The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-05-23
CHAPTER SEVEN. (Continued.)

IL 5 nOCnlng, ne Sdlu. i III
ell right. And you, Alexander"
They helped the sergeant out.
| He had a few bruises and a little
pain, but no serious injury.
Only the chauffeur had been
thrown from his seat and lay mo-
tionless on the pavement, bleeding
from the head. He was carried
into a chemists shop and died in
10 minutes:
Mazeroux had gone in with the
poor victim and, feeling pretty
well stunned, had himself been
given a pick-me-up. When he
went back to the motor car he
found two policemen entering par
ticulars of the accident in their
notebooks and taking evidence
from the bystanders but the chief
was not there.
Pererna in fact had jumped into
a taxicab and driven home as fast
as he could. He got out in the
square, ran through the gateway,
crossed the courtyard, and went
down the passage that led to Mile.
Levasseur's quarters. He leaped
up the steps, knocked, and entered
without waiting for an answer.
The door of the room that
served as a sitting room was
opened and Florence appeared. He
pushed her back into the room,
and said, in a tone furious with
Indignation:
cts done. The accident has
occurred. And yet none of the old
servants can have prepared it, be-
cause they were not there and be-
cause l was out with the car this
afternoon. Therefore, it must
have been late in the day, between
6 and 9 o'clock, that somebody
went to the garage and filed
the steering rod three-quarters
through"
81 don't understand. I don't
understand" she said, with a
scared look.
"You understand perfectly well
that the accomplice of the ruffins
cannot be one of the new servants,
end you understand perfectly well
that the job was bound to succeed
and that it did succeed, beyond
their hopes. There is a victim,
who suffers instead of myself"
"But tell me what has hap
pened, monsieur! You brighten
mel. What accidentf What was
it7"
"The motor car overturned. The
chauffeur is dead"
"Oh," she said, chow horrible /!
And you think that I can have
Oh, dead, howe horrible! Poor
mani"
Her voice grew fainter. She
was standing opposite to Perenna,
close up against him. Pale and
swooning, she closed her eyes,
staggered.
He caught her in his arms as
che fell. She tried to release her:
self, but had not the strength and
he laid her in a chair, while she
moaned, repeatedly:
Poor man! Poor mani"
Keeping one of his arms under
the girls head, he took a hand
kerchief in the other hand and
wiped her forehead, which was
wet with perspiration, and her
pallid cheeks, down which the
tears streamed.
She must have lost conscious.
ness entirely, for she surrendered
herself to Perenna's cares without
the least resistance. And he,
making no further movement, be.
gan anxiously to examine the
mouth before his eyes, the mouth
with the lips usually so red, now
bloodless and discolored.
Gently passing one of his
fingers over each of them, with a
continuous pressure, he separted
them, as one separates the petals
of a flower and the two rows of
teeth appeared.
They were charming, beauti.
fully shaped, and beautifully
white; a little smaller perhaps
than Nine. Fauville's perhaps also
arranged in a wider curve. But
what did he know7 Who could
say hat their bite would not leave
the same Imprint 1t was an i'm
probable supposition, all impossi'
bic miracle, he knew. And yet
the circumstances were all against
the girl and pointed to her as the
Iaost daring, cruel, implacable
and terrible of criminals.
Her breathing became regular
He perceived the cool fragrance
Of her mouth, Intoxicating as the
scent of a rose. In spite of him
self, he bent down, came SO close
90 close that he was seized witt