ANGELAS QUES LILIAN BELL ANGELA'S QUEST As Ayres bent over Angela, she lifted her eyes to his face. ANGELA'S QUEST BY LILIAN BELL Author of "The Expatriates," "Abroad with the Jimmies," "Caroline Lee," etc. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY A. B. WENZEL NEW YORK DUFFIELD & CO 1910 COPYHIOHT, 1910, BY DUFFIELD & CO. TIT! PREMIER PREM KEW YORK To FLORENCE PULLMAN LOWDEN 2134564 CONSENTS CHAPTER I. ANONYMOUS . . ..-. . . > . . 7 II. MIDNIGHT IN THE CHAPEL .... 14 III. ANGELA PLANS TO OVERHEAR ... 23 IV. iWHAT ANGELA HEARD THROUGH THE EEGISTEB . >. 26 iV. ANGELA'S ESCAPE FROM THE HOME . . 31 VI. THE ARBDTHNOTS . > : 39 VII. ANGELA IN DISGUISE 51 VIII. ANGELA FINDS HER MOTHER .... 59 IX. MAMMY TELLS HER STORY .... 67 X. ANGELA FINDS A FRIEND 78 XL THE ADVENTURE OF THE WRECKED TRAIN 87 XII. IN WHICH FATE LEADS TRUMPS ... 98 XIII. THE TURN OP THE DIE 101 XIV. THE FIRST CLUE .. >, 108 XV. THE HOUSE OF DISCORD 114 XVI. WITH THE MASK OFF 120 XVII. THE MAN WITH THE CHINESE EYES . 134 XVIII. THE ARBUTHNOTS AND ANGELA . . . 155 XIX. THE ATOM AND THE POWERS . . . 165 XX. HUSBAND AND WIFE 178 XXI. DON EAFAEL AND THE CUB EEPORTER . 194 XXII. THE FLIGHT . 215 XXIII. THE LEAVEN OF SELFLESSNESS . . . 224 XXIV. THE AWAKENING OF ANGELA .... 231 XXV. THE SLAVE OF PASSION 239 XXVI. ON THE HIGH SEAS .253 XXVII. THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAPTAIN'S BRIDGE 261 XXVIII. Two WIVES 270 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS As Ayres bent over Angela, she lifted her eyes to his face Frontispiece PAGE Angela and her mother met every day .... 88 The thoroughly cowed woman felt her way along the wall 134 ANGELA'S QUEST History began to make for Ayres Arbuttinot when Angela Yorke flung herself on her face in the St. Ursula Foundling's Home, and listened through the register to voices in the visitors' room below voices discussing her fate. To be sure Ayres was but a junior at Harvard and had not then dreamed of the career which was to make him famous, in spite of his being the son of a man noted mostly for the number of his millions, while poor little Angela was but a long- legged stripling of a girl, with no beauty except large eyes, set gloriously far apart under a low brow of exquisite outline, and two thick ropes of auburn hair which she herself abhorred. This boy and girl were not destined to meet and fall in love with each other for some time to come. Nevertheless the loom of life which was weaving the web of their destinies, groaned and creaked and began its monotonous clicking in the moment when Angela's soul revolted at the taunt of " Foundling " hurled at her by a novitiate in the convent adjoining. . Angela, passionate little Protestant that she was, never looked longingly from the bare, ugly grounds of the Home to the richly wooded slopes of the Convent, nor responded in any way to. the hints which were often uttered, that if she were 8 ANGELA'S QUEST good, she might ultimately spend her life within those peaceful white walls. Instead, she was only restrained from verbal protests by the fact that she adored Soeur Marthe, the sister who oftenest uttered them. French was the language of the convent and al- though the foundlings also had the privilege of learning the language if they chose, few availed themselves of it, whereas Angela had been re- quired to use it from the day she was brought thither. In several other ways Angela had noticed that she was treated differently from the other in- mates, but never, until the day when Sallie Flack, in a moment of fury, shouted the word " Found- ling" at Angela, had certain memories leaped to life within her, refuting the charge and calling upon her own soul to wake and seek out her lost identity. Instantly she hurled herself against Soeur Marthe in a tumultuous mental assault, in which Angela vehemently denied being a foundling and passionately called upon the older w r oman for cor- roboration of a feeling which her young heart as- serted with all the violence of an intuitive knowl- edge, reinforced by dim memories and vivid dreams. Soeur Marthe vainly sought to temporise, but the girl brushed aside the sister's attempts with the virility of a newly aroused passion. " You do know ! " cried Angela in shrill French. " I sec it in your eyes that you are hiding some- thing!" Now Soeur Marthe was a remarkable woman, even in a church which numbers its brilliant minds by scares. She had been selected to guard Angela by one much higher in authority than the Mother ANONYMOUS 9 Superior, for Angela, all unknown to herself, was a precious charge. Nevertheless that human na- ture which this great church often attempts to crush, especially in its devotees,, had been too re- silient in the case of Soeur Marthe, and her love for her wonderful little ward whose marvellous possibilities she alone apprehended, was the most insidious enemy the church possessed. However, at the moment Angela asked her ques- tion, this love had never been put to the test and its strength was for this reason unsuspected by Soeur Marthe herself. Therefore, as was her cus- tom, she endeavoured to divert Angela's mind. " I know nothing ! " she declared. " You are an inmate of a Foundling Home. All are foundlings who are brought here. Why should you suddenly think you are different? " " Because I can remember some things which the Mother Superior thinks I have forgotten," de- clared the girl boldly. Yet she started at the sis- ter's look of terror. "You must not say such things, child! Never let any one hear you say that lest it go hard with you ! " " How could it go any harder with me than it does? " demanded Angela. " Foolish one ! " said the sister, stepping close to the girl and pretending to smooth her lovely hair. " I stand between you and many hardships. If they knew all, they would separate us! How would you like to sleep in the dormitory with all the others? " Angela looked into the wan, intellectual face of Soeur Marthe with wide, questioning, hazel eyes, eyes which glowed like the warm brown in sherry wine. "Every word you say makes it plainer to me 10 ANGELA'S QUEST that I am no foundling," she said. " Why am I the only one who rooms with a sister? Why are you for ever at my heels? Why am I not allowed to go with the girls of my own age? Who always sends me to play with the small children or the newly arrived? I will tell you something! It is because you are afraid I will learn about myself from the gossip of those who were here before I came. You tried to destroy my identity. You hoped to destroy my memory by pitching me head- long into a new language and a new religion ! But you failed. I remember more than you think. Those first few months of utter wretchedness are as clear in my mind to-day as they were while I was living in them. My anguish made me old baby that I was! Shall I ever forget the loneli- ness I suffered those first few months!" The tall girl let the anger and excitement die out of her face and in their stead came a look of mournful retrospection. The sister w r atched her anxiously. " I shall never forget you, dear Soeur Marthe," said Angela, after a pause, "nor how good yon were to me when I was so forlorn and miserable. It was lucky for me that they gave me to you. I should have hated any of the others!" " I have always loved you, Angela, my dearest one! No one could love you more. It would kill me to be separated from you, yet if they knew that, they would take you from me at once. One may not become too warmly attached to any earthly object, you know!" " That is all nonsense, I think," said Angela, smiling. " You know in your heart that I am not a Catholic, and that I laugh at half the things you have to do. Yet you do love me, for you never tell on me ! I would kiss you if we were not watched ! " ANONYMOUS 11 " Not here ! Not here ! " said the sister in a nervous whisper. Yet her pale face glowed with delight at the girl's words. " Do you have to pretend to dislike the care of me in order to keep me? " asked Angela curiously. " I used to think you meant it." " If they knew " she broke off and looked around. " I have always complained of you al- ways! And for the lies I have told, out of my love for you, I do the continual penances you ridi- cule!" " Not ridicule, dear Soeur Marthe ! " said the girl quickly. " I am. only sorry to see you torture your soul by such stupid beliefs. When you could be so happy loving me openly, if you only dared. And how clever you are ! I owe all that I know to you! You have taught me languages, music, poetry, painting, embroidery so fine that the Holy Mother said it looked like spun cobwebs every- thing except arithmetic! You could never teach me that, because the place where that ought to go was left out of my head by whoever made me ! " " Angela, my child ! " "Well, I am not sure that God did, for if He did, He surely would never have made my hair red and made the curse of it so heavy. A little red hair isn't so bad! But such a mane of it as mine! " " God has given you the most beautiful hair in the world," said Soeur Marthe, gravely. " It rip- ples like shining copper to your knees. I would not let the Mother Superior see it for the world." " Why not? " said Angela. " She would make me cut it off ! " whispered the nun, trembling. " She is waiting to discover the thing I would most dislike to do, in order to give it to me as a penance ! " 12 ANGELA'S QUEST " I wouldn't care ! " cried Angela. " I would be glad to see it go! Hateful old red thing," she added, jerking at her long braids viciously. " It is growing darker every day," said Soeur Marthe, hastily. "Is it? Are you sure? Let's look at it in the sun ! " said Angela anxiously. The two stepped out of the shadow of the tree and nearer to the fence bordering the grounds. There was a faint rustling in the grass outside, but neither heard it. They anxiously examined the colour of the thick ropes of bronze hair, whose curling tendrils es- caped in golden threads here and there. " I can't see it," said Angela. " It seems to me that it stays the same colour. You just say that to comfort me." " I always wish to comfort you, my child," said the older woman, with that sad dignity which al- ways reached Angela's inner ear. " I have loved you as my own for seven long years ! " " Seven long years," repeated Angela. " Then I must have been only seven when I was brought here. Do you remember it? Did you see who brought me? Won't you try to find out? You know I have a father and mother somewhere, don't you? Help me to find them, Soeur Marthe, with your great cleverness. Help me, my mother, if you love me ! " Angela knew that to call Soeur Marthe, mother, was to shake her to the foundation of her being. The sister gave a little cry and pressed her lips to one of the girl's long braids. "I will help you," she whispered. Then, as if fearful that the very stones had ears, she cried aloud : " No ! There is nothing for you to discover. You ANONYMOUS 13 are an orphan, and what you believe you remember is but a dream ! " As usual Angela seconded her, and burying her face in her hands, she seemed to give way to a bit- ter disappointment. Suddenly the bell in the convent adjoining be- gan to strike twelve, and the two started for the house. As they gradually drew out of hearing, a dark shadow in the garb of a nun lifted itself from a hiding place outside the fence and glided stealthily away down the road. CHAPTER II MIDNIGHT IN THE CHAPEL Two days passed and nothing happened. On the third, Soeur Marthe went, as usual, to confession, but although Angela waited for her re- turn, the hours passed by unheeded. For the first time in her life Angela was not watched. She waited about, lagging deliciously over her allotted tasks. No one hurried or admonished her. Suddenly it dawned upon her that she was free at least for the time being. The feeling was so unusual as to be almost a menace to her pleasure. Surely something must have happened, nevertheless Angela's flying feet took her to the least frequented part of the grounds, where, under cover of a hedge, she had once seen a hole large enough to crawl through. When she came to this spot, she found to her dis- may, that the ground all about it was wet so that, to make any attempt to crawl through, would leave traces upon her coarse blue uniform which would betray her to the sisters and prevent her ever utilising her knowledge of this road to freedom. She saw too that the hole in its present condi- tion was much smaller than when s}ie had first discovered it. It would have to be enlarged, and the hedge was thick with briars. She decided not to try, tingling though she was, for a breath of freedom. , In this sturdy resistance to an impulse which 14 MIDNIGHT IN THE CHAPEL 15 most girls of her age would have foolishly yielded to, and the self-controlled manner in which she admitted the difficulties, Angela set the pace of all her future, and indicated how she would finally set about her long and tedious search, which would lead her far and wide and test her every faculty of heart and mind. Reluctantly she turned back, and before she had traversed half the distance, she had cause to re- joice at her decision, for coming toward her with an expression of placid malice, was Soeur Valerie, the most treacherous sister of the flock, whose very expression of countenance was such that the candid and single-hearted instinctively shrank from her. " You are to come with me, Angela," said Soeur Valerie. " Soeur Marthe is performing a very se- vere penance, and I am here to take her place." " For how long? " faltered Angela. " Impertinent one ! " snapped Soeur Valerie. " For as many days as the Holy Mother sees fit to condemn her to pray prostrate in the chapel with- out food or covering! And it serves her right for her duplicity ! " Angela had learned to dissemble her feelings in her seven years of this place, so not even Soeur Valerie saw the furious flash of her great eyes, as she walked slowly beside the gaunt sister. That night at supper Angela secreted her bread in the pocket of her gown, and apparently per- fectly submissive to the change in her guardians, she obediently went through with her tasks and went to bed, where she pretended to fall asleep. Never before had she worried when Soeur Mar- the had been obliged to do penance, but to-day something intangible was in the air, and her sensi- tive soul responded. 16 ANGELA'S QUEST She knew that Soeur Valerie was a heavy sleeper, and no sooner had her snores become reg- ular and vocal, than Angela arose, and slipping on the nun's black gown, she softly made her way out into the corridor, down the stairs, and out into the open. What she did was dangerous, but Angela had early divined that she was privileged. Even if she were caught, her punishment would be no more severe than it had been before, and such things she could stand. But she could not bear the thought of Soeur Marthe going without her supper and praying all night lying flat on her face on the cold stones of the chapel floor. Even as her light feet flew over the ground, An- gela had to stop to laugh as she thought what a figure she would cut as she climbed in at the chapel window in her nun's garb, but she dared not venture in at the door. When she reached the chapel she could see no light. She listened intently, then hearing no sound, she gently lifted the stained-glass window and looked in. There before the altar upon which a single taper gleamed, lay poor Soeur Marthe, with her arms outstretched, her body thus repre- senting a cross. Softly Angela climbed in, and then vainly imag- ining herself safe because Soeur Marthe did not lift her head at the sounds, which must have been audible, she w r as just about to speak when a dark shadow rose from the other side of the altar and came toward the door, thus bringing Angela di- rectly in the pathway of the advancing nun. Instantly Angela sank upon her knees, and bow- ing her face upon her hands, she began to sob softly and to crawl forward toward the altar as if unaware of observation. MIDNIGHT IN THE CHAPEL 17 She could have saved herself in no other way, for the nun, believing her to be some sister per- forming penance, simply crossed herself and glided by without a word, closing the door behind her. Angela ceased sobbing but continued to crawl forward until she could touch Soeur Marthe's outstretched hand. It was as cold as ice. Angela softly whispered her own name and Soeur Marthe stirred. "Are we alone?" whispered Angela in French. Soeur Marthe pressed her fingers. " Here is my supper," whispered the girl, creep- ing nearer. " I saved it for you. You are more foolish than I think if you fast all night. What have you done?" The prostrate sister only shook her head feebly. " Sit up a moment and rest," whispered Angela. " Soeur .Valerie is likely to wake at any minute and find me gone. Only she can't come after me, because I have on her clothes and hid mine ! " A giggle broke from the girl which seemed to penetrate the fanaticism of the prostrate nun. She stirred painfully and groaned, and Angela reached out and dragged her nearer until her head rested on the girl's shoulder. "Eat," she whispered. "You look famished. Why do you punish yourself in this way? " " I was disobedient ! I was insubordinate ! I am lost! Yet I could not help it. If I had it to do over again, I would still do the same." " What have you done? " "Soeur Valerie heard our conversation Monday down by the fence, and she told the Mother Supe- rior. I am ordered to cut off your hair! I told her I would die first! So I was sent here to fast and pray until I consented." "Then consent," cried Angela. "You know / 18 ANGELA'S QUEST don't care! I'll cut it off myself to-night, if you'll only come back and be sensible. I love you far better than I love my hair, for I hate that, and you know it, whereas I am lost without you, my be- loved watchdog ! " But Soeur Marthe could not smile even at this fond name. She was consumed by her anxiety over Angela's bold threat. "Cut off your beautiful hair, my beloved one! No! I will never permit the sacrifice! One day you will need that and all your beauty " Again Angela broke into laughter. " My beauty ! " she cried in subdued tones. " You are going to be the most beautiful woman in the world," said Soeur Marthe gravely and im- pressively. " And you will need it all to extricate yourself from your terrible position." Soeur Marthe covered her face with her hands and rocked her poor, thin body back and forth in silent agony. "Will you eat this, to please me, beloved?" whispered the girl, with a face made white by the sister's words. " Then we can talk." As the half-famished woman felt the frread pressed against her lips by Angela's slim fingers, she yielded and snatched at the coarse stuff with an eagerness which made the girl's heart ache. " Tell me what you mean," she whispered. " For- get your vows and where we are and save me if you know what danger threatens me ! " The older woman shook in Angela's arms, as she listened to the passionate whisper. She was faint from lack of food, chilled to the bone, stiff with pain from lying on the cold stone floor, and racked with anxious forebodings as to the secret she car- ried in her breast. She was also filled with revolt MIDNIGHT IN THE CHAPEL 19 at the nature of her penance, and she adored the young girl in whose warm embrace she was finding strength and comfort. The gloom of the little chapel, the ghostly taper flickering on the altar, the terrifying sounds which the night, from time to time, uttered, all worked upon her overwrought sensibilities, and she began to weep softly. With infinite tenderness the girl soothed her, although her patience was strained almost to the breaking point by her fear of pursuit before the timid nun could find courage to revolt against the Mother Superior's commands. And again she won- dered at the power which could transform a strong, self-poised, clever woman into a terrified automa- ton, in fear of something which Angela knew not. " Hush," whispered Angela, finally. " I think I hear some one coming." They clung together for a few awful moments of a terror which neither ever forgot, for they both knew that if they were found there, they would never meet again on this earth, except by a mir- acle, and Soeur Marthe's secret would never be uttered. The agony of those dragging moments seemed to transform Soeur Marthe. She sat up and began to speak with feverish eagerness. " Listen, my angel, my well-named one ! At any hour a man will come, who every year visits the Home for news of you. He pays for your keep, and pays well. But the payment is mostly for the purpose of preventing you ever knowing who you are, or whence you came ! " Angela seized her hands. "Do you know?" she whispered breathlessly. Soeur Marthe shook her head. 20 ANGELA'S QUEST "No. I know little. But I know you are a Protestant. I know that someone lives who is in- terested in you. I know that plenty of money is behind the secret of your birth. I know that both this mysterious visitor and the Holy Mother know all!" Angela's body became rigid. "Why do you pause before that word 'all'? You fear that I am an orphan or worse than that? " Soeur Marthe took Angela's face between her hands. " You are a lion-hearted child, so I will tell you what I fear. I do not know this, remember, but I fear that some great sin is connected with the rea- son for your being here." " Why do you think that? " asked Angela, albeit with stiffened lips. " Because this man brings a great gift to the con- vent every year. He hopes to salve his conscience by this means. Every year we wait for his gift, for after he is gone, we have all we need." " Last year it was the carved altar," said Angela suddenly. Soeur Marthe nodded. "The year before those stained-glass windows. The year before that the image of the Virgin." Angela looked around at the magnificence of the tiny chapel. She had often wondered at its rich- ness. It glowed like a great jewel amid the plain- ness of the Convent and the Home. " I am very valuable to the Mother Superior," she said with shrewd understanding. " She will not give me up easily." " She will never give you up ! " cried Soeur Mar- the. " If you are to go, you must escape before she dreams that either you or I are mad enough to MIDNIGHT IN THE CHAPEL 21' plan such a thing. And if I am to be com- pelled to cut off your hair, you must go at once! I do not know how long I can endure the pain of this penance ! " Angela's arms flew closer around the trembling form of Soeur Marthe. They clung together mutely for a moment, during which Angela's quick brain found a solution of the difficulty. " I cannot go, dear heart, until after this man has come and I have overheard his conversation. Nor can you endure this torture. Therefore you must be ill to-morrow morning and taken to the infirmary, where you will stay until he has come. Even the infirmary is better than this ! " " He will come to-morrow," said Soeur Marthe, " if he is on time. One year he was delayed." " I will see and hear him if I am roasted alive the moment after he leaves ! " said Angela with fierce decision. " Listen ! Does not some one come here during the night? " "Yes, often." " Very well, then. Promise me that you will be found ill by the first one who enters. And heaven knows you are not far from it right now. Will you promise? " "Yes, dear!" whispered Soeur Marthe, submis- sively. "Listen again, for I must fly. I will find out where you are. Leave your window open and I will try to escape every day and bring you news. If I don't come, there is either nothing to tell, or I am watched. If I do come, I will sing under your window." They kissed each other hastily and Angela fled not one moment too soon, for some one fumbled at the door as she dropped softly on the grass outside the window. 22 ANGELA'S QUEST She lingered only long enough to realise that the hysterical cries which came from within were not feigned, and that Soeur Marthe was indeed in a pitiable condition, before she flew like an arrow back to the Home. CHAPTER III ANGELA PLANS TO OVERHEAR Good fortune favored her, for everything was as she left it. Even the snores of Soeur Valerie seemed to have been undisturbed. So, hastily slipping out of the nun's garb, An- gela donned her uniform, and crossing the hall once more, she entered the guest chamber, which was directly over the visitors' room. Here she knelt and lifting out the hot air register, she pried open a seam in the great pipe, by means of her scissors a thing she had often thought of do- ing, as she dusted the room each day. Many a time she had heard the murmur of voices in the room below, but curiosity of matters which did not concern her had never been one of Angela's faults, so she had contented herself with noting that the seams of the pipe were loose, thus instinct- ively fortifying herself against the crisis which approached. She got back to bed in safety, but lay awake half the night, staring into the blackness of her future with an anxious pain in her young heart. She had two anxieties. One, the passionate de- termination to discover what the mysterious visitor would say to the Mother Superior which might throw light upon her lost identity. The other, the Tild hope that something might happen which \vould divest Soeur Marthe of her fear and rouse her to those best endeavours of a heart and mind which Angela had as yet caught only glimpses, but 23 24 ANGELA'S QUEST which she believed in with all the fervour of her young and enthusiastic nature. If this should happen, Angela felt that her es- cape would be assured, and the terrible ache in her heart, caused by her aloofness and isolation in her hours of suspense, would be somewhat eased. Already she knew that she was of those who can suffer and enjoy more deeply than most, and the knowledge brought fear in its wake. The next day she was absent-minded and care- less, and was sharply reprimanded by Soeur Valerie. In order to test the methods of her new jailer, Angela was finally insubordinate, and was, to her intense joy, ordered to take herself to her room. To make assurance doubly sure and to possess an instantaneous way of having access to the guest chamber, she burst into tears. " Not in the spare room," she cried. " Don't send me there ! There are ghosts in that room even in the daytime, and I am afraid." Soeur Valerie smiled. " Then go there at once," she said. " Do you suppose, silly child, that I am trying to make your punishment agreeable to you?" Soeur Valerie was delighted at Angela's tears and resistance. The child had the reputation of being so sweet and obedient that it pleased the good woman to find her impertinent and obstinate. Some persons are like that. Another day passed and nothing happened, but on the second, Angela detected a change in Soeur Valerie's manner which led her to suspect that the mysterious visitor was expected that day, and in order to prove that her suspicions were correct, and that Soeur Valerie was really endeavouring to irritate her in order to be able to inflict a pun- ANGELA PLANS TO OVERHEAR 25 ishment, Angela was unusually patient and meek, even under additional tasks. She managed, however, to escape from her du- ties long enough to run over to the infirmary. She sang as she perceived the window nearest to Soeur Marthe's bed was open, and in instant reply, a long, thin hand appeared, with two fin- gers outstretched. " Two o'clock ! " whispered Angela to herself. Then, still singing a song which Soeur Mart-he had composed, Angela interpolated the message: "Perhaps to-night! Understandest thou?" And the hand waved in reply. Just before two o'clock Angela's insubordinate conduct was such that Soeur Valerie, with the liveliest satisfaction in her face, reported to the Mother Superior that the girl must be punished. Angela distinctly saw an understanding look pass between them. When the Mother had gone, she turned swiftly to Soeur Valerie and cried : " I will kill you if you put me in there with them again!" And from the sister's look of joy, she knew that she was condemned for the entire afternoon to the only spot in the world where she could overhear the secret of her birth discussed, and learn whence she came and the power which kept her there. CHAPTER IV WHAT ANGELA HEARD THROUGH THE REGISTER Up to the moment when Angela lay flat on her face, listening to the voices of the mysterious man and the Mother Superior in the low-ceiled room beneath, it had never seemed to make any differ- ence to anyone whether the child existed or not. She was but an anonymous atom, floating on the pool of life, now touching, now separating from other atomSj as purposeless and useless as herself. To no one would it cause an inquiry or a lifted eye- brow if she should go under and disappear for- ever, and all this Angela had felt acutely, for she was sensitive and more clever than she realised. But as she listened, her breathing quickened, her cheeks flushed, and in her stout little heart was born the resolution to float to the edge of the pool and adhere to the solid earthwork of exist- ence which others knew and formed. She would no longer be a nameless foundling. Some of the conversation she missed. Some she could not understand. Nor could she see the visi- tor's face, but she caught one glimpse of his hand his left hand, on the third finger of which was a curious gold ring. The ring was partly turned, but she could see that the setting was of small, brilliant red stones, set in the form of a heart, and on the broad dull gold band, Angela saw letters which she copied on a piece of paper, which ap- peared to her thus : U03&WAIQ M WHAT ANGELA HEARD 27 His voice too was unusual, and although many exciting events happened before Angela heard it again, yet Angela recognised that voice, and recog- nised it under such peculiar circumstances that it was necessary for her to see the ring he wore be- fore she would believe the wonder of his identity. First the Mother Superior handed her visitor a written report, evidently concerning Angela, and although it took the man a quarter of an hour to read it, neither spoke until he had read it through. Then a man's voice said : "Very good. But it's too bad she is growing handsome. A pretty girl is more difficult to con- ceal than a plain one." " There will be no difficulty about this one," said the Mother. "Her hair is the handsomest thing about her, but it is so heavy it makes her head ache. It is to be cut off to-morrow, and will not be allowed to grow again. Health is more impor- tant than beauty." " Does she take kindly to the idea of the con- vent? " asked the man. " It has not been mentioned to her seriously," answered the Mother. " But when Soeur Marthe presents the case, she will consent. She is wax in Soeur Marthe's hands." "Equally tractable in others'?" " On the contrary, quite intractable and con- stantly being punished with Soeur Valerie. Even now she is locked in her own room." " Better let Soeur Marthe have her again as soon as possible. We want, above all things, to have everything done quietly, so that no one need com- ment no one, you understand ! " Angela gasped to hear so arrant a tone of au- thority addressed to the Holy Mother. But her cheeks flushed with joy at the next words, 28 ANGELA'S QUEST " Soeur Marthe shr. 1 ! be restored to her this very night if she is sufficiently recovered." "Good. Everything else is safe. No change at all in the mother. The doctor is dead, and in that God-forsaken place no one is liable to come, In the awful pause which ensued, Angela strained her ears, but evidently the pause conveyed its sin- ister meaning, for the Mother Superior answered quietly : " I understand ! " And in those quiet words, Angela saw her un- known mother's speedy death prophesied and ac- cepted. " She T^ants for nothing," pursued the man hur- riedly, as though son: 2 one had accused him, and with his right hand, he nervously twisted the ring upon his finger. "She does not suffer physic- ally. The money is sent regularly. Everything is done that can be dene, but now that the old doc- tor is dead who wa called in when it happened, the last one we need fear is out of the way." " There is no fear, then, from her? " "None!" The word came like a death sentence. Al- though Angela did not know what it actually por- tended, it seem so freighted with sinister meaning that she felt her heart almost stop beating. " The risk we run Is so great that I hope it is worth all the danger," said the Mother, with the necessities of the convent in mind. " You shall have all you need as long as you live ! " answered the man quickly. " That is his message to you. All you need do is to ask ! " " The source of supply is then, so great? " asked the woman. u Practically limitless. Do not hesitate, for we WHAT ANGELA HEARD 29 feel our obligation to you in regard to this child. Your vigilance we depend upon, for you alone, know what her appearance in our world would mean." " It would only be dangerous if she knew all, or even suspected," said the Mother Superior. " Even if she Should escape, knowing nothing, what harm could she do? " " Has she forgotten everything? " asked the man with glad incredulity. " She has never opened her lips! " said the Mother Superior, casting down her eyes. " She has been here ten years, remember, although she thinks it only seven. She believes herself to be but fifteen." The man nodded without speaking, and the woman's voice went on : "I gave you my word that she should be taught to forget. I have kept my vow." " I will tell him," said the man significantly. " It will relieve his mind. Has she ever been photographed? " " Never! Nor has she ever seen her face in a mirror. There is not one in the building! " The man gave a short laugh. " You have indeed done your work well," he said. He rose and stood directly beneath the hole through which Angela was looking. She saw the back of his head and the thick wavy hair. She imagined him to be handsome. She heard the rustle of bank bills and the clink of gold and she saw the sign of the cross made in the air over the man's bowed head. Then they walked to the door and stood talking for another ten minutes in tones too low for An- gela to hear. 30 ANGELA'S QUEST The sound of the closing door came to her ears as from a great distance, for she was verging on unconsciousness. How long she lay there, she never knew, but when she came to herself it was growing dark. Slowly and painfully she rose and flung herself upon the spotless bed, regardless of her punish- ment for such effrontery. But when the key turned in the lock, half an hour later, and Angela sprang to her feet, ready to defy her jailor, she found herself clasped in the arms of Soeur Marthe, who led her across the hall and into the safety of their own room, before Angela's composure gave way and she burst into a storm of nervous, frightened tears. CHAPTER V ANGELA'S ESCAPE FROM THE HOME No only child was ever held more closely in her own mother's embrace than was Angela in the arms of the devoted nun of St. Ursula's in this, her supreme hour. Many a time the discipline ordered by the Mother Superior had been translated into the most loving ministrations, nor was Angela any happier in her after life than when she felt herself as now, pressed close to the bosom of the childless mother, who loved the homeless waif under her charge with a mother's love. When Angela had sobbed out the entire conver- sation, Soeur Marthe sat for some moments in deepest thought. Nor did Angela dare disturb her, for there had always been that in Soeur Mar- the's face which led Angela to suspect that before her self-immolation in the Convent, she had been a woman of brilliant parts and one who had filled a dignified position in the great world. No one could look into her deep eyes and note the shape of her features without seeing that her superior brain was the reason she had been placed in charge of so valuable a property as Angela was proving to be. When she spoke, it was to say. " Will you draw on this paper the design of that ring, as you saw it? " Angela's heart gave a great throb of excitement at the request, for she knew now that Soeur Mar- 31 ANGELA'S QUEST the's mind was beginning to work out her prob- lem, just as she had prayed might happen. Angela seized pencil and paper with trembling hands, and when she had drawn it, Soeur Mar- the studied it attentively and then again lost her- self in profound meditation, while Angela neither stirred nor drew breath. Suddenly Soeur Marthe leaned forward, drew Angela to her knee and said: " Your name is Angela Yorke. Never ask me how I broke faith in order to learn that. Your mother lives near Georgetown just where, I do not know. But once you arrive at Georgetown, your own wits must aid you to discover her. She has suffered a stroke of paralysis and is in charge of two devoted negro servants, who can neither read nor write, but their fidelity to her may be trusted." Soeur Marthe paused and looked with infinite sadness at the thin, eager face of the girl who knelt beside her, with her great eyes fastened on the nun's slow moving lips. " I shall miss you ' A cry broke from the kneeling girl. " Miss me? Am I then, going to leave this place? And soon? " " I have done the greatest wrong I know of," answered Soeur Marthe, sadly. " The poor box in the chapel " She opened her black bag and showed Angela a handful of money. " It is more than enough for your needs. When you are able, send it back to me. But you must go to-night " " To-night," gasped Angela. (" To-morrow would be too late. Your hair " /Angela's hands flew to her thick braids. ANGELA'S ESCAPE FROM THE HOME 33 " If that is the only reason," she said, " and you have stained your soul by taking this, I will stay until some other way is found " " No ! No ! " cried Soeur Marthe sharply. " There are other dangers! I dare not keep you here another day. By morning, you must be far away you, my poor lamb, who, in all the long years have never been outside of these narrow con- fines! Mother of God! What will become o f the child?" " If it is true that I have been here ten years," answered Angela, seizing Soeur Marthe's hands, " then I must be eighteen years old ! I am a wo- man, Soeur Marthe! And I have always believed myself a child! " She sprang to her feet, but instead of instinct- ively looking for a mirror to confirm her new knowledge, this child, who never had seen her own image, merely drew herself to her full height and stood, with her shoulders thrown back and her chin lifted as if she welcomed her heritage of new- found womanhood. " I shall see my mother ! I shall find her and take care of her and make her happy! I am to have a life after all ! I feel it ! I feel it ! " "You will find sorrow, as well as joy, my child, and, alas! will experience both poignantly," said the older woman, sadly. " Be prepared to bear it bravely and in the open. Do not fly to a cloister to heal a wounded heart as I did." " You were once happy and in a different w r ay from this?" asked Angela, timidly. " I once believed in love," answered Soeur Mar- the, " as you will. Pray heaven yours may be more worthily bestowed!" Angela flung her arms around Soeur Marthe. The spontaneous tenderness of the girl was the 34 ANGELA'S QUEST sister's dearest possession. Yet so careful had these two been, that up to the time Soeur Valerie had spied upon them and tattled her report, no one had suspected that anything but duty kept them together. " Listen," said Soeur Marthe. " To-night you must dress yourself in the clothes I will fetch you, and over them you will put a nun's garb. I will go with you to the station, as two sisters are al- ways seen together and it will cause no comment, when one would instantly be remarked upon. When you reach Baltimore change your clothes. Take off the nun's things, wrap them in a bundle and dispose of them, for if they are in your pos- session and you are searched " " Searched! " cried Angela. " By whom? " " The police will be put on your trail some time to-morrow. I will try to keep your escape quiet by pretending that you are ill. If you could have to-morrow to yourself, you would be safe. If not -" " I would die sooner than be brought back here ! " cried Angela. " If you are caught, you will be brought back here and once in the convent, you would never es- cape ! Remember you are no common charge. You are the most valuable hostage the church has to- day. So use well the brain God has given you. If not, you are lost as I shall be in any case after this day's work ! " " Your goodness to the waif, the foundling, the orphaned Angela, has saved more souls than all your prayers," said Angela, with honest convic- tion. She knew her way to the nun's heart. " You know that you feel it you believe it ! And as for me every night of my life, I will say a Protestant prayer for you, for God to bless my ANGELA'S ESCAPE FROM THE HOME 35 darling sister-mother, the best friend I ever had or hope to have ! " Soeur Marthe bent and kissed Angela's white brow, and even in this hour of supreme emotion, she noted the lovely way the gold-red hair grew on her temples and the bronze pencilling of her delicate eyebrows. The sister recollected herself with a start. " One fact gives me some new confidence in your ability to get through this difficult journey with- out discovery, and that is that now you know your own age. Hitherto, your mature impulses you have mistrusted because you believed yourself to be but a fifteen-year-old girl. Knowing yourself to be a woman, you will feel more courage and you will act upon your convictions. I am glad to say that I have always found you more reasonable than any child I ever knew. Before this journey is over, you will doubtless need your quick wits and those at their best." How these two managed to put in the next two hours in their usual duties, and to maintain a natural manner, will always be a mystery, even to themselves. To Angela, the whole prospect seemed so unreal that her vision seemed impaired and she had the uneasy sense that the floor was rising up to meet her as she walked. By nine o'clock they were again alone and safe from intrusion. Soeur Marthe had packed a small, black bag of her own with all the necessities she imagined An- gela could need, even including a brown wig An- gela had worn in some Christmas tableaux the year before. " Don't use it