Evening star., 1927-10-21
Continued from Yesterdays starr
CHAPTER XXXI.
Freedom.


Freedom.
ToR more than an hour Jane
studied the code, but her be
wilderment only grew. AM
mails. trees, jewels. colors. thu
13 cards of suit, substituting
"ace" for "one," were all jumbled to-
gether, but interspersed with such sig
nificant words as captured, oehV'
ered," threatened" ransom"
One thing only seemed clear. MIS-
Kerr had signed the name py wnIcIi
Fra Durant was known-and Du'
rant Law dead, perhaps, or was in the
hands of those remorseless men VINO
had descended from the air to close in
upon him!
All at once single. significant word
stood out from the rest and then, as
though written in letters of fire, a
message stood out before her. A
MESSAGE of such dread import was it
that the girls stout spirit qualled ana
she gazed wildly about with the ter
rified appeal Of a trapped animal, but
her lndomitable courage rose TO meet
the hideous crisis confronting her ana
with il came a rage which she hao
never known before.
That unknown messenger who had
come TO the house built into the hill
two nights before with the informa-
tion that there was a traitor in camp
had not lied. And she had been ac-
cused-she, Fury akin to murder
itself rose in the girls heart. There
was q traitor, indeed, and that traitor
was Angie Kerr.
Not only for her own safety must
she escape from this creature now,
but IN order to warn the others, those
Of the pack who were true. who would
risk-who had risked-their lives for
the child of Richard Dane. She had
learned much of which she could not
have dreamed. but the amazing en-
lichtenment was swallowed up before
the greater fact of the imminent peril
which faced them all.
The little packet of papers contain
ing the message thrown in at her
window-much in the same manner
AS this latest code had reached her.
the pages she had used deciphering 1t
and the scrap torn from the news
paper on the train, had been trans
ferred from one change of clothing to
another and now, rising, she took it
from the pocket of her coat and plac-
ing the two codes and fragment of
newspaper together. she made
smaller packet of them and tore into
tiny bits the experimentation pages
These she scattered through the port
and. ripping the lining of the coat, she
slipped the packet inside.
She was dressed when the maid
Knocked on her cabin door in the
morning and only slight pallor and
the blush circles about her eyes gave
any indication of her sleepless night
of desperate planning. She must
above all play a part now, play it not
only for her life, but for all who fol-
lowed the leadership Of the Black
Joker.
The yacht was riding at anchor be-
fore a club.landing with the splendid
panorama Of the northern part of
New York on one side and the tower
ing Palisades on the other. Breakfast
was a hurried one, for Mrs. Kerr was
anxious to reach home as early as
possible; she was pale and almost hag.
gard once more, but her eyes were
feverishly bright and she talked with
forced animation to the girl who was
watching her with new eyes.
Janet responded with an alacrity
which might have been suspicious had
the other woman not been too deeply
engrossed in the difficulties of the mo-
ment. asking many naive questions
about the home which had been so
graciously thrown open to her. and
learned that 1t was an apartment on
Park avenue in the forties. This
meant nothing TO her except that she
feared an apartment house would be