Charlevoix county herald., 1918-12-20
CHAPTER VI.
Lucille IL Captured.

4
of the store and looked out.
Now that / was about to take the
first steps upon the blind mission to
which l stood pledged, l confess that
I found my breath coming with an
unwonted quickness. 1t was not that
/ doubted, but just that the uncer-
tainty of what was expected to do
hurried my pulses and keyed my ner-
yous system to a higher tension.
Presently / drew deep breath,
pushed the door open, and let myself
out.
Just what was I going to do? /
glanced to right and left.
WALK in any direction you fancy"
Dual had said, and that was all. ! re-
called his directions to appear uneasy
and partly discouraged. l let droop
creep into my shoulders and glanced
furtively about me again, in keeping
with the part l was to play. Then
turned to the left and moved off
north toward Washington street.
AS walked along / thought busily
to myself. Beyond any doubling, 1t
| seemed to me, was playing the part
| of a decoy. Dual and Kim Lee were
from deliberate purpose throwing me
out into the street in order that
| might be observed by any who were
watching.
| Therefore, was to seem confuse
| and act as though were blindly
searching for something TO give me a
| leading to the person / sought. ! re-
membered what Semi Dual had said
about creating an overconfidence in
the minds of those lie fought, and then
| striking before it was shattered. Sure
ly then my attitude was to be used to
| speak 10 those others of discouraged
endeavor on our part in the matter Of
Danny McKabe.
! went slowly with dropping shout
ders and downcast eyes, but all the
time was watching TO see if any one
had seemed TO observe me. All about
me were the slant-eyed deniZens of
that part of the city, with a sprinklng
of the slum element of whites. But
there was nothing to excite suspicion.
The sun of a mellow afternoon lay
over the district, painting its gaudy
squalor with painful distinctness.
| reached the doors of the restau-
rant where we had first picked up
Greek Annie the night before. Its
gilded entrance, it's dead lanterns and
streamers looked tawdry in the open
light Of day. Only the flowers on its
balconies high up were the same as on
the night before.
paused before its doors and looked
around. Strive as l would, could
see no one who seemed to take any
interest in my proceedings.
OF what use was this aimless stroll
ing? / asked myself. Yet Dual had
directed my footsteps. l answered my
own question and surely he had def
mite purpose in what he did. >,-....
1t came to me that somewhere in
my near vicinity the two followers OF
Kim Lee, who had taken their mental
photograph of myself, must be Turk
ing. / set myself the task of picking
them out and / failed. Nowhere in
the faces of those who shuffled past
me could find ore l could recognize
or who seemed to recognize me.
Yet l felt them. Subconsciously
knew that they were trailing my
course, and l felt also that it was by
Semi Dual's orders that they did so.
in that moment it came to me that,
perhaps, might be a guide as well as
a decoy. What IL the two were to
follow my course and see where /
went and report back to Kim Lee?
What-and my heart leaped at the
thought-if l were to guide them to
the prison of Danny McKabe itself?
Yet how could l? / of all people had
little idea where he might be hidden;
in what warren digging of this place
he might be held.
Still, the thought set me moving. At
least l could inspect the course over
which we had travelled last night.
There was the theatre through which
we had entered the underground tun-
mel, and the place lower down on
Washington street where we had
emerged through a shop and come out
once more to the surface.
Some impulse beyond any reason
urged me to go down toward that shop
and see what it looked like today.
yielded.
AS well go that way as any other,
reasoned. l had been assigned no di-
rection. / turned and walked on in
the way had been going, and hardly
had l turned when l knew / was un-
der observation.
You may know how 1t is. You may
not be able to see the one whose eyes
are fastened on you, and yet some
strange, latent sense seems to wake
and cognize the fact of another's in
spection. You can actually feel the
glance impinging on the back of your
brain, as ii seems.
That was the feeling which swept
me as went forward now.
l paused and looked back. The life
of the sidewalk was the same as mo-
ment before. l turned and went on,
and again | felt 1.-THE sensation OF
hostile eyes fastened upon me as |
walked.
All at once / began to tremble.
wasn't afraid am sure of that.