The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1918-03-21
tOopyrisht 1918, Tho Bobbs Merrill Company
CHAPTER xx--continued.

toned ulster about but she did not
cover under II, nor turn ~nway-stood
there, finely erect, confronting II.
There was something alert about her
pose-he couldn't see her face distinct.
iy-that suggested she was expecting
somebody. And Thea, not aloud, but
very distinctly:
"Roddy," she said.
He tried to speak her name, but his
dry throat denied It u%tterance. He
began suddenly to tremble. He came
forward out OF the shadow md she
saw him and came TO meet him, and
! spoke his name again.
II a. -,u when you Wen out" she
said. ~ was afraid you mlghtn't
wait. i hurried as fast as | could.
Tve-w-waited 80 long. Longer than
you"
lie managed ut Inst to speak. and,
ms he did so, reached out and took her
by the shoulders. "Come home" he
said. "You must come honc.'
At TINT she stepped back and shook
her head. But he had discovered.
while his hands held her, that she
WINS trembling too.
The stage door opened again to emit
q group Of three of the ponies"
They stared curlously at Dane and
the big man who stood there with her,
then scurried away down the alley.
1--WE can't tnlk here" he said. 1--WE
must go somewhere"
She nodded assent, and they moved
Off side by side after the three little
girls, but slower. In m accumulation
OF shadows, half way down the alley.
he gripped her arm tight and they both
stood still. The next moment, and
without n word, they moved on again.
F~nally--"Are you all right Roddy7
And the babies?" she managed to say.
ITS o good many days since I've
heard from Portia." And then. sud-
denly: "Was 1t because anything had
gone wrong that you Gamer"
~ didn't know you were here until
j saw you on the stage" he said.
This was all, In words, that passed
until he looked about him In n sort of
dazed bewilderment when she stopped,
at last, at the stoop before her door.
Here's where I i've" she said.
"Where you live!" he echoed
blankly.
Ever since I went away-to Cali
fornia. I've been right here-where I
could almost see the smoke of your
ehimneys. I've a queer little room
j only pay three dollars n week for 1t
-but-it's big enough to be alone in"
"Rose . :" he snid, hoarSely.
A drunken man came lurching pitt
ably down the street. She shrnnk into
the angle Of the steps, and Rodney fol-
lowed her, found her with his hands,
and heard her voice speaking breath
lessly, in gasps. He hardly knew what
she was saying.
"It's been wonderful . . | know
we haven't talked we'll do that some
other time. somewhere where We can
But tonight. walking along
like that, Just as . . . Tomorrow,
j shall think It was all u dream"
Rose . ="
The only sound that came in an
swer was n long, TREMENDOUSLY indrnwn
breath. But presently her hand took
Iut Oft VI III tlut Iuu btfh 'iut'lllh6
her shoulder and led him up the steps.
She opened the door with a l~ntchkey,
and then. behind her, he made his
way up two flights Of narrow stairs,
whose faint creak made all the sound
there was. In the black little corridor
at the top she unlocked another door.
"Wait till I light the gas" she
brenthed.
She turned and looked into his face,
her eyes searching II as his were
searching hers, LUMINOSITY and with a
swiftly kindlIng fire. Her lips parted
a little, trembling. There was a sort
OF bloom on her skin that became
more visible as the blood. wave on
wave, came flushing in behind IL.
AS for Rodney, he was the same
man who. an hour ago, In the thcntcr,
had rnged and wrlthed under what he
felt to be an invasion OF his propri-
etnry rights In her.
lie wouldn't have defined II that
way. TO be sure, In n talk with Barry
Lake; would have denied, with the
best OF them, that n husband had any
proprietary rights IN his wife. But
the Intolcrable sense Of having he
come nm object Of dcrision or on
'%temptuous pity, Of being disgraccd
and OF her being degraded, couldn't
derive from anything else but Just
that.
"IIave you anything here" he asked
her duly, 'bcsidcs wha; will Sc In
that trunk?"
II was the surllnoss Of his tone,
rather than the words themselves,
thnt startled her.
"No.'. she said, puzzled. "Of
course not"
"rhon throw them into II quickly"
he said, aud wen lock the thing W.
DO YOU I'VE any rcnt?"
"ltnddy r. she said. what do you
mcauf"
Il ""nn you're going To get out Of