The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-05-08

and his nephew were conspiring
against him? To what extent had
Claire given herself away In the letter?
She got it out to read it, but her
gaze didn't go beyond the first two
lines: Claire's address written across
the top. Claire's fiat-or was 1t
Max's? Was Claire his mistress? That
was what the relation looked like GER
tainly. She was that sort of woman,
all right, with her story of the wicked
man who had ruined her when she
was a mere girl, and the confession
she'd eXtorted from him. And now
she was thinking of getting married
and wanted 1t.
Rhoda froze again like a pointer get
ting wind of prairie chicken. Had
that statement been a careless bit of
truth? Did she want to marry Max?
And was she afraid that Forster would
disinherit him If she did?
With another plunge, physical as
we'll as figurative, Rhoda opened the
front window and spoke again to the
chauffeur.
1--WE changed my mind" she said.
Here's the address want you to go
to-" And she read him Claire's.
She hadn't a doubt she'd find the
pair of them there, up to the elbows
in her fathers papers.
The building before which her taxi
pulled up was an oldish, tiree-story
or fyr-n
front doors indicated, into flats.
Rhoda was trembling a little as she
got out. but she didn't feel afraid.
And she made it sound almost like a
joke when she said to the taxi driver,
"Wait, please. l don't think I'll be
long. But if you do hear anybody
screaming for help in there, come in
and see who it is"
There was momentary delay after
she rang Claire's bell-hers was one
of the top fiats-before the buzzer re-
leased the catch on the vestibule door,
but Rhoda heard a door open at the
top of the house the instant she start
ed up the stairs. A little surprising,
that was. She hadn't expected them
to be eager to receive visitors just
now; had wondered indeed whether
they'd let her in at all. Perhaps they
wouldn't when they saw who she was.
The woman alone was waiting for
her. Max wasn't in sight.
"What do you want?" Claire asked
sharply when she saw who it was.
oil In obo
tried to change her tactics, adding
with an uneasy laugh, Heavens, I
didn't expect you to find my paper as
quick as that!" Her color had changed
under her makeup, though, in sickly
way that made Rhoda think of lead
poisoning.
She must get inside Claire's door,
that was tie first thing to do. so she
replied, not to the question but to the
succeeding remark. YES" she said,
making her voice sound as innocent and
as amiable as she could, "it must seem
rather sudden"
AT that Claire stepped back un-
willingly from the doorway, and Rhoda
followed her into the rather large
room that seemed to be all there was
to the apartment, except for an alcove
that formed an L, which she couldn't
see into. That was where Max was
most likely. Rhoda herself shut the
door behind her.
"Well?" Claire asked. Her manner
was openly hostile Then as Rhoda,
without speaking, took deliberate
look around the room, she asked
again, what do you want? What's
the matter with your"
"Pve come" said Rhoda, ito get
my trunk"
"Your trunk? Say, are you crazy?
What makes you think I've got your
trunkT" She tried to laugh, but it
only showed how frightened she was.
Rhoda hesitated a littl. ever her
answer to the woman's question. If
Max was in the alcove she wished he'd
come out. 1t was hard to know where
to begin unless she knew whether he
was there or not.
Her hesitation seemed to anger
Claire, or to reassure her, she couldn't
be sure which. Look here" she went
on truculently, "you can't get away
with stuff like this. 1 don't even know
what you're talking about. Are you
trying to tell me you've lost trunk
and you think I've got it,"
might before last, at the Alhambra,
when Max Lewis told you that was
the girl all right, because my first
name was Rhoda, you told him to find
out where lived"
81 told you that myself this noon"
Claire broke in. whats that got TO
do with it?"
"And you told him." Rhoda went on.
mot to waste any time about it. be-
cause l might see Mr.. Forster's adj
vertisement any day and answer it."
Rhoda could see that this bit of infor-
nation startled her and she went on
little more confidently. HE did find
out where l lived by going home that
night with Babe, and he found out
that the studio was empty all day be-
cause she told him we both worked
and the other girls were away. He
tried to find out whether my name
wasn't Rhoda Mcfarland, but she
didn't tell him. Yesterday afternoon
the studio was broken into. The
burglar didn't find any papers, because
he didn't know where to look. But he
did find three hundred dollars of
mine, and he took that. To-day"
Rhoda went on, "after I'd told YOU
that my fathers papers were In the
trunk and sealed up, and after you'd
gone out and telephoned. :"
''You think Max went and got tbe
trnnk do rOn and that ho hrn,,orL. L.