Evening Star Newspaper, December 9, 1929, Page 23

A Red-Headed Girl By Henry Kitchell Webster Copyright 1929, North American Newspaper Allfance and Metropolitan Newspaper Service. SYNOPSIS. ihe scene she was 5o absorbed in watch- ing. %bmm was still in his chair, sitting . |almost as he had sat when Martin find her through the medium of news [ artin_Forbes. a reporter, tells thai a man named Max Lewis is trylug to Drove that she is Rhoda McFarland. L: & stranger, Claire Cleveland, comes claiming to have known her #ays that he nad certaln pape 10 her and asks to have them returned. Cenies any knowledge of the matter. Forbes Tetricves ‘the trunk. which was stolen by Max and Claire, but before he can_teil Rhoda she goes o see a man named Fors- ter, who is Lewis’ uncle, and who. accord- ing to Ciaire, had been Mr. McFarland's m frunk and of her meeting_ with Claire. He 15 frantic and denounces Claire s & black- mailer and the cause of Mr. McFarland's # disgrace. Then he goes away. leaving Rhoda a_prisoner. . acting on & unch, goes to Forster's hotel and unds wis ‘and Claire there. ~Lewis overpowers Forbes and makes off with the claim_check for the trunr. When Forbes regains con- gciousness Rhoda is_bending over him. A few moments later Conley, Forster's guard, bind and wag him. after a Forbes i de private study. st once. Forbes urges Rhoda to leave TWENTY-FIFTH INSTALLMENT. ARTIN FORBES was at the foot of the little flight of stairs before he realized that Rhoda wasn't following. Con- ley was by now well along the road to recovering consciousness. In another minute be might again be for- midable. Turning back impatiently to learn why Rhoda didn't come, he saw . her gazing out through the giass with 4 the utmost intentness, bright-eyed with excitement, utterly oblivious to their pressing need for haste. “Hurry!” he called. late if you don't.” She answered without turning her eyes away from whatever she was gaz- ing at in the room. “I can't. Some- thing’s happening that I've got to yatch. Claire Cleveland's in there with If Martin could have been sure that he dared leave the prostrate detective Jong enough to dash back, pick Rhoda up and carry her out by force, he would probably have done it. He'd have liked to do it. He was furious with her just then. But already Conley was trying to get to his feet. Martin had just time 4 Yo bestride him and drop hard with both knees on the small of the man's back. In almost the same instant he ~snatched his wrists and pulled them around so that they crossed behind his back. Conley’s head hit the edge of the step and he went limp once more. ¢ _ “I've got him now,” Martin called to . “Only for heaven’s sake come “It will be too “I can't,” she answered. Incredibly, in the next breath, she added, “I wish you wouldn’t keep talking to me.” If she wouldn't come along, he must manage to find out what she was do- ing up there. Holding Conley’s crossed wrists with one hand, he unbuckled the man’s belt with the other, pulled it off and managed after a littlé experiment- ing, to bind Conley’s arms together in a way that he thought would hold. He was about to leave him thus when a faint groan suggested another neces- sity, and simutaneously the sight of a white silk muffier dangling from the pocket of one of the overcoats hanging $ in the closet suggested the means of serving it. He'd never gagged anybody and wasn't quite sure how it was done, but he succeeded in getting several folds of the thick silk between the relaxed Jaws and tied the ends tight at the back of the man's neck. Then he sprang up the steps to Rhoda and stood beside her, looking out through the glass at looked at him before, but in the act of 7 | relaxing back into it, as if he had just meant to get up and then had changed his mind. The Cleveland woman had only that moment seated herself in a chair at the end of the desk which faced the fireplace and the two watch- ers behind the glass. From the way that Rhoda reached out and squeezed Martin’s hand when she saw Forster's visitor coming to take this particular chair Martin perceived that this choice pleased her, though he didn't yet see ‘She’s looking = wicked,” he com- mented. “What do you suppose she's up to?” Rhoda squeezed his hand tighter and said: “Don’t talk! Listen!” And though this struck him as absurd, her earnestness enforced obedience. The woman was worth watching, any- how. It was his first good look at her. She had put on her hat and coat, and as she sat down she opened her wrist- bag before she put it down in her lap. There was something so insolently and viciously feline in her look—Ilike a cat with its ears back—that Martin didn’t wonder at old Forster's cringing in hi chair and shooting a look at the picture | behind which he must still suppose hi | spy to be on watch. However, if she had a revolver in the bag she was content to leave it there for the present. Forster spoke with an impatient jerk of the head, telling her, no_doubt, to state her business and be quick about it. Her only response to this was a the- atrical Jaugh, not very convincing, and an elaboration of the processes of mak- ing herself comfortable in the chair. When presently she did begin to talk, it was with an affectation of lazy good humor. . But it was Forster's face that