Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-23
RHODA
A Red-HeadedG Girl
By Henry Kitchell Webster
copyrght Alliance and
Metop

Her body stiffened under the impact
of an idea. Could she use him as an
ally against the other pair? Claire was
afraid of him, too, she thought. She
must be, to hate him like that. Any
how, she'd done everything she could
TO keep Rhoda from going to him. Shed
warned her in the letter against answer
ing his advertisement and had rubbed
the warning in today at lunch. Well,
then. why not go to him no., as quick
ly as a taxi could take her to the Wor-
cester Hotel? That was where Martin
said he lived Take Claire's letter along
as bit of documentary evidence.
She was aware that there might be
objections to the plan, but she was in
no mood to stop to consider them. She
got Claire's letter out of the drawer of
the writing desk, crammed it into her
ulster pocket-she hadn't yet taken of
her outdoor wrapS-Slammed the studio
door behind her and darted down the
two long flights of stairs to the street.
worcester Hotel" she said to the
taxi driver, who pulled up TO the curb
when she signaled him.
1t was quite ride-the better part
of a mile, at least-and though she
didn't want to chill with wet blankets
the fine warm resolution that possessed
her she couldn't help doing it,
Forster might not be a desirable ally,
even If Claire hated him. He might be
as bad as she said he was. He might
have been her fathers arch-enemy.
There wouldn't be much satisfaction in
spelling Claire'S and Maxs game, If
doing that involved delivering herself
over, tied hand and foot, into the power
of a man like that.
And could she spoil their game?
Could she convince Forster that Claire
and his nephew were conSpiring against
him? To what extent had Claire given
herself away in the letter?
She got 1t out to read it, but her gaze
didn't &c beyond the first two lines:
Claire's address written across the top.
Claire'S f1at-or was 1t MaXs?
Rhoda wondered whether Claire
wanted to marry Max. And was she
afraid that Forster would disinherit
him If she did?
With another plunge, physical as well
as figurative. Rhoda opened the front
window and spoke again to the chauf-
feur.
"I've changed my mind" she said.
to-" And she read him Claire'S.
She hadn't d doubt she'd find the
pair of them there, up to the elbows
in her fathers papers.
Il think" she'd tell them, "that when
you've heard what say you'll give me
back my trunk and everything that's
in it, unless there's really something
there that belongs to you. If you do, I
don't care whether you marry Max or
not. But If you don't give it back to
me and take 1t down and put it into
my taxicab I'll drive straight to the
Worcester. And I'll tell his uncle about
everything that's happened in the last
two days" Something like that, though
exactly what she said would have to
depend on what they did. Her bomb
would be compounded somehow of her
unsupported by them, that
the Forster who had been advertising
for her was Max's uncle and her guess
that Max was the man Claire wanted
to marry.
There was third ingredient, too,
that could make it more explosive: The
fact that Forster had already found her
and had brought her down to work this
in his limousine
The building before which her taxi
pulled up was an oldish. three-story
stone house. remodeled. as its two front
a little as she got out, but
she didn't feel afraid. And she made 1t
sound almost like joke when she said
to the taxi-driver: wait. please. I
don't think I'll be long. But II you do
hear anybody screaming for help in
there come in and see who it is"
There was momentary delay after
she rang Claire's bell-hers was one Of
the top fiats-before the buzzer re-
leased the catch on the vestibule door,
but Rhoda heard a door open at the
top of the house the instant she started
up the stairs. A little surprising. that
was. She hadn't expected them to be
eager to receive visitors Just now: had
indeed, whether they'd let
her in at all. Perhaps they wouldn't
when they saw who she was. She ran
up the two flights and was painting
when she got to the top.
The woman alone was waiting for
her Max wasn't in sight.
Continued in Tomorrow's Star)