Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-15
By VARICK VANARDY
Author Of THE Two Faced Man,
alias the Night Wind" etc

at that time she had gone from it to
seek her master--to find Belknap.
"Shall | follow? Shall / seek them p
katherine asked herself mentally; and
shook her head slowly in a negative.
II will wait" she told herself voice
lcssy; and she sought chair in the
darkcnod room, for none of the lights
was turned on, and only dim glow
shonc into it from the starlight with
out.
She found one, a big chair up
holstcrcd in leather with a high and
solid back, and she moved it trihe SO
that her presence in its depths could
not b" seen from the doorway by a
person entering the room
Then she hid herself in it and waited
During many minutes she sat with
her eyes wide open. staring slantng
wise through the open window where
the filmy lace draperies swellcd and
subsidized and swclled again in the
zcphcrlikc night breeze.
When they bulged into the room.
pressed apart mOmCntarily by the drafts
Of air, she could see-bctwpen the iron
SpndCs of the balcony rail-thc sNmc
big halsam tree ont of the shadow of
which Bclknap had made his sudden
appearance when he had startled her SO
greatly. earlier in the night-and she
fell again into going over the details
Of the evening and night, bit by hit,
item by item.
Thus the sleep that would not be
woocd when she had gone to bed crcpt
Stoalthly and silently upon her in the
chair beside the open window. and
without realizing it, she drowscd and
drftrd into Obscurity.
The clicking of a latch startled her
into wakcfulncss. \ sharper draft of air
bulgcd the drapcrics into the room
Kathcync was aware that the door
opened. and was closed again, although
sh" heard no further sound; but she
was certain that the senorita had rp
turned and was standing somewhere
between her and the closed door. un
conscious Of her presence. unwiSc to the
fact that She was not alone.
II was Knthprinc's impulse to speak.
but she did not. She sat very still and
waited. wishing fcrvcntly that she could
SEQ: she was. at the moment, sorry
that she had so placed the chair that
her own vision of the interior of the
room was miuimizcd to next to moth
ing
She could hear Stcalthy footballs.
presently, as the person behind her
crossed the floor
Absolute silence followed and con
tiuucd so long time that Katherine
found il difficult to restrain her impulse
to move ever SO little so that she might
turn her head enough to discover what
was going on; yet she feared to do so.
knowing that the slightest Of, sounds
would bctray her presence in the chair
Then she remembered that she was
clad only in her night dress and the
ilmy nPgligCe that covered it: and
therefore there was nothing about. her
apparel that would rustic if she moved ::
tn" soft material of her wrapper would
slip noisclcssly over the leather cover
ing of the chair.
After another moment a single light
was switched on behind her, and by the
dim glow of it Katherine knew it to
be the green shaded desk light in far
corner of the room; but the silence re
manned unbrOken.
katherine could bear it no longer
and, anyway. since she had gone to that
room for the express purpose of having
an understanding with the Spnorita.
why delay: So she moved ever so little.
and turned her head. and fortunately.
made not sound in doing so.
What she discovered terrified her.
For the first time in her life that
she could recall she was actually afraid
really scarpd-panic-S stricken.
The person who had entered the
room. who had 50 silently crossed it.
who was. in fact. nt that very instant
moving slowly across the floor toward
the very chair upon which she was
seated. was not the Senorita
It was man; and the man was
Conrad Belknap.
Katherine saw with that quick ca
Dacity for comprphpnSiOn which one
experiences in vital moments. that he
held in one hand an opcned envelope
and an unfolded sheet of note amer
that he had evidently taken from it-a
letter anporentlv, that he had been
reading by the aid of the desk light a
tact which woula nccoun. count '%r OF Ina1 hI Ell Ell
desk.