New Britain herald., 1927-02-16

hduo 6oous oI CCuESe
 Gus turned his car at the mex corner. Your Aunts diamond pil Is at Mrs. Mangan's, I suppose :? he asked.
 Robbie nodded. It was. It wa sewn into the lowered mattress o Ter blue-painted bed. She had GU a tiny hole in it and hidden Aun Gertrude's diamonds there. Sh, supposed Mrs. Mangan would hay, a fit if she knew 1t, but what sh' didn't know certainly couldn't hur Ter!
 'Ill buy your stuff from you, ant give'you what it's worth. Robbie, Gus said slowly, his eyes straigh ahead of him on the crowded road. You won't get third O. it's value If you pawn 1t or sell i for secondhand stuff"
 No. suppose not" answered Robbie, remembering the one dia. mond she had sold for tiny sun, of money. But, Gus. are you sure you can spare the money"
 Sure. And even if couldn't there's nothing I wouldn't do for you. Bobs. don't want you to gel discouraged and go home. It gives | me the blue creevies' to think ot losing you"
 Robbie wished she could believe | him,
 ! But 1t was awfully hard to be- iieve him when he talked like that There were 50 many women in his life that she felt sure he never would miss her if she went away especially when she remembered how gaily he had left her two weeks before and gone down to Laguna Beach with Monica. No, ene woman didn't color a whole lifetime for a man like Gu. MacCloud.
 The dark green roadster stopped before the house. And while Gus sat dropping gray cigar ash on the clean floor of Mrs. Mangan's porch, Robbie went upstairs to rip open the lowered cover of Mrs. Man. | gan's fine hair-mattress and take | out Ant Gertrude's dirty" dia- 1 monds.
 They were not there. They were not in it.
 She probed carefully at first with her small fingers. Then frantical- | I,y but r1-tH a she was sure she had hidden it.. She went dizzy and faint with the shock, and grew dreadfully sick to her stomach.
 Finally. white and quiver;ng, she ! went down to Gus, holding Andy's sparkling bracelet in her hand. She held it out to him on her pink palm.
 Where are the diamonds?"
 She shrugged. Zone" "What?"
 They're gone. ! sewed them up In my mattress, but someone's taken them cut" Her voice was dull and it dragged. She wanted to tell him that she was just as sure that Monica Mont had taken them, as she was sure that her own name was Roberta Ransom. But, of course, she couldn't. There are some things that just can't be done-and to tell him was one of those things.
 But you must be mistaken! Did anybody know you had them in your mattress? Did this boarding house woman know it9"
 Mrs. Mangan? No" She shook her head. Only two people had known about it-Stella and Mon- ica. And Stella had gone to that mysterious country from which no one ever returns, and she had taken no diamonds with her.
 Well. who did know it?" Robbie silently looked at him. She was thinking of the night when Monica, all perfume and furs and silk, had sat in her room and watched her hide her treasure.
 What a simple little fool she had been to trust Monica! After all. it was only another kind of gold digging to steal. She might have known that a girl with no honor at all, would never rest until she got those diamonds and turned them into money.
 But then. that was before she had discovered the theft of the gold kid slippers. She had not &C., tually known that Monica was an out-and -out thief at the time she had hidden the two old diamonds well, it was her own fault, and there was no use crying over spilled milk or stolen jewelry.
 How much will you give me for the bracelet?" she asked briskly. She did not look at it. All at once, she seemed to see Andy Jerrold hanging over a jewelry store coun- ter picking out that glittering bracelet--Andy. A lump came in- te her throat as she thought of him. He was so square and hon. est and unassuming, even if he did fall In love with his secretaries now and then.
 "Ill write and tell him I've sold his bracelet she thought wicked Fly. "That'll make him feel pretty rotten. At least hope it will"
 Come on up to my house and I'll write you a check" said Gus, breaking in upon her thoughts.
 (To Be Continued)
 Gus maps out Bobbie's futsre for Ter in the next chapter.