New Britain herald., 1922-05-16
The Plan That Lillian suggested.

The Plan That Lillian Suggested.
 There was a puzzled hesitant loel in Tom Chester's honest gray eyes al Lillian told him we were ready tt hear his story of the pursuit O smith l guessed that he was ial more ready in action than he was 1T words, especially those in which ht was compelled to clothe hls owr valor and ability That Lillian saw his dilemma, ] realized when she spoke again, 10 me, in casual apoh ogete fashion,
 Pardon me, Madge" she said, "hul I had forgotten for the minute that you know nothing Of what happened after we beard Rates scream 50 I'd better pick up the dropped stitches before we go on
 l forced back the smile which tremhled upon my lips at the l1ea Of Lillian forgetting anything She was simply using her suppos' neglect of me as broom with which 10 sweep conversational obstacles from Tom Chesters way but was tremendous. " glad, neN ertheless, to hear more of the bizarre happenings in Katie's room
 Tn the first place" Lillian re. sumed. as soon as you left. 1 dreY up the very ingenious rope ladder by which the gifted Mir smith descended to the ground. after his stunt of star ing in at us. Or rather" she con. tinued with significant little smile al la Ig,,1 ,F way The last portion of his Journey I fancy, was a swift if not graceful back sonersault. We were that sue cessful at least in our shaking of the rope"
 How you women ever dsred;" Tom Chester exclaimed hoylsh admiration in his voice and face The man was desperate as trapped rat. He might have killed yop both"
 Lillian's feminism fared in a sec. ond, I knew the signs by her height ened color and the glitter in her eyes, but her voice was cool and pleasant; as she queered;
 Tt is your experience then, that women dare less than meu?''
 An Embarrassed Reply.
 The young chap flushed 10 the roots Of his hair. stammered. then said resolutely:
 T should be 3 fool 10 say that after what I saw Of the nurses ana other women workers under fire when I was across. But l must still insist that it was an exceptional thing you did. and that the average woman be cause of her training, would not have done it.
 He spoke to her. he looked at me and his earnest eyes emphasized lis meaning He was stubbornly insisting upon clubbing us heroines and I think Lillians impersonal defence of wom- an in general momentarily preached it's defences to admit the boyish compliment, for she laughed lightly when he had finished.
 "Oh, we're heroines, all right :" she said wen acknowledge the fact and smile prettily. but we'd rather dis cuss the rope ladder It was ] most intricate and thorough piece of work, of the finest, stanchest quality pos sible, and fastened somewhere on the roof above us. He must have been in Katie's room before we came up. heard us coming and hiked to the roof just in time, pulling his rope ladder up after him"
 Then. I breathed. The must have been on the roof abow. us all the time we were ransacking katie's room"
 Except the time when he was swinging on his ladder beneath heaven and earth and giving us the once-over, Lillian retorted with ap- parent f1ippancy but l guessed that her nerves were no less tingling than mine at the thought of that sinister watch upon our movements.
 Jerry Is Amused.
 Then the rope ladder is still fas- tened to the roof" I remarked, feeling myself flush at the banaity when l saw Lillian's lips quirk into 3 smile.
 Not being circus acrobat, l have not yet attempted to get it down, she said That will be MT, Chester's job in a few minutes. You have a fish light ?" She turned to him.
 Two of them, and a couple of ex- tra batteries"
 Good. She looked at him ap- provingly, turned back to me, caught my look of astonishment and grinned impishly Think minute" she said. "A couple of shots or more in this section will arouse no curiosity, There's hardly a night but some