Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1941-03-12

when good neutral boat is leaving
for Lisbon. Engage a passage on it
for my ward, Miss Brinda Duncan.
One way"
With a sigh, he turned back to
the mass of papers on his desk.
X X X
At the same moment. Brinda was
also talking over the housekeeping
phone.
Dick" she said, 81 must see you.
It's terribly Important"
"Right-o," came Dicks voice re-
assuringly over the wire. In a
| jiffy And how about bite and
cocktail?"
That would be lovely"
Good! I'll be over for you in no
time"
1t was so arranged.
A Secret Drawer.
In her room Brinda dressed
swiftly completing her costume with
a curiously carved jade necklace-a
gift from Sir John when she had
graduated from Miss Cartwright's.
But its color clashed with her
costume and, removing it, she
turned to a jewel cabinet that was
among her few authentic personal
possessions.
The cabinet was connected with
a forgotten presence-a misty, vague
figure from her earliest childhood
. The mother of whom she knew
so little The mother of whom
her father, before his death, had
spoken so seldom and whom Sir
John, for some reason, never men
toned.
The cabinet, of intricately carved
teak, was lined with some other
Oriental wood, golden and scented
with a strange, exotic perfume. This
fragrance emanated especially from
a drawer in the bottom, in which
Brinda kept her special treasures.
She could never quite be sure
whether the essence came from the
wood or from being impregnated, at
some time in the past, by a power
full and arresting feminine perfume.
Somehow. she thought it was the
latter, because the fragrance was
connected in her mind with that
dim. Shadowy memory of a mother
she had never consciously known.
1t was secret drawer, and opened
by pressing one of the scrolls in the
teakwood. She opened it now, and
drew forth necklace of several
rows of thin, iridescent pearls.
Brinda Senses Warning.
She tested the pearls against the
smoky pallor of her throat, and was
satisfied. At the same time, she had
peculiar sense of there being
third person in the room-some one
trying to speak to her across a vast,
mysterious gulf. An icy chill ran
through her; yet she was not fright
ened. For it was not a new expe-
rience. More than once before. on
opening the secret drawer. she had
felt the same eerie sensation.
Once. at an official dinner, she
had been seated next to famous
man-an Englishman who had made
a profound study of East Indian
mysticism. She had told him, half
in fun, of the jewel cabinet, and its
curious effect on her. But he had
not laughed.
Instead, he had asked: Tell me,
had your mother lived long in the
EaSt?"
And to Brinda's affirmative re-
ply, he had said, gravely, 81 am not
surprised. The dead in the East
have their own way of speaking to
those they love"
Brinda could hear his voice now.
as she linked the clasp of the neck
lace, and prepared to shut the secret
drawer again. 1t seemed to her, too,
she could hear another voice. thin
and silvery, trying to tell her some
thing. She felt as though some one
were warning her of grave, impend-
ing danger.
CTo be continued)
(Copyright BY Maurice Dekobra and Leyls
George: distributed by King Fes cures
Syndicate. Inc)