Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-22

n making her phone call, she
wv talked between and during
mouthfuls all through the
rest of the meal, about any
thing or nothing-about food, the Spe-
cialties of this and other restaurants
cafes, prohibition, night clubs, men,.
The meal seemed interminable, but
1t dragged to an end at last. But when,
having set down her empty demi-taSse,
Rhoda moved back her chair little as
a preliminary to saying she must go,
Claire suddenly found that she had
something left to say.
"You know. dearie. there was one
thing in my letter that / haven't told
you about, and want to before you go.
There isn't any rush, is there? I hope
not. Because it might sound kind OF
foolish unless 1 could tell you all
about it."
mo" Rhoda had to admit, I'm not
In any special hurry"
II said in my letter." Claire began,
"that if any stranger tried to COM
municate with you in any way / hoped
you wouldn't answer him until you'd
had this talk with me. You haven't
have you?"
mo. I guess not" Rhoda told her,
alert again and answering as casually
as she could. II don't believe I know
what you mean. What sort OF COM
munication?"
"You haven't seen it then" Claire
said with sigh of relief, "or you q
know. 1t was just guess OF mine, ana
maybe I'm all wrong. This dirty old
goat that I've been telling you about,
the one that made me all my trouble
I've sort of got him on the brain, l
guess :" This much of what she
was saying, Rhoda reflected, was prob
ably true. The hatred in the womans
voice sounded genuine, anyhow.
Maybe he isn't doing IL, Clalre
went on, "but it's exactly the kind OF
thing he would do. He's old and he's
got rheumatism so bad he can't walk
without two canes"
Rhoda found herself getting fright
ened The old man who have given her
and Babe a lift this morning had two
canes with him in the car. There was
some horrifying admixture Of truth In
the lies the woman was telling ner:
"He must know about you, Clane
went on smoothly, because he was In
business, in a. way, with your father.
don't know very much about that, ex-
cept that he played your father about
the dirtiest trick chat man could play
on another man. For anything know
he may think your father left you
something that he wants-something
among his papers-but don't believe
it's that. I think it's because he knows
you're young and pretty and have no
one to look after you. Anyhow, when
/ saw the ad in the paper for Rhoda
Mcfarland, it came over me like second
sight that that must be Forster up to
his old tricks again."
''Forster?" Rhoda asked. Her lips felt
stiff, but she seemed able to talk all
right. HAS he been advertising Tor
me? What sort of advertisements"
"Oh, the regular sort that's in the
personal columns, saying you'll learn
something to your advantage by apply
ing to so and so. That's good, If It's
Forster who put in the ad. OF course,
don't know that It's him. II hasnt
got his name on 1t. That's enough In
itself to show that he isn't on the level.
Didn't your father ever tell you about
him?. I don't suppose he would,
though"
Rhoda shook her head It was under
the fascination of terror that she asked,
almost involuntarily, the. question.
what sort of trick was 1t that he
played on my father?"
"Why, it's my personal opinion" said
Claire, though, of course, I don't know
anything about it. It happened long
before your father and I got &C
quainted-but it's my private opinion
that Forster was somehow or other at
the bottom of the whole thing: your
fathers trouble out in California, /
mean"
To Rhoda it was as if buried thing
had reared its head, after all these
years, and stared at her. Ever since
her fathers death, there'd been an I'M
acknowledged fear in the bottom of her
mind that this would happen-some
thing like this. 1t had been fear Of
finding something that would give form
and body to this nightmare that had
kept her from going over the papers in
the old leather hat trunk the day after
her father died. One of the first things