until you change your clothes and don't forget to darken your eyebrows. Your 36 ANGELA'S QUEST pursuers will be told to look for a red-haired girl, for I doubt if even our clever Mother Superior would dream that you would be shrewd enough to disguise yourself." " How are you going to protect yourself in case you are suspected of helping me? " asked Angela, anxious for the safety of her friend even in the midst of her own peril. " I shall be here, remember, trying to throw them off the scent. Never mind about me, I shall be safe no matter what happens." "I am not so sure," said Angela, shaking her head. " I have little more to say," said Soeur Marthe, " but this may help you. I have reason to sus- pect that your father also is alive. If so, it will be your life work to find him. I have no means of knowing the names of the people who are back of your detention here, and who are therefore in control of his destiny, but this I know. The man who was here to-day has Chinese eyes. I have seen him but once, yet I can never forget my feel- ings when I first saw his eyes and knew that there must be some men in the world who are trusting their business honour to him. Remember he has most unusual sloe-black, beady eyes, which give him an uncanny aspect. Find him. And when you have found him, learn the secret of that ring he wears. The setting is in the form of a heart and the inscription is evidently l COR CORDIUM ' which is the Latin for ' heart of hearts.' Some woman must have given him that ring. Possibly, if everything else fails you, he can be reached through any woman who would trust her life to him." Angela lifted her head like a spirited horse who is anxious for the race to begin. ANGELA'S ESCAPE FROM THE HOME 37 " You give me courage to search the world over," she cried, " if you even suspect that both of my dear parents are alive, and that by finding them I can hold my head up with the rest of the world." Soeur Marthe took the girl by her shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes. " Alas, that the hour of parting is so near and that I can never help you again! " she said with infinite sadness in her tone. " For you must never write to me nor expect to hear from me. From this day on, you are dead to me and I to you ! " " From this day on, you are very much alive to me ! " cried Angela. " And I will communicate with you through the Mother Superior herself. She shall give you news of me! " For reply, Soeur Marthe pressed Angela to her heart and kissed her on her shining hair. Angela drew away. " Listen ! " she said. " After I am gone and you come back, break a larger hole in the hedge where it joins the brick wall. This is where I meant to escape and it will serve to throw them off the track. Only be careful of your own hands. There are thorns! " " You are beginning to think," said Soeur Mar- the proudly. " I believe you will succeed in all your fondest hopes. I feel it in my heart." " Then you think it a wise suggestion? " asked Angela. " So wise that I shall act upon it, wearing your shoes, and carefully leaving a bit of your blue uni- form on the briars. That road leads to the village where Soeur Valerie does her purchasing, so she will lead the hunters there! " Angela smiled. Soeur Marthe's face was grave, 38 ANGELA'S QUEST which was characteristic of the two. Angela could laugh, no matter what danger threatened, while Soeur Marthe habitually took the graver view and met anxiety afar off, going forth to wel- come it and wearing it as a friend. Their common anxiety sharpened the intelli- gence of both, so that many precautions were taken which even surprised themselves as the thoughts developed. Nevertheless, it was upon two thoroughly frightened women that the young moon looked down, as, two hours later, they hurriedly made their way down a road, which for blackness and unknown obstructions and ghostly shadows, seemed, to their exerted imaginations, to have no equal. They reached the station in good time. For- tunately the station agent was accustomed to see the sisters hide their faces, else the curious action of these two would surely have awakened his sus- picions. As it was, he paid no attention to them, except to wonder why they bought two tickets going in opposite directions. He asked them if they knew which train came in first, and his question put them in such a flutter that he contented himself with saying: " The Baltimore train comes in first. Don't forget." Then he. took his lantern and went to see about the luggage and not until the next day did he hear anything of Angela's escape, and even then he could not say in which direction she had gone. Yet somewhere into the blackness of the night the young girl had vanished, and the whole com- munity was set astir because of her going. CHAPTER VI THE ARBUTHNOTS Breakfast, which is an abominable meal in most houses, was made into a thing of delight at the Arbuthnots, owing chiefly to the Arbuthnots them- selves. To be sure, with everything that money can buy, one would think that happiness, even at breakfast, might be acquired. Yet with most, of whom one can say that they have everything that money can buy, one is forced to add that, on account of the varied and abundant style of their afflictions, scandals, diseases and whatnot, one would prefer to rub along on one's present income and lack of misfortune. But to this arrangement, the Arbuthnots were a cheerful exception. They seemed to be exempt from trouble. They were cultured, agreeable, sin- cere, simple-minded and full of humour. In fact, they compelled their money to furnish their amuse- ment amusing amusement not the life sentence at hard labour, which, with most of the rich, goes by the name of amusement. They had no poses and no fads. They did not wish to be considered more intelligent nor more philanthropic nor richer than they were. Although most of their money had been made by Squires Arbuthnot himself, both he and his wife had inherited enough so that they were not newly rich, either by nature or by accident. Both had family traditions, family history, heir- looms and other badges of respectability, which 39 40 ANGELA'S QUEST made college educations for their children an or- dinary necessity and not a means to an end. If one were obliged to describe them as a family in two words, one would call them perfectly nat- ural. That is to say, their naturalness was of a human brand, and so akin to the kind that -every- body, except the artificial, likes, that it was warm- ing to the very cockles of the heart to know and count the Arbuthnots as friends. The family consisted of but four members, Squires Arbuthnot, the multi-millionaire president of the Inter Ocean Harvester Co., his wife, Eliza- beth, whom everybody, even her own daughter, called Bettie; Ayres, the son, twenty-one, sup- posed to be acquiring an education at Harvard, and Midget, the seventeen-year-old daughter, whose smallness was united with that exquisite delicacy, which should have gone with a spiritual sense like a white flame, if the Dresden china type of human being have spiritual sense of any colour to boast of. But the fact of the matter was that Midget Ar- buthnot was a pyxie a born mischief, and de- served to have her ears boxed for something or other, almost every hour of the day. But no body ever boxed them, or even seemed to wish to, partly because they were very perfect, very attractive little pink ears, and partly because Midget was altogether a delight to have about. The Arbuthnots were frankly fond of each other. The children thought there were never two such handsome and attractive, parents in the world, whereas the father and mother were equally con- vinced that a finer specimen of a young man than Ayres, with his tall figure, his big grey eyes, black hair, and brilliant blue-white teeth, never existed, while Midget was a joy to behold and to hear. THE ARBUTHNOTS 41 Money had come to them easily, therefore Mr. Arbuthnot had not wasted his youth and strength to acquire it. He was in robust health, and en- joyed to the full each day as it came to him. He was courteous, kindly, chivalrous and tolerant. He adored his wife, and she was one of the few women who graciously gave her whole self to each demand as it was made upon her. Did you want a career? Interest, if you could, Bettie Arbuthnot, and the way was made easy for you. Did you have a quarrel with your beloved? Bettie Arbuthnot smoothed things out for you, and found joy in so doing. Nor were you ever made to feel a sense of obligation to her afterwards. She walked along, garlanding the lives of others with the roses which bloomed more abundantly for her than her needs required and she forgot her benefits to one, in her willingness to serve another. Thus, what might have been received as, and de- veloped into calamities, the Arbuthnots refused to ticket as such. If there was any possible way to do it, they laughed at what would spell trouble or disappointment to another. They put fear under their feet and made the shadows but a grateful shade from too persistent a sunshine. With some, this would have been an impossible task, just as one cannot make a ballgown out of burlap. But the Arbuthnots were constructed out of material so fine that one could take a few lib- erties with it, without incurring the risk of ruin, either to the mind or to the body. Thus, to return to our mutton chops, breakfast was a thoroughly cheerful meal. The dining-room was round and opened into a sunken conservatory, which showed vistas of 42 ANGELA'S QUEST blooming plants, no matter what the season. Sun and air, cheerful colours, shining silver, fruits and flowers were there in abundance, but the chief thing were the spirits of the breakfasters. Bettie and Midget always dressed for breakfast as for no other function of the day. There were no elaborate coiffures, no street gowns. Mother and daughter oftenest wore their hair in braids down their backs. And the Paris dressmakers sent more breakfast ne'glige'es, if those bewitching con- fections could go by so absurd a name, than they did ballgowns. Midget always had flowers of her own choosing at the plates of each, and many a time did she eat her breakfast, sitting on the arm of her father's chair, sometimes borrowing from his plate, while Bettie read her letters aloud, and asked advice from everybody, which she never followed. It was upon such a breakfast as this, and Midge was even dipping into her father's egg, when the door suddenly opened and Ayres entered. From his very expression, they all knew that something had happened. But when things happened to the Arbuthnots, they took them as cheerfully as possible. Thus, when Ayres had kissed them all, even his father, when the butler was not looking, and, in answer to their inquiring glances, he said : " I'm expelled! " no one said anything, although it was one of the severest blows the boy could have dealt his father, who had been the fifth Arbuth- not in a direct line to graduate from that uni- versity. A complete silence was so unusual in this fam- ily, that Ayres was more startled by the reception his news got than he liked. He looked around at them anxiously. THE ARBUTHNOTS 43 "What have you done?" asked his father. "I hope you haven't " Then he paused, took off his glasses and held his hand out to his son. " There ! Forgive me ! " he said. " I was going to insult you by saying I hoped you hadn't done anything to deserve it, by which I would have meant anything cowardly, criminal or unbecoming a gentleman. I apologise by my unspoken thought. I know you have done nothing of the sort. Tell us about it!" Ayres sprang up and leaned over his father with his arm around the elder man's shoulders. " Thank you, Governor ! " he said. Midge leaned her impudent little face directly under her father's. " Daddy," she said, " if you were any finer than you are, you wouldn't be with us long. Don't grow any better ! I would really fear for you ! " Ayres laughed but his eyes held his father's glance with a look of perfect understanding, as he went back to his chair. " I just " he began, but his mother inter- rupted him. "Stop a moment, son, until I order. Hum- phreys, some rice batter cakes and fresh coffee for Mr. Ayres and tell Hilda to have squabs en cas- serole for luncheon. Now go on, Ayres, you were saying " "I was saying that you are an angel to think of Hilda's squabs for me, mother Bettie," said the boy. Bettie smiled. She liked praise from her family for her efforts to please them and she had taught her children the rare habit of expressing their gratitude. That alone would have made them remarkable. 4 'ANGELA'S QUEST " Go on, Ayres ! " cried Midge. " What did you do to be expelled? I don't exactly take Daddy's holy view of your character. I hope they didn't catch you skinning your aged grandmother "All we did," said Ayres, interrupting her, "was for four of nf: to give a party. It was a musicale. And they didn't like it." "Didn't like a m:-.~icale?" asked his mother. No." "What did you do at your musicale?" asked Midge suspiciously. "Up to a certain point it was conducted irre- proachably. About as other musicales ! " "And afterwards?" demanded Midge. "Did you get drunk?" " Midge ! " said her mother. " Well, I've heard of such phenomena," said Midge. " We did not! " said her brother. "Well, after the certain point was reached," said his father, "what happened then?" " Sir, I perceive that you should have been a lawyer," said the young man. " You touch the crux of the whole matter. When a certain point was reached, a lumberman's saw was produced, and Colchester and I sawed the piano in two and threw it out of the 7,'indow." "Your Steinway srand?" asked Midge, in hor- ror. " No. A fine, old square relic of former gran- deur purchased for the occasion. It cost seventy- five dollars. But it was worth it. Every time the saw struck a string, it brought out a new tone." "Did it make a horrible racket?" asked Midge, with her napkin at hr face. THE ARBUTENOTS 45 " The finest I ever heard. There was a meeting of the Faculty in the Dean's rooms half a block away. We had the musicale in my rooms on the third floor, in anticipation of the happy event, never dreaming that the Faculty would find an- noyance in our simple pleasures. But as sections of the piano began to fall on the stone pavement, they grew peevish and tried to suppress our inno- cent fun. We didn't hear them knocking at first. They got in just as we heaved the bass section out." "What did they say?" asked Mr. Arbuthnot, his face crimson with laughter. "They asked for a conference with us the next day, and when we met for tb^ purpose of discuss- ing the evening's entertainment, they seemed un- duly impressed with the fact that some of the black keys had been picked up two blocks away ! " "As we have frequently observed," said Midge, "it all depends upon the p-unt of view. I sup- pose to have had those keys not cross the street would greatly have mitigated the offence!"' Bettie leaned back in her chair helpless with laughter. " I don't see how you can think up such things, Ayres! I ivish I had been there!" Midge turned on her a face full of reproof. "Fie! Fie! Bettie!" cha said. "What you don't know about the behavior of a properly - brought-up mother, would fill a book. Don't you know that the recognised -vtitude of the usual mother under similar circumstances would be one of austere reproof, accompanied by a deluge of reproachful tears, punctured by such exclamations as 'Oh, meh boy! How could you disappoint us so? Don't you know our fondest hopes of seeing 46 ANGELA'S QUEST you graduate at the head of your class, even as your dear father graced the foot of his, have been wrecked by your mad prank? Oh, the cruel thoughtlessness of youth! Boo! hoo! And again I say Boo ! hoo ! ' That would be what most mothers would say, Bettie. But you, you disgrace- fully young and irresponsible thing! You burst out laughing at him and say you wish you had been there. What a way to bring up a son ! No wonder we children are as we are ! " " You couldn't be better in my opinion," said Bettie, briskly. " I am dreadfully criticised, I know, for the way I've brought you up, but as for myself, I've loved doing it, and I've loved myself for doing it. So there you are ! " " Complacent angel ! " said Midge. " And we love it too. But really, it is awful to be expelled, and I should think you'd be ashamed of it, Ayres Arbuthnot! Aren't you going to say anything to him, either, Daddykins? " " Do, father ! Do jaw me a little," said Ayres. " If you don't, Midge will be so disappointed." But even as he spoke the son looked somewhat anxiously at his father, for this was not only the most serious thing which had ever happened to them, as a family, but the boy could see that his father was more deeply stirred by it than he cared to admit or was willing to show. A short silence ensued, which even Midge knew better than to break. She still sat with her arm around her father's neck. "I've just been thinking, children," he said at last, and more slowly than usual, "you have al- ways known that I do not believe that things just happen, in a purposeless, hit-or-miss fashion. You two children have always lived an easy, care- free life which it has been your mother's and my THE ARBUTHNOTS 47 earnest wish to give you. Your happiness has been our reward, and your good behaviour has rendered that reward munificent. Now, here comes an ap- parent check to our plan. The first little rough- ness in our smooth riding has been encountered. It did not happen accidentally. It has an educa- tional significance. I leave it to you, my son, to discover its problematic meaning." If a battery of field guns had suddenly began to play upon the three who listened, greater con- sternation could not have been written upon their faces than by this gently delivered homily, because it was the first time Squires Arbuthnot had ever spoken so seriously or with such firmness. His was a gentle, even tolerant nature, but it was bedded on rock. His family had never had cause to dis- cover it, and the first they knew of the severity of the shock Ayres's expulsion was to his father, was in the new tone, albeit a most kindly one, which crept into his voice as he spoke. Midge withdrew her arm from his neck and peered down into his face, but without her cus- tomary impudence. She was simply curious to understand the change. Bettie jumped up, scattering her letters on the floor and ran around the table to his side. She put both arms around his neck and laid her cheek tenderly against his. Ayres dropped his head on his chest and drew aimless pictures on the tablecloth. Humphreys, the butler, entered with a covered silver dish. He proffered the contents to his young master and shot an astonished and reproachful glance at the older couple, when Ayres simply shook his head, refusing to eat. On the way back to her chair, Bettie Arbuthnot laid her hand on her tall son's shoulder. 48 ANGELA'S QUEST " Ayres, darling," she said, " I know what your father means. It seems to me that you are meant for something greater than just to be a rich man's son. If you feel, in your secret heart, that you are, just remember that this must be your chance. It would please me tremendously to see you strike out!" At this, Midget's impudence could no longer be controlled. She rolled up her eyes, piously crossed herself and fanned herself with an invisible fan. Her manner and her minute size made her irre- sistibly funny. Bettie burst out laughing and boxed her ears as she ran back to her chair. Suddenly Midge stooped down and looked under the table. Her father eyed her smilingly over his glasses. "What are you looking for, daughter?" he said. " I was looking for my maltese kitten. Shouldn't wonder if she, too, felt like adding a few words of wisdom to this symposium ! " " You impertinent monkey," said Mr. Arbuthnot, rising. " Come, Ayres ! Don't look so serious I This will not have been a bad day's work if it causes you to come out from the herd and find yourself. Ah, Bettie, love! We may say that we want our children to do just and noble things, yet at the first shadow of seriousness which clouds their brows, we hark back regretfully to the days when they found life nothing but something to laugh at and make fun of. We are all made up of contradictions." " That's one thing, then, that makes you so ador- able," cried Midge, jumping on the seat of her chair and flinging herself into her father's arms with such violence that she almost upset him. " Steady, boy ! " she said, as he regained hia balance. THE ARBUTHNOTS 49 He patted her, kissed her and, taking her by the elbows, he stood her on the floor again. " Want any money, Ay res? " he asked. Ayres shook his head. " No, thank you, sir. I have enough." " Enough ! " shouted Midge in a smothered voice. "What a lie! Whoever heard of having enough money! I'll take some, Daddy, just to oblige you ! " Mr. Arbuthnot handed her his entire roll of bills, and Midge, with a deftness born of long prac- tice, abstracted two of one hundred dollars each, with an invisible nod in the direction of her brother, to which her father replied in like fashion. Then he bent and kissed his wife, patted his son on the shoulder and left the room, with Midge driving him by his coat tails. For a moment Ayres sat staring with unseeing eyes at the flowers in the middle of the table. Bettie watched him carefully, while pretending to be engrossed with her letters. Suddenly he raised his head, threw back his shoulders and said : " Motherkins, if you don't mind, I think I'll go to Bermuda for a few weeks. I believe a change would do me good." " Go, by all means, my darling. I am sure Ber- muda is just what you need. I'll attend to your packing to-day. You'll need a lot of new things. Order them and I'll do the rest." " I shan't order a thing," he said. " I'm going to do something that only needs old clothes. Pack the oldest things you can find and just add a suit of evening clothes, in case of fire." "All right, dearie. I'll do just as you say. When shall you go? " "I'll send for my trunk this afternoon. The 50 ANGELA'S QUEST steamer sails to-morrow, but I'll go aboard to- night." "That will be lovely," said Bettie. "I'll do everything for you. You can send any time after three o'clock. Bermuda will be the best thing in the world for you." Ayres laughed as he kissed her good-bye. She would have said the same if he had an- nounced that he was going to Madagascar. 'CHAPTER vn ANGELA IN DISGUISE Although it was past midnight when Angela boarded, the train, it was eight o'clock in the morn- ning when she reached Baltimore. She had sat, bolt upright all those hours, in a stuffy day coach which reeked of bananas, and all the rest of her life, the odour of bananas recalled to her mind the groups of Italians, who fed on that fruit through that seemingly interminable night. It was her first recollection of a railway jour- ney, yet she failed to make herself conspicuous, partly because she feared to move and scarcely dared breathe, and partly because she made use of the questions and answers made by her fellow passengers. When the train arrived in Baltimore, there was no pale-faced nun with red-gold hair. But in another car, sat a plain, brown-haired young woman, dressed in an ill-fitting dark blue serge, to whom no one paid any attention. As Angela stepped from the train, it was all she could do to keep from taking to her heels and dashing through the crowd in order to get away from people, yet in spite of her loudly beating heart, she forced herself to walk slowly. She even pretended to be looking for someone, this idea hav- ing occurred to her as the only way in which she could avoid looking as lost as she felt. Her common sense told her that she was in lit- tle danger as yet. Her flight could not possibly 51 52 ANGELA'S QUEST be discovered before morning, when some time would be spent in search, before it would occur to them that she had escaped. Her danger lay in the time necessarily spent in Baltimore before the express left for Washington, in every stop that train made on the way, but most of all, in her arrival in Washington itself. She had obeyed Soeur Marthe in getting rid of her nun's garb before she reached Baltimore, and although she was sick with fright, she managed to conceal her feelings and board her train in safety. Soeur Marthe had given her no instructions, yet Angela saw, as she walked down the long platform that those passengers who looked more well-to-do went into the chair cars. It may have been instinct the instinct of being well born which guided her, but in a flash, she realised that if anything should really happen to her on this train, she would be safer with persons of means and position than with Italian immi- grants in a banana-scented day coach. Therefore, she spoke to the porter who was car- rying her bag. " How much does it cost to go in this car? " And when he told her, she said : " Then I'll ride in it. Please show me in there." This appeal to his guidance pleased the man, who, like all of his race, love authority. He bustled forward and bidding Angela to hurry, he pushed his way in and secured her a chair by the very simpl means of getting to it before the regular porter of the car could assign it to a round-faced, stout and hearty young man, who wore the garb of clergyman and had the man- ner of a jockey. This young gentleman accepted ANGELA IN DISGUISE 53 his defeat with a beaming countenance, and, after one look into Angela's face, he calmly deposited in the aisle, the bag which was evidently holding the chair next hers for its owner, and popped himself into it with the casual remark to the por- ter, accompanied with the click of coin. " This is my chair, isn't it? " Angela tried not to smile, but the young man's grin was so contagious that she had to bite her lip and turn her head away. The train started, and presently a violent alter- cation arose between the real owner of the chair and the car porter, who maintained that the most annoying mistakes happened when passengers waited to secure chairs after reaching the train. Yet in spite of being almost bodily lifted from the disputed chair by its irate rightful owner, the round-faced clerical young man calmly read a copy of Life and only desisted long enough to be- stow a look full of secret comradeship on Angela as much as to say : " You stole my chair and I stole his. Which makes us partners. See? " And Angela plainly saw, though she dared not admit it nor seem to understand his message. The train flew on and at each stop Angela's face grew paler and paler and her anxiety became more apparent. The round-faced young man observed her un- easiness and being an astute person, with a trained newspaper instinct, he cast about in his mind for a reason. Presently he observed a rather common looking man, with shrewd eyes and a searching glance, stroll slowly through the car, bestowing keen scrutiny on each of the passengers, especially the women. 54 ANGELA'S QUEST The young clergyman saw with relief that An- gela happened to be looking out of the win- dow. Swiftly he leaned toward her and said: "Excuse me for butting in, but if you happen to be wearing that wig as a disguise, you'd better pull it down further as there is a Pinkerton detec- tive on this car and " He stopped, appalled by the greyness which overspread the girl's face. "Don't faint! Pinch yourself! Stick pins into yourself ! " he implored. " If you need help, I'm here, you know." Twice Angela essayed to speak, but her stiff lips refused to move. Finally she managed it. " I am an escaped nun ! " she whispered. " He is here to take me back ! " The young man seemed galvanised by her words. All his fighting instinct was roused. " Not while I'm above ground ! " he declared. " I am Alan Patrick, assistant rector of the Protestant Chapel in North Street in New York and you are my sister Jane. Buck up now and give your wig a jerk. A little more on the left. There. Here he comes. Now, Jane, follow me." Angela obeyed his bidding, half frozen with fear, and shaking visibly, much to his concern. The round-faced young clergyman raised his face and wrangled audibly with Angela. "I tell. you," he said, "you must get down to them. You can't reach these people through ser- mons. I've tried it. I've preached until I was black in the face. You have got to go among them, and see them and sympathise with them and draw them out. Now, of course, you, being my sister, can understand my point of view. But these other dunderheads! They make me tired! Say," he added, as the detective passed from the ANGELA IN DISGUISE 55 car, " you don't play up to a fellow very well. You acted like " " I couldn't help it," answered Angela. " I am too frightened." " Well, you've got to do better than that, be- cause we are nearly in. At Washington, there may be others. But I'll stand by you, if you'll do your part." " I will, oh, I will," said Angela. " I am a Protestant. I've never been a Catholic," she added. " Ther why " he began and stopped. " I beg you pardon," he said. " I don't wish to know anything you don't care to tell." " I'll tell you all about it," answered Angela, 'but not here. Perhaps, if I get a chance, I could tell you in Washington. Do you speak French? " " Well, not so that you could notice it," said the young man, with his engaging grin. " I can say ; Pah dy too,' and ' Jamais de la vie/ which I believe is equivalent to * not on your tintype.' Savay? " " I understand the French, but not your trans- lation. Is that slang? I have heard of it." " Heard of it ! Heard of slang? Didn't you ever hear any slang? Never in your life? " Angela shook her head. " Here's a rum go," said young Patrick, gen- ially. " I feel that Laura Jean Libby ought to hear of this. Or William Dean Howells or any other of the literary persuasion who write stories bristling with imagined characters." Angela looked puzzled. She had never heard of William Dean Howells or Laura Jean Libby, but from the manner in which the young man spoke of them, she thought the:/ must be persons of distinc- tion. 56 ANGELA'S QUEST " I'd like to know all you care to tell," he went on, " but there's no telling what we may run up against in Washington, so here is my card, with my New York address on it. If you ever need me at any time, drop me a line and I'll come. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled in the sta- tion " " Keep my eyes peeled? " said Angela, in a shocked tone. " Yes. Look alive, you know ! " " Oh, I can do that. I can look alive " Alan Patrick peered out of the car window, as the long train pulled slowly into the station, and Angela, following his glance, heard a smothered exclamation. " By Jove ! If there isn't Ayres Arbuthnot and the whole bunch ! " At the name Ayres Arbuthnot, Angela, for no reason that she could ever explain, said quickly: "Which one is he?" " The tall, big fellow in the white sweater ! " Then he turned to Angela and said: " Say, are you excuse me for asking but are you a person of a great deal of importance? Is your escape likely to make a big stir? The rea- son I ask is because three of our boys on the staff of the New York Blazed Trail you know I'm a reporter too sent down to do the railroad lobby investigation are here to meet this train, with an- other plain clothes man that I happen to know- " He got no further, for Angela seized his arm with a look of such abject terror that the young man regretted his indiscreet revelation. " Oh, I think I am ! I don't know I don't even know who I am, but my escape is likely to be cut off by very powerful persons, in whose interest ANGELA IN DISGUISE 57 I have been hidden in a convent for seven years ! I must not be taken back! Help me! Help me to get away. I " u Where do you want to go? Talk quickly! We've only a few seconds. Count on me to the death ! " said Alan Patrick, his honest face flush- ing with feeling. " To Georgetown ! I am told I may find my mother there! " "Quick then! Take this money oh, don't be a fool ! You can send it back ! These boys know me, so the sister gag won't work. I'll hold them, for a minute and you sneak out of the other end of the car and jump for that purple taxicab. Shake this roll of bills before the chauffeur an* tell him he'll get all of it if he pulls out for George- town and lets nobody catch him! Now good-bye! Don't be afraid! I'll cover your escape! Good- bye! Say! What's your name?" " My name is Angela," she whispered. Then before he could speak again she had flitted like a pale shadow to the rear of the car and dis- appeared. With a shout of recognition Alan Patrick was greeted as he sprang from the train, and by using every effort, he staved off inquiries until he heard the panting of the motor, the toot of the horn and the noise of the starting automobile engine behind him. To his relief, he found that the newspaper boys were not on the trail of any escaped nun, so that poor, pretty Angela whoever-she-was, was safe as far as they were concerned. He remained talking to his friends for twenty minutes, giving her all the start he could on gen- eral principles, but when he turned to look at the line of waiting vehicles, he saw to his horror that 58 ANGELA'S QUEST the purple taxi had not driven away. The han- soms and hacks were all gone, but the only ma- chine in which Angela would have been safe, was still at the curb and empty. He looked around wildly, but no Angela was to be seen. The plain clothes man had also disappeared. " What's the matter, Pat? " asked the young man in the white sweater. " You look as if you'd seen a ghost ! " " I haven't seen one," said Patrick. " I'm looking for one. Any of you fellows got a time table?" CHAPTER VIII ANGELA FINDS HER MOTHER Standing well back from the road, hidden in a thick grove of trees, but surrounded on all sides by signs of neglect and decay, was an old colonial house, well built and surprisingly substantial, considering its dilapidated environment. White ruffled curtains fluttered from the win- dows and the glimpses one got from the interior of the house from without, made it appear as if the approach had been purposely made to dis- courage intruders from penetrating its cosy retreat. Crawling along the muddy road in a ram- shackle carriage, drawn by two aged horses and driven by a grizzled negro man, sat Angela, peer- ing from side to side of the road. Occasionally she leaned out and spoke to the driver, who always answered her reassuringly. Presently the carriage reached the entrance to this place and turned in between the crumbling piles of granite which had once marked the gate- way. The sound of wheels brought an old negro wo- man to the door. She opened it and stood on the step waiting until the carriage drove up. The driver wound the lines around the whip, climbed down and opened the carriage door. No word had been spokea, yet some form of greeting had passed between the driver and the woman who watched on the doorstep. Angela's glance took in everything at one sweep. 69 60 ANGELA'S QUEST She was trembling so that she could scarcely stand. " Could you tell me please " she began. But at the first sound of her voice the old negro woman started and came close to her. Angela bore her scrutiny eagerly. Then, with- out speaking, the old negress lifted her hand and slowly pushed back the young girl's disfiguring wig. As the red gold of her hair came into view, the old woman seized the girl's hand and whis- pered : "Who is you, pretty, and whah'd you come thorn?" "Does Mrs. Yorke live here?" asked Angela, without replying. " Yas, honey, she do. Is you is you ? " " My name is Angela. Did you ever hear it be- fore? Did you ever see me before? Tell me, do I belong here? " With a loud cry tlie old woman flung her apron over her head and sank on the ground, rock- ing back and forth to Angela's great consterna- tion. To add to her fright, the negro driver began to smite his hands together and chant. " Bress de Lawd ! Praise God ! Amen ! Come Lawd Jesus ! " "What is the matter?" cried the girl. "Why do you act this way? " Instantly the old woman recovered her presence of mind. " I ack so, caze de los' am found ! Bress Gawd ! Wid dat red hair and dat angel voice an' dat angel name what yo' maw gib you, yo' is my baby An- gela, what was stole thorn us in de night time by debbles in human form, mos' ten yeahs ago. Lawd, Loney, lenirne kneel down an' kiss yo' lill foots! Brer Tawmkins! Lif up yo' voice in thankful- ness dat all our prahs has done been answered! Now honey! Come wid me! Yo' deah mothah am sittin' in huh room waitin' for yo'." Angela's breath came in gasps as she crossed the threshold of that house. The old negress laid her hand on Angela's arm. "Take off yo' hat," she whispered. With one jerk Angela removed hat and wig and her own glorious hair, wound in flat braids close to her head, she released. As they tumbled over her shoulders, the old woman broke into incoher- ent words of love and babyish endearments which caused Angela's impressionable heart to warm to the old woman. Suddenly she stopped. "Does yo' 'member yo' maw?" she whispered, "er wuz yo' too little to know she had a stroke when she fell down awn de flo' de night dey stole yo' away? How much does yo' 'member?" "I remember nothing/' moaned Angela. "I have no recollection of my mother at all ! " "Den I bettah tell yo'. De night dat same night yo' po' maw was struck wid paralysis. She ain't nevah moved noli spoke since. But she sees and hyahs eve'ything. She's been waiting for dis moment for ten long yeahs. Step softly, honey! Miss Nita! I'se got great news fo' yo'! De chile am back ! Dish yere big girl am yo' baby Angela ! " Angela never forgot the sight which met her eyes. Sitting bolt upright in a wheeled chair, her back propped with pillows, was a beautiful woman, with a face so white, so terribly still, it looked as if carved from Parian marble. Snow white hair, thick and waving, was drawn back from an unlined, low brow. Red lips, softly curved, but never moving, gave the only touch of 62 ANGELA'S QUEST colour to this marble face, with the exception of the large eyes of deep, purplish blue, which, in con- trast to the immobility of the rest of her counte- nance, seemed almost to leap from her head, in their eagerness to express what the silent tongue could never utter. In response to what she saw in her mother's eyes, Angela sprang forward and gathered this still, rigid form in her warm, young arms. She covered her mother's face with kisses of agonised love and passionate tenderness. She clung to her, as if to make up, in an instant's fervour, for all the years of absence and suffering which were so pitiably expressed in her mother's still, tense face, while the eyes, which alone could speak, rained scalding tears, which her own helpless hands could never be lifted to wipe away. The anguish, the starved love of years, the suf- fering of such a meeting can never be expressed. It was many a year before Angela could think of the mingled pain and joy of that first embrace without a contraction of the heart which was akin to an acute pain. Strong natures suffer pleasure as deeply as they suffer anguish, and the strength of these two was proven in that they had bridged the years and the distance and the obstacles which lay between their hearts by a love so strong and so enduring that it finally drew them together again. The old negress watched them tearfully. She kept entering the room to help them to understand each other and leaving it that they might be alone together. It seemed hours before Angela could tear her arms away from her mother's waist or shoulders. All the agony of her years of uncertainty and the terrors she had undergone in the last two days ANGELA: FINDS HER SMOTHER^ 63 found a recompense in the joy and gratitude she felt at clasping her mother in her arms. She was not even dismayed at discovering her mother's sad condition. It was enough for Angela to find that she was alive. "Does she know me? Does she hear me? Does she understand all I say?" asked Angela. " 'Deed she does ! She hyahs eve'yt'ing. Only she can't speak. I did hab hopes dat when she saw you, hit would loosen huh bonds. I'se done been prayin' foh dat foh ten yeahs!" " What am I to call you? " asked Angela, shyly. " You jes' call me ' Mammy ' lak you done when you was a lill baby en my arms! En lemme tell you how yo' maw talks. When she turns huh eyes dis way, hit means ' yes/ When she turns 'em dat way, hit means ' no.' Foh de res, you has to guess at hit. I feeds her jes' what she used to lake when she was well. En I keep her ha'h washed and waved en I makes all her unduhclose by han', en all dese yeahs, I'se done all I could to make her comfortable, jes' waitin' foh dis day. Bress Gawd, hit done come ! De answer to all our prahs ! Tell us, honey chile! Whah you been all dis time, en huccome you to fin' us?" "I have been in a Catholic orphan asylum a place where they take children who have no par- ents. And a nun from the Convent which supports this Home educated me and got to loving me so, she helped me to get away. I can never forget her goodness, for she believes that she risked her soul's salvation in what she did for me. >Yet she loved me more than even that!" " She ain't resked nothin' ! " affirmed the old woman. " I don.' b'leeve in no God dat punishes his chillen fer lovin' each other an' bein' good an' kin'!" 