White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1935-09-12
OK" nodded Marcia.

| Ok, nodded Marcia.
This time, without hesitation, she
passed him the paper.
"This, see, is your normal hand
writing, he commented as he placed
the messages side by side.
Taking up the sheets, he studied
them with interest.
Hadn't better go and get off the
messages?" suggested Marcia, rising
nervously. "The station might be closed.
Often it is, at noontime"
"It doesn't matter if they don't go
until afternoon"
But there might be some Slip"
He glanced at her with his keen
eyes.
whats the matter?"
"Matter?'
eyes. with you? All of sudden
you've turned easterly."
"Have II" Lightly, she laughed.
II probably have caught the habit from
the sea. Environment does influence
character, psychologists say"
Nevertheless, you are not f1ckle."
"How do you know? You know an
amazing amount about me, seems to
me, considering the length of our &C.
! quaintance," she observed with a tan
talizing smile.
II do" was the grim retort. II know
more than you think-more, perhaps,
than you know yourself: Shall hold
the betraying mirror up before you?"
"The mirror of truth? God forft!
Who of us would dare face it?" she
protested, still smiling but with gen
uine alarm. Nov do let me run along
and send off the messages. I must not
loiter here talking. You are forgetting
that you're i'll. The next you know
your temperature will go up and Doc
tor stetson will blame me-"
1 my temperature has gone up"
growled Stanley Heath, turning his
back on her and burying his face in
the pillow with the loneliness of a
small boy.
Sylvia, meanwhile, had heard Stanley
Heath call Marcia and hailed her
aunt's departure from the Kitchen as
the opportunity for which she had so
anxiously been awaiting.
No sooner was the elder woman up
stairs and out of earshot than she tip
toed from her room, the monogrammed
handkerchief in her pocket.
She had pried out the brick and hao
the jewel-case in her hand, wrapped
and ready for it's return when CONVEX
sation overhead suddenly ceased and
she heard Marcia pass through the
hall and start down stairs.
Sylvia gasped. There was no chance
to put the package back and replace
the brick, which fitted so tightly that
it's adjustment was a process requir-
ing patience, care and time.
clustered, frightened, she damned
the jewel case into her dress and fran
ticaly restoring the brick to the yawn-
ing hole in the hearth as best she
could, she fled up the back stairs at
the same moment Marcia descended
the front ones.
Once in her room, she closed ana
locked the door and sank painting into
a chair to recover her breath
Well, at least she had not been
caught and in the meantime the jewels
were quite safe.
| She took the case stealthily from
her pocket. Now that the gems were
in her possession, it certainly could do
no harm for her to look at them
even to try them on, as she had been
tempted to do when she first discov-
cred them. Probably never again in
all her life would she hold In her
hand so much wealth and beauty
| Accordingly she unwound the hand
kerchief and opened the box.
There lay the glistening heap OF
treasure. Respondent in the sunshine,
a far more gorgeous spectacle than she
| had realized
| Going to the bureau, Sylvia took out
| the jewels, one by one.
She clasped the diamonds about her
neck; fastened the emerald brooch in
place; put on the sapphire pendant;
| then added the rings and looked at
herself in the gold-framed mirror.
What she saw reflected dazzled her.
Who would have believed jewels could
make such a difference In ones APP
pearance? They set off her blond
beauty so that she was suddenly trans
! formed into princess.
Slowly, and win conscious coquetry,
like a preening bird, she turned her
head this way and that, delighting in
the creaminess of the neck the gems
encircled, and in the fairness of her
golden curls.
She really ought to have jewels. She
was born for them and could carry
them off. There were myriad women
in the world on whom such adornment
would be wasted-good and worthy