The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-05-29

ukeiy- Al any rate, III was Hatiy Jill
believable that he would have confided
70 her at those times. as she said he
had. the story of his California dis
aster. And yet il was clear that she
knew about that. Shed spoken of the
trial and the sensation that II created
There'd been hardly anything else in
the papers at the time. she said-at
least in the San Francisco papers.
Rhoda sat erect and held her
breath. Why. why hadn't she caught
that slip at the time? All 1t meant,
all it could possibly mean. was that
II had been In the San Francisco pa
pers that Claire had read about it.
She'd been In San Francisco. then.
during the trial. She hadn't said so.
She hadn't meant to give that away
She'd pretended that ii was from Wal
ter McFarland's own lips thar she'd
heard this story, long afterward. here
in Chicago. OF course! Claire Cleve-
land was the girl on the train.
She recalled her first impression of
Claire, her momentary belief that she
couldn't be the woman because she
looked rather nice, and young-not
much over twenty. Six years ago she
could have looked convincingly like
an innocent young girl crying for
lornly over the loss of her ticket and
her money and the PROJECT that they'd
put her off thu train. She had some
thing of that look left even now. Mar
tin had described her as looking
younger than her voice sounded. Why
hadn't her voice given her away to
Walter Mcfarland?
OF course il was hard to tell where
the truth left off and where the lies
began. Claire's professed hatred of
Forster was true. though as yet spe-
officially unaccounted for. She, had
tried to convince Rhoda, though with
a suspicious insistence upon her own
lack of knowledge, that Forster was
the person primarily responsible for
the plot against her father.
That felt like the truth though it
obviously wasn't. Forster had stopped
being frightened and had burst into
a rage of pure relief when she had
told him that Claire had said that.
That disposed of the possibility that
he could be the man who had COM
PEELED, or persuaded, or coldly hired.
Claire.
And yet he couldn't be left out of
the pattern altogether. He had adj
vertised for Rhoda Mcfarland and no
one but an idiot could doubt after
seeing him and hearing him talk. that
he had done so in the furtherance of
some mean purpose of his own. Claire.
who had once been his private secre-
tary, and Max Lewis, who was his
nephew, knew, or thought they knew,
what that purpose was, and had tried
to forestall him by finding her first.
1t was her fathers papers Claire had
tried to get a chance to .ummage
through, and at her own mention t.
Forster of the theft of those papers he
had started.
There must be something among
those papers that he wanted pretty
badly; something that had nothing to
do with the California episode, but
with the work he had done here in
Chicago. Was there. or did Forster
believe there was, among her fathers
papers some precious secret formula?
Was that what with his dying breath
he'd tried to tell her about? And was
that what Claire and Max had been
trying TO steal so that they could sell
Was the conspiracy to ruin her father
at the university an entirely unrelated
thing except for the coincidence of
Claire's connection with it?
What should she do when Forster
came back to question her further?
Stick to the truth, which she wouldn'.
be able to make him believe? If he
were honestly convinced that she was
an impostor and confederate of the
Cleveland woman. she was in for a
pretty bad time when he came back.
If only she'd thought of telephoning
to Martin before coming up, here.
Her thoughtful gaze came suddenly
into focus upon the bust of Napoleon.
If she could find the way to open that
little trap door she might be able to
reach Martin. Babe would be at home
by now, and she might be able to get
word to him. That was the thing to
try, anyhow.
1t must have been some sort of cleo
trical connection that opened the little
trap door. She went over and sat
down in his chair and looked about.
1t wouldn't do to press the wrong but
ton. She studied Napoleon intently.
He had several buttons but none of
them looked as If they pushed in.
She was guiltily restless. sitting in
that chair She couldn't help wonder
ing whether some one nightn't silent
ly have entered the room from one of
those two doors behind her. She
could almost feel the gaze Of pair of
eyes boring into her back, and at last.
half involuntarily, she started to turn
and see. As she did so her knee came
in contact with the inner face of one
of the pedestals to the desk and the
little trap door fell forward. She had
found the telephone button by pure
accident.
Heartened bysthis bit of good luck.
she picked up the telephone and.
speaking as softly as she could. asked
for an outside line and gave the studio
number. The luck held. Babes voice
answered almost instantly. She asked
if Babe knew where Martin was. and
gave a gasp of relief on being told
that be was right there In the studio.
Buy why was he so long about COM
ing? Why didn't he hurry?
From where she sat in Forster's