64 ANGELA'S QUEST "I told her that," answered Angela. " You come in answer to my prahs," reiterated Mammy. " Yo' eben come jes' lake I knowed you would. Jes' a-driving up easy lake, in Brer Tawm- kins ole hack. He's done been a-prahin' fuh yo' too." " Then I was led to him," said Angela, " for I met another friend on the train who told me to take a taxicab in Washington and come to George- town that way. But just as I was about to do it, I saw that old hack, and the driver turned and gave me such a kind, encouraging look it seemed, all at once, as if I remembered him. And as I started toward him he pulled up his horses, and I said, ' I want to go to Georgetown. Do you know where it is? ' And he said, * I lib there, lill Missy ! Jes' git right in! ' So then I knew that he knew the way, and I leaned back and hid behind the cur- tains. It was a good thing I did, for a man I thought was looking for me, passed by in a big automobile, and he never thought to look at my shabby old hack, with its poor old thin horses, that I thought would give out at every step." " Yo' was led ! " asserted Mammy, nodding her grey head positively. " I know I was ! " answered Angela. " For after we got so far away from the station that I dared show myself, I asked him if he knew a Mrs. Yorke living near Georgetown, and of course he did and brought me directly to your door." " Kin yo' 'member me at all? Er yo' Maw? Er yo' Paw? " asked Mammy, anxiously. " I remember nothing clearly. But yet many things seem familiar. Perhaps after I am rested " Mammy got up hurriedly. " Now, lemme tell you ! You is jes' nachally wo' ANGELA FINDS HER MOTHER 65 out! En much as we bofe want to, we am' gwine mek yo' talk no mo' tell aftah yo' has et and slep! You jes' sit hyah whah yo' maw can feel you, en I gwine goin' git yo' suppah. My ole man, Lucas, has done been to Jawdgtown dis atternoon, en he'll hab a fit you alls got to stan' dat yit! so you ain't gwine to hab no othah tax put awn yo' flis night. Honey chile," she said, looking at Mrs. Yorke, " Shall I cook baby girl some of my rice waffles? You see how she answah me, baby? All right! I'll cook 'em! " The old black woman, her face shining with love and the eagerness to serve, which make of any face a thing of beauty that beauty which endures glided away, and Angela was left alone with her mother. For an hour they sat there in the soft falling darkness, neither speaking, but full of complete communication. Angela held her mother's cold hand in both of hers. At first it felt entirely life- less, but at length Angela felt that some of its nerves or muscles gave back a faint twitching, in answer to her loving strokings and caresses. The girl hardly dared believe. When Mammy came back, she spread supper on two small tabourettes close by the wheeled chair of the invalid, and deftly served them both. Angela said nothing of her hopes of her mother's improved condition, until Mammy gave an excla- mation. " Bress de Lawd! She's movin' huh lips!" A faint movement was indeed discernible, which, as the supper progressed, developed into a feeble effort to chew the carefully prepared spoonfuls of food Mammy fed her as deftly and daintily as one would feed a pretty baby. The two watching her could scarcely credit their 66 ANGELA'S QUEST senses, nor contain their joy. To their minds, it seemed to indicate a complete recovery. And so they were happy, and when Uncle Lucas came in, all the joy and surprise were enacted over again. Yet Angela's tense nerves bore everything until Mammy divined how she felt and began to prepare them for the night. "To-morrow, when de sun am hyah, all shinin' en bright, to hep us awn our way, we'll set ole Lucas to work, en we three will sit by the windahs all ca'm en comfo'table, en tell all we knows or 'members to each other, en de sunshine will hep us to unwine dis tangle." The wheeled chair was rolled to the side of An- gela's bed, and made into a couch. Mammy took the place of Soeur Marthe and brushed and braided the tired girl's lovely hair. Then side by side, and still clasping her mother's hand, Angela fell asleep. But the mother's eyes did not once close during the long hours of that weary night. The joy of feeling the clasp of a hand which she had almost ceased to hope for during all these years, was too keen to be wasted in sleep. She felt that she must taste such happiness slowly and let such balm distil itself drop by drop over her aching heart. And all through the long hours went whispering the words of the old black woman. " De sunshine will hep us to unwine dis tangle ! " CHAPTER IX MAMMY TELLS HER STORY When Angela opened her eyes the next morning, it was in the first really happy awakening she had ever experienced. She found her mother's eyes wide open and fixed upon her face, and in response to their mute yearn- ing, Angela sprang up and lavished upon that in- animate form all the caresses it was an equal joy to her to give, and for her mother to receive. She helped Mammy to bathe and dress the invalid for the day, and when breakfast was over, and the two were seated in the late autumn sunshine, Mammy answered Angela's impatient summons before her work was half done and seated herself to begin her story. " Dar's so much to tell, honey chile, dat ef you all will jes' ax me questions to set me goin', it'll be easier for me to understan' what is puzzlin' yo' de mos'. Hit's all a puzzle to me!" " Tell me just how you came to know me in- stantly?" said Angela. "I forgot to ask you last night." " Know you ? Well, I reckon ! You ain't changed so much thorn yo' baby looks in de first place, en in de nex', you'se got three signs in plain sight dat yo' is our lill Angela. Dat cow-lick on de side of yo' fo'head wuz enough foh me, let alone de dimple at de corner ob yo' sweet mouf sech a dimple ez I ain't never seen befo'. En dat lill scar awn yo' temple whah yo' mos' split yo' 67 68 ANGELA'S QUEST lill head open, fallin' off de woodpile when you was watch in' Lucas chop de wood." Angela smiled absent-mindedly. She had never seen these minute signs in her own face, mirrors being well-nigh unknown to her. "Now tell me whose house this is and how you came to be here ! " said Angela. " Dish yere is de house yo' Paw brought yo' Maw to awn dere wedding journey. Hit belonged to some kin folks ob hisn, en wuz for sale. Dey wuz so happy hyah, he done buyed it and put ole Lucas en me awn de place to keep it up. We'se been hyah fo' twenty yeahs. "Dey ain't never come back, dough ev'ry yeah dey write me dey'se a-comin'. En yeah in en yeah out me en Lucas kep de flo'es polish en de beds aired, expectin' v em. But dey never come, tell one night hit wuz de coldes' night I eber see, a hack drive up in de middle ob de night, en dere wuz an awful knockin' at de do', en when I got de do' open, in come yo' maw, lookin' as wild as any crazy woman yo' eber see. You wuz a lill ting, about tree years qld, en all wrapped up in huh arms. When I pulls huh in to de room. " ' Mammy,' she whispers, ' dey got him, en dey are af tah baby en me ! Hide us ! ' she say. I see she didn't quite know what she wuz sayin', so I tuk de baby dat wuz you en we pulled down de blin's en build up a roarin' fiah en got her quieted down some, but she wuz neber huhsef. We had to keep the house shut up by day en only go out at night, en ef I hadn't made huh lemme tek yo' out in de sunshine, you'd a been daid befo' now. Babies en chillen needs sunshine jes lake flowahs do. " I didn' neber believe all she said, caze I sholy thought she wuz crazy. She kep' tellin' me dat everybody thought yo' paw done run off en lef MAMMY TELLS HER STORY 69 huh, but she knowd dey'd got him hid somewhah. She neber mentioned no name, and ef I ax huh who got him, she would get so white en sick-lookin' en trimble so en go en hide away, till I quit axin' huh. " So we kep' awn livin' dat-away foh 'bout fo' yeahs. We had plenty ob money and yo' maw gib it out wid a free han'. She had hit in a big wooden box wid iron clamps awn it yas, honey " Stop ! " said Angela. " My mother is trying to say something. Look at her! What is it, darling? What it is you want to say?" " She always acks dat way when I tells 'bout de money in de strong box. But, honey, ef hit wasn't money, what was it? En why did dey come en " " Wait a moment ! " said Angela. " Can't you see that something you are telling disturbs her? She has been listening eagerly to everything until you told me about the money in the strong box. Do you see that? She is saying ' No ! ' What are you trying to say, mother dear? What was in the strong box? Was it money? No? What, then? What could be of great value? Papers! Were there valuable papers and letters in that box? Look at her, Mammy! Look at her eyes! She is weeping ! And doing her best to say * Yes.' We understand you, dear mother! Make yourself easy! Mammy, there was no money in that box. It was full of valuable papers." " Papahs ! " repeated Mammy. " Papahs ! " " Did you never see any of them, nor read them, Mammy?" asked Angela. Mammy picked nervously at her apron, and looked appealingly at her mistress, whose eyes were straining to express something, and roving eagerly from Mammy to Angela. " I I cyant read, pretty," faltered the old 70 ANGELA'S QUEST woman, at last. " No, nor write. En neither kin Lucas. Dat's why yo' po' maw has been so belt down. We couldn' write no lettahs fo' huh. Nor read dose dat done come. I'se opened all ob dem dat come en helt 'em whah she could read 'em, but dat wuz de end. We couldn't answer dem and she lake to had a fit at de mention ob anybody else seein' 'em." "Have any come lately?" asked Angela. " We ain't eben got a postal cyard in tree yeahs. 'Pears lake ev'rybody done forgot yo' po' maw am alive." " But that seems so utterly impossible," said Angela. " I have had little experience in the world, but Soeur Marthe, the dear nun who took care of us, has told me all about her life, so that I know much that I have never experienced, and I cannot understand how one could hide for years and not be hunted for by somebody. Surely my mother had relatives who much have been dis- tracted by her disappearance. Did she never get letters from any of them?" " She used to git all de newspapahs and read 'em till one day she done tole me she done read dat ' dey ' she ain't neber name 'em had 'nounced dat she was locked up in a 'sylum. * Dat means I am dead to de worl', Mammy,' she say. ' Let it go ! ' " Angela turned impatiently to her mother. "Who were these wicked people, dearest?" she said. "Were they enemies of my father? They were? Why? Did they want my father's life? No? Was he rich? No? Then they could not have wanted his money! What? They wanted his money? Yes? I can't understand her, Mammy ! " " Maybe dey wanted some power he had," sug- MAMMY TELLS HER STORY 71 gested the old black woman. " Dali ! Look at dat!" " He held some power they wanted? Yes, that must be it. But not quite. Were they in his power? Now, we've got it, Mammy! These ene- mies of my father were in his power! They were afraid of him of what he could do to them, weren't they, mother? And so what did they do with him? Is he dead? No? She doesn't seem to know. I'll ask her. Do you know where my father is now? No, she doesn't. Do you think they killed him? No? Then you must believe him alive. Do you think he is in prison? No? In an insane asylum? She doesn't know. You don't know what to think? I see." "Well, well, chile! Yo' done got mo' out ob huh in one hour dan I'se got in ten yeahs. Ef you keep awn, you'll get de whole story." " Mammy, how in the world have you managed all these years? If you had so much money, surely somebody must have been interested in you for just that.' 7 " Dey didn't git de chancet ! " said the old woman, her wrinkled face at once taking on a look of incalculable shrewdness. " When I see dat yo' maw was sot on keepin' hid, I knowd we mus' seem po', so is I tole you how de money comes? " " No," said Angela. "Awn de fust day ob each month, de express com- pany brings a package to de do', en in hit am two hundred dollahs in five-dollah bills." " You say that money comes every month? " asked Angela, aghast. " Did it come just that way before I was kidnapped?" " No, yo' maw had a lot, en we didn' spen' much. Hit commenced comin' af tah dey stole you ! " "Then the money comes from my kidnappers," 72 ANGELA'S QUEST said Angela. "And they must be, of course, the same ones who sent me to St. Ursula's, and who came every year to see if I was safe." " Did you evah git to see ary one of 'em? " asked Mammy, eagerly. " No, but I have heard the voice of one, and I know from Soeur Marthe that he has Chinese eyes. She has seen him face to face, but does not know his name. He lives in New York." Angela and Mammy were not looking at the in- valid as they were saying this, but Angela, hap- pening to glance up, was fairly terrified at the expression of pain and fear in her mother's eyes. They were flashing wildly from side to side, as if straining to express themselves in speech. " Do you know him, mother? Was he one of the men who stole me? He was? Oh, mother, cant you tell his name? Oh, how can I make her tell? " "Ain't dere such a ting as a d'rectory ob New York? Dey's got 'em in Jawdgetown," said Mammy, whose native shrewdness had been largely developed by ten years of trying to make the dumb lips of her beloved mistress communicate the thoughts of her walled-up brain. " There must be," said Angela, " but it would be so large it would take months to find his name. Oh I wonder! There must be a telephone direc- tory we had one at St. Ursula's, and in that < mother, if I could get a New York telephone di- rectory and begin the alphabet, could you tell me the names of those men? Yes? And their busi- ness? There, Mammy! I begin to see daylight!" Angela was much encouraged at the expression in her mother's eyes. The terror, the pain, even the anxiety was fading from them, and instead there was coming a look of relief, almost of tran- quillity. MAMMY TELLS HEK STORY 73 Could the impossible be about to happen? If Bhe could discover these men, would anyone help her to divine their motives and thus lead to pos- sible success? The young girl turned impetuously to Mammy again. " Is there no one who could help us, Mammy? " The old woman shook her head. "Sence de ole doctah died '' Angela started. She remembered the words she had heard through" the register " Now that the old doctor is dead who was called in when it hap- pened, the last one we need fear is out of the way ! '' Her heart sank as the hopelessness of her task was again forced upon her. Still, she could not utterly despair, since she had been thus marvel- lously sped on her way, she felt sure that it must be to some purpose. " Tell me about him," she said. " Dere ain't much to tell, honey, caze de mistis, she didn' want eben him aroun', dough he was one ob de bes' men dat eber lib. He got huh dis yere hospital cheer en hepped me to keep folks away from hyah. De mistis didn' want me to tell him a ting, but, honey, I was 'bleeged to go agin my darlin' in jes' dat one ting. I had to have advice thorn some white man, en I said to Dr. Callaway, * Is you a man of Gawd? ' En he said, ' Ole ooman, I cyant say dat I is. But I b'lieves in Him, en eben ef I didn', I wouldn' hahm a hair ob dat po', gentle lady's haid. So tell me what yo' feels dat yo' mus', en ef I kin be ob service, yo' kin comman' me! ' Dem wuz jes' his words. So den I tole him as much as I had tub, en he wrote letters en tried his bes', but he was jes' an ole-timey country doc- tah, what went aroun' in a ole chaise, docterin' 74 ANGELA'S QUEST people, mos' ob de time, widout pay. En I always felt in my bones dat he didn' know how to hep us. 5 ' " Then how did he get such a beautiful chair? '* asked Angela. The old woman permitted herself one of her rare laughs. " Honey, ef you could V seen him when he saw how fine en new fangled hit wuz, you'd 'a' knowd dat he wuz mo' surprised by hit's fineness dan we wuz. He cut a piece out ob a Washington papah and tole me he wuz goin' to write to some people what made cheers foh de sick, to send him de prices. Dey sent him a lill book, wid pictures, en de finest one tuk my eye. He laff when I said we wanted dat one, en he said, ' Ole ooman, yo' pride got tuh tek a fall. Dat's de highest price cheer made ! ' He wuz too polite to tell me to my face dat we couldn' afford it. So I jes' quietly ax him how much it cost, en when he tell me, I jes' retch my han' in my bosom, en pull out dis yere ole yarn stockin' of Lucas' en I handed out twenty dollahs mo* dan he ax foh. Honey, I sho wisht yo' could 'a' seen dat ole man's eyes pop. Hit done me good. I jes' leant back in my cheer en rocked awn a squeaky boa'd to show him I wuz rockin' as keer- less ez ef hit hadn' mos' kilt me to leggo ob so much money all at onct, caze den I didn' know dat mo' wuz comin' eve'y month. But I played de game, en atter dat he wuz so respeckful, ez well ez bein' kin' en pitiful, dat we wuz great friends. He neber call me ' ole ooman ' atter dat. He call me 1 Mammy.' " Angela laughed outright and the invalid's eyes smiled. " Didn't the news of your wealth get out after that? *' asked Angela. "No, indeedy, not aftah I done tole Dr. Calla- MAMMY TELLS HER STORY 75 way how hard I had to manage to keep it quiet. Yo' see, honey, Brer Tawmkins, what drove de hack yo' come in, is de treasurer ob our chutch, en he gits de mos' ob de collections in dimes en nick- els, so I tole him to save 'em all foh me, en I gibs him de new five dollah bills, en he's so proud to hab folks tink we got a man rich enough to put five dollahs in de collection plate, he mos' bus'. Den I deals out de ole woe-out money to de grocer en butcher, en nobody tinks we got anyting else.'' Angela's eloquent eyes spoke her appreciation of Mammy's story. Her mind, so naturally keen and so well trained by Soeur Marthe, w r as admirably adapted to appreciate the shrewdness by which this ignorant old woman had guarded her mis- tress and kept her whereabouts secret in a manner so cunning that many a more educated intelligence might well take lessons from her native wit. " It is wonderful, the way you have managed everything, dear Mammy," she said. " But go back to the place in your story where we branched off. No, just wait a minute. I want to ask one ques- tion." Angela turned to her mother. "Were those papers more valuable to anyone else than they were to you? " she asked, and in the most vehement affirmative the poor lady could give, she indicated they were. "What became of the strong box?" asked An- gela of Mammy. "One night," said the old woman, "Lucas had been to town foh some groceries, en yo' maw was sitting wid yo' in huh arms. You wuz a big girl 'long about seben yeahs old, nigh ez I kin 'member. You wuz asleep wid yo' putty curls all hangiri' ovah huh arm. Yo' maw had been habin' one ob huh wo'st days. She had been talkin' aloud to 76 ANGELA'S QUEST Tmhself en wringin' huh hands en goin' awn about yo' paw's havin' run off, en I wuz about wo' out wid tendin' to huh. "I reckon I mus' hab dropped asleep en my cheer, foh de fust ting I heerd wuz a shriek dat turned my blood to watali. I jumped up en run in, en dah lay yo' moth ah awn de flo' jes' lake she's dead. De strong box wuz gone, en yo' wuz gone, en all I could heah v, T uz a automobile racin' away in de darkness wid no one to call to er chase atter it nor do nothin'. " I pick up yo' maw en she jes' lake she is to- day. She had a stroke en she ain't never moved nor spoke sence." The old woman had told her story with no sense of self-consciousness had told it simply and plainly, but as Angela, through her tears, looked at the clean, well-kept house and the exquisite bodily condition of her mother, a sudden compre- hension of the faithfulness of these two ignorant old negroes swept over her. She sprang up and flung her fresh young arms around the old coloured woman, and kissing her on the cheek, she said: "You dear old faithful soul! It is due to you and to dear old Uncle Lucas and to your tireless care of her all these years that my precious mother is alive to-day. How can I ever thank you or love you enough for all your devotion to her? " The old coloured woman was frankly taken aback by this impulsive expression of gratitude. She had taken care of her mistress with no thought of reward or thanks, as a matter of course, duty often being to those devoted coloured people who served the whites so faithfully in years gone by, the one thing they performed instinctively. Mammy was greatly moved by Angela's caress. MAMMY TELLS HER STORY 77 Her face worked spasmodically for a moment, then two tears rolled down lier wrinkled cheeks. " De Lawd bress you, my pretty ! I ain't neber give de mattah a thought. I love yo' po' niothah lake she wuz my own baby, en ef I could 'a' kilt de man what stole you away and lef huh lake dis, I sho' would 'a' done hit. But I'se grateful foh yo' kiss, and I'll never forgit dat you give it to me." As Angela went back to her chair she saw that her mother was pleased with her for expressing to the old coloured woman what she could not say for herself. The girl knit her brow in deep thought. " There are so many things to be explained, which seemingly never can be explained," she cried. " Why was I stolen? Why did my father leave my mother? Who made him go? For that he ever left her of his own accord I will never believe! And see, Mammy! She does not believe it either! Were there some people who wanted to separate you from jealousy? No? Are there any letters or papers in this house which will throw any light on the mystery? No? Are the papers which were stolen in the possession of someone now? Could anyone get these back? Do you know who has them? And most of all, can I ever find out their names? " " Now, now, honey ! " warned the old woman. " I understan' yo' anxiety to know hit all in de fust few hours, but yo' ain't to excite yo' mothah too much all to onct! I ain't gwine hab huh sick. Jes' les' res' awhile en lemme ax you questions. De fust one is gwine be de same as de las' one. Don' yo' know anybody in all dis worl' who could hep us? " " Let me think," said Angela. CHAPTER X Three months after Alan Patrick had met and befriended a frightened girl on a train, he chanced to be walking up Fifth Avenue one bright morn- ing in the hope of meeting Midget Arbuthnot, who had contracted the habit of amusing herself by torturing him almost past bearing. But that he bore up under it and even sought to prolong and intensify his sufferings, was attested to by the fact that he flung himself in her path in the most reckless and frequent way. He haunted the places where she was wont to go, and cultivated each and every member of the Arbuthnot family in the servile and assiduous manner best known to lovers in the early and un- certain stages of similar courtships. On this particular day, his pertinacity was re- warded by meeting her, and she, being in a mood of unwonted amiability, or perhaps to raise him to a height of happiness whence it would be more amusing to dash him downward to despair later, invited him to come home to luncheon w^ith her. It was Sunday, and his time being more than usually his own on that day, he accepted with eagerness. He had not seen her more than once or twice in these three months, although daily letters had at- tested to his loyalty. As they sat down to the table the young man said: "Where is Ayres? " Midge gave him a quick look, replete with an 78 ANGELA FINDS A FRIEND 79 unmitigated scorn, that his face crimsoned with shame. Bettie looked up. "Why, didn't you know? Ayres is in Ber- muda." " No, he isn't, mother," said Midge, quickly. " It is as good a time to tell you now as any other. Ayres never went to Bermuda at all. He is right here in New York. He hasn't been away for even a day. We didn't intend to let you know just yet, and Mr. Patrick has been cautioned several thou- sand times not to give him away, yet he managed to do it the first time I have invited him into the house since the last time he offended me ! " Here Midge delivered a look at the unhappy youth which reduced him almost to tears, it was so distinct a threat of further punishment. "Oh, I I say! I'm so sorry, Midge! I clean forgot everything about it. Please forgive me ! " Midge narrowed her eyes at him, which, in sign language, meant "Forgive you? Never!" " Midget," said her father, " what do you mean? " " I mean," said the girl, " that Ayres has done the most splendid thing you ever heard of. He took another name even he was so afraid to use the pull of his own, and went down to the office of The Blazed Trail and hired out as a reporter just a common space writer at no fixed price or guarantee. He could only hope to be paid for what they took. And inside of three months they want to make a contract with him. Alan says that's going some, but it must be pure luck, for he says the editors of The Biased Trail have no heart and no brains and no ability. He says they just hold their jobs out of the old man's sheer good na- ture. And he ought to know. He's been with them for three years." 80 ANGELA'S QUEST A small portion of Alan's reportorial nerve re- turned to him, as he heard Midge thus quote his opinions as criterion to go by, but Midge was not looking at him. The quiet pleasure in her father's face and the open delight in Bettie's were what gave her the most joy, for the greatest charm of this family was its frank devotion to each other. " Tell us about it, Alan," said Mr. Arbuthnot. The young man straightened up and shot a glance of triumph at Midge, but it fell harmless from that young woman's armour of sisterly in- terest in her brother. Midge was thinking only of Ayres, and Alan saw it with a sinking heart. "There isn't very much to tell, sir," he said, " except that Ayres made good from the start. He never seemed to be a tenderfoot. To begin with, he looked the part. I found him an old sweater and a soft hat, and introduced him to the city editor, who happened that day to be in a meaner temper than usual. He said in his genial and ur- bane way, which so endears him to his subordi- nates, * Ordinarily I would have no use for you or the slush you will probably write. But Slawson is drunk, Hayman is shamming sick, and Carpen- ter has just had a convenient death in his family, so I'm short-handed. Cover that fire in the hold of the Auranatic. Men, women and children are being burned to death while you are standing there, wasting time in talk.' " " Good heavens, what a brute ! " cried Midge. "Worse than that!" said Alan. "Well, Ayres turned and shot out of that office without a back look. Personally I don't believe he went near the fire, but he turned in an account of it that made the old man telegraph from California to know who wrote it." " We read it ! " cried Bettie. " I remember it ANGELA FINDS A FRIEND 81 perfectly. I nearly cried my eyes out over the rescue of that mother and baby ! " Alan grinned and looked down at his plate. " What are you laughing at? " demanded Midge. "Fake!" said Alan, succinctly. "There was nobody in the hold but two Chinamen and three niggers. Nobody was killed, but after Ayres wrote what he thought ought to have happened, I'll bet some six thousand reporters in Greater New York were jumped on by their chiefs because they did not possess our young friend's virile imagination. We got out more extras on Ayres' fake than we had done in six months on real facts." " That sounds as if he were cut out for a news- paper man," observed Mr. Arbuthnot, drily. " Surest thing you know," said Alan. " And by the way, that reminds me. I think he signed a contract with them last night, for the old man was to leave for Florida this morning. If he did, Ayres might show up here to-day, because he has always told me he'd come home when he had made good." " I had no idea the lad took what I said so much to heart," said Mr. Arbuthnot, "but I never was more glad of anything than that he did." " There he is now ! " cried Bettie, jumping up from the table and running out of the room. " I hear his voice." A moment later mother and son appeared in the door of the dining-room, Bettie's flushed and smil- ing face making her look more like the tall young man's sister than his mother. Everybody greeted them rapturously. "Contract signed, old man?" asked Alan. " Signed, sealed, and delivered ! " answered Ayres, " and even yet they don't know who I am. My name is John Glendenning, ladies and gentle- man and Alan Patrick ! " 82 ANGELA'S QUEST V Midge laughed so heartily and so long at this somewhat antiquated form of wit, that Alan's very ears grew red, but by heroic stoicism, he forebore to make any comment or retort, much to Midget's secret regret. "Well, son, Alan has told us with Midget's help something of your success, and I want to say, my son, that I am proud of you," said Mr. Arbuthnot. Ayres flushed and the eyes of father and son met in a look which spoke volumes of con- fidence and mutual respect. "Here are some letters for you, Alan," said Ayres. " I hope most of them are bills, but this registered one I signed for and brought along, thinking maybe She wouldn't want to wait any longer than necessary." Ayres grinned happily when he saw his sister's eyes glue themselves jealously to the unmistakably woman's handwriting on the envelope. Alan scrutinised the postmark and writing, and then uttered an exclamation of pleasure. " I say ! I know who this is from ! " he cried. "Midge, you remember the time I told you about the runaway nun I found on the train coming up from Baltimore " " The time you were disguised as a clergyman? " interrupted Bettie. " Yes, yes ! I was always so interested to know more of her. If that's from her, open it and let's see what she says. She may be in trouble and need help." " If she does, I wonder if you would catch the afternoon train, Bettie dear," said Midge, imper- tinently. Alan, thus permitted, tore open the envelope of Angela's letter and read a few lines. " Well, here is a rum go ! " he exclaimed. " You ANGELA FINDS A FRIEND 83 know I lent her some money and she sent it back to me in the oddest way. Instead of a cheque or money order, she sent the exact amount in bills and silver by express. I wrote back to her again offering my services, for in her letter she said she was in deep trouble and wanted me to send her a New York telephone directory, which I did. That was about three months ago. Now she writes that it is part of her plan to come to New York to ob- tain work, and she wants to know if I could get her on to some newspaper, as what she has to do requires the assistance of that line of work. She adds that she has plenty of money, so that the sub- ject of pay need not be discussed! What do you think of that? " "Of course, she must come, the poor child! cried Bettie. " Write her to come directly to us, Alan, and perhaps we could help her." "You are a dear, Mrs. Arbuthnot," said Alan, "but this girl is an uncommon character, and I believe she is the key to some big secret. For that reason, I suspect that she will not want to come out in the open. Perhaps I oughtn't to have told you even this. I have a queer feeling about her a sort of hunch that she is a mystery. I will write her of course, and deliver your sweet invitation, but I don't believe she will come. Wait. Here's a P. S. ' Please don't mention this to a soul, as I have the best and most important reasons for keep- ing my intentions and whereabouts a secret. I only tell you, because I felt from the first that you were a man to be trusted, an and she moaned involuntarily. Instantly a figure which had been sitting by her side stirred and bent over her. Angela opened her eyes and encountered a glance which seemed vaguely familiar. " Are you better? " asked a man's voice. " Yes," answered Angela, but to her surprise, she could only whisper. " You are rather badly shaken up and bruised," the voice continued, " but the doctors say that no bones are broken and that you will be all right in a few days. Don't try to talk. I took the lib- erty of telephoning to your uncle and he answered that he would come for vou in his private car at once." " My uncle? " whispered Angela. " Yes, Miss Frobisher. Your uncle, Ealph Fro- bisher of New York. You were on your way to visit him, don't you remember? with your father." Angela turned so pale that the man hastily called a nurse. 98 IN WHICH FATE LEAD TKUMPS 99 Angela heard murmured reproaches in the nurse's voice and the man's answer, " I did not tell her! What do you take me for? " " There ! Take a sip of this, and you'll feel bet- ter ! " said the nurse holding a small glass to An- gela's lips. The girl obediently swallowed the stimulant and the colour crept back to her lips and cheeks. She opened her eyes again and was again puz- zled by something familiar in the appearance of the man's face which once more was within her vision. " Who are you? " she whispered impulsively. " My name is Ayres Arbuthnot," answered the young man, without thinking. Then he bit his lip in sudden remembrance, and added: " Nothing short of being uncommon knocked out by seeing you lying here, so long without moving, could have made me forget that I don't tell my real name when I am at work. I am a cub re- porter on the New York Biased Trail, and on that paper I am known as John Glendenning." When Angela again closed her eyes at this piece of news, the young man hastily decided to hold his tongue and say nothing more, since everything he said seemed to increase her weakness. She lay with closed eyes thinking quickly. She felt strangely weak and unreal, as if she might faint again, so she wished to think clearly as long as she had the power to think at all. She instantly saw how she had been identified as Angelica Frobisher by the letters and photo- graph in her bag, and she saw that she was to have a marvellous opportunity of meeting the man whom her mother believed % to be responsible for the wrecking of their lives. The only drawback to the wonder of it would 100 ANGELA'S QUEST be the testimony of the old man, Ralph Frobisher's brother, which would immediately convict her, if she were not most wary in her speech. Still she felt that she must take a chance. The nurse had gone and there would always be the supposition that young Arbuthnot had misunder- stood her or that weakness had confused her, should she be detected in her attempt to mislead. She opened her eyes once more and beckoned Ayres nearer. " Was my father hurt? " The man hesitated and drew back. Without realising it, Angela reached out her hand and seized his coat, drawing him nearer. " Tell me ! You need not be afraid ! Tell me ! " she murmured, eagerly. Drawn by the magnetism of her eyes, which wrung the trutk from him against his will, the young man answered and cursed himself for an- swering "Dead!" Without a word Angela's hand loosened, and dropped lifelessly on the coverlet and she lapsed into unconsciousness so nearly resembling death, that then and there the boy watching her knew himself to be a man, with a man's love born in his heart for the helpless girl before him, whose beauty had bewitched him at sight. CHAPTER XIII THE TURN OF THE DIE Upon what small things hang destinies! If Ralph Frobisher had kept his word to the reporter of the Blazed Trail who telephoned him from the scene of the wreck, and if he had actu- ally gone in his private car to fetch his injured niece and the body of his brother, the whole story of Angela's life would have been different. But just because there was an important meeting of the directors of the Central National Hemp Com- pany, Mr. Frobisher sent his private secretary, Howard Gallup, in the car, with instructions to use his own judgment and discretion in every- thing pertaining to the whole situation. Young Gallup was from one of the most dis- tinguished families in New York, who had fallen upon evil days which compelled the son to seek a livelihood regardless of his own taste in the matter. So that when he had the opportunity of becoming Ralph Frobisher's private secretary, he accepted it as a stepping stone to something bet- ter and daily swallowed his disgust and distrust of his employer. The regular train having left before the car could be got ready, after the telephone message was received, young Gallup promptly engaged a special engine, which was given the right of way and made a record trip, arriving at the impro- vised hospital about eight o'clock in the evening. He was not allowed to see Angela at first, for 101 102 ANGELA'S QUEST the possiblity of an opportunity to make the in- timate acquaintance of the enemy of her family had so unnerved the girl that she had gone from one faint into another, until, with the shock and her bruises, the nurse feared a total nervous col- lapse. Howard Gallup, therefore, was forced to con- tent himself with the doctor's statement that it would be safe to move Miss Frobisher, even though she remained unconscious, while he busied himself with attending to the removal of the old man's body in its cheap casket to the baggage car of the special train. As Angela was lifted onto a stretcher, the young man was strangely thrilled to see a long rope of reddish gold hair fall from her pillow and trail on the ground. Hastily he sprang forward and lifted it back to its place and as he did so he caught a glimpse of her clear, beautiful profile, looking like marble in her death-like faint. He caught his breath and leaned forward in the dim light for a closer scrutiny, then feeling his emotion observed, he turned and met the eyes of Ayres Arbuthnot fixed squarely upon him. They recognised each other with the veiled hos- tility of two men who suddenly realise that they are interested in the same woman. " Ah, Mr. Glendenning the reporter who wishes to make copy of my employer ! " said young Gallup. " Ah, Mr. Gallup, who refuses for the present . to grant me the privilege! " returned Ayres, with his pleasant grin, showing rows of very white and beautiful teeth. " For the present! " repeated Mr. Gallup. " You think, then, that I shall weaken?" " From what I know of you, you'll either THE TURN OF THE DIE 103 weaken and help me or you'll quit your job! I don't know which ! " " The latter perhaps! The former never! " an- swered Gallup. " I like loyalty," remarked Ay res, " though in this case it does interfere with what I am making my business." " You seem to have the happy faculty of mak- ing many things your business," returned Gallup. " How does it happen that you are here? " " Sent by my paper to accompany the first relief train out from New York. Got a great story! " " You will not mention Miss Frobisher, I trust ! " said Gallup, quickly. Arbuthnot's face flushed. " It is unnecessary for you to interfere with my concerns ! " he said hotly. " Even a reporter for a yellow journal may possess the instincts of a gentleman and he needn't thereby lose his job either, if he doesn't allow aforesaid instincts to become too prominent," " I beg your pardon ! " said Gallup. Ay res pulled a photograph from his pocket. " This is what identified her to me. You see it has her name on the back. I found it in her bag and took it, so that none of the other fellows could get it. The staff artist is a friend of mine and an awfully decent little chap, so I even persuaded him not to draw her, though naturally, he was wild to." " Thank you. You have been very kind. I can assure you that Mr. Frobisher will greatly appre- ciate your delicacy." Ayres looked at him a moment. Then he said: " Do you believe that? Have you been that man's private secretary for six months and don't know that he would be delighted if we had used 104 ANGELA'S QUEST his niece's picture? Don't you know the calibre of Ralph Frobisher, let alone his real character, that you imbue him with your own gentlemanli- ness? " "Perhaps you are right," answered the secre- tary. " Then please let me thank you ! " " No, I don't think I will even do that ! " an- swered Ayres Arbuthnot, putting his hands in his coat pockets and looking Howard Gallup straight in the eyes. "If you want to know why I kept her picture out of the paper I will tell you it was because 7 didn't want to see it in! " For a moment the two stood looking directly at each other. Then Gallup dropped his eyes first. Ayres Arbuthnot possessed the stronger will. " You will excuse me," said Gallup. " I see the nurse is signalling me. We are about to start. As we have the right of way, will you go back to town with us? '' " Thanks, no. I am expecting a friend of mine down on the local which gets here in half an hour. Then our own train will start back." "But your story of the wreck?" asked Gallup. " Shall I take that in for you?" Ayres grinned again. " Thanks, no," he said. " I telephoned it all in the moment I arrived. Made it up on the way down all but the names. If you don't mind, though, I'd like to go aboard and ask the nurse if there is anything I can do for her or her pa- tient. May I?" " By all means ! " Ayres found Angela comfortably settled in one of the most luxurious cars he had ever seen. Its ornateness, however, was only accentuated by the delicate loveliness of the young girl who lay on the bed in the blue satin boudoir. THE TURN OF THE DIE 105 His father's private car was equally luxurious, but in far better taste. " Has she revived at all?" he asked anxiously. " Just as we were laying her down, she opened her eyes and asked where she was, and when I told her that her kind uncle had sent this car with orders to take her home to his house, she gave a sort of cry and fainted again. I think we ought to have one of the doctors go with us. I don't like these successive faints. I am afraid she may be injured internally." "Til get Dr. Cuyler. He's the best one!" said Ayres. " Oh, but he can't be spared ! " cried the nurse. " He is the one in charge of the relief train ! " " It doesn't make any difference what he is in charge of! If Miss Frobisher needs him, he will go back in this car!" said Ayres in a low tone, whose sternness caused the nurse to look at him in astonishment. They held the special while Dr. Cuyler was hastily fetched, very weary and thoroughly glad to go. Then after extracting a reluctant permission from Howard Gallup to be allowed to call and inquire how Angela stood the journey, Ayres swung himself off the train after it had begun to move. He waited impatiently for the local, upon which he expected Alan Patrick, for the arrival of this train gave The Blazed Trail relief train the right of way back to New York. When the local pulled in, Alan fairly fell off the car in his haste to reach Ayres. " My God ! Was she hurt ? You never men- tioned her name in your list ! " he shouted. " Was who hurt? " asked Ayres, in bewilderment, 106 ANGELA'S QUEST for in his excitement Alan was shaking him by his coat lapels. " Angela ! Angela Cravanath, you fool ! You knew she was coming on this train. Midge told you! / told you! You knew the reason I wasn't at the office this morning was because I was catch- ing up so I could meet her and devote the rest of the afternoon to her. Where is she? " " She isn't here. She wasn't on board. I saw everyone," rejoined Ayres, remembering every- thing Alan told him, now that it was recalled to his mind. " Not on board ! " repeated Alan. " Why, she must have been ! She telegraphed me ! Was there no one answering to her description