Evening star., 1936-07-29
CHAPTER XVII.

"R OZEN in terror, Patsy's
l. straight little figure became
rigid, her blue eyes fixed and
Il dilated. For one fainting mo-
ment her mind was hazy with fear.
She didn't see anything at all-only
sensed the tense atmosphere and the
: strange experience Of feeling a gun
pressed hard into ner side.
But all at once her brain snapped
into lucidity, became SO keen 1t saw
everything in detailed clarity, as
though magnified by a huge glass. In
the mirrors beyond the counter she
saw the four sinister figures behind
her, the heavy-jowled face OF the
man covering Courtney, the ugly, dis
storted features of the one at her own
hack-hideous faces she would never
forget as long as she lived.
Saw, too, the dapper young clerk
with his hands high and trembling
above his ghostly face; saw him move
just . fraction of an inch and knew
by the strained motion of his body
that he was making an effort to step
on something.
Suddenly the jewelry store was alive
with alarm bells, q shot rang through
the noise, some one screamed, an
other shot and still another rang out
The clerk sank down behind the coun-
ter with a groan and Courtney
slumped over the glass case and went
slowly, silently, to the floor.
Another shot, some one screaming
now as if they could never stop, a
grilled glass door slamming and a
long black car at the curb spinning
off out Of sight down the avenue.
In a daze of horror, Patsy dropped
on her knees beside Courtney, cry
. ing, pulling his shoulders, begging
him to tell her that he was not hurt.
She didn't notice that the top of the
big Navy ring that Lee had given
her had been shot off. Not until a
long time later would she realize that
If her hand with that massive ring
hadn't been pressed over her pounding
heart, the bullet would have pierced
her body fatally.
She knew nothing now but that
little inarticulate murmurS like the
meanings of a peevish child slipping
from his lips in the way of the criti-
cauy ill, and that excited spectators
were crowding around them, suffocat-
ting them with their morbid curiosity.
Futilely, Patsy tried to keep peo-
pie away from Courtney so that he
might get air-futilely she pleaded
. that some one call an ambulance.
Patsy couldn't realize that this after
noon was a page from life itself,
that because of it the whole pattern
Of her future would be changed.
Courtney Valance died that night
ut Mercy Hospital without regaining
consciousness, and Patsy, fighting her
way through a knot Of newspaper
men, went out into the street, the
thought beating wildly in her brain,
"If only I hadn't telephoned him to-
day. If only I hadn't telephoned him
today" She didn't know or care where
her feet carried her. She walked
blindly, in a daze, like a woman CROP
ing her way through the vague hor-
ror of a nightmare, seeking conscious
ness so that she might awaken to find
that it had never happened.
Darkness blanketed the city and
Through 1t a light shower fell in
blanting crystal streaks, clung to her
long lashes and soaked into her thin
blue suit; the drizzling, foggy dark
ness of a comfortless opacity through
. which the small blurred streets were
being repaired glowed like tenuous
stars in some infinite, mysterious uni
verse.
At any other time she would have
He'd from dampness, knowing that
above everything opera stars must
protect their throats and guard
against colds. But not once did Patsy
on and on, remembering how cruel
life had been to her. 1t had betrayed
her. She who had loved life SO had
watched it time and again turn upon
her, crushing her Now Courtney was
dead and Lee could never be anything
more to her than poignantly heart
stirring memory.
In that moment life seemed to end.
But if life in its larger sense had
ceased, mere existence had not. That
went on-there would be her revenge
on the murderers by identifying them
10 the police-there would be the
ppera-and there would be Lee. Just
knowing that he lived in the same
world with her would help existence
50 be more bearable.
Desperately Patsy tried not to re-
member Courtney's love for her, his
never-failing kindness. But, unfortu-
Hately, she possessed no bright patina
Of worldliness nor sophistication to OBJ
iterate his sweet generosity from her
memory.
Her mind went swiftly and sadly
back to that clarity of vision in which
the events of the last years we're mer-
eilessly detailed. Everything she had
accomplished, every break she had
had, Courtney had been behind it: en-
couragement when she was despond-
ent, giving her her first job of singing
1T the Valance Club; radio work
bringing in money to make possible
those two years abroad, and last of
sll, the addition at the Metropolitan.
Courtney was in all of this and so,
remembering, Patsy felt her throat
contracting painfully and uncontrol-
able tears singing in her eyes.
Suddenly, as though it cut across
Thought, in the thick darkness a