Evening Star Newspaper, December 18, 1925, Page 50

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D understanding of the hold-up Which had sent the group of half hysterical women back to his hospitalities. An- toine noted and shifted uneasily. Brandon, too, alert despite his pain, saw. He called the man to the couch: “Do not be concerned by the littla drama in the mist tonight,” he said between his laborious breathings. four patrons who were robbed will receive their valuables. I have reason to believe. ‘They will be none the worse for their experience. They may not know of it, of course, but they played their parts tonight in a great adventure.” Meanwhile, Joanna, her wrap un- fastened again, her slim hands grip- ped to the wheel of the gray car, fought he' way along the narrow road. When she rounded a turn just above the village of La Turble little pin points of light shone up. Far down, out over the sea, the lighthouse at the base of Cap Martin glowed like a faraway eye of the night. The mist was lifting before the threat of dawn. Beyond La Turble the country, al- though chaotic, was visible. The lamps along the sea boulevard were discernible. The thought of Kenilworth, still captive_with the other men in the hidden barn of the bandits, bothered her for a moment. An impulse came to turn around and, with the road partially clear now, feel her way back to the hut she was certain she would recognize. She could, she con- sidered, pick up some one at La Turble to help her awaken the coun. tryside. She decided nagainst this plan, however, settled back behind her wheel, and shot into high speed. i NN M X IR L “The Gracious Gift of God” By H. L. GATES 3 e [to the closed door on the balcony. The guardian waiter opened the door | for him. Brandon’s eyelids were be- ginning¢ to quiver. The excitable waiter would have lunged out of the room with a cry of alarm, but An- toine clutched him by the throat and { smothered the sounds in it. “Quietl |my friend, quietly!” he grumbled’ “There's something to hide here, not to advertise. Bring the proprietor, or his assistant—quietly.” At the end of an hour's patlent ministrations behind the locked door Brandon, stretched on a divap, held his eyes open and gazed around him. His first feebly uttered question w “Where's ‘the girl—the mademol- elle?"” The clubhouse director would have silenced Antoine's compl had stolen his car, but‘the mon: gasque would not be restrained. Through the bandages matted about Brandon's head something ofa fleet ing smile escaped. “It’s just as well, he murmured. “Be of cheer, my good Antoine! I failed, but I fancy you (Continued from Yesterday's Star.) CHAPTER XXXIV. The Flight. Downstairs they danced: danced and shouted witty, taunting, mocking things at each other Long twisting serpentines, thrown from dancer to dancer in nival abandon, spread a rippling blanket of tawdry colors over the clubhouse floor. And Joanna gazed down—down upon the p form that lay at her feet, the c son still trickling in gha sistence from the white forehead. After a little while she opened her fingers and the broken wreck of the champagne bettle fell to the carpet. She closed her eyes and lifted her face, from which all the color had fled. This was a pose Joanna had never struck before. It was one she'd never practiced. She never th thing quite like ft. It wasn't posing at all—just_holding her face toward heaven with her eyes losed as if afraid to contemplate the nessige that might be written there. Then she went onto the balcony, and losed the door behind her. She nodded 0 the waiter who stood nearby, flash- ng him an assuring smile that seemed o tell him she was enjoying herself remendously and would be coming ack in a moment. Downstairs she skirted the dance oor and threaded her way among the ibles the foyer. The red-coatec »ndant bowed to her. is still bl utside, mademoiselle,” he said. ne could get down, now. It wi v ng tho = 4 the same,” she to call for Mr. Bran x he will have one par returned n's car. ed in the d have protested, him with an ar. Muttering, he went la, Joanna following m, and called to a knot of chauffe d in the mist-dulled glare of powerful headlight ussing, no of their masters. > hunched ke to him that M. | and sp agreed 15 his patro voung lady, apparently brings his lers for you 'to take her down the untain. " You can’t make it, of irse, but that is his and her affair, t mine.” Antoine growled his doubts of such situation. They were cut short by inna herself, ‘who appeared sud- iy at the side of the car in the ke of the doorman. “I do not desire be taken down the mount lared. “Your master, howe fres you, inside, at once. I ait your return, with him perhaps, the ¢ Please to go at once. Both Antoine and the servant were zzled, but Joanna brooked not tar- less in obeying her commands. To itolne she repeated: “I bring your ister’s orders. Attend to them! The endant here will show you the way Mr. Brandon. He awaits you in » private room, on the balcony. still dublous about this sudden hu- T to expose him to possible identi- ition by the maskers in the club- use, Antoine descended from the am to And at the far end of the room she saw them—before the gentle glow of the fireplace, the only illumination in the room. and your men will be paid double for your little practice tonight.” “But she will give the alarm below!” - and stumbled along behind the |the other exclaimed. ‘“‘Before morn- 1er man. ‘Joanna climbed into the | Ing! After dawn it would be futile; t he had vacated. When their two | Wwe contemplated an alarm by dawn ms dlsappeared across the veranda | when the men ‘get down. But not > felt with her toe for the starter, | before! You did not keep her here— ind it, kicked it, and in another |till dawn, as you agreed!” ment was guiding the gray cz Again Brandon smiled weakly, and vard the gate. When she was|indicated the bandages. She is to fely through the gate she disap.|blame for that. But I do not think ared in the mist. The curious|she will give an alarm. That wm‘ auffeurs who watched her maneu.