The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-11-28
@ EF. VAN ps WATER :
w. ~ ". Service

You seem, my child, to have the
wrong sort of lunches. Unless your
brother is under the table, he had no
date with her tonight. They have
been here since seven-thirty."
She was only half satisfied, and
Knocked in turn:
"And suppose your stampede to
their booth was just a social call,
eh?"
She was the one person in the
world to whom I wanted to tell ev-
erything and I knew 1 would gain
merit in her eyes by confiding in
her. She was watching me with a
fairer version of her aunt's derisive
grin. only said:
Curiosity rather. thought I rec
ognized his voice" Perhaps, for
that, the recording angel pasted a
gold star on my report.
"You are," she told me, 'the most
chronic liar I ever met"
You're just beginning to appre-
ciate my virtues" I answered.
After a moment, she shivered a
little and drew her coat up about
her shoulders.
''Can the rest of them be dis
played in a taxicab?" she asked.
81 think we'd better CO."
I knew she was worrying afresh
over her no-account brother.
''There could be no better show
case" I boasted, as we rose.
Thu horl h1ornl - 81 H.
dancing girls skipped back to their
dressing room in a rattle of ap-
plause. Beer rested uneasily in my
stomach as I got my coat and hat
from the check girl I found N.Y.
self shivering. Not even the smile
Allegro gave me as I helped her
into the taxicab dispelled my mis-
cry. She was of the fiotsam, the
dark whirlpool into which we all
were caught and whirled about ever
more rapidly.
We sat speeches. while the taxi
rolled uptown until silence grew I'M
comfortable. I said at last, to keep
thought at bay:
"I'n remember this evening. It's
one thing more I owe you and your
aunt. / hope the pay-off will come
some day."
l knew the words were stilted
while I spoke, but only half my
mind had followed them.
Lyon had been the murderer.
Why? Lyon had spoken over the
telephone, again in the restaurant,
in a voice not his own. Or were
those blunted cadences really his,
and the family English speech he
employed, part of a disguise he
wore?
Beside me, Allegro chuckled.
Must you," she asked, behave like
Electro, the mechanical mani"
Meaning WHAT" I heard some
thing more than jest behind her
question.
She said, with an impatient ges-
ture:
Meaning many things. Among
them, your pretense of dumbness.
You aren't dumb"
Thanks"
"Or not" she pushed her attack,
"as dumb as that. Why don't you
play fair?"
There was earneStneSS in her
speech. There was appeal on the
face turned to mine. The world at
the minute was filled with many
things was untitled to handle. Her
warm voice was blowing away ev-
erything but thought of how much I
wanted her. I tried to get out of
danger.
I'm at least" I told her, ''that
dumb. How haven't I played fair?"
She did not answer for a minute.
Then she said in a quiet voice:
"I've told you more than I've ever
told anyone else-except Grove. L
I trust you a lot. Why don't you
trust me?"
"I'd trust you with anything that's
mine," I said. I meant it too.
She laughed, but not as if she
were amused.
$50 you say" she answered. "You
fall over wine bucket, you're in
such hurry to see who is in the
next BOOTH
She gave me the sort of look that
always robbed me of my wind. Then
she made it worse by slipping her
strong little hand in mine. Her
bright head was against my Shout
der.
You're pretty swell at that" she
said.
I think the angel must have run
out of gold stars before he laid
aside my record that night. If
forgot all but my need of her, it was
because her eyes and her soft mouth
dared me; if, for an instant, 1 let
go of everything I'd sworn to hold
fast and kissed her, at least,
caught myself on the way down.
1t wasn't the sort of kiss I, or she,
wanted, yet it left us both breath
less. There was ringing in my ears
and / thought the cab had a fiat
till I found it was the pounding OF
my heart. The pressure of the dia-
mond and platinum coronet against
my forehead helped me to let her
go. After little, when I did not
speak she asked in a shaky voice:
'Well?"
said none of the things I wanted
to. I just patted the hand still held
and dropped it.