Evening star., 1923-11-25

Tor the moment afforded her a certain
relief, but there was something in the
smile with which he surveyed her
nova cynical, gloating triumph
| that chilled her.
We'll, what is it?" she demanded
! 4 trapped that damned lover OF
yours tonight" he announced, coolly
Claire felt her face go white. 1t was
true, then. She fought madly with
! herself for self-possession
II you mean Mr.. Bruce" she said.
! deliberately, Il was just going to tr-.
| to warn him over the phone; though
even then | was afraid | was too
| late"
"Ah." he exclaimed. sharply You
| knew. then?"
Claire shrugged her shoulders.
oh. yes she said. contemptuously
My faith in you where evil is con
threats. 1 saw Hawkins a few min
utes ago. He was quite-qutte help
less. You, or some of your confeder-
ates, traded on his weakness, took the
KEY Key or the car away from him and
then stole the car. Ordinary thieves
would not have acted like that"
An icy smile came to her lips. His
lanaIady thought the police should be
"oo..Yiheo that the car had been stolen"
Crang grinned. admiringly. "YoI'ye
sot some brains-all there are around
| as Tar as can make out You've
Rrnoa ~ sHalsht, all right. Mr.. John
Iar ESQUIRE, came out of La
ne on being informed that Haw-
klsn was in bad shape-no lie ahont
n,4 ma .-ahd walked into the car with
gu, murmur. Too bad to bother the
pot.ice, pt, thoush-the car will have been
by now" ''9 uool aSdIh
t,,, " -, nat are you going to do with
alin her voice was very low. ..Thr
promise that l gave you was on rho
| then, but now
arang laughed outright.
On doht worry about that He'd
never let it get that far. He THINKS
100 much of Mr.. Bruce. He has al
athay ntba taken taken care of himself-at an
otner mans expense"
claire stared numbIy She ala r,,
understand ''''
IN tell you" said Crang. with
brutal Flciousness He's a profes-
wealthy gentleman of leisure He
works for man in San Francisco
named Larmon. who really is wealth.
put who poses as pillar of the
snurch. or words to that effect Never
mind how. but Larmon will ha ba,a
tonight in New York-iust At tha
right moment. And Mr. Burce has
yer! kindly consented to assist II,
Sonvnlcing Mr.. Larmon that exposure
| ~, orth the Few dollars that would
! BUY him immunity"
crang took d letter from his pocket
apruptiy and, opening il, laid IL in
front Of Claire. - ~
! l thought perhaps you would like
| 10 mead it, he said. care!essly.
t!alre rested her elbows on the IA hi.
and cupped her chin in her hands
she stared at the letter. At first tho
words ran together, and she could no,
make them out. Then sentence took
tplil' ana then another-and she read
1
slrl TO marry me, and in doing 50 fell
she mad the right to my full cont
dence She did me in Sh.
read on to the end
But lts s. not true" she cried our
Sharply. / don't believe it,"
OF course, it isn't true" said
Crang. complacently. And of course
you don't believe it. But Larmon will
I've only shown you the letter to let
you see what kind of a yellow cur
| TINS woulG-be lover of yours is ANY
thing to save himeslf! But 50 long :s
ne wrote the letter l had no quarre!
with him If he wanted to fake eN-
cuses for himself that gave him a
chance OF holding his job with Lar
mon afterward
1t couldn't be true-true that John
! Bruce had ever written the letter.
a miserable Judas thing that baited a
| trap for one who trusted him with the
| good name of woman for whom he
had professed to care. 1t couldn't he
| true-but the signature was there.
! and-and ii was genuine: John
Bruce John Bruce John
! bruce 1t seemed to strike at her with
the cruel. stinging blows of a whip-
| lash: John Bruce John Bruce
JOHN
The words became blurred. II was
the infinite hopelessness of everything
| that crushed her fortitude and mock-
ed 1t, and made of it at last a beaten
thlng. tear fell and splashed upor
the page-and still another. She kent
looking at the letter, though sh.
could only see it through binding
mist And there was something omi-
nous. and something that added 10
| her fear. that she should imagin,.
that her tears made black splashes
on the blurred letter as they fell.
and
She heard a sudden startled smart
from Crang. and the letter was
| snatched up from the Ia BILE. And then
he seemed to laugh wildly. without
reason, as a maniac would laugh.
| and. with the letter clutched in his
| hand, rushed from the room. Claire
crushed her hands against her tenn
pies. Perhaps it was herself who had
| gone mad
The front door banged.