reddish gold hair, pretty and young? " " The only one in the least like that was Miss Frobisher, the niece of that hound Ralph Fro- bisher, whose trail I am on. Her father was in- stantly killed and she was badly shaken up. Fro- bisher had the decency to send his car for the girl and his brother's body, and it's just gone. She was rather like that and by the way now that you mention it, her name is Angelica Angelica Frobisher! " " Was she very pretty? " asked Alan, looking puzzled. " Wait ! I've got her picture. I kept it out of the paper, because the moment I looked at her, I knew she wouldn't want it in. Here it is ! " Alan took the photograph in his hand. " That's Angela Cravanath ! " he said. " It can't be," returned Ayres. " Look, here is the name across the back Angelica Frobisher ! " Alan shook his head. "I always said there was some mystery about her. That is the girl I met on the train. There THE TURN OF THE DIE 107 were never two faces so much alike. It's the same girl!" " Well, whoever she is, she is on her way to Ralph Frobisher's house as his niece and in a dead faint!" " In a dead faint ! " repeated Alan. " Then I am sure of it. There'll be a big story there some day!" Ayres seized his shoulder. " There will never be a story in our paper about that girl no matter who she is! Do you under- stand?" CHAPTER XIV THE FIRST CLUE What his father had said of the mysterious dis- appearance of the man Cravanath had always teased Ayres' memory. Then came his meeting and falling in love with a beautiful girl whom he had at first supposed to be the niece of a man he heartily despised, but whom Alan declared to be no less than his young friend Angela Cravanath. Ayres remembered her fainting spells, which had occurred with such alarming frequency after she had regained consciousness and found whither she was bound. He thought of these things and wondered. The result was that the card of Mr. John Glen- denning was handed in to the President of The Globe Harvesting Company, causing that gentle- man to smile broadly. His stenographer, who was taking down a most important letter in French, was surprised to be dismissed in the midst of it, in Mr. Arbuthnot's usual gentle manner. When Ayres entered, both men seemed to be intensely amused about something. "Well,. son?" said Mr. Arbuthnot. " You must excuse me for interrupting you at this hour," said Ayres, "but my time is not my. own. I can't see you at home, so " " As my time is not so valuable " suggested his father, smiling. Ayres grinned. " Just so. Well, I'll get to the point at once. I own I am curious to know what became of that 108 THE FIRST CLUE \ 109 man Cravanath you mentioned the other day. Would you mind telling me just what his inven- tion was and how it would have helped your busi- ness? " " Certainly not. I'll tell you all I know. But why are you interested? Do you propose to find him? " Ayres leaned back, stretched his legs and thrust his hands into his trousers' pockets. " It sounds like a big contract for a cub re- porter to engage in, doesn't it? But I do believe that is coming to be my purpose. What you told us interested me, and when I went down on that relief train Tuesday I saw a girl she was the most beautiful creature I ever saw in my life, father! who was identified as Angela Frobisher, niece of that scoundrel Ralph Frobisher. Her father was killed and she was badly hurt, but Fro- bisher sent his car down in charge of that nice young chap, Howard Gallup, and took the body and his niece to his home. The queer part of it comes in that Alan says Miss Frobisher is his Angela Cravanath ! " " That is very odd ! " said Mr. Arbuthnot. "Very odd indeed. What did the girl say?" " She was unconscious most of the time and said almost nothing. I sat by her cot for three hours." His father looked at him suddenly. Ayres met his glance without flinching. " I'm going to marry her " he said, quietly. His father moved his pencil up and down on his desk thoughtfully for a moment. Then he looked up and said: " That is what I said the first time I ever saw your dear mother! " " Then you understand ! " said Ayres. " That 11.0 ANGELA'S QUEST girl made me over she made a man of me just lying there unconscious, and letting me love her for three hours. I don't believe her name is Fro- bisher and I never will until she tells me so. Here is her photograph. Bead the name." Mr. Arbuthnot took the picture. "The name proves nothing, but this face re- minds me of the man, Christopher Cravanath. It has the same highbred, patrician look." " The girl is ten times more beautiful than the photograph. There is more breadth between the eyes, and a look of greater purity. My Angela looks her name even more than this, though this face is beautiful." " Rarely beautiful and of a most unusual type," said his father. " God bless you, son, if you are really in love and I don't think you are one to be mistaken in a thing like love." " I don't believe I am either, father. I've never felt anything like this before. It's just about what I expected it to be, only worse and more of it ! And then, the uncertainty ! " " I know, dear lad. But you will solve the rid- dle. You have met and talked with her and you know where she is. But Frobisher! I can't figure that part of it out," "Nor I! I hope she will prove to be a Crava- nath. Now tell me what of that man and his in- vention?" " Well, let me see. He claimed to have in- vented a machine for taking fibre from the waste product of the fruit-bearing banana trees. Of course I need not remind you that our hemp comes from another sort, and is practically the only thing now on the market for the manufacture of rope. In our business we could have used his product for our binder twine, and the samples he THE FIRST CLUE 111 showed me were so infinitely superior to Manila hemp that on his first visit to me I offered him a contract, at just double the price we are pay- ing, for all he could deliver to us." "Why didn't he take you up?" asked Ayres. " He did, apparently. He seemed very much pleased by my offer ,and said it made his way quite clear." " Rather sounds to me," said Ayres, " as if he had been sent to you to get your opinion." " That might have been," responded his father, " for he said that the drawings of his machines were in the hands of the Central National Hemp Company, and that they had promised to organise a company to manufacture his machines." "Was Frobisher's name mentioned?" asked Ayres excitedly. "No. He mentioned only Marvin Cray. Cra- vanath said Cray was a personal friend of his. The man was at that time Frobisher's private sec- retary. But later Cray denied knowing him." " When Cravanath never came back, did you ever mention his visit and business to Frobisher? " " Yes, some years afterward, I happened to sit next to him at a public banquet and I asked him, whatever had become of the man and his inven- tion. He denied ever having heard of it or him, and when I told him of what Cravanath had said, he declared he must have been simply a crazy in- ventor, just as Cray did. I therefore dismissed the subject for the time being and thought pos- sibly he had been only a dreamer and had ro- manced." " I don't believe it," said Ayres, positively. " Did you notice nothing particular in Frobisher's manner when the subject came up? Did he change colour or refuse to meet your eyes? Did 112 ANGELA'S QUEST his hand tremble? Did he take a drink? Did he let his cigar go out?" Mr. Arbuthnot looked at his son in astonish- ment. " I don't remember," he replied. " I was not then unduly suspicious, nor was I looking for a criminal. But from your questions, I think you have the making of a detective in you." " Or a reporter," answered Ayres. " No, I am nothing unusual in my line, but the job of a rer porter for a yellow journal sharpens dull wits. I wish I had, right now, your chance of question- ing that rascal. I believe him capable of any crime." " I am afraid I must agree with you," said his father. " Ralph Frobisher's business methods are such as to bring dishonour upon all the rest of us who must naturally associate with him in the course of our business dealings." " I would like to be the one to run him to earth," said Ayres. " And perhaps I shall. I know enough on him now to ruin him. But as matters stand, he is too securely entrenched to touch. But I'll get him yet!" " One thing more,'' said Mr. Arbuthnot. " Mr. Cravanath gave me the idea that he had some means that is to say, he was not at all the type of the usual penniless inventor, who is afraid of being obliged to sell his invention for a song. He mentioned owning a large plantation in the Island of Estrellada where he had personally conducted his experiments. The name of it was >" He paused and frowned thoughtfully. Ayres sat with every muscle drawn tense. " I can't think ! " murmured Mr. Arbuthnot. " Possibly it will come to me later." Ayres gave a gesture of impatience. " But didn't you write anything down? Surely THE FIRST CLUE 113 you must have some record of so important a sug- gestion? Did he leave you no sample? What? Father! Have you a sample of that fibre? " The elder man's slower blood began to take fire from his son's eager interest. He rose and went to his vault. Entering it, he opened a steel box with a key which he took from his own key ring. Hastily searching there, he presently returned with a handful of long, silky white fibre to which was attached a small parchment tag, and on that tag some words were written in red ink. Mr. Ar- buthnot read them aloud. " From the plantation of Christopher Crava- nath, Hermosillo, Estrellada." Ay res fairly snatched it from his father, with fingers which trembled visibly, and hurried to the window. Presently he uttered an exclamation: " Father ! " he said, hoarsely. " You read the name wrong. It says ' From the plantation of Angela Cravanath!' The plantation belongs to his daughter." " It might have meant his wife," suggested his father. " Possibly their names were the same." " Possibly. But that is not the point. What interests me is that here is an authentic record of the name signed to those letters of Alan's An- gela Cravanath. I believe on my soul that that girl is hunting her father and that she is no more Angelica Frobisher than I am ! " Ayres came forward with a rush. " Good-bye, father ! I've got what I wanted and more! Sorry to have taken so much of your time." As the door slammed, Mr. Arbuthnot took off his glasses and wiped them. Then he smiled. CHAPTER XV THE HOUSE OF DISCORD When Angela came to herself, she awoke to find all her surroundings strange. She felt weak and ill and lonely. She was in constant pain, and when she realised where she must be actually in the house of Ralph Fro- bisher a great panic overtook her and a wild no- tion came into her mind to escape before anyone knew she had come to her senses. She made an effort to rise, but found she was too weak. Then she lay still and thought. She saw that she was in a luxurious, lace- trimmed, satin-hung bed, in a room ornately done in blue and gold. Oval gold mirrors were let into walls hung in blue brocade, while blue and gold chairs, fit for a drawing-room, and an inlaid gilt bureau and dressing-table, suitable for the state bed-chamber of a crown princess, struck one like a blow. A magnificent blue satin couch, heaped with lace and embroidered pillows, stood against one wall, while over it was thrown an ermine rug worth a small fortune. On the floor were priceless Persian silk rugs of a texture to drive a connoisseur wild with delight, but far too costly and precious to be walked on. In a sultan's palace they would have graced the walls, but that which an Eastern monarch has the taste to respect the average American millionaire spreads beneath his feet. And if he can so man- age that the monarch can see how his treasures 114 THE HOUSE OP DISCORD 115 are treated by a man who has nothing but money, his satisfaction in the desecration is enhanced by so doing. Angela was too inexperienced to realise the cost of the pictures on the walls original paintings suitable for a museum, or to understand the value of the ornaments and the clock on the mantel. But the whole thing struck her unpleasantly. She thought of the repose of the stately antique furnishings of her mother's bed-chamber, the ex- quisite taste of which she now began to realise by force of contrast. From the style of her bedroom, Angela could picture the Frobisher family. The door was standing ajar and from the hall, Angela could hear voices. Untrained and raucous they were, often raised in shrill accents of argu- ment and contradiction, and once in a while punc- tuated by angry crying. Then a door opened somewhere and a harsh voice said: " I don't care what you want ! You've made a fool of yourself and you can get out of it the best way you can. You wouldn't listen to me. You were obstinate and pig-headed, now get yourself out of your mess. Don't come whimpering to me about it. And do shut up crying. I've got to go and see how that girl is ! " " That girl " was shivering and cowering in her bed, trying to get away from the impending inter- view. She looked up trembling. " Oh, you're awake, are you? I'm your Aunt Maude. What's the matter with you? Have you got fever? I'm scared to death that you'll have it yet. The doctor will be here in a few minutes and then I'll know. I've had all your clothes burned." " Burned ! " exclaimed Angela involuntarily. "Certainly! Burned! I can't think why your 116 ANGELA'S QUEST father should have done such an awful thing as to bring you right from a school where there was an epidemic of scarlet fever, straight into my house. It's a good thing he was killed before I got a chance to tell him what I thought of him. And you can thank your lucky stars that your Uncle Ralph is a kind-hearted man, for he wouldn't hear to my packing you off to a hospital, but made me keep you right here, though I told him, if you had it, we'd have to burn everything in this room, and it cost fifty thousand dollars to furnish it, not counting the painting on the ceil- ing which cost another twenty thousand. How do you feel? " " Cold ! " answered Angela, and indeed her teeth were chattering from fear and nervousness. " Cold ! That's good ! I'm glad you didn't say hot. What do you feel as if you could eat? You can have anything you want in this house ! " " I am not hungry," whispered Angela. "What are you whispering for? Are you that weak? My land! That means you must be pretty sick. Well, I'm not surprised. It wouldn't do for you to be seen at the funeral anyhow. It isn't proper. We are going to have it to-morrow. I think it's right I should tell you." Angela began to sob nervously. " Now don't take on ! " said her aunt. " I had to tell you. Your nurse is at breakfast. I do hate trained nurses. They always upset the servants, but your uncle would have one for you, though the third chambermaid could have waited on you per- fectly well. Could you eat an egg beaten up with brandy real fine brandy? Your uncle imported it himself, and it cost eleven dollars a bottle, so you see it's good. Do you feel as if you could get get that down?" 117 " No, I thank you," said Angela. " Then what do you want? " "A little toast, please, and a cup of tea." " All right. I'll ring for it. Oh ! one thing more ! I found out from those letters to your father in your bag, that you didn't bring all your clothes from Miss Simpson's, so I want you to write just the minute you feel able to sit up and tell her to burn them, just where they are. I don't want them sent here. I'll buy you all you need and much finer things than you probably ever saw. Your uncle is just made of money, and whatever we want we have. We can pay the piper! Will you do that?" " Certainly," murmured Angela. "Oh, perhaps I'd better send a telegram. I'll just say, 'Don't think of forwarding Miss Fro- bisher's belongings. Destroy everything for fear of infection,' and sign my name to it. That will be quicker and I can do that to-day. Shall I? " "If you like," answered Angela, in a weak voice. " Well, I'll do it and get it off my mind. What'd you say?" " I asked if you burned those letters in my bag? " " No, I didn't. I didn't burn anything in your bag. It looked so new I thought it was safe to keep it, because, after all, if you've brought the fever into this house, it's in you, just as much as it was in your clothes. I didn't think of that, though, till after I had burned them. They weren't much, so you won't miss them. As I said, I'll get you plenty more. There isn't a stingy bone in my body, as you'll find out before you've been here very long." Answering a discreet knock at the door, Mrs. Frobisher called out: 118 ANGELA'S QUEST "Bring this young lady some toast and tea!" There was pause, then an apologetic: " Pardon, madame ! " " Oh, my Lord ! It's that fool of a Frenchman, Francois, Madame Jaquelin sent me. She said he could speak English, but he can't. Nor understand it either. If he wasn't such a stunning looking creature, I'd send him packing. What shall I do? I don't suppose you can speak French. I never heard of a girl from a boarding school who could. Your cousin Evangeline can't say ten words, and I'll bet I've paid a thousand dollars for her French lessons alone. What? " " I can speak it. Ask him to come in," said Angela, quietly. Her aunt went to the door and beckoned the man in. He came with the quiet tread and deft manner of a perfectly trained servant. " Un morceau du pain grille et du th6, s'il vous plait!" said Angela in her gentle voice. " Avec du beurre, mademoiselle, ou du lait? " "Avec du beurre. Tres sec et tres chaud," an- swered Angela, with a smile at the man's eagerness to please. " Bon ! Je vais 1'apporter toute de suite, made- moiselle," answered Francois, bounding to the door like a rubber ball. " Well, I never! " said Mrs. Frobisher. " That's the first time he has looked pleasant since he came. He looks like Caruso, don't you think so? W T ith that thick neck and those huge shoulders? Most tenors are so little and thin, I can't bear to look at ? em. I love to watch Caruso, don't you?" " I don't know," said Angela, wincing as a door slammed loudly near by. Her head was still ach- ing painfully. " I never saw him." THE HOUSE OP DISCORD 119 " Evangeline ! " called Mrs. Frobisher. Evangeline, the trained nurse, Miss Carson, and Francois with the breakfast, all entered at once, and loud talking which no one tried to quell, was immediately begun. Angela observed the looks of positive dislike the Frenchman bestowed upon all but herself, and the subject of how to post a letter to her mother was practically solved in her mind. She was sure that if he were told it must not be mentioned to any- one in the house, it would be a pleasure for him to do any service for her. Evangeline and Angela examined each other carefully, betraying their natures in so doing. Angela looked at the newcomer frankly and pleasantly, predisposed to be friendly, whereas Evangeline studied the prostrate figure of her sup- posed cousin with curiosity and a quickly formed jealousy, her suspicious nature at once jumping to the conclusion that any girl as beautiful as Angela would try in every way to usurp the prerogatives of any other girl in the arena. Angela felt the antagonism of her cousin's man- ner and shrank from her. When the doctor was announced, Evangeline left the room quickly, and thus escaped the re- proof which the nurse received for allowing such confusion in the sickroom. " It won't be scarlet fever, will it, doctor? " asked Mrs. Frobisher, anxiously. " Evangeline has had it and so did I, when I was a child, but Neddie hasn't had it." " It is much more likely to be brain fever if the young lady is not kept more quiet," said the doctor brusquely, but in too low a tone for Angela to hear. His visit was short, but his directions were ex- plicit. The nurse listened to them haughtily. 120 ANGELA'S QUEST It was the second day before Angela managed with pencil and paper to write to her mother a short account of the strange happenings which had befallen her. "They are all dreadful, but the sight of my * uncle ' fllla me with more terror than all the others put together. His face makes me believe him ca- pable of all the papers say of him, which his son takes perfect delight in reading to me, showing an inhuman glee in the abuse heaped upon his father. His name is Ned, but his mother calls him Neddie, much to his mortification. Ned says his father would go to jail as soon as anything if he didn't have so much money. He says he is being looked out for. "I dislike being in this house more than I can say, but I was so sure you would want me to come and stay, if once I got here, and the stake is so vitally important if we win, that I am willing to sacrifice everything to do what I feel would be your bidding. If I am correct, send me the en- closed telegram with just one word 'yes,' which I shall understand. This has my new name and ad- dress. " As soon as I am well, I will try to manufacture an excuse to go and see you, though I fear it will be difficult and perhaps impossible." Angela read and re-read her letter very care- fully to see, even if Francois played her false and showed the letter, what would incriminate her. Suddenly she realised that the address on the en- velope would be enough. If Mrs. Frobisher were in her husband's confidence the mere name Yorke would be sufficient condemnation. In an agony of anxiety she waited, until one day Mrs. Frobisher lost her temper entirely and scolded Francois in such shrill English that, although he THE HOUSE OF DISCOKD 121 understood nothing of what she said, his flaming face betrayed his humiliation and anger. This was Angela's chance. Before he had time to cool down, she managed to say to him: " It would make my aunt very angry if she knew I was writing to this lady. May I trust your dis- cretion to post it for me secretly and with your own hands?" Francois put the money back into her hand, ground his teeth and almost snatched the letter. Angela told Francois that the answer to her let- ter would be a telegram, which she desired to re- ceive secretly. The Frenchman promised to see that it was delivered to her without the knowledge of even one of the other servants. On the second day it came the telegram con- taining just the one word 'yes.' Angela immedi- ately experienced such relief that she realised how much of her bad feelings were due to anxiety as to her mother's approval. It gave her joy to realise that her new-found treasure of a mother to work for and sacrifice for and love, was all that she needed to make even her ill-starred life a happy one. Angela never pitied herself. She was full of a splendid courage, and her sincerity of purpose and utter absence of duplicity set her feet on the road to true happiness. She rejoiced to have some- one belonging to her, for whom it was a pleasure to sacrifice herself. As in this instance. Angela soon named the magnificent mansion of the Frobishers, The House of Discord. But she did not realise that from the moment the refined and gentle girl entered its massive doors, her in- fluence manifested itself in its inmates, lessening the discord, and rendering all its warring elements more harmonious. 122 ANGELA'S QUEST But she herself was not happy. She soon found herself in the midst of positive hardships. Her aunt Maude tolerated, but did not like her. Evan- geline hated her. Ned was rapidly falling in love with her, and her supposed uncle, Kalph Fro- bisher, so frankly admired her whenever he was in the house, which was very little, that it made her uncomfortable in his presence. Howard Gallup was her only comfort, and soon this comfort was removed when she discovered by unmistakable signs that he, too, had fallen a vic- tim to her beauty of face and loveliness of char- acter. Secretly she still cherished the image of Ayres Arbuthnot as she had seen him last, bending over her cot, with his handsome face full of anxiety and helplessness the honest helplessness of a man who is eager to do everything, but who knows how to do nothing. She knew that he had called once, for her aunt was full of complacence at being noticed by one of the Arbuthnots, and had reported his call and de- lightedly brought up his flowers and placed them with her own hands in Angela's room. But after the first day she heard nothing more. She thought she detected a desire on Francois' part to tell her something, but the nurse or some- one was always in the room and he was evidently afraid to risk it. Finally one day he brought her tray when no one was in the room but Mrs. Frobisher. The Frenchman turned at the door, just as he was about to leave the room, and with superb ef- frontery said: "Mademoiselle is being robbed as well as de- ceived. The young gentleman who sent flowers the first day calls each morning in person, and sends THE HOUSE OF DISCORD 123 daily boxes of superb flowers of which mademoi- selle never hears. They are stolen by the ugly daughter of the house, who vainly wishes that they were sent to her. Has mademoiselle any message to send? God be thanked, the young man speaks French like a Parisian." Angela's telltale face flushed crimson under her aunt's sharp and suspicious glance, which flew from one to the other, as the Frenchman contin- ued to mystify her by his torrent of rapidly-spoken words. " Yes. Tell him that I am grateful for his kind- ness, and that soon I shall be well enough to thank him in person." Francois, beaming with joy at thus being per- mitted to assist in an affair of this sort, bowed and withdrew. Instantly Mrs. Frobisher's worst side appeared. "What was he saying to you? Why did you turn so red? Answer me ! And why did you thank him? I understand that one word ! I also under- stand that you said you would do something in person ! Now, you just tell me the whole thing ! " Angela, when her aunt began, expected to be frightened, but the vulgarity of the woman defeated her intention to intimidate, for Angela found her- self luite calm and collected. " I am very sorry, Aunt Maude," she said, " but it is quite impossible for me to tell you what he said or what I replied. If you like, I will go out of your house this very day, because I have resisted your authority, but I am sorry to be obliged to refuse to tell you." Mrs. Frobisher looked at the frail figure of the girl in astonishment. She ruled her entire family by means of her shrill voice, her bitter words, and uncontrolled temper. And so terrible were these 124 ANGELA'S QUEST weapons in her hands that seldom or never was she defied. That this friendless girl in her house on sufferance and wholly, as she believed, depend- ant on her bounty, should dare to disobey her, roused her to a frenzy. She came and stood over the couch where An- gela lay, and fairly shaking with fury, she began to shout at her, hurling her dependence in her face, sneering at her, taunting her, and boasting in every other sentence of the limitless power of her husband's wealth. " I tell you you don't know me ! You don't know what I can do! When I do a thing, people stand from under. Money, such as ours, buys every- thing. It buys the respect of the common herd. It buys exclusiveness. Why, you don't suppose that I need to mix with common people of your class, unless I want to, do you? On board ship I sent my courier and maid to the captain's table in our reserved places, while we had a private table of our own ! You didn't know that, did you? Well, you know it now! And for a snip like you to say * I won't ' to me to me, Mrs. Ralph Fro- bisher! W r ell, just you wait until I tell your uncle! That's all!" " I shall not wait for you to tell him," said An- gela, quietly. " I shall leave a note for him telling him just why I have gone ! " These quietly spoken words produced a curious effect upon the angry woman. "Why you have gone!" she stuttered. "Why you have gone! And where do you expect to go, may I ask, with no money and no friends and no clothes, except what I choose to give you?" For reply Angela handed her a letter from Alan Patrick, which told of his having secured space work on The Blazed Trail for her on account of THE HOUSE OF DISCORD 125 the samples of her work she had submitted. The letter was addressed to Miss Frobisher, as Angela had been obliged to take him still further into her confidence. " Well, I never ! " exclaimed Mrs. Frobisher. "Of all the impudence! A niece of Ralph Fro- bisher a common reporter! Just you wait until I show this to your uncle ! He'll fix you ! So ! You weren't satisfied with all we could do for you, but you must have a job to fall back on, in case our treatment of you did not suit your High and Mightiness! I see through you all right, all right, young lady! Holding that red head of yours so high! Just you wait until your uncle hears of this! I'll see to it that you don't leave until he comes ! " And with that Mrs. Frobisher walked swiftly to all the doors leading out of Angela's suite, locked them and took the keys with her. After she had locked Angela in, she knocked on the door and laughed harshly, saying: " Come out now, if you can ! " As soon as she heard her aunt's door close, An- gela took up the telephone which stood on a low table beside her couch, intending to call Mr. Fro- bisher and demand to be released at once, for her outraged pride was up in arms. Then she set the instrument down again. " No," she said to herself, " that is not the way." She lay back and closed her eyes. How would her mother or Soeur Marthe meet such a crisis as this? CHAPTER XVI WITH THE MASK OFF Mr. Frobisher was unusually late in coming home that evening. His wife went to the door of his dressing-room several times and listened, and once, hearing footsteps, she looked in, but it was only Higgins, the valet, laying out his master's evening clothes. When finally he did come in, he dismissed his servant and sank heavily into an easy chair, worn in mind and body, with the anxieties and menaces of a hard day. But his wife was not one to take account of the signs of storm in his face. She burst in upon him in a pink mirror velvet dinner gown, and with a torrent of words, she poured forth the story of Angela's insubordination, and the clever manner in which she had punished her. She expected to be praised for the deed, for her husband usually cajoled her in that way. But this time she received a rude shock. " Locked her in, did you? And thought you had her claws cut? Fool! She's got a telephone at her elbow ! She could telephone to Chicago if she wanted to ! Sh^ has probably called up everybody she ever knew, and told them that her aunt had locked her in her room before she had even recov- ered from the terrible railroad accident or the shock of her father's death ! A nice story that will be in to-morrow's papers! I can just see The Blazed Trail! The front page will have your pic- ture and hers, with headlines two inches high." " Oh ! oh ! " gasped Mrs. Frobisher. " If she has 196 WITH THE MASK OFF 127 done that, I'll I'll kill her! I'll scratch her eyes out!" "If you are going to scratch anybody's eyes out, you'd better begin on your own. You did the mis- chief! It's all your fault. If The Biased Trail gets that story, I am done for! Knocked out! They're all after me. Everything is coming out. I've been indicted by the Grand Jury on ninety- four counts. Every single thing I did with the Inter-Ocean Insurance Company has come out, and the howl which will go up when this story is printed to-morrow will make you wish you were dead. There is one reporter on The Blazed Trail who has made it so hot for me, I could kill him with my own hands. Gallup says he is the son of Squires Arbuthnot. His name is Ayres. He sent flowers to Angela the first day she was here. I had it in mind to see if he really had noticed the girl, and if so, to invite him to dinner to-morrow night to meet her. But here you've ruined it by what you consider your infernal smartness ! That was about my only chance, for he is on the trail of the most dangerous thing I ever did in my whole life you know what I mean the Cravanath affair. If I can only get out of the country until people have had time to forget ! The District Attorney holds out the hope that I won't be prosecuted on account of ' lack of sufficient evidence.' But if the Cravanath affair gets to the public, I'd be in jail within two hours." Mrs. Frobisher sank into a chair, trembling with fear and rage and humiliation. Her husband stared at her pitilessly. It seemed to do him good to tell the worst. " Of course you know the yacht is in commission and where she is. And a tug under full steam is not three blocks from my office, and my automo- 128 ANGELA'S QUEST bile with the engine going stands at my door, day and night. Still, with that devil of a young Ar- bnthnot at my heels, I don't feel safe a minute. His father has just as much money as I have, and I have the sickening idea that automobiles and motor boats and special engines and tugs are just as much in evidence for him. to chase me with, if he saw me bolt, as they are for me ! " Mrs. Frobisher started up, her face scarlet, her whole body trembling. "Let me see if I can't square it with her! " she cried. "Perhaps she hasn't thought of the tele- phone. She seems as green as grass about some things ! " For a moment a gleam of hope passed over Mr. Frobisher's ashen face. " Try it, for God's sake ! And let me know ! It is my only chance ! " His wife rushed to the door of Angela's room, unlocked it and entered without knocking. The room was dark except for a shaded reading lamp which glowed softly from a table by Angela's couch. The girl lay with her arm thrown over her eyes. She turned at her aunt's stormy entrance and looked at her. " What have you been doing, Angela? " she cried. " Have you used the telephone since I locked you in?" " No," said Angela. " I have not used it. I have done nothing ! " Although faint with relief from her nervous fears, the ungoverned woman could not resist a, taunt. " You never thought of it, I suppose. You don't seem much used to things, I've noticed." "I thought of it certainly," answered Angela, WITH THE MASK OFF 129 calmly. " I even took the instrument in my hand. Then I set it down again." "Why?" asked Mrs. Frobisher, curiously. Angela smiled patiently. " Because those whom I most love would not have liked to know that I could do such a thing," she said, quietly. " Oh ! " said Mrs. Frobisher. She did not understand what Angela meant, but she was too preoccupied to be curious. She went nearer and sat down. "Did Francois bring your flowers?" she asked. "What flowers?" asked Angela, fixing her large eyes on Mrs. Frobisher's face, with a clearness of vision which was most discomposing to that lady. " The flowers Mr. Arbuthnot sent. He has sent them every day. I told Francois to bring them up to you. I wonder why he doesn't do it ! " " I don't know, I am sure," answered Angela. " I will see about it myself as soon as I go down- stairs," declared Mrs. Frobisher, cordially. "The young man really seems most devoted. Have you known him long?" " I don't know him at all ! " said Angela, hastily. She did not wish to discuss Ayres with Mrs. Fro- bisher, for she was conscious that her usually pale face was becoming uncomfortably warm. "Well, then you should!" declared Mrs. Fro- bisher. " He is the son of one of the richest and most respected men in New York, and I am going to have him to dinner to-morrow night. You will be well enough to come down for him, I am sure ! " She smiled knowingly at the young girl. " Don't ask him on my account," begged Angela, sitting up in sudden excitement. It seemed to her that she could not bear it, if she had to meet Ayres in this house of vulgarity and discord. 130 ANGELA'S QUEST "I have already invited him," said Mrs. Fro- bisher, disingenuously. " Has he accepted? " asked Angela with a frank anxiety which Mrs. Frobisher misunderstood. " Not yet, but he will, for I told him he would meet you!" Angela flung herself face downward among the pillows. " I am going to give you a dress from Paquin's that I ordered for Evangeline. She doesn't know it, so don't tell her, and I'll cable for another to- morrow. She will never know the difference. This is white, fortunately. The whole of it is baby Irish lace over taffeta, and it is a dream. It has touches of black velvet here and there, so it is simply per- fect for the occasion and under the circumstances." Mrs. Frobisher rose to go. " If I give you that dress, will you promise not to show any temper before your uncle about my locking you in? He hates a scene." Angela looked up with a smile. " I don't in the least care about the dress, but I promise not to show any temper." Mrs. Frobisher misunderstood her smile. She shook her finger playfully at Angela. " I thought the idea of meeting somebody would put you in a good humour ! " she said. " Good-bye ! Now, I am going to see about your flowers! I can't understand why Francois is so stupid about my orders. Sometimes I think he does it on pur- pose ! " She swept toward the door, the shimmering folds of her exquisite gown trailing richly after her. Once outside, however, she fairly ran to her hus- band's dressing-room. He still sat where she had left him. He had not moved, nor even changed his attitude. WITH THE MASK OFF 131 "Well?" he questioned, eagerly. "Well?" "It's all right!" answered his wife, trium- phantly. " She swallowed it, bait, hook and line ! She is wild to meet him and she " " But the telephone ! " snarled her husband. "Did she use the telephone?" "Heavens, no! She never thought of it. She pretended she did, but I know if it had come into her head, she would have done it, if only to spite me. She doesn't love me any too well. I can easily see that! " "Then make her love you! Flatter her! Pet her! Buy her clothes! I'll stop in at Tiffany's to-morrow and buy her some pearls. Pearls would look well on her, I think. Do anything and every- thing you think she wants. And if, through her, I can muzzle that devil of a reporter, I believe I can pull through ! " He sprang up and began to pace the floor with rapid, nervous strides. His heavy face, thick neck and high shoulders gave him an unattractive ap- pearance at all hours, but this evening his cheeks were mottled. There were pouches under his fishy eyes, and the thick lobes of his ears were almost purple from suffusion. " I'll have the Grays to meet him," said Mrs. Frobisher. "Shall I?" "Yes, yes. By all means. And anyone else you like. Don't bother me with the details. I am nearly crazy as it is." " You've been drinking again ! " said his wife. " In your position you'd better go a little easy." "And how about yourself, my fine lady?" he demanded. " I smelled brandy on you the mo- ment you entered the room. Your face and your neck are as red as a geranium right now. You look like the devil in that pink dress. Go take it 132 ANGELA'S QUEST off and put on a black one! You never did have any sense about clothes, Tillie!" "Don't call me ' Tillie ' ! " she cried. " You know I hate it! My name is Maude." " Your name was Matilda when I married you, and for twenty years after. Money turned it into Maude! Maude! The very sound of it makes me sick!" His wife sprang to her feet, her face contorted with anger, her hands clenched, her breast heaving. " I won't stay here to be insulted ! " she shrieked. " I'll leave this house, and leave you to get out of your messes yourself! Fortunately I have all the money I want, so I can snap my fingers in your face!" Her husband stopped his rapid walk, turned and crept up to her like a beast of prey. His eyes were bloodshot. His face was purple, his jaws and hands were clenched, and his lips drawn back from his large white teeth until his whole face re- sembled that of a tiger about to spring. His wife put her hands behind her and began to back away from him, gasping with fear. " Go out of this house, will you, and leave me in the lurch, when I need you ! " he hissed. " If I thought for one moment you would, I'd kill you right now! Do you hear me? And if you did do it, I'd let everybody else go to the devil, and I'd follow you from place to place until I'd found you! You! To dare to threaten me, when I am fighting in my last ditch ! You gutter snipe ! You were washing dishes in your uncle's restaurant in Pueblo when I married you and took your. hands out of the soap suds ! Yet you dare to tell me what you will do ! Now you let me tell you what you'll do! You'll do just exactly as I say, down to the last letter, from now on until I am through with WITH THE MASK OFF 133 you and don't need your help. And remember this. If you once lose sight of my wishes and instruc- tions if you for one moment let your temper OP your jealousy, either for yourself or Evangeline, run away with you if you don't obey what I tell you about Angela down to the smallest detail, I'll take everything away from you, except the clothes you stand up in, and I'll skip the country. You'll never see me again. And you'll be poor and alone and disgraced! Now what are you going to do! Tell me that!" " I I I ' stammered the woman with ashen lips. Further words refused to come. "Speak out, I tell you!" " I am going to do exactly as you say ! " his wife managed to gasp, from a throat as dry as dust, " Just exactly as you say, dear ! " Ralph Frobisher unclenched his hands and straightened up, although he did not remove his bloodshot eyes from his wife's terrified face. Then he pointed to the door. "Go and change your dress and tell the butler that dinner will be served in twenty minutes. Now I must dress." Blindly, the thoroughly cawed woman felt her way along the wall, until she reached the door. Then she ran wildly into her own room, where she sank, weeping hysterically, into the arms of her astonished maid. CHAPTER XVII THE MAN WITH THE CHINESE EYES Dry-eyed misery made an unwelcome fourth in the family of Marvin Cray. When he had been a poor boy, uneducated and neglected, but ambitious, he had often said to him- self that if the time ever came when he was rich enough to have leisure to study, he would be happy. The time had come and gone. He had risen, from Ralph Frobisher's office boy, to the position of private secretary and confidential clerk. He had obtained a fair education, and by implicit obe- dience to his master, had gained more wealth than any man of his age in his acquaintance. His ambition keeping pace with his achievement, he had fallen madly in love with the daughter of a college professor, w T hom he had met during one of his summer vacations, and who, after an excited and exciting courtship, found herself married to him without being able to understand why. In her case her heart awoke too late. She had never loved any man, and in his ardent wooing he had persuaded her that he could teach her to love him. Under his tuition, she let her imagination have full sway ; and, half-hypnotised, she gave him a ring, showing that she had given her heart of hearts, as he constantly averred. The dreamy idealist had believed him, although in after years she remembered that at first she instinctively shrank from him, and afterward si- lenced her distrust with arguments. 