Nogales international., 1930-05-27
First Installment
CHAPTER 1

BUT you are gong to marry hin
Peggy7"
There was an agitation in the voic
of Rex Leferre that almost startle,
his sister.
What makes you say that?" sh
asked. Does it mean that / am break
ing off my engagement because LUX,
is bad host and has kept us waiting
ten minutes? ?"
They were in the palm court of tn,
Carlton.
She stood apart with the young mar
who was her only relation, and nc
stranger seeing them would imagine
them to be brother and sister. Rex
was red-haired, weak-chinned, a fretful
young man with a nervous trick OF
adjusting his dress tie every few min
utes.
Margaret Leferre had the carriage
and poise of the great lady. She was
fair-sl1inned, faultless of feature, gray
eyed-a model of cold dignity.
Il don't know" Rex was nibbling
at his nails; he could not be cured Of
this ugly habit. "On1y Luke is good
fellow-in way. Rather tightwad."
! Have you been borrowing money
again?" she asked, and he wriggled
uncoinfortaabbty.
"No-what rot! Only Dainty and l
had scheme -
: She looked around at that moment.
Somehow she knew that the dark-eyed
Danton Morel1 was watching them.
Luke Madison came through the
Vestibule with long strides. He paused
to strip his overcoat and take off his
silk hat, which he almost threw at an
attendant, and took one step toward
the door. AS he did so his foot
slipped sideways on the marble floor
and he would have fallen unpleasantly
but for the hand that suddenly gripped
his arm.
The man who held him must have
been unusually strong, for he literally,
and in the most effortless fashion,
lifted Luke Madison bodily and
placed him on his feet. Luke turned
with a half smile of dismay and found
himself looking into a hard, lined face,
the color of teak; into two unsmiling
eyes, expressionless.
Thank you-awfullyw
Il am glad was here. Fortunately,
I always wait in the lobby when am
expecting people to dinner. Good
night"
Two lives touched at the Carlton
e&at January night-touched and went |
looping away one from the other, to |
touch again in a moment of crisis. |
Rough roads they were: a bitter,
heart-aching road for one, methodi-
cal hell for the less favored, to be
with that cynical smile with |
which Gunner" Haynes met every |
Luke Madison saw life like that
a bewildering mass of crossing and
parallel paths. If he fell into error it
was in believing that his own was the
Straight-a highway to which
and from which all other paths in
clined or diverged.
Gunner Haynes, whose strong arm
1ad saved him from fractured wrist
Or worse, had no collateral worth
speaking about. His principal assets
we're an Immaculate dress suit, cul- [
ured voice, and perfect manners,
which more than overcame the handi-
;ap represented by his lean, dark, sim
ster face. He lived God knew where,
'ut was to be seen at such of the best
hotels as did not know him for an
xpert jewel thief.
They called him Gunner" because
# certain happenings in New York
lily. It was said, but never proved,
hat he was the man who bumped off
4ew Selinski, that notorious gang
eader, and shot his way through
,ew's gunmen to the safety repre- a
ented by cattle boat which sailed S
rom the Hudson River an hour after
he police reserves answered a riot n
all. s
Nobody had ever seen him with a Id
istol in England; but the detectives S
Tho arrested him year after his re- n
Urn to his native land fully expected p
I'm play and came armed. v
When he came up for trial, nobody
anne near him: not his pretty wife n
r his best friend Larry Vinnan. +
AIRY was prince of confidence men, IL
oung, good-looking, plausible. v
There might be excellent reason why IL
AIRY should not wish to draw atten- a.
on to himself by appearing in court n
0 reason why Mile should not write
r do something. She had thousand ei
ounds in hard cash; a good lawyer ri
ould have been briefed but when the I'm
unner sent for her, she had left the h
dging they had occupied. He never le
wv her again. A few months before
IS release from prison he heard that tt
le had died in workhouse infrmary.
The Gunners smile when he heard tt
lis was a grim one. He always
niled when he was hurt-and as he fr
niled now, his heart was one great til
robbing wound.
So he came from prison, and in due al
'urse to the Carlton Hotel, where m
II. Luke Madison was celebrating
S engagement. Of Luke he knew tn
had brought him there M
as jewel box which a rich Ameri- tn
n lady kept ir the hotel safe all day ST
ID in her bedroom between 9 Pm. &C
n | A. M. Gunner Haynes had taken
room on the same floor,
SENIOR CLASS PROPHFCY