Evening star., 1924-06-08

realize what 1t means, unless you let
them see. But understand now"
You don't understand. You don't
know" said Sylvia
Her guest did not press the point.
HAS he gone down to town. she
asked. TT isn't likely to be anything
serious, is itr'
''Oh. Just murder or something"
said Sylvia. Its too quiet there for
it to be anything very bad"
The man turned away from the
window.
He is sending the policeman away
and coming back" he said quietly,
and took his place at the table.
Sylvia sat up straight again. and
once more pressed her hands against
her eyes. She hadn't cried enough to
discolor them. She looked from one
to the other of her guests with a
shaky little smile.
Thank you," she said, for each of
them had done her a service.
CareW, coming back into the room,
found everything just as he had left
it,
TT was nothing after all, them
asked Sylvia.
I'll have to go down after dinner"
said Carew, but everythings all
right for the present. The woman's
locked up and both the men are dead"
LIE turned to the American. ut fits
in rather with what we were
saying" he began. "A Sikh police
man tried to arrest a woman, and a
Malay who was with her slipped a
kris into him. The Malay is very
excitable, and once he let's his kris
taste blood--one of those wavy-bladed
daggers. you know-once his kris
tastes blood. he's likely to turn per-
fectly irresponsible. Westerners call
it running amuck.' It is really moth
ing but a feeling that, since he has
broken loose, he may as well make
a thorough job of it and kill as many
more as possible. That is what he
started to do in this case and there
was nothing for 1t but for another
policeman to shoot him."
What had the woman done" the
American wanted to know, that the
first man tried to arrest her for?"
Carew smiled and turned to Sylvia
You will be interested in that"
he said. She's a woman who's been
working for you up here. She had
set her cap for this Malay and. in
order to fascinate him. she had stolen.
What do you suppose? A dozen brass
curtain rings. She was wearing them
for bracelets halfway up her arm
WI hA
There's the irony of things" said
the American. An absurdly trif1ing
act like that. and two men dead as
the result of it,"
NO" said Carew, you mustn't
look at it that way. Not If you're
going to get the East straight. OF
course, it's too bad about the police
man. But he lost his life doing his
duty and that's an ending we for
eigners have to take more or less for
granted. OF course, he's as foreign
to this situation as l am. But the
Malay doesn't matter. You can't
blame him for what he did and he'd
be the last person, provided you
could consult him, to complain of the
result. That's all in the days work
THE thing you have got to treat
seriously is the theft. The fact that
the things she stole were perhaps
worth about sixpence and that we'd
never have discovered the loss of
them, doesn't enter into the case.
They were very beautiful to her no
doubt-highly polished and all, and
tempted her. Taking them con-
stituted, from her point of view, a
serious theft and it's her point of
view that I've got to treat it from"
Tho point absorbed the interest Of
both men. But the American woman
had only half listened. She had
hardly taken her eyes from Syivia's
face since Carew had returned Now