Evening Star Newspaper, December 13, 1929, Page 50

RHODA A Red-Headed Girl By Henry Kitchell Webster Copyright 1929, North American Newspaper Alllance and THE EVENING STAR. WASHINGTON, D. €., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1929 Mndmbl'y“m than Greek to him.: an_enormous amoun thousands of sheets. - ‘What else was in the trunk? They got to the kottom of it and gazed a each other with eyes blank with disap- pointment. It seemed there was noth- ing in the trunk but those yellow sheets. ‘The lining was of old-fashioned striped ticking and it was intact: nothing could have slipped down inside. There was an envelope in the lid, but it was empty. Rhoda said shakily, “Well, that's all, Martin. Claire thought the contract was in the trunk and she was mistaken. Mr. Forster thought something else was in it and he must have been mistaken, Atter the death of her father, whose last years were clouded by poverty and disgrace. McFarland hoping to escape the guardianship of her uncle, made to find her through the medium of i tells her that a man trying to prove that she is Rhoda McFar- land. A stran e belonging to papers are in a sealed trunk in her apart: When Metropolitan Newspaper Service. SYNOPSIS. calls _herself Rhodi William Royce. An effort i Martin Forbes., a reporter, ads. nemed Max Lewis is Claire Cleveland. v her and asks Rhoda says that all her father’ the trunk is stolen, she ac- ‘Will you marry me?" you want to be rescued?’ I'd have nod- ded my head at you just the same. Any- how, I've known since then.” “Well, then,” he said, “that's settled, anyhow,” and hg let go one of bhands to fish a ring out of his waist- coat pocket and slip it on her finger. It was a beautiful thing, and she sat gazing at it, spellbound, trying to real- ize what it was and what it meant. But when she turned back to Martin to thank him with a kiss, she caught him instead of ‘Do cuses Claire, who denies any knowledge of the . Forbes retrieves the ~trunk. which was stolen by Max and Claire. before he can tell Rhoda she goes (o see a man ramed Forster, who is Lewis' uncle and who. according to Claire, had been Mr. McFarland s enemy and gponsibie for tne ads theft of the trunk and of her meeting with cl He is frantic cnd denounces Claire and's disgrace. i ieaving_Rhoda a prisoner. bes, acting on_a hunch, goes to Forster's hotel and few minutes later Claire is there waiting for her. Forbes soothes her panic and asks her io marry him as a_means of Ding her uncle'’s guardian- ship. She tells her uncle that her one pur- Pose now Is to clear her father's name. TWENTY-NINTH INSTALLMENT. HEN Rhoda really waked up| the next morning—rather a| long process after an un- usually solid night's sleep— she felt very adult and gensible. She didn't precisely regret her childish terror of the night before, since it had brought out once more what an ace Martin was. She didn't believe he liked her the less for it, either, He was like that. He understood things. But her line with him, when he came this morning to take her down to the station and get the trunk, must be one of sturdy common sense. Above all, she must let him see instantly that she took their pretended engagement as & brilliant maneuver for outflanking Un- cle William, and nothing else. It would be terrible if he were left to think for a single minute that she thought that he meant it seriously. But when 10 o'clock passed without bringing him she began getting cross. Had he just gone off to work as usual and forgotten all about her? At half past 10 she stop- ped being cross and began to be fright- ened. Had Uncle Willlam done some horrible thing to him to get him out of the way? Or Claire? Or Max Lewis? Or Conley? He'd been making for- midable enemies in her cause, hand over fist, during the last 24 hours. When finally she heard a step she thought was his come bounding up the studio stairs and had darted to the door and flung it open, she was so glad to see him intact that her eyes filled up with silly_tears again and she was in his arms before she knew it. Thus a carefully planned effect went all to smash. But, by and by, Martin made a con- fession. “I'd fully made up my mind,” he told her, “that I'd be very calm and brotherly this morning and give you a chance to think, if you wanted to, that the whole thing had been a bluff for Uncle William's benefit. I told myself T'd be & dog to take advantage of you. It wasn’t the money I minded so much —I mean the chance that you're going to be horribly rich. That was what was worrying Uncle William, of course. But I reminded myself that you'd only known me about & week, and you were a mere child and_probably didn't know what love was about, and how much nobler it would be if I showed you I wasn't just greedy and was willing to wait. And then I took one look at you and it all went bang. It is outrageous and indefensible, and everything else Uncle William said last night. And I will wait; I'll wait seven years, if you want me to. But do yu_,u think that could make you any surer’ I think,” she told him, “that if you'd gaid that first night at the Alhambra, in the act of looking at his watch. Even without that she could have told from the way his kiss felt that he had some- thing on his mind. “What is it?” she asked. “Are you thinking about that old trunk? Does it matter if we don't get it this morning? Does anything matter?"” “There’s only one thing that mat- ters,” he said, “and that's your father. I think perhaps we can do something if we strike while the iron is hot. You see, the only person who can set your father's memory right is Uncle William. He knows the facts and I think he be- lieves them. But he won't do anything until some one makes him.” “Who's going to make him?" she asked. But when he answered “Forster” she echoed the name in simple aston- ishment. “I cant’ guess what it is darling,” he | told her, “but there's something in that little trunk of yours that Forster thinks | he can't live without. I want to find out what it is and hurl it at him while he's still frightened. He is frightened out of his wits. He's making