134 The thoroughly cowed woman felt her way along the wall. THE MAN WITH CHINESE EYES 135 This procedure in an intuitive woman is always a mistake. Intuitions are given to women, not be- cause they are the weaker sex, but because they are the mothers of the world, and they are thus given the strongest protection against unseen and unseeable evils that any human being, either man or woman, can possess. Emelie Cray did not really awaken to the true meaning of life until after the birth of her baby girl. Then a sudden, deep-seated happiness took possession of her, of whose like she had never dreamed. But with the happiness of motherhood was also born the unrest and active dissatisfaction of wifehood. She began to feel that, in a dim, blind way, she was missing something which other women possessed. Then without a word of warning, or even a slight illness to give her a hint of impending disaster, her year-old baby was attacked with that terror of mothers infantile paralysis and from that day to this, the little thing had never moved nor even cried. She had simply lived that was all. In the frantic way of all mothers upon whom this calamity descends, she had tried every known form of promised help, but so far, everything had failed. For three years the struggle had gone on, and with each successive disappointment her soul had expanded and her spiritual vision grown clearer, until, from being a woman without a religion or even a God, she had come to know and understand that this lesson must not be shirked nor ignored, it must be learned. If, as she believed, life is only one great, oft-repeated experience of cause and ef- fect, and if religion is intended for a daily food instead of an aloof, seventh-day duty, then it be- came her privilege to discover the cause of the ca- 136 ANGELA'S QUEST lamity which had first stricken her dumb and blind and then loosed her tongue and caused her to see and to see aright. Her probings and questionings and new under- standing first alarmed, then annoyed, then terri- fied her husband. She was still his idol the one great passion of his unlovely life. He worshipped her as the star of his existence, and the unhappi- ness which had descended upon him when he real- ised that, after several years of marriage, he had failed to awaken any response to his love, but that instead, her regard had passed from mere suffer- ance to a scarcely veiled distrust which was rap- idly becoming an active suspicion, awoke in him not a conscience, but a fear of losing her alto- gether, which acted like a conscience, inasmuch as it caused him to look in the face certain crimes which he had buried out of sight and whose graves he had endeavoured to forget. Affairs were in this strained condition, when Mrs. Frobisher's invitation to dine reached them. Emelie Cray, who shrank from all association with the Frobishers, was for refusing it, but her husband w r as so insistent that, rather than argue, she consented to go. She was a beautiful woman, albeit her beauty was of such a delicate, highbred type that it would not have appealed to all. To her husband it was a never-ending wonder, a daily ecstasy, which gripped him newly each time he looked at her. His great delight was to heap costly gifts upon her, to smother her in rare furs, to load her with unusual jewels and laces, which she used with such taste and discrimination, that it must indeed be an extraordinary occasion when Emelie Cray was not the most distinguished-looking woman in the rooms. THE MAN WITH CHINESE EYES 137 On the night of Mrs. Frobisher's dinner, she dressed with, unusual care, and, knowing the ornate atmosphere which always permeated that house, she wore no jewels, and a gown of pale gold satin with an overdress of priceless lace, whose simplicity be- spoke at once a master mind in its creation and the daring of perfect beauty to wear it. Mrs. Frobisher stared at it and her, in undis- guised astonishment, which soon gave way to a reluctant admiration. Mr. Frobisher did not give Mrs. Cray a thought. Her type never appealed to him. Therefore he overlooked her power. But to Angela, homesick, ashamed of her sur- roundings, and lonely, the sight of a kindred spirit was an unlooked-for boon. She made friends with her at once. To Emelie Cray, the finding of such a girl in the Frobisher home was even more of a surprise and more of an anomaly than Mrs. Cray's appearing was to Angela. She could not understand it. And so perfectly did Angela trust Mrs. Cray at sight, that it was all the girl could do to keep from pour- ing out to her new friend her whole secret and the real reason for her being there, before they had known each other for ten minutes. Her common sense saved her, for she instantly realised the indiscretion of such an impulse. The two women were seated on a small sofa, when Marvin Cray entered at another door, hav- ing been detained by Howard Gallup at Mr. Fro- bisher's command. As he came toward them, Mrs. Cray looked up. Her eyes were fixed on her husband's face when he first saw Angela, as she lifted her head and looked at him. That she turned deathly white and seized the arm of the sofa to keep from fainting, no one no- 138 ANGELA'S QUEST ticed. But Mrs. Cray saw her husband stagger back, cover his eyes with his hand for a moment,, and then look again, as if he had seen a ghost. As he lifted his hand Angela saw the ring, and as he stood staring at her, she saw gleaming out of a chalky face, a pair of eyes, so black, so oriental, so crafty, so unmistakably Chinese, that she knew she was face to face with the man whose voice she had listened to through the register at St. Ursula's the man who, in all probability, had stolen her from her mother's arms and had condemned her to ten years of orphanage, and her mother to a living death. Mrs. Cray, whose suspicions of certain dark epi- sodes in her husband's life, while he was the hench- man of Ralph Frobisher, were daily being fed, not only by the bad disclosures and worse insinua- tions of the daily newspapers, but by her own ob- servations and deductions, did not remove her eyes from her husband's face, while this agitation was so apparent. It must have been true Mammy's assertion that Angela had changed very little from her child- ish looks, for in one black instant, when the girl lifted her flower-like face to his, the whole of his crime came back to him in all its hideousness. Once more he heard that mother's agonised shriek as he tore her sleeping child from her arms. Again he heard the awakened baby's frightened, helpless cry. Again he heard the heavy fall, as the stricken woman realised that the hand of the destroyer, which had deprived her of her husband, had now been stretched forth to snatch away her last re- maining joy, and for a moment, strong, iron-nerved man that he was, things grew black before his eyes, his senses swam, and he almost lost con- sciousness. THE MAN WITH CHINESE EYES 139 No love made his wife's eyes tender at the sight of his evident suffering. Instead, the thought of her little, half -alive baby at home, caused her every instinct to rouse and be on the alert. It was the instinct of the fighting mother, who feels the cause of danger near that instinct which turns the gentlest woman into the semblance of a tigress fighting for her young. Emelie Cray tightened her grasp on her fan and drew her breath a little more quickly, but that was all which she allowed to show just then. Later, perhaps, the man would know what it was to have aroused a woman's suspicions. But not now. He pulled himself together as quickly as possi- ble, and gave a nervous laugh. His wife mentioned his own and Angela's names in the simplest form of presentation. Then the girl's attitude attracted her attention. Angela sat with one hand grasping the arm of the sofa, the other hand half closed and the back of it pressed against her lips as if to stifle a cry. Her eyes were wide with terror, and her cheeks drained of their delicate colour by the horrible realisation of the man's identity. That he should prove to be the husband of the beautiful woman at her side, whose spiritual loveliness had almost dragged her priceless secret from her at sight, but added to her agitation. The shock of her narrow escape from certain failure and precipitate dis- aster still further unnerved her. The sight of the man's agitation partially re- stored her own balance. When he laughed, she shivered visibly. She felt Mrs. Cray's calm, trans- lucent gaze upon her, but she was powerless to recover herself in time. "Oh ah! You must really excuse me Eme- lie," he stammered. " But the fact is, Miss Fro- 140 ANGELA'S QUEST bisher her face reminded me of er something someone, I mean whom I had had thought of as as well, as dead for some years. I I can't explain to you how affected I was, for a moment. But now that I look at her, I see my mistake. A chance resemblance, that was all. Odd, how things will awaken memories and all that sort of thing, isn't it? Beastly w T arm in here! I wonder if we couldn't have a little air ! Oh, never mind ! I see they are going in to dinner. Who is taking you, Emelie?" " Mr. Arbuthnot," answered his wife, giving him a clear look, under which he winced. "Oh! You know him already, don't you?" "I have known the whole family since I was a child," answered Mrs. Cray. "Ayres and I have always known each other. He is a dear boy." Mrs. Cray said the last almost involuntarily, in response to the sudden turning of Angela's face to hers at the mention of Ayres Arbuthnot's name, and the luminous, dewy look w r hich came into the girl's eyes, the older woman intuitively understood. The young man in question at that moment pre- sented himself before Mrs. Cray, and again had an opportunity to speak a few words to Angela. i There was a moment of tense embarrassment on Angela's part, for, much as she wished to play her role well and in a sportsmanlike manner, she felt that it would be a physical impossibility to lay her hand on Marvin Cray's arm and walk into the din- ing-room at his side. fr He, on his part, would have been equally reluc- tant. But he knew that he was to take in Mrs. Frobisher, and Angela did not. To her great and ingenuous relief, which Mrs. Cray's clear eyes took cognisance of, Howard Gal- lup presented himself before Angela, and the way THE MAN WITH CHINESE EYES 141 she sprang to her feet, the eager manner in which she took his arm, and the smile of welcome she bestowed upon him, kept him awake that night, and disturbed him during his waking and working hours the next day so that Mr. Frobisher reproved him with a sharpness which brought the indignant red to his face. But during the dinner Angela dutifully made herself agreeable to him, for either her Aunt Maude or Uncle Ralph kept their anxious eyes on her in a way which made her most uncomfortable. Why they should so watch her, she could not under- stand. Others w r atched her for different reasons. How- ard Gallup and her cousin Ned, because her beauty gave them no rest except when they did look at her, and the more they looked, the more agitated and unquiet they became. Evangeline looked at her because in her Paquin frock, her string of matched pearls, her hair fash- ionably and becomingly dressed, she made the most bewitchingly beautiful picture the eyes of a jeal- our rival could torture herself with. Mrs. Cray watched her because she felt sure that in her, she had found a key to unlock one of the doors in a past in her husband's life, of whose black secrets she was daily becoming more ajnd more convinced. Mr. Cray watched her because of the frightful resemblance this unknown niece of old Frobisher possessed to the baby daughter of Christopher Cra- vanath, whose abduction he had carried out in obedience to the commands of a man whom now he both feared and hated, but whom then he rev- erenced as the god of his benefactions. Ralph Frobisher watched her because she sat between Howard Gallup and Ayres Arbuthnot 1142, 'ANGELA'S QUEST that cool young man, who knew just as well why he had been invited to that dinner as if he had overheard the discussion which decided upon his invitation. He had accepted because he wished to see An- gela again, and not because he intended to let up, even for a moment, in his pursuit of the secret of Christopher Cravanath's disappearance. This fact he managed to convey to his host by the long, dis- ^concerting looks he bent upon that gentleman's ihigh-coloured countenance looks so replete with an understanding of the reason for his host's dis- |comfiture that appetite forsook him, and he sat ithere picturing how it would all look in the col- jinfns of The Blazed Trail, and how it would feel to; Ve in the Tombs. Ayres was quietly sure that his father would be righfly ami, justly shocked that he had so far out- ragedithe^laws of hospitaity as to break bread with a i man whose ; punishment he was bent upon ac- complishing,"provided the crime he suspected could be proved:, v But .Ajnres. was more set upon being a successful rejforterj Yhan in splitting hairs on social ethics. He ihad /balanced the thing pro and con, for some tim,e, before.he decided to accept. Then he discov- ered 'thatlhe must go. The opportunity to get into th*e jin^dstjof things was too tempting to be ignored. Angela ^was 'there. That was enough, ^kfter a' few glasses of champagne, Ralph Fro- bisher. plucked up courage and began to take a more hopeful 'view of things. He overestimated his resources, for he felt that Angela, in her grati- tude for numerous fine frocks and gifts of jewels, would willingly agree to speak out frankly and beg Ayrea Arbuthnot to cease persecuting her jmclejj should he ask her, and from that young THE MAN WITH CHINESE EYES 143 man's increasing devotion to Angela, as the dinner progressed, he felt sure that he was seriously in- terested, and would do her bidding in all things. Mr. Frobisher saw with pleasure Angela's colour rise high after one of Ayres' murmured remarks, but he would not have congratulated himself, if he had known that her embarrassment aroie from the fact that Ayres said : " Miss Frobisher, I take an extraordinary inter- est in you, partly from the way we met and partly from another reason. I can see that you are not at ease in this house, and I believe I know why. My mother cannot call on you here without begin- ning an acquaintance with Mrs. Frobisher, which I am loath to have her do, but which she will do if you wish it. What I suggest is that you let me take you to her, and that you moet my family in our own house, where we shall be free to discuss matters. What do you think about it?" Angela thought rapidly for a moment, and then she said : " I think I ought to call upon your mother to thank her for " "For what?" asked Ayres, almost trembling with eagerness. " For something which I cannot explain here, but which I will gladly explain to all your family if you will have a little patience ! " she answered. The young man's hand clenched upon the table. "Tell me just one thing!" he begged. "Does Alan Patrick know it?" " Yes, he does ! " answered Angela. " Then I know what it is, and I know who yon are, glory be to God!" whispered Ayres. "I ac- cused him of keeping something from me, but he swore he wasn't doing it. He kept faith with you, although how he ever did it, I don't know, as 144 ANGELA'S QUEST lie is the human colander for secrets, either of his own or other people's ! " Angela smiled and looked up at him shyly. "Just let me tell you one thing more and then I'll stop whispering and behave myself. What you have just told me has made me happier than any- thing you could possibly have said except one other, which you are going to tell me some day ! " Angela sighed and smiled. She did not fully comprehend him, but she felt herself being drawn to him by many invisible bonds. " I don't suppose you know how much pleasure it gives me to let you suspect what I have to tell you ! " she said, with a shamed look at Mrs. Fro- bisher, who, flushed with wine, was laughing and talking noisily with Marvin Cray. Ayres frowned. " Can't I, just ! " he said tersely. " I beg your pardon, Mr. Frobisher. What was it you asked?'' " I asked who built your father's yacht? " asked Mr. Frobisher, bluntly. Everyone looked up in surprise. " The Altessa? Why, the Cramps'," said Ayres. "Why do you ask?" Ralph Frobisher laughed and drained another glass of champagne. "Mine belonged to the Crown Prince of Etru- ria," he said proudly. " I saw her at Cowes and liked her lines so, I sent my agent to make an offer for her. The Crown Prince had just had a run of* bad luck at Monte Carlo and was glad to sell. She was considered one of 'the most luxurious yachts in European waters, as well as the fastest. But after I looked her over, I laughed. I had them strip her to her hull and then showed them what the fittings of a gentleman's yacht should be. She cost me a quarter of a million just to do over, and it made all Europe wild. They couldn't stand it to think that just a plain American millionaire had to have a finer yacht than royalty, and the royalist press roasted me to a crisp. Gallup made a scrap book of the clippings my press agent gath- ered. It makes racy reading. The Koenigin Luise is the fastest steam yacht in American waters ! " Ayres dropped his eyes and bit his lip to conceal a smile. He made no reply. "Did you hear what I said?" demanded Mr. Frobisher. " I was talking to you! " "Oh, yes. I heard you'!" answered the young man. Mrs. Frobisher vainly tried to catch her hus- band's eye, but he was leaning forward with his gaze fastened upon the young reporter, and did not look at her. "Well, what have you to say about it?" "Nothing, Mr. Frobisher. Absolutely nothing!" answered Ayres, who recognised that his host was not quite himself, and felt pity for the exhibition he was making. "The Koenigin Luise can show a clean pair of heels to any American built yacht afloat ! " boasted her owner. Mrs. Frobisher coughed loudly and her husband looked up and caught her signal. " But, of course," he hastened to add, " it will probably never come to a race between your father's yacht and mine!" " Oh, I don't know," answered Ayres, carelessly. " Strange things happen sometimes! " Mrs. Frobisher glanced swiftly around the table, and seeing that Mrs. Cray had finished her coffee, she rose precipitately, as if she had come to a point where she could not sit still any longer. She had scarcely removed her eyes from Ayres Arbuthnot 146 ANGELA'S QUEST since the dinner began, and she had recognised the significance of his every word. She had even seen and smarted under his toler- ance of her husband's partially intoxicated con- dition, but the subject of the rival yachts had been too much for her. Soon after the ladies had left the room, Ayr.es excused himself and followed them, and at a broad hint from Marvin Cray, Gallup went with him. When the two older men were alone together, Cray said impulsively : " My God ! Mr. Frobisher, do you know who your niece is the living picture of? " "No. Who?" Cray leaned nearer. "Of the child, Angela Cravanath!" he whis- pered. "I nearly swooned to-night when I saw her." "Why, I thought you said you hadn't seen her since the day you took her there ! " " I haven't that is, when she knew it. But the first two or three years I used to catch glimpses of her, unknown to the child, of course, for I didn't propose ever to let her recognise me afterward, if she should ever escape. But there never was such a resemblance ! Never ! " " I never saw her mother," said Mr. Frobisher, "so I don't know where she gets her looks. But she's handsome, isn't she?" " A beauty ! " declared Marvin Cray. " I par- ticularly remember that the Mother Superior said Angela was a beauty too. It couldn't be possible that " " Here ! None of that ! " said Mr. Frobisher, hoarsely. "I've got every kind of a blue devil that's made, after me to-night. Don't go out of your .way to manufacture any more. That girl is my own niece my dead brother's child. She had letters in her bag which proved her identity be- yond a question." "Only letters? And in her bagf" asked Cray. " That wasn't enough. How about her clothes her trunk?" " Her trunk was burned in the wreck, and Mrs. Frobisher wired to the school where the epidemic of scarlet fever had been, to destroy everything held there, for fear of infection. My wife had all the clothes she wore, burned without looking at them." Marvin Cray gave an impatient gesture. " But, man ! The letters were enough ! " said Mr. Frobisher, fretfully. " They were written by herself to her father. Tillie read them, and she was satisfied. What's the matter with you?" " I suppose you remember, don't you, that the reason I didn't go down to St. Ursula's this spring was because the Mother Superior wrote that An- gela had been transferred to St. Mary-and-Mar- tha's, and that she was undergoing her novitiate! Supposing now just supposing that this wasn't true, and that Angela had escaped ! " "Well, suppose she had! Not that I believe it, but suppose she had! Why should she show up here, unconscious and with the dead body of my brother and with his daughter's letters in her satchel? How could she do that?" Marvin Cray let his chin sink on his chest and drew patterns on the tablecloth. " I know it sounds impossible. Still, the daugh- ter of Christopher Cravanath would be clever devilishly clever, if she was anything like that father of hers, and I can't forget that she looked as if she had seen a ghost when she first saw me ! ' r "Well, by your own story, you raised a little ,148 ANGELA'S QUEST Cain when you saw the resemblance, and she is just out of bed, and, as you can see, high-strung. This is the first time she has come downstairs since she was brought here, and your behaviour probably upset her. You are enough to make anybody nerv- ous sometimes ! No, no, Cray. You can't scare me. Angelica is just what she seems to be." " I hope you are right. It would be the limit for that affair to come out just now. How are things going? " Brought back to the subject of his wrongs, Ralph Frobisher scowled, and bit savagely into his cigar. Champagne always started up his self-pity. " That cub of a reporter that Ayres Arbuthnot is still worrying me. He is eternally around the offices. No matter how I try to dodge him, at least once a day, he manages to run me down. I had him here to-night because he seems interested in Angelica, and if the worst comes to the worst, I count on her to call him off." Marvin Cray listened with a frown between his eyes. Then he spoke: "Have you heard from Don Rafael lately?" Mr. Frobisher shook his head a trifle absently. "Do you know why?" pursued Cray. Mr. Frobisher looked up anxiously. "No, why?" " Because he is in town. I saw him to-day." Ralph Frobisher's face turned ashen white. "Here? Here in New York?" he stammered. " You saw him? " Cray nodded his head slowly. " Hasn't he been to see you ? " he asked. Mr. Frobisher shook his head. "Not yet!" he said, with his jaw set grimly. " But he will ! He has come to see me ! " He sat for a moment with his hands clenched THE MAN WITH CHINESE EYES 149 on the table, staring in an unseeing manner straight before him. Suddenly he struck the table a resounding blow. " God ! " he cried, starting to his feet, " They're all after me! And all at once! But they can't catch me and they can't beat me ! I've cheated the hangman for thirty years, and I'll go on cheating liim until / choose to quit. The man isn't born who can beat me at my own game. I was a fool to give way yesterday and turn coward before a cub of a reporter, who hasn't cut his eye teeth yet! Let him come on! Let him discover things! Let him even print his story ! I don't care ! I'll over- ride even all he can say. I tell you, Cray, Ralph Frobisher is a bigger man than all his enemies put together!" To Marvin Cray, Mr. Frobisher had always been a magnetic personality, inasmuch as to the poor boy, lie had represented success, snatched by the most unscrupulous methods from every side. Money had! poured in. Friend and foe were alike sacrificed 1 ; Widows and orphans were robbed. Eailroads were wrecked, banks merged and looted, small corporations were crushed out of existence, even though it took men's lives in their process of destruction. Trusted friends were beggared, pools formed and betrayed, every known and unknown form of unchecked villainy was practised by this man, who so manipulated other men, forced cir- cumstances to do his bidding, found human tools ready to do his dirty work and to disappear, either by exile or in jail for a consideration commensu- rate with the crime committed, that although many suspected, no one man, except possibly Marvin Cray, had even an inkling of the whole list of this monster's crimes. Murder had been committed more than once, but that was humane compared to 150 ANGELA'S QUEST some or his achievements. His lust of power knew no bounds. His ambition was ruthless. When- ever a man, woman or child blocked his path to a certain goal, or their existence even threatened to obstruct his instant arrival at a desired point, those persons were removed by an irresistible force, the power of which they were unable to with- stand. The man was a genius, albeit a genius almost wholly evil. His foresight equalled statesmanship. He saw so far ahead that he took gigantic risks and won so many more times than he lost, and he took such pains to conceal his losses even from his henchmen, who were instrumental in carrying them out, that people forgot them and remembered only the brilliancy of his successes. He was a prime mover in all the great financial deals, where his counsel was respectfully sought even by men who despised him personally. On the other hand, he was capable of ignoring a great issue and losing his head over some mag- nificent invention or plan, which would not have interested an ordinary bank clerk. Also of letting a personal dislike influence him to the verge of positive disaster. Likewise he was intensely super- stitious, and would follow up a petty spite, even though it took years to avenge it properly. All this Marvin Cray knew of him and had once admired in the blind, adoring way in which weak men, with evil tendencies, admire strong men who possess the courage to commit crimes. But since the younger man's marriage, loftier ideals had been introduced into his home, and for the first time he began to look at his master through his wife's eyes. Then began a slow process of alienation, owing to Emelie's modest ambitions and her desire to de- tach her husband from undeniably evil influences. She argued that already they had more than enough money, and gradually her influence pre- vailed. Little by little he withdrew, and more and more he began to regret his past associations and par- ticipations in Mr. Frobisher's iniquitous dealings. He began to realise how his wife would view them if she should ever discover even a tenth of them. And because of his love for her, not because of any new-found morality, he writhed at the thought of such a possibility. To-night he knew that she had seen and taken note of his agitation. He realised that the door of his past had come unlatched in her presence, and, appalled by his potential danger, for the first time he hated Ralph Frobisher with a hatred as fierce as it was sudden and surprising. He was aghast at the discovery, nevertheless, with the fear of his wife's eyes upon him, he real- ised that he was actually rejoicing at the peril Ealph Frobisher was in. He gloried in his accumu- lating distress. Ayres Arbuthnot, the virulent daily press, the public prosecutors, the indignant cry of the public to investigate and punish this modern financial brigand, and the advent of the sinister Don Rafael all these engines of destruction sud- denly became grateful to him. He sat, ostensibly gazing at his master, with his Chinese eyes as inscrutable as ever, but in reality he was staring at his own reconstructed inner self with as much genuine astonishment as an unbelieving outsider could have shown. He could not understand the change in himself. Possibly he was not so entirely to blame as the 152 ANGELA'S QUEST sternest of moralists might think, for he was born with a desire to achieve success, and an unscru- pulousness nay, an inclination toward evil a curious treachery of nature, most infrequently found in Caucasians, but seemingly indigenous to yellow races. Possibly Marvin Cray possessed some long for- gotten drops of Eastern blood in his veins, which only showed in the curious slant, shape and ex- pression of his Mongolian eyes. In a woman's head such eyes indicate that she will depend solely upon her physical charms to win her way with men. It is never the eye of intellect. It is the eye of the harem the eye of the predatory, female animal. In a manls head the Chinese eye means an equal lack of what Puritans call morality, only it gen- erally runs to business crookedness. It combines Oriental cunning with Occidental greed. If the Chinese-eyed American should be a law- yer, you will always find him a king's jackal. He will be utilised by men who are doing spiritual wickedness in high places, whose trusted deputy he will be. He will be the active agent in deals too dangerous, too low, and too criminal for the principals to appear in. But perhaps the greatest value the Chinese-eyed American possesses to his master is his unswerving fidelity to evil. This Kalph Frobisher knew by in- stinct. After one look into the eyes of his then office boy, it did not take him long to have him taught stenography, and then promote him to a secretaryship. He knew unmistakably that the boy loved crookedness loved it for its own tortu- ous sake just as Frobisher loved it. It gave him pleasure to wind in and out of a labyrinth and mystify his competitors and take them in an un- THE MAN WITH CHINESE EYES 153 guarded moment by surprise, and so, crush them, when he could just as well have achieved his end by honest competition, superior goods, and at lower prices. Thus, such a youth as Marvin Cray was an ac- tual necessity to a man of Ralph Frobisher's ideals. He trained Cray's native Oriental cunning in Fro- bisher's own school of Occidental disregard of law, and showed him that the whole end of man was never to be caught with the goods on. Thus he made of the boy a rich man's scaven- ger, because of his Chinese eyes and the nature back of them, which had never yet failed him. But, like all great men who deal constantly m evil, he trusted him once too often, drove him once too far, and all because he failed to take account of the terrible and pitiless purity which shone in the eyes of the wife of this man. " Come down to see me to-morrow at eleven," said Mr. Frobisher, when a long silence had fallen between them, during which each had been busy with his own thoughts. "What for?" asked Cray, with a tone in his voice that his master had never before heard. He stared in surprise. Then his previous irritation burst its bounds again. He banged his fist on the table. " Damn it ! " he cried. " You come because I tell you to! It doesn't make any difference what I want of you. You come, that's all ! " Cray rose to his feet and looked Ralph Frobisher straight in the eye. " I can't come to your office to-morrow at eleven o'clock, Mr. Frobisher," he said quietly. "I have promised my wife to take her to the country, and I shall keep my word to her ! " Ordinarily Mr. Frobisher would have overlooked 154 ANGELA'S QUEST such a challenge out of policy, but to-night it fell on raw nerves. His face grew dark with passion^ " If you are even one-half minute late, Marvin Cray, you will be in jail before night! I mean what I say ! Now go ! " CHAPTER XVIII THE ARBUTHNOTS AND ANGELA I Two days after Mrs. Frobisher's dinner, Angela was surprised by a telephone call. Mrs. Frobisher was in Angela's room at the time, and she listened with the liveliest interest to An- gela's answers. Finally the girl said: "Well, I must first ask Mrs. Frobisher's per- mission ! " Then, laying her hand over the transmitter, she said: "Aunt Maude, this is Miss Arbuthnot. She wishes to know if I will be informal enough to ac- cept a call and let her take me to drive directly afterwards. I said I must ask you." "By all means! Why, certainly! Don't keep her waiting. Tell her ' yes ! ' : exclaimed Mrs. Frobisher. Angela duly accepted, thanked her, and hung up the receiver. " When is she coming? " asked her aunt. " This afternoon. She said she would be here in about an hour." " I'll wait and see her ! " announced Mrs. Fro- bisher, in a satisfied manner. " I am very glad these people are taking you up, Angelica. You don't seem to realise. They are most important! " "I expect to like them very much," answered Angela, guardedly. She was desperately afraid of saying something which would give her aunt a handle upon which to hang one of her long, tedious disquisitions. 155 156 ANGELA'S QUEST " It's too bad your uncle Ralph and I have to go out to dinner to-night and leave you three young people with nothing to do. Couldn't you go to the theatre, Angelica, if Neddie got a box and you sat in the back, out of sight? " Angela bit her lip. One of the most awkward parts of her whole grotesque role of niece and cousin to this family, was that which dealt with her supposed bereave- ment and subsequent mourning. " I don't care to go, thank you," she answered. " I shall not be sorry to go to bed early. I am not as strong as I thought I was." "Very well, pet. Do just as you like always. You know this is Liberty Hall! Now tell me. What are you going to wear? Have you had time to try on those new gowns which came yesterdaj 7 ? Wear your sable coat and a dress cut out a little at the neck, so that your pearls will show, and look your very best, won't you? I hear that Miss Arbutlmot is very pretty. Still, you'll prob- ably find that you are much prettier. Your uncle Ralph insists that you are a real beauty, and it makes Evangeline wild ! " " Then why does he say it? " asked Angela, pite- ously. "No wonder it hurts her feelings! She values her father's opinion, and there is no neces- sity to draw comparisons between us. Evangeline looks quite lovely when she smiles! I wish " " Well, I never ! " cried Mrs. Frobisher. " Some- times I think such generosity is merely a pose, Angelica. I can't imagine a girl really feeling as disinterested as that, when it is a question of looks. Why, Evangeline would cheerfully eat me alive if she thought that by so doing she could make her- self handsomer and more attractive to men." Angela turned away involuntarily, but not be- THE AKBUTHNOTS AND ANGELA 157 fore Mrs. Frobisher liad seen it and taken the hint. "Well, there, Angelica. I never knew your mother, but she must have been too refined for us entirely out of our class if you are anything like her, for I can't make you out, half the time. However, all I want you to feel is this. We all love you and want to do the best we can for you. If we can put you in the way of marrying Ayres Arbuthnot and this sudden informality certainly looks like it you will then see what it has done for you to be backed by the Ralph Frobishers ! " Tears of mortification stood in Angela's eyes as she heard this construction put upon her acquaint- ance with a young man, to whom she felt naturally and innocently attracted. Again she felt tempted to turn upon Mrs. Frobisher, declare her identity, fling off the hateful presents which were expected to purchase her loyalty, and free herself from the ignominy of her false position. Then she realised that she had deliberately placed herself in that position to further her own ends. The picture of her mother imprisoned in her wheeled chair, bereft of home and husband, possibly helpless for life, came to her mind's eye. As the thought gripped her that she was in the home of the monster whom she believed had wrought this ruin, and in it for the purpose of dis- covering some proof of his crime, with which she could confront him and force him to confess the whereabouts or fate of her father, all her fighting blood began to throb in her veins, her stampeded courage returned fourfold, and she calmly turned her other cheek to be smitten in the cause of daugh- terly loyalty and devotion. That she could not possibly be so alone in the world as she seemed, Angela's common sense con- 158 ANGELA'S QUEST stantly assured her. Somewhere in the world she must have relations, who were either searching for her, or mourning her and her parents as dead. In moments when she realised the horrible si- lence which shut her in, she felt as if she could scream aloud in her impotence. She felt so small, so alone, so insignificant r<, creature to be called upon to fight this huge octopus of power and wealth and utter unscrupulousness, She was like a helpless babe, lying in the path- way of the Juggernaut. It had rolled over their little family, maiming, destroying. Yet no one re- buked nor hindered its triumphant progress. On the other hand, because of the mysterious, limit- less power and undreamed-of wealth it repre- sented, men and women knelt and worshipped it in as blind an idolatry as ever the world wit- nessed. Usually, the women and children, those who suf- fer most by the modern Juggernaut's progress over their quivering souls and bodies, submit to the maiming and mutilation they are forced to endure, and only the silent night and the high heavens are witnesses of their impotent tears. But in the heart of the child Angela, was born a splendid courage and an ardent love for her un- known parents, which would not let her sit down idly to a life of blind submission to a fate against which her strong soul revolted as cruel and unnec- essary. It was not her way to wring her hands and weep. With all her outward gentleness, she had a warrior heart, and little did the Frobishers dream, as they lived on in their fancied security, spending, under her clear-seeing eyes, the millions; they had wrung from the poor, the trusting, the helpless, that an avenging angel, in the person of a slim girl, with the pure face of a saint, was surely and steadily drawing nearer to the hour when she THE ARBUTHNOTS AND ANGELA 159 would find what she had come to seek, and for ever rob these criminals of their right to an hour's peaceful sleep, untroubled by a fear of what judg- ment would be pronounced upon them as a penalty for their crimes. Thus with a mind thoroughly at rest, on account of the ease with which a score of gowns, a few jewels, and a goodly assortment of beautiful furs had seemed to win her niece Angelica's good will, Mrs. Frobisher swept out of the room to dress, first making Angela promise to call her the mo- ment Miss Arbuthnot arrived, as she had a shrewd idea that Midge would not send a card up to her, except with the hope that she would be out. Angela kept her word and told Francois to take the cards to Madam Frobisher, but the astute Frenchman gave the young girls twenty minutes to themselves before he obeyed mademoiselle, so that when Mrs. Frobisher came down, Midge had said all she wanted to, had obtained Angela's promise to remain to dinner informally, to meet none but the family, and Angela had known by her manner, that her secret was suspected, if not ac- tually known, by the entire Arbuthnot family, or they would not be accepting her in this intimate and delightfully comforting manner. Although Midge Arbuthnot was a tiny creature, she possessed an amount of savoir faire which never failed her. Alan Patrick had told her who Angela was, al- though he salved his conscience for the breach of confidence by lying nobly to Ayres. Ayres had assured his sister that he believed An- gela to be more than ordinarily clever. Therefore, with her customary promptness, Midge acted upon the supposition that these two were not mistaken, and from the first, she took Angela for granted. In this she found an instantaneous reward in 160 ANGELA'S QUEST the way Angela's pale, sad face flushed and lighted up at recognising a friend of her own class. The moment they met, Midge plunged into the midst of things, as was her custom. From the depths of a big chair Angela saw a little creature spring up, with a small, dark, gypsy face and beautifully fashioned little body, who ran to her, seized both her hands and said in low tones : "We won't waste a moment in platitudes, my 'dear. I am Midge and you are Angela ! I am even afraid the very noisy brocade on the walls has ears. Mother sent word you were to stay to dinner with us to-night. Daddy will be there and Ayres and Alan Patrick, but nobody else. We are going to talk everything over, and Daddy will be your friend. And so will Bettie that's my disgrace- fully young and sweet mother such a precious as you will find her ! and all of us are going to help. We are wildly excited about the whole thing. Can you manage it? Do decide before anybody comes ! " " Certainly, I will come," said Angela with equal spirit and decision. " And it is dear and sweet of you all to ask me. I won't tell Mrs. Frobisher now. We'll telephone ! " Midge looked up at her. " To think ! " she said and laughed delightedly. " To think what ? " repeated Angela. " To think that a girl with such an angel's face could have so much well, so much ginger! " The two girls laughed again, and Midge squeezed Angela's long, slender fingers in both her tiny gloved hands. A long sigh escaped Angela involuntarily. "What is it?" inquired Midge anxiously. "Aren't you well yet? Have I kept you standing too long? Come and sit down just a moment for decency's sake. Then we'll be