Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-06-08
Cpublished By special srrsngement with Ths
CHICAGO Tribune SyndicAte)
PART ONE

NOMEBODY ought to write a traVeI
y book with rules telling folks what not
~ TO do as well as what 10 see. II l
wrote such a book it would start like
this:
Rule /: Democracy's all right. but don't
pick up friendships With criminal in
y%estigators. unless you would like to a
time OF your itinerary III investigate
the inside OF O jail cell with the key
turned on the outside. When there's a
crime committed in a hotel somebody's
got to be arrested for appearances. II
a criminal investigator can furnish the
appearances.
You may have read in the papers about
my being mixed up in the big jewel
robberies of the Carlton hotel in Denver
and also the Alexandria at Long Beach;
how I was arrested and sent to jail as
an accomplice Of the notorious ASP"
who was caught in Long Beach after a
series of spectacular robberies.
I am a twenty-five year old widow and.
according to reporters. beautiful-so the
papers made much of my part in the af-
fair. Ethel says reporters always make a
woman beautiful If she is mixed up in q
crime.
1t was Ethel's idea that my being q
widow of two years standing made 1t
IlOb OllAA HiOHGA Oul ObAlbdtOl1 hAAAN 4
tour the world to forget" 1t was also
her Idea that I take her along as a COM
panion.
Ethel has a pair of surprised blue eyes.
a turned up nose (she calls it "tip-tilted.
like the petal of a hower") and pale pink
hair. all of which make her look like q
small angel just out of heaven; the last
person you'd ever expect to get into a
level robbery, try to make a fool OF a
perfectly good detective n wreck the
life and reputation of her best friend.
I, on the other hand, am tall, and
dark. with a pale, pointed face and a re-
served bearing.
you know, Leona, although you are a
small town girl you have that 'insolent-
ly unaware manner she said, quoting
some novel she had read, adding envi-
ously. "in some ways it's better than
beauty. 1t makes people look at you in
a crowd and beauty doesn't always do
that. Though of course beauty holds
one. l wonder which n OF us
that man is interested IMP"
We were seated on the veranda of the
Carlton overhanging q ravine and the
sandy haired man was leaning against
one of the pillars pretending not to see
us.
tOot PigD1biSf 4 SdAds EAdAiA5 oAyAy
I'VE are excellent running mates, Ethel.
I have the i%nsolently unaware manner,
which makes people look at us in a
crowd, and once having looked, you have
the beauty TO hold them"
She smiled beatiically. HE certainly
is attracted" she unused.
1 might say in passing tina if a sandy
haired man ever crosses your path don't
fool yourself with the notion that be-
cause his coloring is not definite he is
the same. l should have known, for my
poor Russell had been a sandy haired
man. And a week after I'd met him ]
found myself being married to him with
out my having been apprised Of the
event ten minutes in advance of the
ceremony. Perhaps it was because Of the
similarity in coloring that l first took
notice of this second sandy head which
was destined to take such an astounding
place in my affairs. He was not what
you'd call handsome; his tall figure was
Q little too lean, coloring absent. But he
was compelling. His eyes were like ice
on a cloudy morning. His face was as /
imagine Daniel-in-the-lion's den would
have been If Daniel had been young.
One knew at once he had never been
afraid or excited in his life.
If he wants to speak, why doesn't hep"
Ethel whispered, viewing her pert little
face in her vanity mirror. Everybody
does in tourist hotels. And he doesn't
look small town."
Neither do you, if one judges by
Clothes I remarked. We were both from
Ashville. North Carolina.
Personally, ! was uneasy over the sandy
haired mans attention. If we sat on
the veranda, SO did he mot conspicuous
ly near, but there). If we joined an ex-
cursion, SO did he; If we went for q
walk we were sure to meet or pass him:
when we went into the dining room, he
went; If we were in the lounge or Ii
brary, he was there soone or later.
And the previous evening in the dining
room I'd caught him gazing with a Curl
Gus half smile at a fat woman In a dia-
mond tiara and choker. I didn't like
that smile. There was something in 1t
that gave me a sense of the hidden smile
a cat wear when waiting at a
mouse hole. Not only this, but on three
distinct occasions I'd looked up to find
his eyes fixed speculatively-not on me,
but on my pearlsl There could be no
doubt about it. His table was quite close
and those icy gray eyes rested squarely
on my throat. My uneasiness may have
been u to the fact that the papers
were still running stories of a big rob-
berry in a fashionable Chicago hotel the
previous week-said to have borne "the
mark of the Asp"
You girls want to go for a walk in
the park?" called Captain Victory coming
out of the smoker.
Ethel rose quickly. Love It," she cried,
with a glance at the sandy haired man.
l had met the captain half way up
Pixies Peak. In the early morning q large
hopeful party Of us had left the lovely
hotel and near noon we were still pain
fully enjoying ourselves on imperturb-
able burros that seemed to notice neither
the narrowness Of the trail nor the dis
lance to the bottom of the canyons. 1
kept wondering If the creatures ever
missed their step, or got sick, as / was,
and had to lie down, when suddenly we
got into a wide pass and a high wall Of
dirt and rock made life less uncertain.
Race you," cried a jolly voice behind
me. / turned to see a tall man, broad
and finely made, on a burro. He looked
huge; his mount, such a futile thing.
The two Of them reminded me Of an ant
I'd once seen trying to carry off q dead
roach.
Ethel had stopped at sound of his
voice. MY friend, Mrs. Cromwell, cap
tain She got no further.
/ answered with an hysterical burst Of
giggles.
Ethel tried three times, and I tried
valiantly to stop; but every time she got
as far as Mrs. Cromwell" and I got my
face into sober lines and looked up at
hlN% Il OrA4x1A L. WI