Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-06-26
Continued from Yesterdays Starr
Puzzled, he read:

"They took me for the American
but it was all meant for YOU. Thank
you"
That was all. There was no sigma
ture to the mysterious epistle: no in
dioation of how it had gotten into his
compartment. Only the brief mes
sage-that. and
Jimmy bent down over the paper.
\ strange elusive scent met his nos
trils He found himself smiling
gently. 1t was Notwithstanding
oddly like narcissus, and yet not mar
cissus alone. Something hauntingly
wistful and vet full of character. He
drew down the sheet and looked at it.
Thank YOU" he murmured, and
grinned again.
Suddenly his eyes lighted and he
gave a sharp exclamation. 1t was a
woman-the same one, possibly, who
had helped him before-who had left
the note under his door on the
Adrienne. Perhaps even the myster-
ious flyer who had saved his trip
from destruction at its very outset.
with the powerful plane which came
from nowhere.
Could it be-? He hardly dared
phrase the thought. Could it be
Frances? Frances, following to see
that the deal was square? Frances.
who knowing that Rogers planned
crooked work, was helping the man
who played fair?
His heart was pounding. Idly he
compared the handwriting on the
present note with the warning he had
received on shipboard. The two were
identical!
He had never received a message
in Frances handwriting, so there was
no way of checking up. Somehow. he
dared not try to convince himself
that his first wild hope was true.
He could not tell himself that
Frances would care-this much,
enought to follow the man she loved
in a dangerous venture around the
world.
His eyelids closed and he leaned
back in his seat with a little sigh.
The note was still in his hand. His
eyes roved the speeding countryside,
but at intervals he held the elusively
scented paper to his nostrilS.
No, it wasn't Frances; he couldn't
believe it. He seemed to remember
a voice back there at Harbin-a tiny
voice, yet full of courage, too brave
to cry out except as he went down.
The memory sent an unwonted thrill
through him. The perfume dizzied
him.
"A woman" he murmured, and re-
called the slim figure he had seen
leaving the train at Fusan-slim and
straight and modish. yet in spite of its
utter femininity, there had been
something of steelly confidence about
1t, too.
Whoever she may be-" he NUT
tered drowsily, Il hope this trail leads
TO her."
And with that to ease his con-
science, so that whether the mystic
rious woman were Frances or an
other, he had been fair to both
Jimmy dropped off into a pleasant
slumber.
Viatka,
Jimmy's sigh of relief as the long
train neared the far-f1ung outskirts
of the city. was heartfelt. 1t held
in it all his qualification at the
thought that the tiresome journey
across desolate Siberia and eastern
Russia was nearing an end. One
more night and the dawn would find
him at Moscow, prepared TO fly in the
passenger airplane that ran from
there across Poland, Lithuania and
Prussia, to Konigsberg. In a little
more than "a hours he would be
boarding another train for the over
night ride to Berlin.
Exactly one week had passed since
that night on the station platform at
Hardin, when he had gone to the
rescue Of the elusive feminine crea-
ture whom he was beginning to &C.
cept as the mystery element of his
venture. He had tried often to for
get her--to destroy that gentle scent
on her notepaper-to put out Of mind
80 e1i lAfn I'D
figure as he last remembered it-and
her voice.
Either that, or to discover her
identity. But the latter he had found
TO be impossible; private coaches on
Russian trains are rather inviolable,
and the ride had been long.
Days before the Chinese Ia stern
Railway had become the Trans
Siberian, when the Manchurian-
Siberian border had been passed.
Chita, capital, of the Far Eastern Re-
public, had come and gone The
train skirted Lake Baikal and
pounded through Irkutsk; then paused
briefly at Omsk before dragging it's
load across the forbidding Ural noun
tains toward Viatka, soon to appear
Scarcely an incident had marred
the lonely monotony of the long
journey. After failing dismally to
bride porters and guards in an at
tempt to discover the identity of the
mysterious lady in black, Jimmy had
kept strictly to his compartment
until the train reached Omsk, there to
puff waiting for time.
There. with cramped legs and
stiffened limbs, he had emerged for a
brief constitutional on the station
platform. He returned to his com
partment as the engineer blew warn.
ing whistle; and in the first hurry,