off. I brought the THE ARBUTHNOTS AND ANGELA 161 electric runabout because it's a heavenly day. But what made you sigh?" " I sighed because I am so happy to think I have found friends," whispered Angela, with a quick glance behind her. " You can't imagine the hor- rors of my position here. Sometimes it nearlv kills me ! " " I know I can't imagine it. But Alan and I both think you are the bravest creature in the world. You know he and I are the only ones who really know who you are. Ayres and the others suspect, but Alan was true to you. He lied like a gentleman ! " " But he told you! " said Angela slyly. Midge coloured charmingly. " He'd have died if he hadn't," she said ingenu- ously. " Besides, I don't count with Alan. Tell- ing me things is just like talking to himself with him!" " Hush ! " said Angela. " Here comes Mrs. Fro- bisher ! " As Angela performed the introduction, Mrs. Fro- bisher, very highly coloured under her smart veil, and exuding a strong, permeating scent, which was the latest thing from Paris, rustled across the floor and took little Miss Arbuthnot's hand, with a tor- rent of gushing words on her lips. But to her surprise she found her progress checked by the full length of the intrepid little maiden's arm, which met her outstretched hand, as firm and stiff as a steel rod. And the older woman's cordiality was blocked by the few cool words the little creature uttered, likewise Mrs. Frobisher's intended offer of friendship never reached her lips because of the frost in the smaller lady's eyes. Mrs. Frobisher was amazed. But she was also 162 ANGELA'S QUEST daunted. Her courage had not been genuine, con- sequently it ebbed quickly. Midge refused to resume her seat. She stood while Angela drew on her gloves. And the two girls made their adieux and left the room, leaving Mrs. Frobisher standing exactly where Midge had checked her triumphant progress toward intimacy with the Arbuthnot family. Although Midge knew that Ayres was counting every moment until she would bring Angela home, she kept her out for an hour's drive. In this, she was actuated by several motives. One was her desire to bring a little colour to the girl's pale cheeks, and to cheer her up. The other was to put to her the mysterious tests one girl puts to another whom she suspects to be a pros- pective sister-in-law. Midge knew, as all sisters know, that Ayres was deeply interested in this mysterious young girl, who was so beautiful and courageous. She was delighted with Angela's high-bred ap- pearance at first sight, but that hour's drive com- pleted her conquest, for Midge was sophisticated to such a degree that she could appreciate Angela's simplicity and singleness of purpose as few others could. When they arrived at the house the expression of Midge's face was an indication to Bettie and Ayres, who anxiously examined it, that Angela had been weighed in the balance and not found wanting. Although Mrs. Arbuthnot was not a demonstra- tive woman, when she saw the timid appeal in the grave eyes of the tall young girl, she held out her arms to Angela, with the instinctive knowledge that the lonely girl missed and needed a mother's love. THE ARBUTHNOTS AND ANGELA 103 "My dear," she murmured, "you must let me kiss you, because of what you must have gone through ! Come right up stairs with me and let us have a cup of tea first. Here is Ayres. You re- member him, don't you? Of course / think nobody could ever forget a nice boy like Ayres, but girls are forgetful nowadays ! " " / am not," said Angela, gravely lifting her eyes to Ayres' with such perfect seriousness that Midge hid her face, and even Bettie's lips curved. In the friendliest fashion the girl was taken to Mrs. Arbuthnot's delightfully furnished boudoir, where tea was served. All conversation concerning herself was omitted with a tact which rested and charmed her. They talked of themselves and gave her a chance to learn a little of their own lives, and under the genial chatter, her nervousness disappeared, the strained, anxious look fled from her grave eyes, and she be- came for the first time in her life, at ease, among her own kind. Presently Mr. Arbuthnot entered, met Angela with charming cordiality, then he and Ayres ex- cused themselves, to dress, but Midge and Bettie decided to dine as they were, which Angela felt, rather than knew, must have been done for her. The customs of society were as unknown to this girl as if she had grown up in the wilderness, ex- cept as Soeur Marthe had explained them to her. Nevertheless her heart told her when a kindness was done. Angela had never sat down to so beautiful and perfectly appointed a dinner table, nor heard anything like the badinage which was flung back and forth between the young people, with the el- ders participating and assisting the skirmishers. Alan Patrick and Midge were the chief talkers, 164 ANGELA'S QUEST for Ayres could do little but sit and gaze at An- gela, with his heart in his eyes. Nothing important was touched upon during dinner, with the butler and footmen in such close proximity. But scarcely was the coffee served before the servants were dismissed, and then in an almost in- stantaneous silence, which showed Angela how deeply interested they all were in her story, they all leaned toward her, and Midge, with a long sigh, said: "Now!" CHAPTER XIX THE ATOM AND THE POWERS Love is as contagious as fear. No sooner had Angela felt that the moment had arrived for which she had waited with such pa- tience, than she knew that these eager faces bent upon hers were those of honest helpers and friends. A feeling of happiness and peace descended upon her, the like of which she had never before expe- rienced. She had reached her third milepost. The first was when she found herself an inmate of Ralph Frobisher's home. The second was when she met the man w r ith the Chinese eyes, and better still, as dear Soeur Marthe suggested, the woman who had given him the ring. The third was the first happy one. It was the hour in which she found herself in the midst of the kindly Arbuthnots, a family, each member of which, delighted in being of service to others. When Midge said : " Now ! " and buried her chin in the palms of her hands, Angela looked around the circle of faces and smiled. " You want me " she began timidly, with her eyes fixed upon Mr. Arbuthnot. He removed his glasses and laid his hand upon her arm. "We want to hear all that you are willing to tell us, my dear. You need feel no compulsion to disclose anything you may not wish, at this time, to divulge, yet you may feel free to tell whatever you like, resting assured that you are speaking to 165 166 ANGELA'S QUEST friends, who believe in you and will do all in their power to help you." " I need help ! " said Angela, with trembling lips. " I am so alone ! You can't think you who seem so close to one another how dreadfully alone I am! I have no one! No one!" " You have us! " said Ay res, unsteadily. " You have every one of us, now ! You need never feel alone again, need she, mother? " " Miss Frobisher " began Bettie " Don't, oh, don't call me that ! " cried Angela. " I am an impostor ! My real name is Angela Cra- vanath, but I never dare use it ! I have to be called Angela Yorke at home because that is the name my poor darling mother is hiding under. "Hiding from whom?" asked Ay res, unable to wait any longer. Again Angela gave that quick, anxious glance around the table. " From Kalph Frobisher ! " she said, in a low voice. A deep sigh, which sounded almost like satis- faction, sounded from the young man, as he leaned back in his chair, his nostrils white and his eyes blazing with the knowledge that he was on the right track and closer than ever to running his man to earth. "What has he done?" demanded Midge. "He separated my mother and father how, I do not know. But the shock of it drove mother to the old Yorke place near Georgetown, with me, when I was only six years old. She spent two years in hiding, attended only by two old negro servants, who could neither read nor write. Then, for some reason which no one knows, Ralph Fro- bisher had me kidnapped and placed in the St. Ur- sula Foundling's Home, where they taught me that THE ATOM AND THE POWEKS 167 I wag two or three years younger than I am. I remained there for ten years. Then my dear Soeur Marthe, the nun who educated me, helped me to escape. She broke her vows in order to tell ine who I was and where I lived. She gave me enough money to get home on and a disguise. On the train I was followed by detectives, but I met Mr. Pat- rick and he helped me. At the station in Wash- ington I first saw you ! " said Angela innocently, turning her eyes suddenly upon Ayres, who leaned forward as if galvanised. "You saw me! Where? How?" " You were standing on the platform with a lot of others, just as the train pulled in, and Mr. Pat- rick said : * There's Ayres Arbuthnot and the whole bunch/ So then I knew that you must be Ayres Arbuthnot, and I remembered you," said Angela simply. Midge tried very hard not to, but her wicked eyes would turn of their own accord to her brother's face. But for once, Ayres was oblivious of his sister's presence. He sat with his eyes fixed upon Angela, and the father and mother watching, felt well satisfied with the look of purity and truth which shone in Angela's beautiful face. They felt that their son would love and be loved worthily and no whit for his earthly possessions, for the young girl's whole presence bespoke a sincerity and sim- plicity which drew their hearts to her irresistibly. Even Midge had the grace to be ashamed of her impish smile, and she bravely forbore so much as to glance at Alan Patrick, who generally abetted her in her innocent wickedness. "Where did you get to, after you left me?" he broke in. " I've meant to ask you forty times, but I always forgot it when I wrote." 168 ANGELA'S QUESTj Angela smiled. "Mammy says I was led," she answered. "My own religion is so peculiar, I am afraid nobody would understand it except me. It used to shock dear Soeur Marthe because I refused to believe that God, as a Father, scourged His children. I incline more to Mammy's belief that when you un- derstand God, He does, indeed, lead you. For how else could I have been so guided? You told me to get into that taxicab, and I intended to do it. Then 1 hesitated. Why did I hesitate, do you sup- pose? I had perfect confidence in you and your judgment, yet if I had taken that taxi, I would have been caught, for that was followed and my shabby old hack was not even looked at." " I see ! " said Alan, vaguely, not seeing nor un- derstanding in the least, as Midge knew by tho looks of him. But she said nothing. She saved it to taunt him with later. " It happened that the old negro I spoke to, said he lived in Georgetown, and I liked his appear- ance. It turned out afterward that he was a great friend of Mammy's, and those two old coloured peo- ple had been praying for my return all those years. Don't you see now what Mammy means by my being led?" "I do," said Bettie, promptly. "And I believe you were, Angela." " Oh, how kind of you to call me Angela ! " cried the girl. " I forgot ! " confessed Bettie, blushing. " It seemed so natural, it just slipped out,' Ayres turned a look so full of gratitude upon his mother that her colour deepened still more. Mrs. Arbuthnot was beautiful when she blushed. "We'll all call you Angela, if you like," said Midge. "Won't we Daddy?" THE ATOM AND THE POWERS 169 " If she wishes," said Mr. Arbuthnot. " She will flatter us, if she allows it, in this, our first visit from her." " I should be so glad if you would," said the girl, looking from one to the other, with eyes dewy with feeling. " Well, go on Angela ! " cried Midge. " It's the most exciting thing I ever heard in my life. After this old man took you in his hack, what happened then?" "Well, after we had gone a few miles, I asked him if he knew the old Yorke place, somewhere near Georgetown, thinking of course that I would have to hunt a long time for it. He said he knew right well where it was. At first, I am sure that it did not occur to him to suspect who I was, for I had on a brown wig you remember it, Mr. Pat- rick? then he began to look around at me, but always the colour of my hair puzzled and threw him off the scent. For while the dear old soul was always expecting an answer to his prayers, he was looking for a red-haired answer!" " Eed ! " exclaimed Midge. " Your hair is the most glorious auburn I ever saw ! " " It is like burnished bronze ! " said Bettie. " It is like Aurora's gold ! " said Ayres. Angela's face flushed delicately, but her eyes glowed with feeling as these, the first sweet words of honest battery from her own kind, fell upon her ear. But Midge cut short her pleasure in it by urging her to continue. " Get on with your story, Angela ! " she cried. " Unless you want me to burst ! You found your mother, of course. What does she look like? Have you a photograph of her? Does she look like you?" 170 ANGELA'S QUEST " Midge ! Midge ! " said Bettie, vaguely. Secretly she was as impatient as her daughter. Angela controlled herself by an effort. Slowly she drew an exquisite miniature from her bodice and handed it to Mrs. Arbuthnot. It was painted on ivory and set in pearls and diamonds. Bettie drew a long breath and glanced at her husband, with one of the understanding looks which pass between husband and wife who possess a spiritual comprehension of each other's secret thoughts. " It is a beautiful face a rarely lovely face ! " she said, handing it to Midge, who gazed at it eagerly, uttering incoherent exclamations of ap- preciation. Thus it passed from hand to hand, until it reached Ayres. He took it absently, his eyes expectantly fixed on Angela's face. He knew that something was coming from her tense look. " I found her," she said, directly to him, as if answering the sympathy in his steady eyes, " com- pletely paralysed, with a body quite dead. Only her brain lives. It happened the night I was stolen ! " For a moment, horror held everyone silent. Then Ayres struck the table with his clenched fist. " God ! " he cried. Angela's lips trembled, but she controlled her- self. Midge and Bettie were weeping openly. Mr. Arbuthnot reached out and covered Angela's hand with his own, which trembled visibly. " My poor child ! " he said kindly, whereupon Bettie jumped up and ran around the table to Angela's side. She threw her arms around the girl and drew her head back until it rested upon Bettie's shoulder. " Poor little girl ! " she said. " What a child you are, to have suffered so much ! " Angela, who had felt no woman's arms around her since she bade good-bye to her dear Soeur Mar- the, impulsively reached up and kissed Bettie, who again caressed her and then went back to her chair. "Mother knew me instantly," resumed Angela. "And so did Mammy, by some little marks, and then my baby looks. Mammy says I haven't changed much. Mother is wonderful, Mrs. Ar- butlmot, for in spite of everything, she has kept her reason. She can move her eyes, and we hold conversations with each other I, asking questions and she, answering with her eyes. In this way she says she has held onto her reason, knowing that I would come back some day, and that I would find my father!" " Then you believe he is not dead ! " said Mr. Arbuthnot. "My mother knqws he is alive. How, I do not know. But she never admits that he can be dead. She thinks that he is kept a prisoner by Kalph Frobisher and his minions." A short silence ensued, in which the thoughts of all raced back along the vista Angela's last remark opened up. " Of course Ralph Frobisher personally did not abduct you," said Ayres, presently. "Has your mother any idea who really did the stealing? Did she see him or them?" "Indeed she did!" cried Angela. "And I be- lieve that I myself have seen him twice. Once I saw him at St. Ursula's. And once, here in New York, I have met him, face to face. Would you know whom I mean if I should tell you that mother 172 ANGEMfS QUEST and Soeur;31artneibbtli" 'say that- He lias Chinese eyes? " " Marvin Cray ! ^hquted Alan'Patrick. " I knew it! I always knew that fellow was a skunk!. Gee! If they will only catch him. too! -Lord! If they only can! But he is as slippery as an eel ! " The three men at the table looked at each other, with the same thought in their minds. The law was so helpless against the millions of Ralph Fro- bisher, that unless other millions were summoned by the opposition, these criminals were more than likely to go scot free. Already the District Attor- ney had been the subject of a number of sharp newspaper attacks by reason of his remarkable de- lays in prosecuting this man. Indeed it was openly stated that he had gone before the Grand Jury and argued that there was insufficient evi- dence to indict. Nevertheless they had returned in- dictments on over a hundred different counts, and more were promised. Angela's story, so quietly told, of the grave wrongs her family had suffered by means of this man's insane lust of power, brought home to them a realising sense of its destroying po- tency, and the desire to enlist personally in the cam- paign to bring this criminal to justice, was born in the minds of all who listened. There and then, had Angela only realised the enormous power of the Arbuthnot wealth, the success of her endeavours became assured. Nothing definite was said at the moment, al- though everyone felt the tension. "You met him at the Frobishers' the other night!" cried Midge. " Ayres said he was there! Did he recognise you? Did he suspect you? How did he act? If I'd been in your place, Angela, I'd have shrieked or swooned! How could you stand it?" "Well, your brother came up just at the same moment," said Angela, innocently, "and the very sight of him seemed to steady me. I think Mr. Cray was much agitated. He stammered out some- thing about how I reminded him of somebody he had thought dead, and then tried to laugh it off, because his wife was watching his excitement, with the queerest look of sudden suspicion no un- derstanding on her face. It was just as though her suspicions had been unexpectedly corrobo- rated." Bettie nodded. "I know what you mean. I have known Erne- lie since she was a child, and I never could under- stand her marriage to Marvin Cray. But then," she added, " I never can understand why anybody marries the way they do ! " " I have always felt that the Cray marriage was a mistake and would end in disaster," said Mr. Arbuthnot. " Emelie is a very superior woman." "But she hadn't exactly waked up when she married," added Bettie. " Her girlhood was spent in a dream of unreality. Poor thing! " "Marvin adores her," said Ayres. " I know. But that won't help when the crash comes. It will only make it worse," said his mother. " Angela," said Mr. Arbuthnot, leaning forward and tapping his hand with his gold-rimmed eye- glasses, " what is your theory of the reason for your abduction and all that has happened to your family? Have you and your mother any facts to go on?" " Not one, Mr. Arbuthnot, except that a box of valuable papers was stolen the same night I was kidnapped, containing every clue my mother pos- sessed. It stripped me of every possible aid." 174 ANGELA'S QUEST " I see ! Well, my child, I have some light to throw upon the subject from personal knowledge. I once knew your father ! " " You knew him ! " cried Angela. She straight- ened herself in her chair and stared hard at Mr. Arbuthnot, as if she could not believe her ears. " And I knew it all the time, and I didn't tell ! " cried Midge, bouncing up and down in her chair like a small rubber ball. " He came to me about twelve years ago with a marvellous invention, destined to revolutionise the hemp business, and told me that the machine for producing it was in the hands of a personal friend of his, Marvin Cray, who was to put it up to Ralph Frobisher. I examined into the matter thoroughly, told your father I would contract for all the fibre he could turn out for three years at double what I was then paying for Manila, and your father left my office, much encouraged, and promising to re- turn and complete the deal. I never saw him. again! My theory is that when he reported the result of the interview to Cray and it reached Fro- bisher's ears, he simply put your father away somewhere possibly cast him into prison, or " An insane asylum ! " whispered Angela. " I have thought of that often ! " " But how could such an awful thing happen to a perfectly sane man?" cried Bettie, horror- stricken at the thought. "Mother," said Ayres, "it is my opinion that there is not an asylum for the insane anywhere in the world, which does not contain at least one per- fectly sane man or woman, who has been placed there by the power of money alone ! " "You're dead right there, kid," said Alan Pat- rick. " It gives me the horrors to go near a bug- house just for that very reason ! " THE ATOM AND THE POWERS 175 " But why, why should even a man like Mr. Fro- bisher want to suppress my father's invention? I don't know much about business, but if it was a thing wonderful enough for you to value it so highly, why wouldn't it have been worth just as much to him? He was then president of the Cen- tral National Hemp Company, wasn't he?" "He was, but twelve years ago he was not the possessor of so many millions as he is now," re- plied Mr. Arbuthnot, " In fact, he was at a criti- cal point in his career. He had just launched out in the insurance business, consolidating three large companies. He had just looted the Southwestern and Texarkana Railroad and bought it in, and contracted to extend it until it met his Western system, and he had no large amount of money to invest. This may sound inexplicable to you, but as Ralph Frobisher never plays an honest game, I suppose the idea of accepting your father's prop- osition of paying him a royalty on his machines and a fair profit on his raw fibre, never occurred to him. If he could not steal the invention and buy up thousands of acres of banana trees, thus reaping the lion's share, why he would simply devise a way to sweep the inventor, whose inven- tion menaced him, off the earth." " Fibre ! Banana trees ! " repeated Angela. " What do you mean? " " Why, my child," said Mr. Arbuthnot, " do you mean to tell me that you and your mother know nothing of your father's invention?" " If my mother does, please remember that she has no way of telling me. She can only answer my questions, and 7 am quite in ignorance of it. Mammy doesn't know either. I have spent hours yes, days, trying to find out! v A yres thrust his hand into his pocket and drew; 176 ANGELA'S QUEST out the sample of long, silky white fibre his father had found in his safe. He handed it across the table to Angela, saying: " Bead the tag on it, please ! " " ' From the plantation of Angela Cravanath, Hermosillo, Estrellada,' ' read Angela aloud. " * Of Angela Cravanath ! ' Why, that must mean me. Can it be my plantation?" " Then your mother's name is not Angela? " asked Ayres, with the same tense look in his eyes, which always appeared whenever this subject en- tered his mind. It had almost come to be an ob- session with him. "No, my mother's name is Juanita." "Are you, then, of Spanish descent? " asked Mr. Arbuthnot. " I don't know," answered Angela. " Remember that I am almost as much in ignorance of who and what I am as you are. Mammy calls mother i Miss Nita,' and her lingerie is marked ' J. L. C.,' and only by finding her name written in the Bible, did I chance on the whole name, Juanita." "Probably, then, this plantation is yours, de- scended to you through your mother's relatives, who possibly were once Spanish, either by birth or marriage, and if it were yours, that would give a reasonable motive on Mr. Frobisher's part for your abduction, which has puzzled me," said Mr. Arbuthnot. " Ayres, son, doesn't it strike you that it would be an excellent thing for you to take a run down to Estrellada and see what you can discover?" " I am sure it would, sir," answered the younger man. " I would have gone before, only there is a man I have been rather interested in, who has just come from Estrellada, and who is dead sore on Ralph Frobisher. I have invited him to the smoker the boys are going to give to-morrow night. After THE ATOM AND THE POWERS 177 that I will be ready to go at almost any old time." "Where is Estrellada?" asked Bettie. "And what is it? A country or an island?" " It is an island in the South Atlantic off the coast of Central America," answered her son. " Oh, Ayres," cried Midge, " I wish I could go with you ! " " Well, you can't, kid," replied her brother. " If Don Rafael is the kind of huckleberry I think he is, Estrellada and the mare's nest I may find there, will be no place for little girls! " Bettie looked up suddenly. Then she exclaimed at the sight of Angela's paleness : "Child, this has been too much for you! We have been thoughtless. Angela, you look quite done up! You must come and rest. Could you manage to stay all night, if you telephone?" " You are very kind," answered Angela, grate- fully, "but I really think while I would love to stay, you understand that it would look too marked. Such a sudden intimacy might arouse their suspicions, and I have gone through too much to dare to risk such a catastrophe, even for so great a pleasure ! " " She's right ! " cried Midge. " It looks bad. She must go back and play the part. Oh, Angela, what fun ! I feel just as if I were in a book, and when you opened its pages bang* there you would see Midge Arbuthnot right under the reader's nose ! " " I rather think," said Bettie, drawing Angela's hand through her arm, and leading the way to the library, " that if that is so, I will write a chapter myself, after a while. Angela, I want you to tell me more about your dear mother. Her bravery and patience all these weary years wring my very heart." CHAPTER XX HUSBAND AND WIFE It was not the custom of Emelie Cray to drive through the streets with the light burning in her electric brougham. But on the way home from the Frobisher dinner, she was curious to watch the expression on her husband's face. If he ever drank too much, she would have sus- pected that this was an occasion, for she had never seen his manner so abnormal as it was after the two men had joined the others in the over-deco- rated, over-furnished drawing-room of the Fro- bishers. Mrs. Cray had been conscious that some unusual complication had come up, for no one could mistake the glances of fear and hate w T hich flashed between Ralph Frobisher and Marvin Cray as they pitted their will-power, one against the other, in their mental battle. However, little was said between the husband and wife until they reached home. Marvin Cray had the uneasy sense that his wife's suspicions had been aroused, and, little as he cared to have the subject opened, yet he could not keep away from it or her. He kept coming into her sitting-room, on one pretext or another, until she saw that he was afraid of her. That brought mat- ters to a head, for a woman would not be a woman, if she did not know instinctively that no man is afraid of his wife, who has not a guilty conscience on some counts. Emelie Cray abhorred wordy quarrels, and pos- sibly even then the evil moment would have been 178 HUSBAND AND WIFE 179 postponed, had not the mother gone again into the nursery. It joined her bedroom, and in it, close by the lace-trimmed crib, was the trained nurse, Miss Emery, who cared, for the baby at night. She was accustomed to see the figure of this mother, mov- ing like a shadow from the doorway to bend over the sleeping child, at any hour of the night. She seldom spoke, for there were no questions to ask, therefore no answers could be of interest. The baby could not move, could not cry, could show no sign of life except that she could swallow the food given her, and could sleep. The last time there had been a consultation of physicians, the most famous baby specialist had mustered up courage to tell the mother that the most merciful thing which could happen, would be for the end to come quickly, for with sight and hearing both gone, even if the child lived, she would have no mind. Such a blow would have prostrated most women, but it simply awoke Emelie Cray. At this verdict, she felt the last bond snap which held her spiritual sense in thrall, and a new and vital force took possession of her. Dr. Fitzjames, who was noted, for possessing a rather sensitive professional vanity, was not even annoyed when she gravely contradicted him. " You are mistaken, doctor," she said quietly, " although I admit your wisdom and skill. There is no reason for my child to die, and I know of a very good reason why I believe she will live." Something seemed to leap from this mother's soul into her eyes, and shine out with the pure and holy belief of an infinite Truth, for the man looked at her for a moment, surprised both by her self- control and possibly a little shamed by her faith, 180 ANGELA'S QUEST for he suddenly held out his hand to her, saying heartily : " I hope from the bottom of my soul, that I am mistaken, Mrs. Cray! No one will be more glad than I to be proved wrong in this case. Let us hope for the best." Emelie had not told her husband, either of this final consultation nor the doctor's verdict There had never been any of those spontaneous moments of quick confession and irresistible con- fidence between these two, which most husbands and wives know, either at first through being in love, or later, when brought close together by grief. Instead, each hid his deeper experiences, and their minds touched only on trivialities. It was about one o'clock in the morning, yet Marvin Cray still stood by the mantel, leaning his head on his arm and looking at the open fire of driftwood which always in winter blazed in this room of a woman's individuality. This man, albeit of a low order of spiritual equipment, incapable of understanding or follow- ing his wife's lead, always felt the mental atmos- phere of this room to be subtly different from any- thing else in the house or in his crafty life. His one redeeming quality was his passionate idolatry of this woman's purity and calibre. He heard the sound of a softly closed door and the rustle of her garments as she returned from the nursery. He lifted his head and looked at her adoringly out of his beady eyes. Instead of pausing, as usual, some distance from him, she came close and the two faced each other, across the gleaming firelight, the man's gaze, shift- ing and timid, the woman's searching and ac- cusing. "Dr. Fitzjames has been here again in consul- HUSBAND AND WIFE 181 tation, Marvin," she said, speaking more rapidly than usual. " Do you know what he said?" The man swallowed painfully and shook his head, without answering. He cared nothing for children in general, an4 little for his own baby girl, except inasmuch as she could cause his wife suffering. To avoid that, he would have avowed anything, professed anything, confessed anything. He nerved himself to listen with a show of interest. "He said that the best thing which could hap- pen to little Olive would be for her to to die! He says that even if she lives, she will be she will be no, no ! I cannot speak the word ! " She bowed her head and deep sobs shook her whole frame. Her husband shivered at the sound of her weep- ing, and started toward her, his first impulse to take her into his arms and comfort her. Then some instinct stopped him. " Don't cry, Emelie ! " he said beseechingly. " Perhaps he is wrong. Doctors don't know every- thing!" His wife raised her eyes and looked at him. " No," she said, " they don't. Possibly he is mis- taken. I believe he is. But there is no mistaking the fact that our baby our first little baby is lying in there, motionless, helpless, scarcely alive! What brought such a blow on us? What caused it? Why was she turned from a little, laughing, crowing, happy, intelligent baby into nothing but an inert mass? I tell you I believe it is a judg- ment on us! I have been struck in the tenderest and most vulnerable part of my heart-life, and I am afraid it must be to punish me for my sins! " Emelie had expected some sign of emotion from her husband, but she was unprepared for the con- tortion of his face or the vehemence of his manner, 182 ANGELA'S QUEST as she thus took all the blame on her own shoul- ders. " Your sins ! " he cried, hoarsely. " Yours! You are as white as snow ! You never did a wrong act nor thought a wrong thought in all your beautiful life! What are you talking about? What are you thinking of?" " I am thinking that I did wrong to marry you without love ! " she answered, quickly. " I know you will tell me that it was your fault that you over-persuaded me ! You did. But only because I was weak and ignorant, and ignorance is no ex- cuse. I was a grown woman. I should have known. And, as I look back, I did know, in a vague, blind way. But I sinned against my better self while under your influence, w T hich I allowed to hypnotise me. And now I am reaping what I have sowed." " You are doing nothing of the kind ! " he said, wildly. His shallow soul was always alarmed when his wife spoke of such things. He was un- easy, nervous, frightened. No business problem, however difficult, no projected crime even, had ever caused him the pangs of terror that one sucli conversation could produce in him. " You mustn't talk that way. What good can it do? " " It can do this good ! " she said sternly. " If I repent if I see my fault if I am honest with you and confess that I do not love you that I never have loved you that I never can love you, and if I leave you, taking baby and creeping away to some quiet corner of the world where I can devote my- self to her healing through my new religion, then I would have my chance given back to me ! I would have repented of the greatest sin I know of in my own life, and made the only reparation I know how!" HUSBAND AND WIFE 183 In her excitement she was swept out of herself. When her husband's groan of agony recalled her, his appearance was a shock. His face was dark red, his eyes bloodshot, the cords of his neck stood out, and his whole body was trembling. " Leave me ! " he said, thickly. " Go away from me, where I could never see you again? Never touch you again? Never hear the sound of your voice? Do you want to kill me, Emelie? " " No, no ! Marvin ! Don't think that I believe you would not suffer. I know you love me, but if I don't love you as a wife should " " Is there another man?" he interrupted, taking a sudden step toward her. She recoiled in horror. " Another man! " she said. " Do you believe me capable of even remembering that there are other men in the world, with little Olive as she is?" " No, no ! I suppose not ! Forgive me ! But your suggestion of leaving me ! Tell me you didn't mean it ! " " But, Marvin, if I told you that I believed that to see sin and repent of it, would be the first step toward changing the terribly hopeless fate which threatens our child, wouldn't you, for her sake, be the one to sacrifice your own feelings and tell me to go? " " No ! A thousand times no ! " he said, brutally. " No child on earth nor forty of them are worth what you are to me." Then seeing the expression of her face, he has- tened to add: "But if sin is all you are looking for, why shouldn't it be my sins as well as yours? Can't a father's sins be taken account of just as easily as a mother's? Suppose they are mine which have to be looked into and atoned for? What then?" 184 ANGELA'S QUEST He was incited to further efforts to divert her thoughts by the change in her expression. He had secured, at least, her attention a thing, he re- flected with chagrin, that he seldom accomplished. She seemed to listen, so he hastened on: " My life has been as black as ink, compared to the spotlessness of yours. I have no code of honour, as you may know. My motto has always been, ' Do others before they get a chance to do you/ I have been educated in a hard school and by a hard master." She lifted her eyes to his face. "You mean Kalph Frobisher?" she asked. He shifted from one foot to the other before he answered. Then an angered recollection of that gentleman's last insulting words to him inflamed his mind. " Yes, I do ! " he said, with violence. " He has made me do all his dirty work. He took me when I was a mere boy and taught me his code. He has forced me to do his will in everything. Thing? that were too black or too dangerous for him to dare, he put off on me. I would have gone to jail more than once, if his money had not bought off justice ! " " Then you have committed what you knew were actual crimes, have you?" she asked. Having begun, he rushed on blindly, resolved at least to prove her absurd shouldering of responsi- bility for baby Olive's condition, false. " Yes, I have. Nothing that need worry you, of course, for my name was never known in connec- tion with them at all. I was too slick ever to get caught. But the things have been done, I want you to understand, and by me, so if there is any truth in that hellish suggestion that one or the other of us is to blame, it is I and not you, who must pay the piper ! " HUSBAND AND WIFE 185 His wife lowered her gaze. She did not wish him to see into her eyes. She was ashamed to realise that if all he said were true, it destroyed her chance of freedom her hope of being able to sep- arate from him. to leave a man who had become odious to her, for the rearjon that she was the sort of woman who could not bring herself to desert a husband simply because he was more wicked than she had thought when she married him. If she could not find an excuse in her own soul, as she had dared to hope, when she began this conversa- tion, she was doomed to stand by him, to drag out the rest of her existence with a man who had not only become physically loathsome to her, but one whose plane of thought she despised. He paused and scanned her drooping face eagerly, disappointed that she did not at once ac- cept his assurances. " Why, see here, Emelie, if you don't really be- lieve I have done things which are bad enough, just let me tell you some of them. Do you remem- ber, about five years ago, the suit the State brought against the Bread Trust? Well, it was Frobisher who instigated that corner. He knew that while people can get along without meat, the poor must have bread. So he cornered wheat, then flour, then bread. You remember, don't you? The pa- pers raised a howl about it and spent millions de- picting the sufferings of the poor. Well, some little independent companies wouldn't join forces with him, and he had me hire men to drive around and run into their wagons, make their teams run away. I myself saw two men killed by a collision that I had arranged. We poisoned their horses. We drove the little bakers out of business. Women came to his office and begged on their knees for an interview with him, to tell of starving children at home, and I wouldn't let them even see him. I 180 ANGELA'S QUEST know of one woman whose five children literally starved to death. It was the widow of one of the men who was killed. Why, I could fill a book with the things that man has made me do not, of course, that I was actually the one whose hands were blood stained I never really committed an act which was jailable, but " She chanced a random shot. "How about Angela?" she said. Her husband started and gazed at her with an ashen face. Drops of sweat gathered on his brow, and his whole frame shook. " Wha what do you know of that? " he stam- mered hoarsely. " I know so much that I want to know more," she said quietly. "Suppose you tell me." His Chinese eyes at once became inscrutable, as was their wont when any danger menaced. He was instantly on the alert and master of himself, insomuch as he felt the peril of his position. He knew, as well as anyone, that a confession of his actual participation in the crime of abduction was to put a rope around his neck which his first enemy could hang him by. " I don't know what you mean," he said. " An- gela who? Do you mean Angelica Frobisher? " " Her name is Angela," answered his wife. "She told me so, and then corrected it hurriedly. You two have met before. How? When? Where? You might as well tell me ! " He backed away from her. beating the air with his hands. " If if what you say is true " he began. " Stop, Marvin ! Why can you never be ingenu- ous with me? Why do you always hedge and fence and play a part? This is one time when I have made up my mind to know the whole truth." HUSBAND AND WIFE 187 Instantly the whole of his sinuous mind concen- trated on the complicated subject. What course should he take? Throw himself heart and soul on his wife's side, betray Ralph Frobisher, cut loose from him and so hold his wife, through gratitude, if nothing else? Or believe she meant what she said about never loving him, in which case, after having put himself wholly at her mercy, she might turn against him, ruin and desert him, as count- less women had ruined and deserted men in like manner? In addition to these questions there was also one of equal moment, namely, his very immi- nent and deadly peril, if his own suspicions and Emelie's intuitions were correct, and this girl were actually the child Angela Cravanath, whom, ten years before, he had personally kidnapped. She seemed to have recognised him in at least as much agitation as he himself had shown. Sup- pose it were she? What then? A cold sweat broke out all over him, and he felt the prison doors closing around him. And after all these years of cheating justice by means of his diabolically sinuous cleverness! He knew no one better that, were he identified with this crime, he could count on becoming suddenly friendless. Ralph Frobisher would turn on him first of all, and repudiate all connection with the crime. Nor could it be traced to him! In spite of all Marvin Cray's endeavours, the wits of Ralph Frobisher had been too keen for him at every turn. There was not a scrap of evidence. Not a check had been written. Even the cash sent by express had been drawn from Marvin Cray's personal account and shipped by him. Ralph Fro- bisher took plenty of time to plan his coups, and most of it went to covering his tracks. 