Max marry that Cleveland woman. I saw them this morning down at the city hall, she with her face all bandaged up and Max look- ing as glum as if he was waiting to be sentenced to a term in the penitentiary, with Conley on guard to see that he didn't do a boit, waiting for the mar- riage license bureau to open up.” Gazing at him wide-eyed, she him flush like a schoolboy, and at that she flew at him and hugged him. She couldn’t help it. “Did you get yours, too?" she aske He nodded. ter,” he said, “—just in case of emer-‘ gency. That’s what I told myself at the time. But will you, Rhoda, now? Be- fore we go and get the trunk? St. Tim- othy's is just around the corner. I know the curate, and he'll be there.” “I'll get my hat and coat,” she said. And it wasn't more than 10 minutes before she found herself being married. She wondered later, when she had time to think things over, about how vague an impression this service made upon her. She was barely able to remember anything about it. On the other hand, every word Martin had said during their walk to the church was etched deep | upon her memory. The force of his purpose to set up her father’s name | again in its proper place, cleansed of the mud of scandal and suspicion; the | fact that he had a plan and that until| he had set that plan in motion every- thing else, even love making, would | have to wait, put a new dimension into ! her love for him. i From the church they took a taxi to the railway station, found the trunk\ without misadventure, and took it Im‘.kl to the studio. By that time they were | both wildly excited over the mystery of | its contents. Martin was trying to be calm, and insisted upon being madden- | ingly methodical about their prepara- tion for opening it. They had to clear everything out of one corner of the studio until they had a 10-foot space absolutely bare before he would let her unlock~ it. But she saw his hands trembling as he tugged ai the straps. What they found was just what she dimly remembered the contents to have been, sheets of yellow paper covered | with notes, equations and diagrams. | Some of them looked to her like gigantic magnifications of & child's game of | naughts and crosses. Pictures of ‘mole- cules, Martin said he guessed they were, | but it was all, he frankly admitted, con- Stubbornly he shook his head. “That's possible,” he admitted, “but I won't be- leve it yet. I think what Forster wants is here, and, if I weren't such a fool, I could see what it is. I'm going to try to get this stuff into some sort of order. It's all dated, had you noticed? 1In Iit- uhe x:umernls up in the corner of each sheet.” Rhoda got up stiffiy and announced her Intention of getting lunch. “I'm going to cook my husband’s first meal.” He smiled at that, but only vaguely, and didn't offer to come and help, so she made coffee and heated up a can of corned beef hash and set the little table while he continued to sit on the floor, shuffing his yellow papers. They were so occupied when Babe, it being Saturday, came home from work, unaware that she was looking at a mar- ried couple. Rhoda told her promptly, and_her exuberant joy over the news, combined with her fury at not having been invited to the wedding produced the effect of an active young tornado. It was right in the midst of this tu- mult that Martin announced a dis- covery. (Continued in Tomorrow's Star.) CZECH CABINET TAKES OFFICE AMID DISORDER Communists Create Disturbances in Chamber and Senate, Demanding Release of Friends. By the Associated Press. PRAGUE, December 13.— The new Crechoslovakian cabinet. was sworn in yesterday, but only after disorderly scenes had been enatted in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Communists caused the disturbances, demanding the release of members of their party who are in jail on various charges. It was only with some difficulty that the speaker of the chamber and the T thought it was bet- | president of the Senate were able to restore order. The Eve of Epiphany, or Twelfth Night (January 6), is to the children of Rome what Christmas Eve is to us. 7th, 8th and E Metal Metal Electric Cigar Lighters A clever lighter for father’'s desk—he will like it’s rich bronze finish and neat design. L ANSBURGH &BRO Gifts of urniture 'Are In Good Taste W. P. Moses & Sons Public Confidence Since 1861 F Street at Eleventh Radie Section, Lower Floor—Direet En 9 AM. to 6 P.M. ce on 11th Street CONVICT REPUDIATES MURDER TESTIMONY | Regarding . | | Admits He “Lied” Death of Young High School Principal. By the Assoclated Press. MONTGOMERY, Ala., December 13. —Lee Phillips, Alabama convict, today was sald by Gov. Bibb Graves to have repudiated previous statements that he witnessed the slaying of Claude F. Avant, young Slocomb High School | principal, which the State planned to! use in an effort to convict five men | of the crime, Phillips, the governor said in a pre- pared statement, not only admitted he “lied” at the preliminary trial at Geneva a month ago of Dr. G. W. | Smith, prominent Geneva physician, and | son Clyde, who with three others are | charged with the crime, but branded | as untrue the statements eof his wife | that he was coerced into testifying. The investigation by the Government | was prompted by the assertion of Mrs. Phillips that her husband was flbfilefll at the Atmore Prison Farm and on his transfer to Kilby Prison here was forced to sit in the electric chair for eight days until he agreed to testify that Dr. Smith stabbed Avant to death on the night of September 28, 1928, with the assistance of himself, Clyde Smith, | Randall Jones and Charley Brown. i I8 e e NEWS BUTCHER IS HURT IN FALL FROM TRAIN isetiie 1 Charles M. Bishop of Wnshlng'on’ Drops Out of Open Baggage Car Door in Alexandria. Falling from the open door of a bag gage car of a moving Southern Railway passenger train shortly after the train left Union Station, Alexandria, about 7 o'clock Thursday night, Charles M. Bishop, 36, of Third and C streets, Wash- ington, D. C., received serious injuries to his back. 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