The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-03-30
'sTHE WHITE MOLL" FRANK L. PACKARD Appearing every day in serial form in the Magazine Section of The Times.
FRANK l.. PACKARD


 heard a car coming along the previ- l ousIy deserted street, and she step- ped out on the sidewalk. It was the | taxi.
 You know where to go, don't you?' she said to the chauffeur, as ! the cab drew up at the curb, and 1 the man leaned out and opened the door.
 ''Yes'm," he said.
 Please drive fast, then" she said, as she stepped in.
 The taxi shot out from the euro, l and rattled forward at a rapid pace. Rhode Gray, settled back on the cush- ions. A half whimsical. half weary little smile touched her lips. It was ! much seasier, and infinitely safer, this l mode of travel, than that of her ear Ter experience that evening; but, ear | fer that evening, she had had no one GO go to a cab rank for her, and she had not dared to speak in the open and hail one for herself. The | smile vanished, and the lips became | pursed and grim. Her mind was back on that daring, and perhaps a little dangerous, plan. that she meant to put into execution. Block after block was traversed. It was a long way uptown, but the chauffeur's iui- tial and generous tip was bearing fruit. The man was losing no time Rhoda Gray calculated that they had been a little under half an hour in making the trip, when the taxi if nally drew up and stopped at a cor ner, and the chauffeV, again leaning out, opened the door.
 Wait for me-" she instructed, and handed tine man another tip-and, with a glance about her to. get her location, she hurried around the cor ner, and headed up the cross street.
 She had only a block now to go to reach the Hayden-Bond mansion on the corner of Fifth Avenue ahead
 less than that to reach the garage. which opened on the cross street here. She had little fear of personal :den- tification TOW. Here in this resi- dentiaI section, and at this hour of night, it was like a silent and de- serted city; even Fifth Avenue, just ahead, for all it's lights, was one of the loneliest places at this hour in all New York. True now, and then, a car might race up or down the great thoroughfare, or a be1ated pedes- trian's footsteps ring and echo hollow on the pavement, where but a few hours before the traffic squad strug> gled valiantly, and sometimes vainly | with the congestion-but that was all
 She could make out the Hayden Bond mansion on the corner ahead of her now, and now she was abreast of the rather ornate and attached little l building, that was obviously the ga rage. She drew the key from her pocket, and glanced around her. | There was no one in sight. She step- ped swiftly to the small door that 1 flanl1ed the big double ones where l the cars went in and out, opened it, 1 closed behind her, and locked it.
 For a moment, her eyes una ccus- toned to the darkness, she could see 1 nothing; and then a car. taking the l form of a grotesQue, looming shadow 1 showed in front of her. She moved l toward it. felt her way into the ton | neau, lifted up the back seat, and, l groping around, found a flashlight. ! She meant to hurry now. She did not | mean to let that nervous dread, that | fear, that was quickening her pulse | now, have time to get the better of | her. She located the door that led | to the house, and in another moment l the short passage behind her, she was in the kitchen, the flashlight winking cautiously around her. She paused to listen here. There was not sound.
 She went on again-through a swinging pantry door with extreme care, and into a small hall "On the right" the Sparrow had said. Yes, here it was; a door that opened on the rear of the library, evidently. She listened again. There was no sound-save the silence, that seemed to grow loud now, and palpitate, and make great noises. And now, in spite of herself, her breath was com ing in quick, hard little catches, and the flashlights ray. that she sent around her, wavered and was not steady. She bit her lips. as she switched off the light. Why should she be afraid of this, when in another five minutes she meant to invite at tention!
 She pushed the door in front of her open, found it hung with a. heavy .portiere inside. brushed the portiere aside, stepped through into the room, stood still and motionless to listen once more, and then the flashlfght circleo inquisitively about her.
 It was the library. Her eyes wid- ened a little. At her left, over against the wall. the mangled door of a safe stood wide open, and the floor for a radius of yards around was filtered with papers and documents. The flashlights ray lifted, and she follow ed it with her eyes as it made the l circuit of the walls. Opposite the safe, and quite near the doorway in 1 which she stood, was a window recess. portiered diagona1ly across from her was another door that led, presum- ably into the main hallso of the house. the walls were tapestried, and hung here and there with clusters of an- >cient trophies, great metal shields. and swords and curious arms, that gave a sort of barbarfc sp1endor to the luxurious furnishings of the apart ment-
 She worked quickly now. In a mo ment she was at the window portieres and, drawing these aside. she quiet 1 ly raised the window. and looked out 1 The window was on the side of the 1 house away from the cross street, and ! she nodded her head reassuringly to l herself as she noted that it gave on a narrow strip of grass. it could not be called lawn. that separated the Hayden Bond mansion from the hr11Se that window