188 ANGELA'S QUEST Cray knew this. He knew just why Frobisher piled all the material evidence on him, and he had done his best to conceal his hand in the matter, flattering himself that his work had been well done until this moment of illumination. His mind took in the worst and moved with lightning rapidity. He decided that if this were indeed Angela and she had recognised him, there was but one thing to do. Throw himself upon his wife's mercy and confess everything. He knew women well enough to believe that this would make her his ally for two reasons one that she would not desert him in trouble, and the other, her joy at believing his confession a symptom of the reform she was anxious to bring about in both their lives for the sake of the child. He could scarcely repress a sardonic grin as this last contingency flitted across his mind, but the seriousness of the other counts scattered all idea of levity in its incipiency. He collected his wits and faced his problem, de- termining to confess with such an air of candour all that his wife fancied she knew, that she would not suspect that he was keeping anything back. He shuddered when he realised that Emelie would undoubtedly take steps which could not fail to come to Ralph Frobisher's ears. He knew that he was taking his life in his hand, for he believed that Frobisher would kill him, or cause him to be killed, in the same mysterious yet natural manner that he had utilised in the cases of men who had failed him or interfered with his plans in any way. But he knew he could hold his wife by this means and by no other. With this thought firmly in his mind, the way suddenly became plain to him. HUSBAND AND WIFE 189 " If a confession of all my sins will ease your mind, my darling," he began slowly, " I will dig down into the blackest depths of my past and tell you everything. Only I must know one thing be- forehand. If I tell you everything, will you be so shocked you will revolt from me? I could not bear to lose you! I I believe it would kill me!" Emelie's face became illuminated with the look of the spiritual enthusiast. For the first time in her life, she felt an actual tenderness for her hus- band. He was going to confess, and in her simple creed, confession spelled reformation. If they should reconstruct their lives together what good might not be accomplished! " If you will confess everything to me, Marvin, I can promise you, that no matter what you tell me, I will not hold it up against you, nor will I ever leave you! Sincere repentance deserves a better fate than that, even at the hands of a fellow mor- tal, who might be judged equally guilty, albeit in a different way ! " Her husband shifted his feet uneasily, but made no direct reply. Suddenly he said: "What do you suspect of this girl? Does she seem to be what she appears? " "No, she does not! I can never believe her to be any relation in the world to those Frobishers. She is miles removed from them by birth and breeding. Not one drop of their blood flows in her veins. Then, too, she begged me not to call her Miss Frobisher, but to call her Angela " " Angela ! " cried her husband. " You mean Angelica ! " In spite of himself he had hoped that this girl might not prove to be Angela Cravanath. 190 ANGELA'S QUEST "No, she said Angela first, but corrected it to Angelica. Then I overheard Ayres talking to her and she said : ' I will tell you who I am. and every- thing the first opportunity I have' or something like that. I firmly believe that monster, Ralph Frobisher, is palming that girl off as his niece to further some w r icked crime of his own. She is his dupe ! " " No ! " groaned her husband. " If what you say is true, he is Tier dupe. He thinks she is his niece, the daughter of a brother who was killed in that wreck, but she isn't. She is Angela Cravanath, whose father, some twelve or fourteen years ago, invented a machine for taking fibre from the ba- nana tree after the fruit had been cut. This fibre was so cheap to obtain and so good that Frobisher thought it menaced Manila hemp, for w r hich he had a ten-year contract, so he he had this man adjudged insane and put in an insane asylum. He railroaded a perfectly sane man to a madhouse, and compelled me to arrange everything connected with it for him. His hand never showed at all. If it ever should be discovered, my guilt could be proved, but not his. I was wrong, of course, to do it, but that was before I met you ! " Craftily, out of his narrowed, Mongolian eyes, Marvin Cray watched the shades of varying emo- tions play over the sensitive face of his wife. He felt satisfied to go on. For the first time in his life, he seemed to have interested her in himself, his personality. With the instinct of the true re- former, she found a soul which she felt was in the act of being saved through confession and repent- ance. " But the child ! she urged. " What of her? " "An enormous estate on the island of Estrellada, capable of producing the world's supply of this fibre, had been inherited by this child, descended HUSBAND AND WIFE 191 to tier through her mother's ancestors, who held it under a royal patent. It is immensely valuable, for much more than the fibre, so it was necessary to destroy the identity of this child. Mr. Frobisher claimed to be too human to want to kill her " "Kill her!" gasped his wife. " Yes, kill her I And if he had, it would not have been his first murder, Emelie Cray! That man's hands are stained with more human blood than has been on the hands of many a criminal who has ended his life in the electric chair. So, as I say > she was hardly more than a baby, maybe five or six years old Frobisher not being willing to kill her, he made me kidnap her " To his intense astonishment he was interrupted by an agonised shriek from his wife. She covered her face with her hands and began weeping violently. " What in the world is the matter? " hie cried. " Surely that was not as bad as the railroading of a man an innocent man " His wife lifted a white face toward him, from which blazed two accusing eyes. " I am not thinking of either that unhappy man or the poor child. I am thinking of the wretched woman in the case ! That poor tortured wife and mother! The losing of her husband was bad enough, but women bear those things. They have to! But to have a child stolen not to have the satisfaction of knowing that it was dead, but to draiir every hour of the twenty-four, of every drop of anguish and uncertainty and imagined dread, which the wretched lingering of the hours can hold for an agonised mother's heart that is the most fiendishly cruel thing that one mortal can enact against another. Murder is an unmitigated blessing compared to it! And to think that you - you 192 ANGELA'S QUEST "That was years before I knew you, Emelie! And you know that I was a wretched, untaught sinner until you came and rescued me!" But still she turned her face from him. " The child was well cared for. I put her into the special care of the Mother Superior of St. Ur- sula's, and Mr. Frobisher gave thousands of dol- lars to them as conscience money, besides sending two hundred dollars a month to " "What became of the mother?" interrupted his wife, showing that she had scarcely listened. " She became paralysed by the shock, and has never left her wheeled chair from that day to this. I doubt if she is alive now. Probably she did not suffer long. Her mind must have given way be- fore this, so my God ! What have I done ! Emelie ! My wife! Look up! Don't " He broke off and rushed to the door of the nur- sery. " Miss Emery ! Come quick ! My wife has fainted ! " When, an hour later, he was allowed to come in and speak to his wife and to reassure himself that she was herself again, he tried to ignore the cause of her fainting, but she reverted to it, with unusual firmness. " No, Marvin," she said. " Let me speak. These sins of yours have now come to the surface. They have been hidden long enough. Surely you your- self can see that with two dreadful warnings of the same sort, you know what you must do ! Surely you see!" The bewildered man, without an inkling of spir- itual understanding, felt that he must go warily. "If you would only tell me what you think ! " he pleaded. " You see so much further than I do ! " "Atonement!" cried his wife fervently. HUSBAND AND WIFE 193 '"Whatever you say I will do!" "he declared. "You arrange what you want me to do, and Til do it!" He had the sinking sensation of a man about to drown in a sea of goodness. His wife looked up at him, with a smile. " There is much good in you, Marvin, after all ! " she said gently. " We must take plenty of time to decide what is the right thing to do." When he had kissed her good-night and left the room, he took out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his brow. Once before he had experienced this same sen- sation of relief from immediate peril. It was when he wakened after dreaming that he was join- ing the church. On the morning after the smoker, at which Don Kafael de Hermosillo, of Hermosillo, Estrellada, had been the guest of Ayres Arbuthnot, the Span- ish gentleman awoke with the uneasy feeling, very new to one of his diplomacy and craft, that a hu- man corkscrew had been inserted into his brain and all its precious secrets drawn out. He thought the matter over carefully then shrugged his shoulders. " After all, what does it matter? " he said to him- self. " I came up to this abominable country espe- cially to tell the leader of a pack of wolves what I intended to do, in case he does not redeem his promise to me. What is the difference if the lieu- tenant-wolf got my ultimatum before the captain- wolf? It is all one ! " At the same moment the lieutenant-wolf was cudgeling his brains to know what to do with his new-found knowledge. To many, the information he had secured would have appeared insignificant, but, taken together with everything else that Ayres knew, it seemed to bear strongly on the Cravanath case. But it pointed inexorably to the greatest stum- bling block which had hitherto appeared in the young man's path, and that was* how to obtain access to Ralph Frobisher's private office and ac- tually overhear that astute gentleman in the act of setting his most trusted lieutenants to cut each 194 THE CUB REPORTER 195 other's throats in the blind belief that they were cutting his. This was but a guess of Ayres'. He had studied Frobisher's methods and character carefully, and had come to the conclusion that Frobisher must know that his lieutenants hated him. If so, then what was more natural than that he should en- deavour to trap each to his own destruction by deceptive means? After having spent months in a vain attempt to compass his desire, Ayres decided on a bold method, and with this in mind, he one day handed a note written by himself, to Howard Gallup, when Ayres made his usual morning call at Frobisher's office for the purpose of worrying that gentleman by the sight of the cub reporter from The Blazed Trail. He hung around until Gallup had had a chance to read his note, and heard him say casually to one of the stenographers: " Miss O'Shea, please have these ready for me when I come in at two o'clock. I am going to lunch with a friend at one." Whereupon, without even a look in his direction, Ayres departed. When the two young men met in a private room at Ayres' club, he plunged without preamble into the very heart of the matter. " It was good of you to come, Gallup, because, in your official capacity, it is your duty to distrust me. But there are times when, if two duties ap- pear to conflict, it is wise to define them to one's self." " That is why I am here," said Gallup, drily " Good ! " exclaimed Ayres. " Well, 1 11 be brief. Do you know do you really know what sort of a man you are working for? Do you know what 196 ( ANGELA'S QUEST > sort of well, crimes, you are lending your brains and ability to furthering? Tell me that before we talk cases." Gallup hesitated. " No," he said, slowly, " I don't actually know. To be honest with you, Arbuthnot, I don't wish to know." \ It was Ayres' turn to hesitate. "After that sentiment," he said finally, "under some circumstances, I would not enlighten you. But there are cleaner men to work for than Ralph Frobisher, and you could find them." " As I am in his employ, my duty, as I conceive it, is to him," said Gallup, firmly. " I know better than to ask you to betray his trust by helping me to trap him, while you are in his pay, and I am frank to say that I would de- spise you if you could be persuaded. But if I should tell you the specific crime I suspect him of, w T hich I am determined to fasten on him, would you be man enough to leave his service to help me, pro- vided my case were sufficiently flagrant to war- rant such a sacrifice on your part?" " You would have to make out a good case," said Gallup. "But if the case were good enough?" urged Ayres, eagerly. "Arbuthnot, I couldn't have watched your per- sistence and your earnestness all these months without believing in your honesty. That is why I am here," said Gallup. " Good ! " cried Ayres. " Listen to me for five minutes and Ralph Frobisher will be short a sec- retary before the week is out. About twelve years ago a man came to my father with an invention * a wonderful substitute for Manila hemp. Father agreed to take his entire output and, during the THE CUB REPORTER 197 interview, he learned that the drawings for the machines to manufacture it were in Frobisher's possession. That man never came back. He dis- appeared from the face of the earth. His wife fled in terror to a remote place, where she and her child hid themselves for two or three years. The plantation which produced the raw material was in Estrellada an inheritance of the child's. The child was kidnapped and placed in a Catholic foundling's home, where she remained ten years. sShe was carefully educated, however, and remem- bered more than they suspected. Finally she per- suaded one of the sisters to help her to escape, and with only her lost name and the most meagre di- rections, she found her way back home, only to dis- cover that the shock of her abduction had paralysed her mother. Both the young girl and the mother believe the husband and father to be alive. They believe that Marvin Cray and Frobisher have him in some asylum or jail. I had this man Don Rafael de Hermosillo at the smoker last night and he let fall many a dark hint as to a certain crime Fro- bisher had committed for which he could be made to smart. Don Rafael is here evidently to make him smart. What that crime is and what part Don Rafael played in it, and wherein Frobisher failed in payment thereof, as my interpretation of the matter is, is why I must be present at the inter- view between these two men, which is liable to take place any day, and you are the only one to warn me of its imminence." Gallup listened with interest to this brief state- ment of facts. Then he said : " Suppose I should tell you when it was to be? \ .'hat then? " * Then I must be in the room with them ! That is all there is to it ! " 198 ANGELA'S QUEST " That is perfectly impossible. It will take place in the smallest room in his suite of offices. There is nothing to hide behind." " You leave that to me. I'll be in that room dur- ing the interview if you will only tell me what day it is to be, and at what hour." Gallup smoked thoughtfully for a few moments. " I am a little sick of the whole business," he said, slowly. " If you are sure of what you tell me, I will resign, though well, never mind! I shall pull through somehow." " Then," said Ayres, eagerly, " will you " " I dictated a reply to Don Rafael's letter yester- day, appointing the unusual hour of nine o'clock on Friday morning for the interview," said Gallup. " Nine o'clock ! " groaned Ayres, dismally. " Why, what's the matter with that? " "Nothing only after it is all over, you will either be called upon to identify my corpse, or you will know why I moaned," said Ayres. "/ stay up all night!" " I must be going," said Gallup, rising. " I have still a day's work before me. He keeps six secre- taries busy." " Take it easy ! " said Ayres. " If I can prove this on him, he won't need quite so many. But, before you go, have another cigar and let me thank you for coming." " On the contrary, I think I ought to thank you for pushing me into what I have always known to be my duty to resign from the employ of this man." " Shall you resign soon?" asked Ayres. " Immediately." " I hope you won't have left by Friday. If things turn out other than I have planned, it wouldn't THE CUB REPORTER 199 be a bad idea to have some one about who knows I am in that room." " But you can't get in ! " objected Gallup. " That fireplace, even, is a false one. There isn't a spot where you could hide, and as to coming in disguised you'd never get within a mile of that inner office." " Son," said Ayres Arbuthnot, " on Friday at nine, I shall be in that office. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. And you want to stand ready to swear that I was there and stick to it in the face of everything you see and everybody you hear to the contrary. You know as well as I do, that I take my life in my hands when I say that I shall be there." " I understand you, Arbuthnot. And in case you need me, I'll be there, too !" As Howard Gallup made his way back to the office, contradictory and conflicting emotions filled his mind. He was naturally prejudiced against Ayres Arbuthnot, for his aggressive confidence in himself always jarred on the sensibilities of the less successful man, and because of Ayres' undis- guised passion for Angela. On the other hand, the earnestness, perseverance and courage of the man appealed to Gallup's better self and in the end, he felt glad that he had yielded to the generous im- pulse to befriend the young reporter. Yet it must be admitted that in his secret heart, Howard Gallup rather hoped that his rival would have boasted prematurely, for on Friday morning, he made a most careful search for any suspicion of a chance hiding-place, but none was to be seen. Although the room was small, it was superbly fitted up and absolutely sound-proof. It was Mr. Frobisher's boast that so much money was never 200 ANGELA'S QUEST before expended in so small a room the clock alone costing sixty thousand dollars. A priceless tapestry covered the entrance to the steel vault, to which Mr. Frobisher alone knew the combination. In case he died, it was believed that, unless he left directions for opening it, the vault must be opened by force. Gallup had no idea that his actions were spied upon, yet no sooner had he left the room than a slight noise was heard in the securely sealed false fireplace, which was only to exhibit the mantel of carved jade. Ralph Frobisher was right when he realised that he must defend himself in every way against Ayres Arbuthnot, for it was no mean intelli- gence which the great man was pitted against. In anticipation of gaining access to this room, Ayres had spent much time and money in securing the services of the highest man for this purpose, the Inspector of Buildings. From him he received not only permission, but active co-operation in his plan of removing by night the closed flue of the fireplace in Ralph Frobisher's private office, and of letting down a platform by means of ropes, by which Ayres could be supported safely in the chimney, just above the view of those in the room, but within earshot. All this had been ac- complished before Howard Gallup agreed to help. Ayres had not expected the luck of Marvin Cray's visit, for he knew that a serious breach ex- isted between them, for some reason, then un- known to him. It was but a little after eight when Ralph Fro- bisher entered this inner room, attended by obse- quious secretaries to the door, but which he always entered alone. He went to the vault, unlocked it, put some docu- THE CUB REPORTER 201 ments in, took letters out, glanced through his mail and then rang for his personal secretary. " Has anything been seen of that reporter, Gallup?" " No, Mr. Frobisher. I nave neither seen him nor heard of his being around for several days," answered the young man. Yet as he spoke he had the curious feeling that a third person heard him and that that third person was the aforesaid re- porter. "Your not seeing him doesn't prove that he hasn't been here," observed Mr. Frobisher, rudely. " I haven't seen him. myself, but I've horse sense enough to know that he is around. You never catch me lulling myself to sleep in a false sense of security just because I don't see everything I expect to. I sense that fellow. He is up to some- thing or he'd be around, if only to devil me by the very sight of him. Has Cray come yet?" " No, sir." "When he comes show him in at once. You may go. Take these letters and telegrams." It was not long before the door opened again and the intruder's agitation was evident in his voice. " I beg your pardon, Mr. Frobisher, but Mrs. Cray is without and begs a ten-minute interview with you ! " "Mrs. Cray!" repeated Mr. Frobisher. "What can she want?" " She didn't say, sir, but inasmuch as you are expecting her husband " "Show her in at once and detain Cray so that he will not see her leave. Have Forbes talk to him about San Jacinto. That will hold him. Be quick now ! " Almost immediately the soft whispering of a 202 ANGELA'S QUEST woman's trailing garments sounded in the lis- tener's ears, and Mr. Frobisher rose to receive his visitor. "I will not detain you long, Mr. Frobisher," she said, " I know you are the busiest of men, so I will be brief." " Take all the time you want, Mrs. Cray. I am at your service," answered Frobisher, gallantly. " Thank you. I will not trouble you with a de- scription of my domestic problems, Mr. Frobisher, because you would be both bored and uncompre- hending. I simply wish to tell you that while not condemning you in the least, I have, through a clue of my own, which I followed up, come upon a knowledge of certain transactions of my hus- band's, which I have begged him to discontinue, for reasons which are vital to me in a spiritual way." " In a what way? " asked Ralph Frobisher. "In a spiritual way. But he is weak, Mr. Frobisher, I blush to say it but he is as weak as water when large sums of money are concerned. So I have come to you to beg you in the future, not to tempt him with more than he will be able to resist. For my sake! You love your wife and are very good to her. Everyone knows that. Be equally kind to another man's wife, for the sake of your own, and promise me ! " " Well, well, Mrs. Cray. I don't exactly follow you, but of course I will grant your request. That is a foregone conclusion. If I understood it better, perhaps " " I only mean this. We have plenty of money for all our needs. Have other men do you bid- ding in the future, and don't tempt my poor hus- band further! In any way! Do you understand met* THE CUB REPORTER 203 "Perhaps not entirely, but sufficiently. You want him to give up the sort of business he and I have been engaged in jointly. I hope he has not been too indiscreet, even with you. I also hope, that if I do this, I may count on your dis- cretion?" "You may, indeed. I came to you purposely, although I could have worked equally well and more precipitately, at least in one instance, if I had worked through another channel. But as my husband made his money through you, I thought it only honest to come to you first ! " " To give me the first chance, so to speak ! " said Mr. Frobisher, with a geniality which deceived but one of his auditors. " You were more than wise. You were kind! And in return you may count on me ! " "Thank you, Mr. Frobisher," said Mrs. Cray, rising. Ayres could hear them both moving toward the door. Then adieux. Then silence. But a silence which spoke. The door opened once more. " Mr. Cray is here," announced Gallup. "Show him in!" Ayres Arbuthnot was enjoying himself rarely. A little cramped he was, to be sure, but he pos- sessed an imagination and he could picture the thoughts and expression on the face of the man who thus sat in his den and played with the souls and destinies of the helpless men and women, whose power was so infinitessimal before the re- lentless juggernaut of his accumulated riches. He grinned as he thought of Gallup's surprise. In spite of his content at being within earshot, Ayres chafed at not being able to see as well, for the tense silence which followed the entrance of Marvin Cray, indicated that Frobisher was en- 204 'ANGELA'S (QUEST deavouring to cow the weaker man by staring him out of countenance. "So!" said Mr. Frobisher at last, "you finally decided to obey me! .Why didn't you come when I told you to?" " Because I didn't want to, Kalph Frobisher ! " answered the other, in a tone so cool that the older man realised in a flash that he had lost him for ever, if he did not so intimidate him in this inter- view that he would never recover his new-born independence. "None of that!" he thundered. "I want you to understand right here and now that you belong to me, body and soul. Do you think you can get away from certain facts in your past life? What if I should tell the Strong affair and the Riggs- Murdock story, and the well, the Cravanath af- fair to your wife?" The chair of the younger man creaked. " If you suggested such a course, which, under the circumstances of you own guilt, of course you would not, I would reply that before you could get to her with the stories, I would have told her my- self. I've often been tempted to!" Kalph Frobisher laughed. " Tempted ! " he said. " I can just see how nobly you must have resisted the temptation. Now see here. I don't want to quarrel with you you've always been too valuable to me. I will overlook your rather impudent attitude if you won't force me to the violent measures of retaliation you know I am capable of, and if you will do as I say. I want this infernal reporter this Ayres Arbuth- not removed. I don't want him put away for good. His father is too powerful to antagonise, and I fancy he suspects what his son is up to, therefore I would at once come under suspicion. THE CUB REPORTER 205 But ave your men engage him in a quarrel some night and cripple him I want him in a hospital for a couple of months at least. You know how to arrange that. You did it for young Gregory when his father insisted on going to Europe and leaving us when we needed him, and you did it so neatly, not a suspicion was raised. Repeat the dose and I'll see to it that you are made a director in the new Utah, Securities merger. That's the biggest plum I have to give anybody and it's something you've wanted a long time. What do you say?" A short silence ensued. " What has happened to your scheme of winning him over to your side by means of his infatuation for your niece? You told me you could do it that way." The stertorous breathing of Frobisher could be heard all through the room. It annoyed him ex- ceedingly to be reminded of a plan of his which had miscarried. " I tried it," he snapped, " but the girl nearly bit my head off. For all she looks so gentle, she has the usual red-headed temper. She couldn't deny being interested in him when I taxed her with it, but she said she would die before she would insult him by such a request. She was the most beautiful creature I ever saw while she was hand- ing it out to me ! But firm as a rock. No, it must be managed another way." Cray made no answer at first. He was thinking. He wanted to please his wife. He knew Ayres Arbuthnot was a friend of hers and he hesitated also on that account. But, on the other hand, this was a piece of work which appealed to him be- cause it required the exercise of his every faculty. He rejoiced in the prospect of it, as a man rejoices in a battle he feels sure of winning. In addition, 206 ANGELA'S QUEST \ being a director in the Utah Securities merger meant tenfold the power he had ever possessed before. Ayres listened with bated breath. It was a suf- ficiently creepy thing to overhear two men deliber- ately plan to cripple and lay one up in the hospi- tal for a couple of months. But Ayres, with the sublime confidence of youth, felt quite equal to coping with the situation. He listened with the hope that Marvin Cray, for the sake of his wife, who was so loved by all the Arbuthnots, would refuse his share in the transaction. At last Cray spoke. " I don't believe I want to do it," he said. "Why not? Afraid? " asked Frobisher. Cray smiled. "A man who has assisted you to commit all the crimes I have not even sticking at murder is not apt to be afraid," he said. "Don't use such words to me," growled Fro- bisher. " Why not? They are true." " True or not, there's no use speaking them. The walls have ears nowadays." Cray laughed. " That reporter seems to have got on your nerves with a vengeance," he said. " I never saw you timid before ! " " Timid ! " thundered Frobisher, smiting the ta- ble with a heavy blow. " No man ever called me that before!" "Well, what do you call being all packed up ready to skip the country, with your yacht in com- mission and a tug under full steam lying at the nearest dock? I call it chicken-hearted! Stay and fight it out and beat them all ! " A short silence ensued, during which Ayres fan- THE CUB REPORTER 207 cied he could see them glaring at each other across the inlaid table. " I know now that you hate me, Marvin Cray," said the older man slowly. " I only suspected it before. You know that to stay here one hour too long would be to find myself in the Tombs. Yet you try to play on my vanity and screw my cour- age to the danger point. I'm glad I've found you out. My offer is no longer open to you. You may go!" He pushed a button, the door opened and Gal- lup entered. " Show Mr. Cray out ! " he ordered. " Just one moment, Mr. Gallup. I have not quite finished with Mr. Frobisher." " Very well, Gallup. I'll ring again when I need you," conceded Frobisher, reluctantly. When the door had closed, Marvin Cray's orien- tal eyes lost their sleepy look. " Don't be in such a hurry," he said, speaking a little more rapidly. " I've changed my mind. I'll do what you want done, but only on the clear un- derstanding that you will make me a director in the Utah Securities Company, and give me a hun- dred thousand of the stock." " I'll do it, if you will buy fifty thousand addi- tional and pay for it in real money," answered Frobisher. Cray writhed inwardly, but dared not demur. If he did, he knew Frobisher would rule that no man could be a director who owned less than a hundred and fifty thousand of stock. Frobisher must want some cash urgently. He frequently did and generally got it in some such manner. Then he thought of a way out of the difficulty. "Will .you make it a square deal without my putting up any money, if I put you in possession, 208 ANGELA'S QUEST of two pieces of information I have chanced on through my wife?" " Through your wife ! " eyclaimed Frobisher, eagerly. " Yes, I will ! I I am interested. I have always believed a lot in what women know. Tell me and if I can use it, you are in for noth- ing." "// you can use it!" laughed Cray. "Well, rather! Mrs. Cray found out from the girl her- self, mind you that my suspicions were correct. Angelica is not your niece. She is Angela Crava- nath. That is my first; and that the Arbuthnots have her mother in their house is my second. I found that last out to-day myself! " FOP an instant not a sound was heard, while Ralph Frobisher sat digesting the news. The silence seemed to last five minutes. Then both men rose. " Thank you, Cray. That's worth fifty thousand to me. The deal goes ! " Cray could not resist an indiscretion. " You don't seem as surprised as I thought you would. You even look pleased!" he said. "Pleased? Do I? Well, perhaps! Yes, per- haps I am pleased, or relieved rather. It smoothes out things a little better, and relieves me of a certain absurdly conscientious responsibility I felt toward my dead brother a feeling I hardly knew what to do with, it was so foreign!" He gave vent to a short, somewhat excited laugh. "You look mystified, my good Cray. Don't bother your poor head about what you don't un- derstand. Things seem coming not my way ex- actly but to a head. Go on now and lay your plans." " All right," said Cray, rising and pushing back his chair. " Make yourself easy. You won't be bothered by this Arbuthnot much longer." THE CUB REPORTER 209 " Much longer ! " snapped Frobisher. " I don't propose to be ! I want the job done to-night ! Do you hear? " "I hear, and I'll do it, if possible. But I can only have certain men do a job like this. Suppose I can't find them? I can't advertise for them, can I?" " Well, do your best," growled Frobisher. " I suppose I'll have to let it go at that! " " I suppose you will. Don't ring for Gallup. I know my way out. Good-bye!" The door had no sooner closed behind him than Frobisner rang for Gallup. " Send word to the captain of the Eocnigin Luise that I will probably come aboard to-morrow night about ten or eleven, and you see to it personally that everything is in readiness for a two-months' cruise. Don't trust it to anyone else. Inspect everything personally. I shall not overlook any mistakes." " Very good, sir! " answered Gallup. " I'll send Forbes with the message, and I'll go myself in about an hour. You may want me about the Utah Se- curities matter, which comes up at ten, if you re- member." "Very well. Is Don Rafael waiting?" "Yes, sir. Will you see him?" "Let him in now and hurry up about it. He's as slow as molasses in January, with his infernal Spanish ceremonious politeness. Kick him in!" Gallup went out hastily and ushered in Don Rafael. But when the Spaniard entered there were none of the former courtesies exchanged. " I have come," he said, after the briefest greet- ings had been exchanged, " to ask you a few ques- tions, and to receive a few answers, Mr. Fro- bisher!" 210 ANGELA'S QUEST " Have you? Well, why didn't you write them and save yourself the fatigue of the journey?" The arrogance of birth leaped to avenge the in- sult of the arrogance of wealth. " In my country, Mr. Frobisher, gentlemen do not lie. I suppose it is the same in yours. Is it not so?" " Certainly it is so. In America, gentlemen don't lie any more than they do in yours or any other man's country ! " answered Frobisher, more patriotically than wisely. Don Rafael puffed at his cigarette. " I thought so," he said. Then he laughed softly. "Well, what are you driving at? What do you mean?" demanded Mr. Frobisher. " Nothing ! Except that you have lied to me. But you have just explained why ! " "What do you mean, you infernal puppy!" shouted Frobisher. " If you dare insinuate such a thing to me, I'll blow your brains out ! " " Did you not promise me that if I would attend to the matter of the man you sent to me, that I should receive a clear title to the Hermosillo es- tate, and thus rehabilitate our name by once more owning land with our title? Did you not lead me to believe that the thing we had hoped for all our lives was miraculously within our grasp? Then what did you do? You put it into Marvin Cray's name! The wonderful Hermosillo estate the richest and largest in all Estrellada! And now what do I find? That it is not yours to give and never was! It belongs to the daughter of the man whom I imprisoned and starved and ill-treated by your commands, until I nearly had him where you wanted him, when " "When what?" asked Frobisher, hoarsely. " When he escaped. No one knows where he is ! " THE COB REPORTER 211 " I don't believe it," gasped the older man. " You made that up to get even with me for deceiving you. Cravanath is not at large. He he can't be ! After all my trouble! He can't be! But let me tell you, Don Rafael, if what you say is true, and he is free, your life isn't worth a tinker's dam. You shall answer to me for having let him escape. I'd like to kill you myself!" The Spaniard laughed. " I am not afraid of you ! " he said. " I know that men who use the methods you use, are always cowards at heart. At least, I am in no danger from you personally. You might have some man to kill me openly. Or some ruffian to stab me in the back. But, I am in no danger from you ! " The Spaniard failed to sting the American by this taunt as he had hoped. Ralph Frobisher was too much of a pachyderm. His mind was busy with other things. "Who told you about Hermosillo? Was it Mar- vin Cray? " he asked suspiciously. "It was not. It was told to me by a young gentleman, with whom I had the pleasure of get- ting drunk, whose name I know not." "Was he a tall, smooth-faced, rather good-look- ing chap with very white teeth?" demanded Fro- bisher, angrily. "An excellent description of my young friend, who can drink moderately when everyone else is drinking immoderately. He seems to know all about your affairs! " Ralph Frobisher gave only an inarticulate growl of rage. " You know who he is? He is perhaps a friend of yours? " smiled the Spaniard. " Did he ask you anything about the man Cra- vanath?" asked Frobisher in a low voice. 212 ANGELA'S QUEST " He circled all around the subject, without once alighting on it. He seems to know all about it. He told me, for example, that he was acquainted with Miss Cravanath, the young lady who owns Hermosillo ! " "Well, that shows that he was stringing you, Don Rafael, for Miss Cravanath is now a nun in a Catholic convent, and will never be heard of again in this world." "Ah?" said the Spaniard, in a tone of polite unbelief. " It is true, whether you believe it or not," as- serted Frobisher. " Your informant is the most unreliable man I ever met. Nothing but a cub reporter on a flashy yellow journal." "The young man I refer to is a gentleman," said Don Kafael, carelessly. " Oh, well, I don't care what you think he is. Let's not waste any more time in talk. You say this man Cravanath has escaped. I suppose you know where you could lay your hands on him again, if you thought the title to Hermosillo was mine to give?" "Possibly," assented Don Rafael. " Well, does anything stand in the way of your securing and taking care of him again? " " One or two things stand in the way, Mr. Fro- bisher. How about your allowing me to divide the net profits of Hermosillo on the sugar cane I sold to the San Jacinto Sugar Refinery?" " That is all right. You have been doing it for about nine years. You've made money, haven't you?" " I have cleared about four thousand dollars a year from it. You also made the same, did you not?" THE CUB REPORTER 213 "Yes, I suppose so. I don't remember exactly. What of it?" " This ! " cried the Spaniard. " I have learned since I came up here that you are the San Jacinto Sugar Refining Co. ! You! " " But I am not ! " declared Frobisher. " How did you ever get such an idea into your head? " "The stock stands in the name of George Forbes. He is in your office. I have seen and talked to him." "Who told you this?" asked Frobisher. "Not that infernal " " Yes, Mr. Frobisher. That infernal young man was very pleased to put me wise, as he ex- pressed it, to many affairs of yours. He seems to have spent much time investigating them." There was the sound of a pencil tapping impa- tiently upon the mother-of-pearl in the table at which the two men sat. Then Frobisher spoke calmly, as if nothing had happened to ruffle him. "If you will get hold of Cravanath again, you can name your price, Don Rafael, and if I don't keep my word this time, you can liberate him. You know what that would mean to me, for you are the only man in the world I trusted with the story." " You did not trust me. I surprised you in the act and found out for myself, whereupon you took me into your plans in order to keep your part in the crime secret." "Well, well! Have it your own way! The question is what do you want for it? " A faint hissing noise made itself heard, which gradually became louder and more sibillant. It was the Spaniard drawing his breath. 