, 1922-06-17

CHAPTER VII
NTERFERENCE


CHAPTER WI
HTEKFERENCE
Tor an hour or more Dfck waited
patiently at his wireless dicta.
graph In CarTickss room
In tho silence. broken now and
then by some amateur. he bad plenty
Of time to think OF Ruth. In spite
Of himself his suspicious carried him
on to tho Parr robbery. now known
to have included tho taking OF vaiu-
ahle Jewels a. wen as the looting of
ths-Parr cellar OF some OF its choicest
vintzSez- BIS thoughts ran beyond
that . tho radio dance and h sus.
picious signalling from the tower of
the Gerard house.
Who -was the r~tngieader Of this mis-
erable AFFAIR." He thought of Brock.
Of GeorEesHand-of Jack Curtis He
pftted his teeth He hated h very
name Of tho debonair afventurer.
Dick STARTED from his reverie- The
dictagraph was worktngi
Through the high resistance head
pSeces he heard voices. almost rs II
from one OF tho l Photographs He
strained his ears TO recognize thu
vuioea- It was vira speaking To
Rutbf
wei. here We are again For .
secoud last night I thought We were
never going to get to the old Inner
Circle aEzin- You're some driver.
Anybody elso at tho wheel and-wen.
dead girls tell no taiesr'
Az Dicks koen cars focused atten-
don he could recognize Ruth's laugh
-vhn. that sounds good-because
rknow you mean It After what we
won't through Inst night err pals
forever. L feel n little shaky yet I
think III lie down for a while on
this chaise lounge. Some Of
your massaging would do my poor
back a lot of good. II you ever 30
broke and have 10 open q beauty
sh.a or something. count on mo as
your best pstron.-
There was silence-for-a few min
utea- Then Ruth spoke again Il
vondcr when jock is coming He's
becoming such a rushing lover. / felt
I had to do something to rse to the
same standard of nergy he shows
These boys aren't- going to get ahead
of little Ruth"
vtra chuckIod. sswen. II wouldn't
take much to got ahead Of Glenn
these days. He looks worried-and
that makes mo worrfcd Have you
noticed II. RUTH"
mot through your eyes OF love.
dear.' kidded Ruth
nick. at the other end, bad been a
hi worried ebout the ethics OF what
---a-t- lfn-Afro n~n~lfUftiaa had
got him into. Ho told himself that
he would stop II it were not for what
Guy would say. II he had stopped
long enough he might have admitted
that no was just like the other mil
lions in similar circumstances who
would have liked an earful on the
other fellow.
Tbe fact was tina Dick was almost
beside himself with jealousy as he
heard Ruth discussing Jack The
oolv consolation to which he could
treat himself was the ~nonchalant and
natber nippant way she spoke of him.
He wondered Did 10 imagine that.
because he wished lit
Then he heard another voice over
the wireless. He recognized it as
Brooks voice.and Brock did not seem
In inc O66L OIL l1hLSA1 WAL 80
~You oughtn't tn butt IN and Try to
stop anything. Ruth-not when 1t has
gone as far as hat thing did last
night You'll get somebody caught
one of these days and
There was a thinly yelled threat in
the gruff breaking off of Brooks re-
mark
"Just because It was the PARIS some
friends Of"
IT Know interrupted Ruth but
when you an picked us up after the
smash-up n took us to Vira'sEwhy
did you leave tho bulky stuff at her
house7 Suppose someone comes In
therc-and finds it A pretty little
frunt-pago- scandalY'
Ruth had been characteristics
without entering a defense h had
shifted the subject upul the other
man wagon the defensive
Don't worry. No n viii find
anything. Jack win take care of
that"
vira made a little suppressed ex-
clamation. II can imagine my Mater
If I was caught in a bootlegsing clean
Quit That'd be the last straw on the
dromedary. She'd be- looking for some
new Bneik IOr me IN tbo sndpo VI
grand old octogenarian husband I
was straight on the road to perdiction
when 1 went into pictures I shock
the folks a dozen times a day But a
rum-running scandal Go. set thee to
a nunnery, Virar"
speaking OF mothers : : :"
Ruth paused. nothing flippant In word
or tone
Dick at the other end was aghast-
It was all surprising news. this clue
to where Ruth had been h night
before. Also. it was some mitigated
relief. She had got back to town
shaken up by the accident and had
gone with vira to vira's empty town
house. More than that, there was
something he did not get; but some
how her smash-up had been concerned
with trying to fr~ustrate something.
not perpetrate it.
ct Uoptt ro hack there tonight.