The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-06-26
CHAPTER XIII-Continued

better because Wen have the place to
ourselves"
She looked so pitiful as she thanked
him that it was hard to refrain from
kissing her then and there. He did it,
however, and, guessing from the way
she huddled down in the corner of the
seat in the taxicab which conveyed
them down town that she didn't want
to be made love to, he went on re-
training even from trying to get pos
session of one of her hands.
The Waterman was an old friend of
Martins and he let them in without
comment, though not without good
deal Of visible curiosity. They climbed
the stairs in silence. He led the way
into the filerOom, pulled chain that
flooded the room with a glare of cold
two minutes search, pulled out
manila folder that had the name "Wal-
ter WhitehOuse Mcfarland" written
across the face of it. He laid it on
the table, moved up a chair for her,
and was on the point of withdrawing
TO leave her to herself when she
reached out hand and drew him
back to her. Il want you to read it,
too," she said. "Do you mind, Mar
TIM"
He didn't wonder when the brutal
headlines above these old newspaper
cuttings assaulted his eyes that to the
girl the thing had been a nightmare
What he marveled at was her courage
in confronting it now and being will
ing to share it with him. He expert
enced a strange tumble of emotions
during the silent hour that it took
them to read all the contents of that
file.
One of the earliest to assail him,
and one of the most disconcerting, was
momentary disgust for his own pro-
fesSiOn. Here was the material that
they had gathered to make up the life
story of man. man who had lived
to be fifty years old and had devoted
those years, with an extraordinary sim
gleneSs of mind, to useful service.
And yet, except for few minor clip
pings, casual stickful here or there
learned societies, studies of chemical
processes, modest announcements of
discoveries, the whole content of the
file concerned itself with what might
or might not have happened during a
ride on the train from Chicago to Cali
fornia; whether or not an acquaint-
ance he had formed with girl in an
Oft 70
tress had resulted in a sexual init
macy. And, at that, the verdict of the
jury had been that it had not so re-
suited. Yet the doubt that remained
in the public mind after the verdict
of the jury had been brought in had
been enough to ruin the mans career.
to force his resignation from the uni
versity, to drive him into hiding for
the last four years of his broken life.
The newspapers had done it and
they had done it without transgressing
their own CODE The story of a col
lege professor indicted and brought TO
trial under the Mann act was legit-
imately entitled according to current
standards to just such headlines and
pictures and editorial comment as this
story had received. 1t made Martin
feel pretty sick.
Well, there was no help for any,
body in thinking thoughts like that.
They were diverted by picture in
cluded in one of the clippings of the
girl then called Clara Bowman, who
had been the principal witness of the
trial. She was Enthusiastically Claire.
despite the dark hair that was piled
high on top Of her head.
'RhOda," he asked, 'how did You
know who she was? How did YOU
know what she was saying to Forster?
We couldn't hear sound through the
glass;"
A smile flickered across her face,
the first he'd seen there in a long
while. 81 forgot" she explained. 1T
seemed like listening to me. l can
read lips, you see. Martin dear, don't
you remember long ago at the Alham-
bra, how l saw you ask me If didn't
want to be rescued? And you asked
me afterward how 1 knew the exact
words you said, and 1 laughed and
told you it was telepathy? l lost
some of it tonight, of course, when
they turned their faces away. But
whenever / could see their faces /
could hear just as well as if I'd been
in the ROOM"
He sat silent for while after that.
not exactly thinking, but enjoying the
SAVIOR of the term of endearment she
had unconsciously used. When his
mind got back on the rails he took
up the kink in Forster's explanation,
which he had been conscious of not
Strengthening out at the time Forster
made it.
What the old man had said about
the contract seemed straight enough,
and squared with the facts as Martin
knew them. If Rhoda's father had
died, as apparently he had, before COM
pleting his discovery, it was obvious
that the contract was of no value.
Claire, though, apparently thought it
was valuable. There seemed to be
no doubt that it was the thing she'd
been trying all along to steal. 1t
wasn't incredible that If Forster knew
she'd failed to get it (since he knew
In whose hands it actually was) he
might have offered her a hundred thou
sand dollars for it in pure malice, as
he said. But Forster did think that it
was Claire who'd stolen Rhodas trunk,
and unless Rhodas observation had
been at fault, he had held his breath
while he waited to see whether she
would rise to his bait or not.