Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-29

OWL making, OUT IL was as well 10 nave the
easy means well out of sight.
There knock the door.
"A lady to see you, SIR
He raised his head to say he couldn't pos
sbly see any customers that afternoon, but
he was a second too late The lady was al
ready in the room.
CHE was a slim, golden-hair GIRL simply
- and very elegantly dressed, with a big,
beautiful mouth, and gray eyes that burnt and
swan Phil at first saw nothing but her
eyes, which seemed to be charged with some
tremendous message.
Are you Mr.. LIE Courier" Her voice was
unusually deep.
mo. my name is Barnes but I'm the head
of the firm here"
Have you lost?
He nodded quickly, and she opened her hand
In the palm of tan-colored glove lay the great
Medici ruby
His relief was SO intense that If he had
been woman he would have burst into tears
Being man, he had difficulty in resisting the
impulse to seize the girl in his arms and wave
her like flag Of victory.
"Oh," he cried, you don't know what this
means to me! Where in the world did you
get it?"
II can't tell you that"
I'm afraid you must" he said Then see
ing by slight stiffening of her figure that she
was not accustomed to the word must, at least
in the mouths of others, he added: THE police
are raising Cain in the outer Office; the in
surance man is his way up here. I shall
have to have story to tell them, or they will
suspect me of trying to steal my own jewel
and not getting away with it."
He could see she was reasonable girl. She
yielded.
Well" she said IT was sitting outside of
this building in the car. waiting for my mother,
who was having fitting at Nine. Kendal's
upstairs. :"
I'm glad" he said, chat your august mother
permits herself the best"
1T runs in the family. We all do Sud-
denly there was the explosion. Your doorman
was hurt was getting out of the car to go
to help him when great crowd rushed be-
tween us and, as hesitated standing on the
step of the car, noticed girl who seemed to
be pinned against the window. Then I saw
her slip her hand behind her back. When she
moved away, your ruby that beautiful
stone was gone"
''You noticed that at once?"
EYES, because I have often looked at it, In
fact, have some hope of getting my father to
buy it. I ran after her. Pushed through the
crowd and laid my hand her shoulder, a
cruel thing to do, for she almost swooned with
fright. Her terror was complete confession.
I managed to get her into the car while
talked to her. hadn't much difficulty in
getting her story-quite commonplace one,
nice background. private school, a mother
who died before she grew up a shiftless, aristo-
cratic father, the sudden necessity at 10 of
earning her own living. :"
Was she pretty?"
eyes, think she waS-not beauty con-
WINGED her that for her to steal that stone was
death and destruction, and finally she gave it
to me-"
"She trusting girl"
His visitor stared at him second
you mean might have kept it?"
"She might have thought So"
The girl laughed. We'll" she said, that
shows how stupid I am, because 1t never oc-
CURED to me that she might think was a
thief, too. But I'm afraid it was the car and
chauffeur and my fathers rather well known
initials on the door that made her trust me,
rather than the conspicuous honesty of my
personality"
And suddenly her manner changed
But am I, after all, honest? What did
it cost me to be your side, against her,
poor little thing? Wasn't it a perfectly ma
tural, human thing for her to do? What do
I know about that sort of temptation? What
right had to take away the fruits of her crime
and courage?"
You saved her from is years in prison."
said Phil. "She absolutely certain to be
caught
Even So" answered the girl, "she might
have had some fun first. She might have gone
to Monte Carlo-or she might simply have
hidden the ruby under her pillow and gloated
over it. Wouldn't that be better than going
on the way she is now, a poor drab little
ture, matching samples, or whatever it is she
does for a living? What made me snatch it
all away from her?"
But hold on Bit" said Phil How about
me? Am not worth your saving, too? was
facing ruin when you came in like angel Of
light. How would you have felt if you had
read IN tomorrow's papers thSt had blown