|awalt the men you left in the barn. | ré heard the echo of her horn until | The police will not be concerned | too, was absorbed by the thick, | much when you have returned to ique atmosphere. “That's the one | them the plunder you collected. When 2y call the Golden Girl,” one of the |you have sent them that you will be, vers explained to his companions. |88 I said, pald double.” ity, sn't it, to see a young thing| The expression on the face of the e her clear gone to the devil!” clubhouse official who had heard the \ntoine, led at his request through |cryptic conversation began to show chens and sculleries, was brought 'a gleam of understanding—a curious The grounds of Villa Amette were vagored by the rising dampness of the dissipating mist. ‘A solitary light near the entrance gate gleamed | timidly. As she guided the car along the winding road to the house among the vague, gray shapes of the arbors |and pergolas and pavilions, in another few hours, were to be a 1zing, fantastic background for her brilliant and lavish fete—the fete of the golden girl and, also, her swan song! For Brandon had said, “I am the one!” and he had said, tco: “What- ever you have is to be taken from you. There shall be no more money!" When she drew up in front of a side entrance to the villa she saw that the house itself was also dark. She considered whether or hot to summon a servant with her horn, and decided to leave the car in the road- and go in qulet She ached THE OFFICERS Of the American Security are fully trained in the various phases of banking and trust services. Willing and ready to advise you in your financial problems and especially equipped to give the wisest counsel along the safest and most progressive lines. OFFICERS President CHARLES J. BELL Vice Presidents CORCORAN THOM B. F. 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TOTAL RESOURCES " OVER' $35,500,000 which, | for the aloneness of her room—the ll')o?im which thronged the great golden ed. At the ponderous villa doors she was troubled by the thought that she had never found it necessary to carry any sort of key. Servants always awaited her return, but they had to be sum- moned by the bell. She tried the door, however, and found that it was un- fastened. She closed it softly behind her and felt her way across a tiny re- ception room to a draped arch that opened into a seldom used drawing room. Across this room would be the grand hall from which a stairway led to the upper floors. When she was almost up to the heavy, double drapes which hung in the arched door that opened into the bigger room she stopped, suddenly. Between the cur- tains a line of light shone, She heard the murmur of voices. Convinced that it would be servants, awaiting her perhaps, she pushed the curtains aside and stepped into the room. Then she stood, fascinated. The voices swelled as the curtains parted. One of them she recognized as Yvonne's, the other John's! And at the far end of the room she saw them, before the gentle glow in the fireplace, the only illumination in the room. Yvonne, gorgeous amd Circe- like, her sinuous body wrapped In the sense-destroying hues of rich, Burgundy, her only ornaments daz- zling dlamonds that glistened like a myriad of consuming fires in the gen- tle tireiight glow, leaned forward in a cushioned, gilded chair. And at her feet—at “satin slippers never worn by £ 0 A AT S AR L AR S A AT LA S A LA L AL AL AL AT L AT LA L AT AT ST AT AT L AT AT AT AT RRRRKRERERERERERERERRDERERERED . 311 SEVENTH ST. N.W. C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1925 Joanna's feet,” as Brandon had taunt- ed her—was John! For one brief instant the thing be- fore her muddled, and assumed a contorted shape. Thep the smoulder in the fireplace burst into a flame of hell, and dled again into something that flared as a grotesque mockery. Joanna’s wrap fell from her shoul- ders. Her little hands dug into her breasts, but gave the senseless body no pain. The little figure in black stood, then, utterly lost to every ;]hou‘hl but of what she.saw—and Is said is untrue. If we love, you and I, and if I give to you the por- tion I may spare you, you must be content. Tt can never be a holy love—there must always be some- thing wanton in it. It must be the kind we take and put aside. Will that, then, satisfy you?" He crept closer to her. She put her hands about his face, wirm, mesmeric hands. Her rich, soft, round lips— lips that were a sign of all love-mad- | FELIX MAHONY, Director, Main 1760 ness since the world began—went down to his. Ther it was John's Conn. Avg. and M volce, again: e “There can be no other love as jou can give. In any have it, if it be pure or defiled, I want it!" A scream, a torrent of them, a frenzy of them, surged to Joanna's lps—and halted there. It was Yvonne who rose, slowly, sinuously, gracefully, Joanna saw, us if it were some strange, fantastic symbol tak- ing form at the rim of a distant hori zon, a emile, a faintly lined, queer, and fitting ‘smile, at Yvonne's red lips. And John saw, and got to his feet, sense-dazed and marveling. Again that low, soft, silvery cadence of Yvonne “What a poor, damnable thing you are, my friend! 'Go preach, my dear! Preach to Jounna; preach to the heart and the soul and the wonders of her! Preach-—but do it on your knees and take your text from the lesson I've taken the trouble to give you. Tell her that you've learned, at least that you're only make-believe—you and all vour kind. Tell her that if she'll have you, you'll v to learn from her the sort of thing her kind can teach.” John's voice EDU A Little Ad NATIONAL SCHOOL FINE AND APPLIED ART “I have never known love until now! All else has been Just a chimera. It is you who have shown what love's glory is! Please, my wondertul dear, will you take me in— and comfort me?” John's voice, that was; John! Pas- slon and pleading and humllity, tn it. All those nuances of adoration, sub- mission, hope and prayer and yearn- ing that Joanna had never heard n Now, Yvonne's low, sllvery ca- dences, infinitely sweet, and—infinite- ly_soothing: ‘““Are you content—will you be con- tent—to accept from me the love that is the only kind that I may give you? The love that has blossomed and withered so many, many times? Mine, can never be a pure love, my triend. And I may never promise its constancy. It is the crown that you may wear only while you can de- fend, and keep it. That is'what is said of me, and my love, my dear, and I must not say to you that what University Law School Fifty-seventh Year | Classes 6:30 to 8:30 P.M. Winter Term Begins 1926 Secretary’s Offlce Open for Registration Law School Building, $18-870 13th Street N.W. 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