The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-03-06
CHAPTER IV-Continued

s.
To Rhoda it was as If q buried
thing had reared its head after all
these years and stared at her. Ever
since her fathers death there'd been
an unacknowledged fear in the bottom
of her mind that this would happen
something like this. 1t had taken its
first vague nightmare form when, as
child Of fourteen, she'd read in the
paper about another trial under the
Mann act. It had been a fear Of find
ing something that would give form
and body to this nightmare that had
kept her from going over the papers
in the old leather trunk the day after
her father died. One Of the first
things she had done after her flight
from the hotel, up in the little hall
bedroom Of her first boarding house,
had been to seal that trunk with strips
of gummed paper all around the lid.
Her fathers dying reference to his
papers prevented her from destroying
the thing. After the burglary she'd
looked at 1t to make sure it was un-
disturbed, but at that time, preoccu-
pied by the loss of her three hundred
dollars, she hadn't thought much
about it.
Up to now, until she heard Claire
Cleveland pronounce the word Cali
fornia, she'd been able in her sensible
moments to remind herself that all
she'd ever seen In the trunk had been
laboratory notes and diagrams, to ar
que that in all probability it contained
nothing else, and to promise herself
that some day she would open it up, go
through it methodically, and make an
end of her nightmare once and for all.
But now the nightmare was true.
These people-certainly Claire, and
probably Forster and his nephew-had
their connection with her father back
in the days of the horror and for some
unthinkable purpose Of their own,
wanted the thing dug up.
She sat there frozen. It was Sec
Onds before she could even turn her
eyes from the woman's horrible face.
you know about it, don't your"
Claire was saying. "You must know
something about it. Why, there wasn't
hardly anything else in the papers at
the time-especiall the San Francisco
papers. You don't want to take a
thing like that too hard, dearie."
At that Rhoda managed to drag her
hypnotized eyes away and turn them
on her empty coffee cup.
"Of course, to hear people talk
dirty hypocrites-you'd think thing
like that had never happened kefore.
It's happening all the time, only they
don't happen to get caught. You must
know yourself that good-looking girl
could get any man If she wanted him:
practically any man. They're funny
that way-most men are But your
father f. think they put some
thing over on him. OF course" she
fastened to add, II wouldn't want to
be held to anything couldn't prove,
and naturally I couldn't prove one sin
gle thing about this. But if there was
niger in the woodpile, it was this
man Forster. And you can play that
right across the board. There's no
way that you could get back at him
that I can see, because it was all over
and done with long ago. But there's
one thing you can do, and that's lay
off from him If he tries to come
around"
Rhoda heard her move her chair
back little and that broke the spell.
CHANGING up she saw the woman gaz-
ing thoughtfully at her watch.
"Well, guess I've said my say
she concluded. "And know you must
be wanting to run along. I'm going
to order taxi. can't take you any
where in it, can II" She hadn't quite
said her say, though, for as she rose
to leave the table she added, you
won't forget to look up that paper of
mine, will you, dearie?"
Despite her panic, Rhoda was able
to note that this had been a clear
afterthought, and not complete one,
either. Claire hadn't told her where
she lived.
Rhoda went home. She didn't know
how she got there. Nor did she plan
what she'd do when she did. She had
no clear expectation Of what she'd
find. But by the time she had climbed
the long flight Of stairs and let herself
into the studio with her latchkey and
flown straight up to her little bedroom
y In the loft and looked under the bed,