Mar- tin's gaze rested upon. He appeared at first to be genuinely, even blankly, puzzled as to what the woman was get- ting at, and he broke in upon her two or three times with sharp, impatient questions, to which she paid no atten- tion whatever, continuing to eye her cigarette and to get on with her nar- rative, if that were what it was. But it wasn't long before Forster's appearance changed. His body was rigid in his easy chair, and the laugh by which he at- tempted to dismiss something she said as_an absurdity was a ghastly failure. Now Martin's attention was sharply diverted from both actors in the play by a sob from Rhoda. Turning to her in consternation he saw her trying vainly to blink away the tears that were blur= ring her vision. She said furiously when he asked her what was the matter, “Don’t talk! Give me a handkerchief, if you've got one.” He had a fresh one in his pocket and he was handing it over to her with dig- nity, inclined to feel a little hurt by the way she was treating him, when, with a suddenness that literally almost took him off his feet, she flung herself upon him, put her head down upon his chest, and hugged him as hard as she could. This amazing and blissful state of things lasted while she was drawing about three long breaths and then, just as suddenly, she went, 5o to speak, into reverse again, flung herself away from him, snatched his handkerchief, dried her eyes, and began watching the scene through the glass with the most intense concentration. He thought, during the instant before his gaze followed hers, that nothing in the world but Rhoda could be worth looking at just then and nothing seemed of any importance, except the question how long it would be before she would again come back into his arms. But he did look through the glass, and what he | M-Prooks-Co 2 STREET ETWEE! N_TH & 12T/ _ Featuring Two Superb Lines of Gift HOSI ERY At Interesting Savings When Purchased Boxed is | eXpected tears into his eyes. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1929. Christmas Shoppers Are Invited To Use Our _fru Parking Space—Opposite 8th St. Entrance e saw effectually held his attention. The woman into a rage. She had sprung to her feet and was fairly pouring vituperation over Forster by the bucketful. It was plain that he was terrified of her. If she’d been less absorbed in her own pas- sion, she must have seen 'that Le was signaling for help, for, feebly but with no concealment at all, he was looking and waving his shaky hand straight toward where Martin and Rhoda stood. ‘There was a comic element in this scene which Martin had been enjoying, but now the woman made a move which startled him. She stepped back out of the possible reach of Forster's hand and, snatching up her wrist bag from the corner of the desk, jerked it open. “If she's got & gun in that bag, she'll shoot him,” Martin said to Rhoda, and would have jumped for the little door which led into the room, if she hadn't stopped him by clutching his arm. “No, she won't,” she told him. letter she’s looking for. I wish she would shoot him, though., I'd like to myself. He deserves it.” She had told what the woman's in- tentions were with a degree of confi- dence that was almost convincing. All the same, it struck Martin as rather uncanny, when, seconds after Rhoda had finished speaking, he saw Claire actually produce a letter from her wrist b?I,Ptnd'}lMll tlkrl‘ngbt::}l:‘ to keep out of orster's reach, reading it aloud to him. “Rhoda, darling,” he cried, “how did you know she was going to do that?" She stood looking at him now, face flushed, eyes bright with tears, leaving the scene they had been watching so intently to play itself out unregarded. “I know all about it now.” She stood wavering a moment, and then came into his arms again, clinging to him. He couldn't make out the muffled words very well, but he thought she was say- ing, “Aren’t you glad we know? Aren's you glad the nightmare's over?” Mystified, but none the less blissful, he said he was, and, as he bent down is | Over her, she held up her face for his kiss with a simplicity that brought un- This was something settled, anyhow, for good. A raucous ovice now broke in upon them—Conley's. They'd forgotten his very existence and had allowed him to come to and work out of his bonds at leisure. There could be no doubt of his intentions, particularly toward Martin, as he came bounding up the steps to- ward them, but an outery and a gesture from Rhoda deflected ~ his attention toward what was happening in the big Forste rster, rummaging desperately with ‘)il:i“h:lb;:fl}l]s‘lc% h:m;s in the s%llllow ver of his desk, had pullec long-barreled, old-fashlonl;d Ee\?t;lle/e:, and when, directed by Rhoda’s cry, they looked, they saw the old man trying to point it at Claire. She flung herself upon him and grappled with him for the possession of it. This was & clear call for professional duty for the dets tive and he abandoned, though with vi ible reluctance, the private project with Martin to go to the rescue, springing down the steps and bursting open the g::}:l«?:’i:‘flde the lflrepluce just as the old- revolver, wi bang, went off. e (Continued in tomorrow’: Some Women Always Attract You want to be beautiful. 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