Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-01

reasons he didn't avow, as carefully as
he said he had.
But Claire Cleveland, somehow, had
found the secret out. Shed spoken of
the laboratory on Erie street, where her
father had WORKED. Had she really
worked for him thsre-evenings, as she
said she had? It was possible, but It
didn't seem very likely At any rate, it
was fatty unbelievable that he would
have conflded to her, as she said he
had, the story Of his California disaster.
about that. Shed spoken of it with
easy, unguarded familiarity. Shed
spoken Of the trial and the sensation
that 1t created. There's been hardly
anything else in the papers at the time,
she said-at least, IN the San Francisco
papers.
Rhoda sat erect and held her breath.
Why, why hadn't she caught that slip
ct the time? All 1t meant, all 1t could
possibly mean. was that it had been in
the San Francisco papers that Claire
had read about it. Shed been In San
Francisco then during the trial. She
hadn't said 80. She hadn't meant to
give that away. Shed pretended that
1t was from Walter Mcfarland that
she'd heard this story, long afterward
in Chicago. OF course! Claire Cleve-
land was the girl on the train.
Strangely enough the first feeling this
conclusion brought Rhoda was one of
relief, like waking up from q long night
mare. She had always been sure of
her fathers rectitude. But now, having
heard the story for the first time, she
was sure OF it In a new way. She could
face it now. She could talk to Martin
about it. She was confident that her
father had been the object of q con-
spiracy and that she had sat at lunch
today with one Of the conspirators.
She recalled her first impression of
Claire, her momentary belief that she
couldn't be the woman because she
looked rather nice, and young - not
much over 20. Six years ago she could
have looked convincingly like an limo
cent young girl crying forlornly over
the loss Of her ticket and the prospect
that they'd put her OF the train.
Had she hated the job they'd given
her TO do? At any rate. she'd gone
ahead with her work Of betrayal, any,
how. but not, Rhoda believed, without
sense Of the fine quality of the man
she ruined and of the infamy of the
plot she had consented to.
She had said at lunch today that,
while q pretty girl could fool almost any
man. there were few men who were
different and she believed" that Walter
Mcfarland was one Of them. She had
also stated her belief" that he was in
nocent; that they had put something
over on him"
OF course it was hard to tell where
the truth left OF and where the lies
began. Claires pHofeSsed hatred OF
Forster was true, though as yet specifi-
cally unaccounted for. She had tried
20 convince Rhoda, though with a s,is.
picious insiStence upon her own lack of
knowledge, that Forster was the person
primarily responsible for the plot
against her father.
That felt like the truth, though 1t
obviously wasn't. Forster had stopped
being frightened and had burst into q
rage Of pure relief when she had
told him that Claire had said that.
That had been what had convinced
MN that she herself had been lying all
along. It had even led him really to
believe-anyf1ow the belief had seemed
real-that she herself had been the
girl on the train. That disposed Of the
possibility that he could be the man
who had compelled, or persuaded, or
coldly hired, Claire
And yet he couldn't be left, out Of
the pattern altogether. He had adj
Vertlsed Tor Rhoda Mcfarland and no
one but an idiot could doubt, after
seeing him and hearing him talk. that
he had done so in the furtherance OF
some mean purpose Of his own. Claire,
who had once been his private secre-
tary. and Max Lewis, who was his
nephew. knew, or thought they knew,
what that purpose was, and had tried
to forestau him by finding her first. It
was her fathers papers that Claire
nao tried TO get chance TO rummage
through, and, at her own mention to
Forster OF the theft Of those papers,
ne had started as If she had drawn q
revolver on him. There must be some
thing among those papers that he
wanted pretty badly: something that
had nothing to do with the California
episode, but with the work he had
done here in Chicago. Was there, or
did Forster believe there was, among
her fathers papers some precious Sc
cret formula? Was that what with his
dying breath he'd tried to tell her
about? And was that what Claire and
MAX had been trying to steal, so that
they could sell it to Forster on their
own terms? Was the conspiracy TO
ruin her father at the university an
entirely unrelated thing, except for
the coincidence Of Claires connection
with It? That seemed rather unlikely,
but 1t was the only way the story
made sense.
Continued In Tomorrcw's starr.