Evening star., 1927-09-19
LADY SLIPPER
By Ella Wistey Hai,tes
Author Of "MysTERIous sWEETHEARI"


despair. Hope is dead, only you can
save us all. Your heartbroken Anne"
"Well," said Straine, as he took the
letter from her inert fingers, pausing
| to look upon her bright head, bent sc
patheticalIy under the terrible ordeal
she had come through, this ought tc
| do it! All you need to do now Is to
| wait till I return. This Is Sunday
| They cannot land till late Wednesday
night or Thursday morning and 1t
may be Thursday night before you get
any word. You will be quite safe
here. / see that you have been afraid
to eat. fearing drugs, / suppose. You
need have no worry on that score. !
have no desire to do away with you,
alas, / care too deeply to want hair
Of your precious head to be injured,
but there are some things bigger than
love for woman, Anne! Some day
you may understand! Wait here. "he
bent over her, his hand resting for a
moment on her head, trust me. And
all will be Welt! And stopping low
his arms went around her. One mo-
ment and she was crushed against
him, the kisses rained upon her hair,
her face, her lips, then he released
her and was gone, closing the door
behind him.
Anne threw herself onto her bed,
trembling violently. All self control
had fed, her head throbbed, the room
revolved around her. What had she
done? Turned traitor to her coun-
try? Why had she written the letter?
Why had she not been brave enough
to die, then and there!
"But it was for dad and Chris, too"
she tried to exonerate herself, Il was
justified in saving them! was.
know I was" And now her suffering
was more acute than at any time.
She despised herself, and knew that
her father and Chris would despise
her, too.
Perhaps he'll never reach them
with the letter." was her one gleam Of
comfort, and with all her heart she
prayed that this might happen.
What was I thinking Of. What
kind of hold has this man upon me-?
/ think he must have hypnotized me!
I've been like putty in his hands, from
the very beginning"
She gave way to tears, sobbing for
hours. The entrance Of Pedro with
another tray of food made no impress
sion. She was dead to all sensations
After a time self-preservation, the
first law Of nature, asserted itself once
more. Why not make one last at
tempt to escape? Anne sat up and
dried her tears. calming herself with
an effort. She must think clearly, and
she began to review the information
secured from Straine. AS she consid.
cred it she began to gather courage.
The man had admitted that the United
States Government authorities We're
after him and his compa nion. Wins
ton and his mother were detectives
and Straine had included Chris in his
summing up. All three Of them, there
fore, If Chris were still alive "a thought
which made Anne shudder as she re.
membered her last view Of him div.
ing into the Caribbean Seal must be
searching every inch. Of the Canal
Zone. Might they not be as clever as
Straine? Was there not possibility
of being rescued before her father
could land on the Zone? Straine would
not do away with her until then, she
was certain.
The more Anne considered, the more
hopeful she became. This was Sun
day, nothing could happen before
Thursday, a long, long time! The Zone
was not such a big place. She must
be foundi
But what kind Of a house was this?
She was evidently in a queer inner
room, one of those secret places one
reads about in fiction. The doors and
windows were not real. merely built
in to inspire fear in the prisoner. Once
again she climbed the stairs and ex-
amined each one, and was even more
convinced that her idea was correct.
Opening her own door, she went
into the passage, lamp in hand, but
found, as she had supposed, that it led
to a locked door. Listening closely at
the keyhole, she heard voices, but the
words were indistinguishable, and she
retraced her steps to her prison cell
and sat down again, waiting.
Days and nights would be passed
in this gloomy silence. Pedro would
be her only visitor, for Anne felt that
she would never see Straine again un-
til her deliverance.
HE does love me-" she reflected;
''hew strange! How far a person will
go for love?"
She was thinking again of Chris,
her heart warming at the memory Of
his loyalty.
HE trusted me on the steamer! He
wouldn't believe that I was guilty OF
Lady de Vere's disappearance. oh, II
I ever get back to him"
She stopped abruptly. A ray OF