Evening star., 1924-10-26

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! fellow-her husband. She's lost him
that's plain. She wrote him and thei
couldn't fill in the address. Well
| I'll rs;id it,
! Paymaster tore the letter from its
| envelope. Then he poured out TIL,
| beer into q glass calmly. and slipped
! his beverage while he read the first
few lines of writing. AS he went on.
| however, he put his glass down. and
with one hand pushed the roll of
money and the rings slowly out of
his way across the bureau cover.
Huh! This turns out to. be some
SKETCH" said he.
| Presently he spread out the paper
and read aloud as if to better COM
prehend it.
| My own dear Larry" said the let
| ter I'VE have been together Is
years, and no matter how i may feel
about what you have done-the things
you have told me in the note l found
on my bureau-I simply forget every
thing else but you. It's you, you, you.
That's all 1 know or care. It's only
! the woman III me- Whatever you do
| You are still mine. And you must
! listen to your wife now. The short
| age is only eight thousand and some
| odd dollars. I've forgotten what you
] said exactly. You're always SO eX-
act. And you say no one will know
| OF it till the auditor comes Monday
! morning. The terrible pain of all this
| for me is that you have let me know
/ that it all happened because We were
! living too we'll. OF course / knew
you We're extravagant. You never
could save. even in the days when
you were n telegrapher and you want
| ed TO save enough to get married.
But now you must listen to me. You
,,c,f l,aa
have given me household money, and
SO on, I've always saved n little. And
I've worked SO hard to do it. l never
told you because I was afraid 1t would
! make you extravagant. And now
with interest and all 1 have nearly
$4,000 in the bank. 1t was in New
York. 50 you'd never find out, but a
certified check will be at home Sat
urday night. So you see you must
| come back. We have real use for
the money now. And that makes
your wife so proud she saved it.
The low-life GUTTER, Why didn't
he take her with him?" srowled the
thief, scowlinG. Hes somewhere in
this city. She's got some sort of d
tip and followed him here. And prob
ably she can't locate him with the
alias he's using and he'll get away
from her on one of these night trains.
Huh. Let's take another look at this
woman.
Deity he slipped his hand under
one of her shoulders and rolled her
| over until the light fell full upon her
face. For several minutes he looked
down at her, touching his lower lip
with the tips of his fingers, now
scowling, now thoughtful, now sneer-
ing. and now smiling.
Fifteen years." he whispered.
nd Sha fS bf in
time on Monday. Geei That gets my
goat. 1 have luck with women. but
they sure get my goat. Well, Ill
| take a chance with this one"
Crossing the room and raising the
sash allowed him to draw the night
wind into his lungs. He watched it,,
| too, blowing the curtains, sweeping
| the envelope off the bureau and NOV
ing the strands of hair upon the
| womans face. Having heard her
! first little gasp, he waited until she
moved, pulled herself on to her feet
and drew the backs OF her hands
across her eyes as she sood swaying
| under the light.
HCIT down." said he finally. Here.
drink this. There's nothing the
| matter. Now you're all right. Well,
look at me-look me in the eyes,
The woman stared back at him for
several minutes without a word.
You understand me now, don't
you? Well, what l was going to say
was this began Paymaster. You
have sure got a sporty proposition.
I'd like to see you get away with 1t.
The woman saw her handbag and
her rings on the bureau; with a little
exclamation she reached for them.
Paymaster did not stop her. He let
her gather them up.
"Sit down again before you fall
down." he said gruff1y. DO you know
he's in this town now?"
"Yes." said she. II know it be-
Forget the because growled the
thief. He'll probably go out on one
of these night trains West, eh?''
She nodded and silent tears shone
on her cheeks, leaving a trail on the
film of face powder.
"Telephoning the way you was do
ing was wastin' time" he asserted,
exhaling a cloud of smoke viciously.
you've got a sporty proposition all
right. But you didn't have the ideas
to get away with it. What you
lacked was the thing 1 call resource.
Do you get me?-Resource. You need
a scheme:"
lneTe Is none, whispered the
woman. looking furtively at the door.
"Pah." exclaimed Paymaster.
There's always one! Now you can
go if you want to. But you won't
You'll wait to see il can think up
something. That's what you'll do. I
thought So
He jumped up. Looking at his re-
Election in the mirror. he adjusted his
tic, brushed lock of hair back from
his forehead, then fell to walking
back and forth, swapping his fingers.
Suddenly he stopped and leveled
a forefinger at her. Say, read that
letter of yours he said. "He was
telegrapher: Did he ever teach
any of it to you? He did, didn't he?
Answer, Answer
Yes" she replied. when we were
engaged. We used to have our own
code, that is. some of it-our names
the call signals"
The call signal"' cried Paymaster.
THE call signal. Ha! Then We'll
put this across-you and I! Where's
that gun of mine? Well need it!
Come on. There amt any danger
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