least Of all did Lois dream that
Gloria herself would be at Mulry'S of
fee. The stenographer was more i'm
pressed by Lois clothes than by her
attempts to be casual in her inquiry
as to Mulry and ''the papers of poor
Mr. Freneau."
The stenOgrapher murmured to the
bOOkkeeper: "TwO swell danes camp
in on Mr.. Mulry's trail the same day
Sometimes goin' on here that amt
gettin' into the letters he dictates
to me-"
So she did not tell Lois of Gloria's
presence, and Lois went away in a
turmoil of anxiety as great as that in
Gloria's mind when she heard Lois
ask about poor Mr.. Freneau." A
knife of jealousy went into Gloria's
heart and a hideous intuition that her
beloved Dick might have bewitched
Lois as he had bewitched herself.
Those eyes of his had been perhaps
little too winning.
She rebuked herself for allowing
the suspicion even to fit through her
brain and began her note to Mulry.
Her eye fell on the letterhead. The
branch offices OF the brokerage firm
were listed in an upper corner: AL
bany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chi
cago, ST. Louis, Pittsburgh. A new
suspicion stabbed Gloria. The tele-
grams and letters in Dicks writing
had been sent from just those cities
in just that order Yet he had been
dead when they were sent.
The earliest explanation was the
true one, and Gloria guessed it imme-
diateIy. He could have sent them to
the branch offices in advance to be
sent to her in order or he could have
intrusted them to someone travelling
the round of offices. Her intuition
hit On the truth, without knowing it.
The very ease of the trick disguised
her. She felt herself in the shadow |
of some hateful conspiracy. She be- |
the letters and kilograms.
Crumpling the letter she had begun
and thrusting it into her handbag, she |
left the office, telling the stenographer
that she would telephone to Mr.. Null
ry The elevator seemed to drop out
beneath her as her whole trust in man
and love had fallen from under her.
She reached her motor and told the
driver to make haste for home.
Tho ornwIa1 tra fir with itc 5aIauc
maddened her, and when she reached
her house at last she was in a frenzy.
She ran up to her desk, took from
the strong box the letters and tele-
grams of her lover, and compared
them with the letterhead, laying them
out date by date. There they We're,
the same towns in the same order,
like loathsome timetable of deceit.
Her love revolted at the very picture
Of Freneau. She lost all self-control
and cried at it:
"Whoever killed you and whatever
his reason was, you lied to me, Dick
You never loved me, and l don't love
you any more! I won't wear mourn
ng for you any more"
Sne rang ner Dell IurlOuSly ana Or
Tered her startled maid to bring her
he brightest gown in her wardrobe.
She caught it from the maids hands
nd drove the girl out, then fiinging I
he riotous colors about her black
own like a scarf, she broke into a
lance, f1inging her 1.-THE body into pos
ures of joy and crying out that she ,
vas happy and that her heart would +
ever be the fool of love again.
But she was not strong and her :
ysteria wore out speedily. Her heart
wung back to it's love again and she :,
ell across the divan sobbing:
Forgive me, Dick. / believe you in
pite Of the world. love you in spite "
everything and I'll find out the
truth-the truth"
And now it would have been hard to q
ny whether GlOria's motive was one f.
loyalty to Freneau or of suspicion n
him. She had to acquit him Of r
'orse than murder before the court p
her own heart as much as to avenge i,
im If he was the victim of some
Oh tko ;at;, of