214 ANGELA'S QUEST Suddenly he spoke. "You want to know what I will take for it? Well, I will take nothing, for I will not do it! Your man has escaped, yes! He will avenge him- self and me and mine ! Listen to me, Ralph Fro- bisher! You let me believe that Hermosillo would be mine, and under that belief I allowed a mar- riage to be arranged between my sister and the Marquis de Vallambroso. It was publicly an- nounced. When we discovered that our hopes were vain and you made known to me that it was not to be, the Marquis withdrew from the alliance, and my poor sister, scarcely more than a child, in her humiliation, killed herself. Just as I mean to kill you, after I tell you that / liberated Christo- pher Cravanath ! " There was the sound of a shot, which evidently penetrated no further than the walls of that sound- proof office, for when Howard Gallup hurried in, with a white face, he found Mr. Frobisher bending over the prostrate figure of the Spaniard, with a smoking pistol in his hand. " Suicide ! " he said simply. And he drew his breath with a sigh of relief, as if, after all, a great load were off his mind. But if, while stooping over his victim, he had chanced to look under the table, he would have seen the bent figure of the cub reporter crouching in the open fireplace, with a cut rope in his hands. CHAPTER XXII THE FLIGHT " Then," said Ayres, concluding his narrative of these events to his father, " he walked out of that room as coolly as if nothing had happened. Gal- lup stood there shaking like a leaf. ' My God ! ' I heard him say. '/ might be accused of this!' I saw that he was in such a panic that he might do something rash, so I spoke, at the risk of scaring him to death. < No, you won't, Gallup,' I said. ' I was here and I saw. Give me a leg up. I don't want to be known in this just now. Let them hush it up in the usual way ! ' The boy came to, just long enough to do as I said, for I heard the door open and some one man enter, who said softly, 'You may go, Mr. Gallup, but, unless you wish to be accused of this yourself, you will say nothing, and carry out the orders Mr. Frobisher gave you just before he left.' " " My word ! " exclaimed Mr. Arbuthnot. " In spite of all we have known of this man, I never would have suspected this! Why, it is murder!" " At first I was undecided what to do. I went to the police station and found that nothing had been reported. Then I went to the office. Not a word had been heard. Then I 'Came to you. What shall I do? I feel sure that Hello! What's that? " " I am sorry to disturb you, but a messenger is here for Mr. Ayres. He says he has been hunting you with a note which he was to deliver into no hands but yours." "Send him in, Boyd," said Mr. Arbuthnot.: 815 216 ANGELA'S QUEST Ayres seized the message from the boy and tore open the envelope. " It's from her ! " he cried. " They're gone ! " He flung the note across to his father, who read it with hands trembling with agitation. Ayres dismissed the wondering messenger, with snch a fee that he fled for fear his benefactor might change his mind and repent his generosity. An entirely new expression came over the face of the older man as he folded the note and handed it back to his son. It was the look of a man, who, when confronted by a crisis, knew how to act and act promptly. Boyd re-entered in response to his ring. " Boyd," said Mr. Arbuthnot, " please attend carefully to what I say. Send a wireless to the Altessa, saying that a party of twelve will board her in two hours. Send word to all wireless sta- tions to report the whereabouts of the steam yacht Eoenigin Luise to the Altessa. Ayres, you go at once to Inspector Mahan and tell what you know, adding that we sail at once in pursuit. I will tele- phone to your mother." "Are you going to take her?" asked his son in wide-eyed astonishment, "Wherever that devoted girl Angela can go, your mother and sister can follow. We can keep them out of danger. Be at home as soon as you can. I shall need you." Ayres plunged out of his father's office, and in- side of five minutes, the Arbuthnot household was in a state of wild excitement at tiie prospect of so stirring an upheaval in their quiet life as a race after the escaping Koenigin Luise, for, although Mr. Arbuthnot had cautiously named no man over his private wire, still Midge and Bettie knew. The instant the news was known to these two, THE FLIGHT 217 and excited maids had begun to pack, the eyes of mother and daughter met. " Of course, mother, daddy meant her to go too ! It would be too cruel to try to leave her ! " "You are right, daughter. I was only wonder- ing " " Well, in her place, would you want to be left behind, for fear you were not strong enough to stand it?" "No, no, I would not! Besides, she has im- proved so wonderfully since she came. I will go to her now. Order the motor omnibus and my limousine car at once. I may have to go out." "You can't go out, Bettie! We ought to leave this house in two hours. And look at all you have to do! You'll have to send for everything you want ! " said Midge. "All right," answered Bettie, vaguely. "I only thought " "You are not thinking of taking any of your assorted invalids from your hospital, I hope ! " said her daughter, sternly. " I won't have it ! You don't know where we are going, nor how long we shall be gone. The only outsider will be Alan. I'm going to take him!" "Outsider!" giggled Bettie, in a way which made Midge's cheeks flame. " Yes, outsider ! " she snapped. " And he will stay an outsider for many a long day yet, in spite of your fondness for him. You are so sorry for him, you want to pick him up and rock him every, time he looks properly humble! It's you who keeps his courage so unbearably bolstered up." Bettie took her lower lip between her teeth and turned a mocking gaze at Midget's flushed face. Then she picked up her skirts and ran laughing out of the room, leaving her daughter fuming. 218 ANGELA'S QUEST She knocked at the door of a suite of rooms overlooking the sunken garden, and when the door opened, she ran in and knelt by the side of the figure of a lady who sat in the conservatory, in the midst of a riot of flowers. As the lady turned to greet her visitor, it could be seen that she was Mrs. Cravanath, but how changed ! She was no longer the helpless invalid. Bettie Arbuthnot, when she took her husband's private car and went to fetch Angela's mother, with no one in her secret except Mr. Arbuthnot, had builded better than she knew. Not only had the change of scene benefited Mrs. Cravanath, but the joy of being once more among her own kind, and being in daily and hourly touch with the progress of the case, kept up her spirits, and her body improved under the same regimen as that which influenced her mind. She felt inspired by a sure hope. She knew that she was in the march of events, and after a week or two, to the delight of all, she discovered that she could lift her hands, turn her head, move her body slightly, and shuffle her feet on the footboard of her wheeled chair. Angela's joy and surprise to find her mother and Mammy in such delightful quarters as the favour- ite guest-rooms of Bettie Arbuthnot, knew no bounds. They met almost every day. It was seriously discussed whether it was worth while for Angela to remain in her false position any longer. But the young girl herself decided it. She had gradually come to feel that no further clue to her father's whereabouts could be learned by her in that house. The conversations were too guarded for that. But she felt that she was needed in another way. There was less friction than when THE FLIGHT 219 she came. Evangeline's jealousy had vanished, having nothing to feed upon. Neddie's infatuation he had been obliged to conceal after one stormy interview with his father, when he discovered it. In Angela's opinion, the relations between husband and wife were almost unbearable. They now quar- relled openly before her, each seeking her as a champion in their disputes. Mrs. Frobisher was insulted daily by her husband's unfeeling com- parisons on her appearance and increasing age, until he finally openly offered her any sum to di- vorce him and allow him to find a younger wife. Angela was tortured by this state of harmony, but to her surprise, Mrs. Frobisher, in her humili- ation, clung to the steadfast courage and calm poise of the young girl, and begged her never to think of deserting her. Thus, when Angela came in from her ride in the park, and was met by her maid with the message that Mrs. Frobisher and Evangeline had gone aboard the Koenigin Luise, and Mr. Frobisher was leaving in an hour, and begged Angela to go with them, she looked upon this cruise as a means of a possible reconciliation, and instantly sacrificed her own wishes, in order to go. Then it was that she wrote her notes to Ayres and her mother, and with her maid, who had, under Mr. Frobisher's orders, packed everything in readiness for her decision, she stepped into her own electric brougham and was taken to tke tug, where Mr. Frobisher met her. All this Mrs. Cravanath knew, or rather An- gela's note stated that these were her plans, when Bettie hurried into her presence, and in a few words announced that it was thought necessary to follow them. Although she gave no details, at that time being [220 ANGELA'S QUEST iunaware of the death of Don Eafael, Mrs. Crava- 1 nath's mind leaped forward, in anticipation of some urgent necessity, so that when Mrs. Arbuth- not asked if she felt strong enough to go with them, Mrs. Cravanath's reply was to lift herself from her chair and to stand uoright for the first time in over ten years. Mammy, seeing it, burst forth in a torrent of thanksgiving. " I can hardly believe my own eyes," murmured Mrs. Arbuthnot, whereupon Mammy turned upon her reproachfully. " Dat's becaze you ain't got no faith ! " she cried. " Ef y'all would only believe wot you say you does, you wouldn't be so surprised when yo' fin' yo' heabenly Fathah givin' yo' what yo' mos' wo'e out yo' knees axin' Him f oh ! Jes' look at Miss Mta's face! Do she look astonished? No, ma'am! Dat chile ain't wasted huh 'leben yeahs ob silence ! She ain't been able to talk to us, but she always could talk to huh heabenly Pathah, an' she knows she gwine get well! Don' you, pretty? What's dat yo' tryin' to say? Is / gwine too? Cose I is! Ain't I, Miss Bettie? Yo' jes' gib me a hour to get Miss Mta fixed, en you all will fin' us waitin' awn de do.'step ! " Bettie flew back to tell Midge the good news. She found that young lady almost too busy to listen, nevertheless Bettie poured forth a descrip- tion of the invalid's wonderful feat, and added that her face fairly seemed glorified. " I can't understand her beauty. Her complex- ion is as fresh as a child's. Her eyes are as soft as a deer's, and there is not a line nor a wrinkle in her face. Her hands, too, are like a baby's. She what? " " I understand it ! " answered Midge, with her THE FLIGHT 221 mouth full of pins. "She is a Christian a real one, you know, not imitations like us, who say words which mean nothing. I've watched her and I know. Just you wait till she gets her speech back, or until she can write. Then you'll get the surprise of your life, and unless I am mistaken, we'll all see it on this cruise. 7 expect doings, myself ! " The time flew by as if on wings, and in less time than seemed possible, the entire party found them- selves whirling through the streets in automobiles and spending the time en route inquiring frantic- ally of each other and of the distracted maids if this or that had been forgotten. At the last moment, Ayres had telephoned that he was on a new clue and w r ould meet them on the pier. As the automobiles drew up, he met them with an inscrutable look on his face. Without wasting a moment in explanation, he plunged into the heart of the matter. " Mrs. Frobisher is here. She went aboard the wrong tug Gallup was with her and the Koe- nigin Luise has sailed without her, with her hus- band, son, daughter and Angela on board. She begs and implores us to take her with us on the Altessa. What do you say, mother? It will come hardest on you and Midge ! " " Not at all," said Bettie promptly. " It will come hardest on Mrs. Cravanath. I will ask her. If she says yes, and you and daddy think it wise, you need not consider Midge and me, need they, little daughter? " Midge made a wry face. "I suppose not, Bettie dear! " she said whimsi- cally. " But I do hope that the devil himself will not offer to come along, because if you felt suffi- 222 'ANGELA'S QUEST ciently sorry for him, you'd surely make him wel- come ! " As was more than half a foregone conclusion, the invalid signified her acquiescence, so that when a figure, heavily veiled and dressed entirely in black, came slowly forward, clinging helplessly to the arm of Howard Gallup, Mrs. Arbuthnot met her kindly and stopped her feebly expressed thanks by bringing them all forward to board the launch. When they had started, there was a hurried con- ference between Ayres and Howard Gallup, who had followed in Ayres' own motor boat. "You are perfectly welcome to come along, as yon jolly well know, but, under the circumstances, I'd feel more comfortable to know that there was somebody left in New York, who knew all the facts. We may need you uncommon badly. " Of course, personal wishes are out of it, Ar- buthnot. I'm willing to do whatever seems best. I've sent in my resignation, so I'm free to do what I like. I'll stay if you say so. Suppose we let Mrs. Frobisher decide. I feel, in a way, responsi- ble for her, and she seems almost beside herself with grief." " Certainly ! " responded Ayres. " You are re- sponsible for her. She was left in your charge. By the way, Father wished me to ask you if you'd care to be his secretary, as we are sending Boyd to Arizona for his lungs." " If I'd care to ! " repeated Gallup. " The offer flatters me ! " " Then report to-day. I'm glad you're one of us. Now hurry and come aboard. We haven't much time." The two young men dashed aboard the yacht and sought Mrs. Frobisher, who was standing alone, leaning heavily on the gunwale, as if unable to bear her own weight without support. THE FLIGHT 223 Ayres stood back while Gallup hastily consulted her. She laughed unsteadily as he finished. " Hurry ! " called Ayres. " They're about to cast off!" " So they want to leave someone behind who is in possession of all the facts, do they? " said Mrs. Frobisher, the blood rushing to her face and neck in waves of crimson. " Then stay, by all means ! But you will need more than you are now aware of, if you are to know all. Take this letter, but promise me not to read it until we have sailed. And do not act on it at all. Remember it is my secret and my problem. I only trust you with it because it may kelp them. All I ask is, when we sight the Koenigin Lnise, to be sent aboard of her before anything else is done. Mr. Ayres Arbuth- not has promised me that, and I trust him. May I trust you also? " " You may, Mrs. Frobisher ! " answered the young man, recoiling somewhat from the wild light in the woman's eyes. There were hurried good-byes, and Gallup sprang for the yacht's stairway. The ocean bird stirred and spread her wings. Then the American- built yacht swooped lightly and gracefully out- ward in her race to overhaul her European-built sister craft. But although they, who were on board, strained their eyes for a last glimpse of the solitary one who watched their departure from the motor boat, they could not see him as he read the letter Mrs. Frobisher put into his hands at parting. And from the expression of his face and what he said and did, after reading it, perhaps it was just as well for them to remain in complete ignorance of its stirring contents at least for the time being. CHAPTER XXIII THE LEAVEN OF SELFLESSNESS Before twenty-four hours had passed, Mrs. Fro- bisher was by way of being a transformed woman. In her earlier days she had taken life as it came, never thinking, never reasoning, never grateful simply strongly sensuous and ever greedy for more of this world's pleasures. Her rapid rise from poverty to the extreme of opulence had simply brought to light the innate vulgarity of her nature. In her husband it had bred a lust of power whose violence often terrified her by its octupus-like versatility. The trouble which had been brewing for the last year had not greatly disturbed her. For years she had seen the terrible power of their wealth permit them to ride rough shod, not only over persons and things, but over legislation. She had seen her hus- band make and unmake laws, buy law-makers, pardon criminals, imprison innocent men, open closed doors of whatever sort, except the one golden, unattainable door of Society, which she had never stormed openly, but for whose unclos- ing she had always secretly yearned. All these things she had gazed on carelessly, un- thinking and unreasoning, like many of her kind. Nothing had ever touched her heart or made her feel. Her swinish conceit was absolute.. Then came the terror of seeing her husband reach out after the one thing to which he had never before given a thought, and therefore which had never troubled her, namely, another woman. 294 THE LEAVEN OF SELFISHNESS 225 For some time after he first began to torture her with the hitherto unknown pangs of jealousy, she believed that it was inspired by his natural restlessness and the usual desire for a new world to conquer, which always attacked him when his last plan had either hopelessly miscarried or come to an equally distasteful, because successful, con- clusion. To a man of his type, all the joy of liv- ing lay in the achieving. Never in the achieved. And, so stupid was her belief in her own luck, she never dreamed that the fatty degeneration of her husband's heart could actually harbour for another specific woman a passion sufficiently deep to cause him to take the final step he had constantly threat- ened, until she received the letter which, at part- ing, she had given into Howard Gallup's hands. In response to the frenzy of jealousy which racked her, she had, with her usual courage, taken the only alternative left her, of pursuing her flee- ing husband by the only means at hand, even though this brought her into direct contact with Mrs. Cravanath, whose name, for twelve years, had stood, in her mind, for the avenger in which almost every man and woman believes and fears, in some name or guise. Her husband's letter had put her in possession of the facts of both Angela's identity and of Mrs. Cravanath's presence in the Arbuthnot household, therefore she was quite aware of the personnel of those she would face, ere her rather impertinently intrusive request had been granted. Had Midge been the court of last appeal, Mrs. Frobisher would never have chanced it. But knowledge of Mrs. Arbuthnot's gentle generosity and sweet kindliness, gleaned from chance sources, let Mrs. Frobisher to make her desperate attempt. Her success, coming so easily, after her hours of torturing suspense, affected her like a physical 226 ANGELA'S QUEST sickness. She felt unnerved and weak from the reaction. Pleading fatigue, she went below, satisfied, but not in the least touched, at finding herself assigned to one of the best suites on board the luxurious yacht, whose refinement of furnishings struck her unpleasantly, and filled her mind with contempt. She remained below until the next day at noon, to the reJief of Midge, but anxiety of Bettie. When Mrs. Frobisher finally appeared, she greeted those nearest her perfunctorily, and went by herself to a retired portion of the deck, where the steward settled her in comfort. Midge frankly refused to go near her, but sent Alan to ask if she wished anything. After he had returned, Bettie stood the sight of the solitary figure as long as she could. Then, with a murmured apology to Mrs. Cravanath, but not a glance in Midge's direction, she gathered up her cushions and magazines and field glasses and made her way to Mrs. Frobisher's side, followed by the approving eyes of the silent invalid, and the tender adoring mockery of her daughter's. To say that Mrs. Frobisher was flattered by this attention from the mistress of the yacht was stat- ing it mildly. She had expected to be taken on board reluctantly, permitted simply because of her impudence. And once aboard, she anticipated what she herself would have visited upon a similar intruder. She remembered how once she had in- sisted upon keeping the last cabin, which held three, on board an Austrian-Lloyd steamer, for her maid alone, thereby causing a delicate lady who needed a berth to sit up all night, and she had done this simply to show other passengers the power of the Frobisher wealth. This incident came back to her mind, for some inexplicable reason, as Mrs. THE LEAVEN OF SELFISHNESS 227 Arbuthnot sat by her side all of that long after- noon, and made charming conversation, into which Mrs. Frobisher was able to enter at her best. Both ladies could see that the yacht was not travelling in any specific direction. She was cir- cling about, transmitting and receiving messages by wireless, but evidently not starting upon her cruise. Mrs. Arbuthnot was anxious to know why, but naturally could not indulge in any comments upon so obviously delicate a situation. Nor did anyone disturb them with news. Finally, over the teacups, when her hostess had thoroughly placed Mrs. Frobisher at her ease, Bet- tie could see from her nervous manner, that some confidence from her guest was imminent. "Mrs. Arbuthnot," she said finally, "you have been very kind to me this afternoon, and your whole family were nice to allow me to come with you. Now, as we are to be thrown in each other's company in a way I had not expected, I find that we can't talk very much more, with needing to have certain things cleared up a little. To begin with, I want to tell you that I am not in a very friendly state of mind toward my husband. In fact, there is every reason for me to anticipate a final separation between us. He wants me to di- vorce him, and it was for the purpose of showing him how I have planned to give him his freedom that I got your son to promise to let me board the Koenigin Luise, as soon as we find her if we ever do. Therefore we are both equally anxious to find Mr. Frobisher, and possibly, equally unfriendly in our feelings toward him. So now," concluded Mrs. Frobisher, handsomely, "you can say any- thing mean about him that you want to, and there'll be no kick coming from me!" " But I assure you," cried Bettie, with crimson- 228 ANGELA'S QUEST ing cheeks, " I have no wish to say anything dis- agreeable about your husband ! I never have done so, nor do we make a practice of it. You have been most tactful to try to set us at our ease, so that we may at least discuss the situation of the best direction to pursue, but as for expressing in your presence our personal opinions of Mr. Fro- bisher that would not be our wish at all." Mrs. Frobisher looked Mrs. Arbuthnot over from head to foot, while Bettie's red cheeks attested to her discomfort. "I believe you, Mrs. Arbuthnot," she said, finally, " though I don't think I would believe any- body else in the w r orld who said such a thing under the circumstances. But you are different from, anyone I have ever known. I've always let myself say anything I wanted to, but now for the first time I am beginning to wonder if it pays. Per- haps it would have been better sometimes just to think things and not spit everything out. I do believe you are as good as everybody says you are!" Bettie's discomfort under these remarks was so intense that she rose hastily. " Don't go ! " cried Mrs. Frobisher. " Tell me, haven't you any news of the whereabouts of our yacht? " "I really don't know. Shall I ask my hus- band?" "I wish you would. I've been thinking things over, and perhaps I could help you." Mr. Arbuthnot came in response to his wife's message. "No, we aon't, Mrs. Frobisher," he said, frankly, when his wife had briefly explained how matters stood between them and their guest. "I think I know what he is up to," said Mrs. Frobisher with tightening lips. " I know Mr. Gal- THE LEAVEN OF SELFLESSNESS 229 lup and I were in the right tug. You see he used a tug because the launches are too well known and watched. In my opinion, at the last moment, he took another tug and left the first one for me, with instructions to make me lose my way and miss going aboard. As I explained to Mrs. Arbuthnot, my husband and I have had serious domestic trouble. Now, as he has always been sure your son would follow him on the Altcssa, it is my opinion that he is lying off somewhere, greatly en- joying your discomfiture, and receiving just as many wireless messages of our flight as we are sending out!" Mr. Arbuthnot's face flushed slightly, but he said nothing. " If you want to draw him from his hiding-place and make him come out and show his colours, just start full speed for the Island of Estrellada." The eyes of all three met in a look of complete understanding. " Thank you, Mrs. Frobisher," answered Mr. Ar- buthnot, after an instant of thought. " That would suit our plans admirably. It was what we origi- nally intended doing, feeling sure that he would have been ahead of us." His wife shook her head. " He doesn't want to go there unless you make him!" she said, grimly. " Excuse me. I will consult my son, and if he agrees, we will start at once ! " Bettie turned to Mrs. Frobisher kindly. " You must be anxious to get news of the yacht, if only to know how your daughter and Angelica are ! " she said. " She is not " began Mrs. Frobisher hastily. Then she added more slowly : " My daughter is not worrying me. I'd like to get word from the 230 ANGELA'S QUEST yacht for other reasons more than to hear about her!" It was rot more than an hour after this, before the Altessa swung slowly around, pointed her bow due South, and, ignoring all other craft, steamed silently but with ever-increasing speed outward in the ocean pathway of the great liners whose peer she was. Seeing this, Mrs. Frobisher heaved a great sigh of relief, and went below to dress for dinner. A gleam of malice shone in her hard eyes, as she felt by the motion of the boat that they were really out at sea and had started in earnest. "Don't I know," she said to herself, "that, wherever he is, he sees just what we are doing! He hasn't really believed, so far, that Ayres Ar- buthnot knew. But now, he sees by the way we are going, that the Arbuthnots do know, and it frightens him. But what will frighten him more than anything else, will be when he sees me, know- ing what I do, and what the Arbuthnots don't ! " She turned away from her mirror, and as she re- membered Mrs. Arbuthnot's courtesy of the after- noon, the hardness faded from her eyes. "I'm glad," she murmured, half aloud, "that they don't know yet! They'd worry, and some- how, I don't seem to want Mrs. Arbuthnot to worry. She's well, she's next door to an angel! That's what she is!" CHAPTER XXIY THE AWAKENING OF In breathless haste, Mr. Frobisher met Angela and her maid, and, scarcely giving them time to gather their hand luggage from the brougham, he hurried them down a slippery and evil -smelling wharf, where merchandise of every description was piled high, on either side as if for loading, and where passengers were evidently unexpected from the manner in which these three had to pick their way in order not to foul their shoes. A not over-clean little tug, with her prow cov- ered with some heavy material to prevent its ram- ming, was moored alongside. Into this tug they were hurried, and scarcely had their feet touched the deck when the order to cast off was given, and with important puffings and snortings, the little craft steamed out and slipped with incredible swiftness down the bay. Angela paid no attention to the direction they took. She was too much occupied in wondering why the luxury-loving Ralph Frobisher should travel, even for a short distance, in such a wretched little boat. She did not know that they were aboard the Susie C., the swiftest tug in the har- bour, engaged purposely because she never carried passengers, and therefore would not come under suspicion. The magnificent launches of the Koe- nigin Luise still lay at the yacht club's wharf, while the other tug, which the detectives of Ayres Arbuthnot were watching, lay alongside another pier. 231 232 ANGELA'S QUEST " Where is Aunt Maude? " asked Angela, as Mr. Frobisher, in his uneasy pacing of the deck, passed her. " She is already aboard. I sent Evangeline and Ned and your aunt down in the launch. I waited to bring you myself." " That was kind of you," said Angela, wistfully. She was not looking at him as she spoke, and her wistfulness was for her mother and the Arbuth- nots. She had undertaken this cruise from a stern sense of duty, and already the pangs of loneliness were beginning to oppress her. " I am sure I want to be kind to you, Angela I mean Angelica ! " The girl turned instantly, but his inscrutable eyes were fixed on the distant horizon, and, fear- ing to say the wrong thing, Angela said nothing. She felt uncomfortable. Mr. Frobisher disap- peared, and Angela was alone. Hour after hour dragged by. Shipping grew less. The wind blew more keenly, and darkness descended upon them. Angela wrapped herself in furs and tried not to be anxious, but her heart was heavy. As she waited, with an unusual patience, she heard footsteps, and presently Ralph Frobisher approached and seated himself beside her. She saw at once that he had been drinking. " Angela," he said, " you are a brave girl, aren't you?" " I hope so, Uncle Ralph," she answered. " Don't call me ( Uncle Ralph ' ! " he exclaimed. " Never call me that again. Call me Ralph, if you like, but cut out the ' uncle ' ! " "Why, I could not possibly call you Ralph," said Angela. " I will call you Mr. Frobisher, if I may ! " THE AWAKENING OF ANGELA 233 " Why can't you call me Kalph? Am I too old? '' He leaned toward her as he spoke, and she drew back involuntarily. " Yes, you are much too old !" she answered with spirit. " You are brave ! " muttered the man. " You've got more sand than any girl I ever knew. You may need it all before this cruise is over. I'm a hunted man, Angela ! " She made no reply. "How much longer before we reach the yacht?" she asked presently. "Not long. Are you tired?" "I am tired, and cold, and hungry," answered Angela, with a faint smile. " What a brute I am ! " exclaimed the man. " I told your maid to pack a luncheon. Hasn't she brought you anything? " " I haven't seen her since we came aboard," an- swered Angela. "I'll go and look for her," said Mr. Frobisher, rising and striding away. He was gone some twenty minutes, and Angela had an uncomfortable feeling when the sound of men's laughter reached her from the cabin. Presently he came with a plate and a glass. " I couldn't find her. Probably she is off in some corner flirting with one of the men. Here, hold this glass while I pour you some champagne. Take your plate first." "Don't give me any cnampagne," said Angela. " I don't care for it." "Why not?" he said. "You 'drink it at dinner ! " " I only taste it to please Aunt Maude. I needn't drink it here, because I don't want it. Please don't ask me to." 234 ANGELA'S QUEST " I do ask you to, because it's good for you. We are running into quite a sea, and champagne is good for seasickness." " I won't be seasick," answered Angela. "Well, take some, anyway just to please me" said Mr. Frobisher. " No ! Please ! I hate the stuff ! " cried Angela, in sudden alarm. She half started from her seat, but the man put out his arm to restrain her. She sank back but drew away from him. " There, there ! " he said, soothingly. " You needn't if you don't want to. You can always have your own way, as long as you are with me, my dear ! " Angela moved a trifle impatiently in her seat. She tried to eat, but something prevented her. Her heart was beating heavily. Fright at a name- less something which menaced, seemed to take pos- session of her. "What is that big ship?" she asked. " It looks as if we were going to run into her ! " " It's the yacht ! " answered Mr. Frobisher, in a gratified voice. " Did you think she was an ocean liner? She's as big as some of them, but when you're once aboard of her, you'll see the difference ! Come! It won't be ten minutes now, till we're alongside. By Jove, the Captain has made the run in record time. He's won his money. I prom- ised him five hundred dollars if he got us on board by seven o'clock. We'll have dinner right away. I'm starving ! " He hurried away without further parley. He was always a selfish man, attending to his own wants first, and remembering others only when brought to his attention. Realising after a moment that no one was com- ing to look after her, Angela stumbled to her feet THE AWAKENING OF ANGELA 235 on the swaying deck, and gathering her things to- gether, she slowly made her unsteady way to where she could see them hauling the luggage aboard the yacht, up whose steep sides she wondered how it would be possible for her to go. Everywhere were the signs of secrecy, caution and dispatch. Orders were given in low tones. Lights were few. Mr. Frobisher gave Angela scant attention when he looked down and saw her stand- ing at his side, weighted w r ith wraps and bags, which he did not offer to take. He gnawed his nails and swore softly under his breath at the clumsiness of the sailors. He even started to board the yacht ahead of her, but something in her astonished glance must have reminded him, for he stood back, w T ith a muttered apology, and let her go first. As she felt herself hoisted aboard, like an ani- mated bale of merchandise, Angela again experi- enced that sensation of some unknown fear clutch- ing at her heart. A moment later, however, the brilliant lights of the saloon, its warmth, splendour and wealth of flowers, reassured her. It was like a glimpse of fairyland. A maid appeared and took her things. "Will you see your rooms, mademoiselle?" she asked. " Ah, you will find them so beautiful ! And all prepared for you!" The girl fairly gasped as she entered. Done in ivory and gold, filled with flowers whose perfume permeated every corner, Angela looked around the beautiful rooms in amaze. She turned suddenly as she heard a footstep be- hind her. The maid disappeared. "Do you like your quarters, commodore?" asked the voice of Ralph Frobisher. 236. ANGELA'S QUEST " Like them ! " cried Angela, warmly. " I never dreamed of anything so lovely!" " I'm glad you like them," said the man, " for you will probably be in them for some time. Your Aunt Maude, at the last moment, refused to come with us, and kept Evangeline and Ned on shore with her. That leaves us alone you and I ! Are you afraid Angela ? " White with horror the girl stared at him until his meaning began to dawn on her. Then she spoke. "Why do you call me Angela?" she said. He smiled. "Because it is your name. You are not my niece. I have known that for some time." An overpowering terror almost stopped her breathing. Supposing he knew her to be Christo- pher Cravanath's daughter and were taking her to share her father's fate? "Who am I, then?" she asked, in a voice so unnatural that it scarcely seemed her own. He took a sudden step toward her, his heavy face lighting up as if by magic, and though she dreaded his answer, Angela merely straightened herself and looked him in the eye courageously. "You are the woman I love and the reason why my wife refused to come with me ! " he said in a voice hoarse with feeling. For a moment heart and breath alike failed the girl. In the first blinding flash, the horror of her present peril made her former fear of sharing her father's fate seem small in comparison. She stood simply looking at him, but something command- ing in the purity and fearlessness of her gaze ar- rested the evil intentions of the man so that he made not the slightest attempt to approach her. albeit his covetous eyes enveloped her from head to foot THE AWAKENING OF ANGELA 237 In moments of dire peril, a woman is always sustained by her strongest defence. As Angela alone and wholly at the mercy of a man whose passions had always been his masters, stood tam- ing the beast in his mind by the dove in hers, she conquered her fear first, and in that one victory, the immature, girlish heart within her disappeared for ever, and the heart of a woman was born in its place. It took courage to stand quietly and face him, for the look in his eyes which had vaguely disqui- eted her in times past, was bent on her in that mo- ment of immunity from all human interruption, in all its intensity and lawlessness. She realised that the very daring of this final coup de theatre, by which this man had rid himself of wife and family and put off to sea with the girl he loved, was indicative of the manner in which he was ac- customed to ride over all laws, human and divine, and to shatter vows and promises as carelessly as he would dash a wineglass to its fate after a final toast of flamboyant sentiment. Still, Angela never faltered. Every atom of her spiritual strength was gathering itself together to resist what men- aced her from her captor's bestial gaze. Yet she faced him courageously, for she knew that she was safe. It was he who lowered his gaze first. "Don't look so white, my little girl," he said, in tones which trembled with feeling. " I don't want you to be afraid of me. I have loved you almost from the day you came into my house, but I am so old-fashioned, I was ashamed to have fallen in love with my own niece. Still, I meant to have you, in the end, no matter who you were. I don't give in to scruples. I override them. But I must admit that this one made me so uncomfortable that th cheapest fifty thousand dollars I ever paid in 238 ANGELA'S QUEST iny life, was the one I paid to a man for the infor- mation that yon were not my niece at all, but An- gela Cravanath instead!" "You paid that?" said Angela. "To whom?" " To Marvin Cray ! He has done you some pretty bad turns in your life, hasn't he, my girl? Well, you can hate him all you like. He deserves it." " I don't hate him," said Angela. " It wasn't his fault" "You mean it was mine? Now don't you go to " " No," interrupted Angela quietly. " I don't mean that it was yours either." "Then, what do you mean? " The girl shook her head. " I can't tell you now. Sometime I will. I want to be alone now. May I?" There was a note of appeal in her beautiful voice which struck an answering chord in the man's heart. " Yes, you may ! " he cried. " I will take only one kiss and then I will go." He stole swiftly toward her. He saw her lift herself and stiffen. He saw her lips lose their colour and her eyes darken. He heard the faint grinding of her teeth as her very soul revolted from his vilely meant caress. Then something stopped him. His hands unclenched. His body's tension relaxed. He shrank back before the steadiness of her gaze. " Well not to-night," he muttered lamely. " I won't tease you to-night. As long as we are to be alone together for so many weeks, I can wait." He turned swiftly on his heel and left her with- out a backward glance. CHAPTER XXV THE SLAVE OF PASSION Filled skin full of the weakest vanity, nothing so irritated Ralph Frobisher as to know that he was in a position where he might be laughed at. For three days the Koenigin Luise had been sail- ing eagerly after the apparently oblivious Altessa, whose swift flight kept an appreciable distance be- tween them with apparent ease, and for three days the yacht's master had known that the whole crew were ridiculing him. On the morning of the fourth day he was in a worse humour than usual. He had seen with his own eyes the French maid he had engaged for An- gela, laugh behind her apron, as he came into view. They all knew, then! Everybody 3n board all his carefully picked crew, selected with extremest care for just such a lawless cruise as his reckless mood demanded knew that his greatest plan had miscarried, and that his proposed prey had locked herself in her suite of rooms, and under the plea of indisposition had refused either to come out or permit even the maid to enter. Only when the steward, whom she instinctively trusted, fetched her the daintiest of meals would she slip the bolts of the doors behind which she had entrenched herself. The first two days, rough weather had given him an excuse to pretend to believe her, but the sea had so calmed that on this morning the ill-timed mirth of the maid, whose entire attitude was one 839 240 ANGELA'S QUEST of bright malice rejoicing in his predicament, roused him almost to a frenzy. A man who is the slave to any or all of his evil passions is one of the most pitiable sights of this latter-day panorama of humanity. Kalph Frobisher was helpless in the grip of his octopus-like evil na- ture. His bloodshot eyes, his gnawed fingers, his trembling frame, his powerful hunched shoulders, gave him the appearance of a man in the clutches of disease. His anxiety at the determined south- erly course of the Altessa, combined with the state of affairs on board the Koenigin Luise, convinced him that instead of having achieved his freedom, he was practically making his last stand. Why he did not put out to sea with Angela and escape from everything and everybody who men- aced him, he himself could not understand. In spite of everything to the contrary, he had not really believed that the Arbuthnots would, on the scant knowledge he supposed they possessed, set sail for Estrellada, for, with the death of Don Rafael, Ralph Frobisher believed that the only man who actually knew of the whereabouts of Chris- topher Cravanath, was dead. Therefore, although the Altessa's course lay due south, he continued to hope that her owner's plans were otherwise, or their knowledge was of necessity, of such scant measure that it could not seriously menace him. At pres- ent, he was allowing his overpowering curiosity and his inability to keep out of what appeared to be an enticing complication, or a teasing, unknown lead of the enemy, to override his cooler judgment. Had he known either of two facts the knowl- edge Ayres Arbuthnot possessed or the presence on board the Altessa of his forsaken and abandoned wife, his courage would have risen to its fighting height sooner. THE SLAVE OF PASSION 241 Absorbed as he was in trailing the Altessa, he fonnd time to consider descending to the point of giving orders to force the doors of Angela's retreat and exhibit to his crew the spectacle of a master of strategic finesse compelled to use the brute force of the primitive cave dweller. But even as he hes- itated, his tumultuous passion for the beautiful girl plunged him into new depths of despair at her continued scorn of him. Never had he expended the energy and concen- tration on any of his gigantic business affairs that he now brought to bear upon the conquering of Angela's untamed and entrenched spirit. But nothing produced the slightest effect. Within her magnificent prison, the girl thought only of one thing, and that was the wonder and marvel of her newly discovered love for Ayres Arbuthnot. Hitherto, her heart had opened gently, imper- ceptibly, and unconsciously, in answer to the ten- der chivalry of his love for her. It needed the shock of some danger to rouse this tardy consciousness of hers and show her where her affections were really placed, for in the same moment that an evil love affronted the purity of her virgin dreams, the veil was torn from her slum- bering woman's heart, and she gazed into its depths with astonishment and a trembling joy, in which mingled a delicate sense of awe. Love had been a sealed book to this girl, so that when she realised that in her great danger she had reached out instinctively to the love which had been quietly enveloping her from the hour in which her awakened gaze had rested on her lover's face, and that now an answering love, deep, pure, and abiding, had leaped to meet his, she was filled with conflicting emotions. 242 ANGELA'S QUEST For three days she had been, to all intents and purposes, a prisoner, yet, sustained and exalted as she was by the discovery of her love, never had three days passed more swiftly. Her captor imagined her pining for the freedom of the decks and the sights of sea and cloud, whereas, had she possessed it all, it would only have ministered to her dreams of one man's face, with steady grey eyes and a smile which revealed flashing white teeth. Angela knew that the Altessa was kept in com- mission, manned and provisioned for instantane- ous use. She knew that her letters must have reached both Ayres and her mother. And, even without the knowledge that Mrs. Frobisher was not on board the Koenigin Luise, Angela felt pro- foundly sure that Ayres would follow the Fro- bisher yacht. This, too, served to mitigate the ennui of her enforced solitude. In fancy, she could picture the Altessa, with her lover on board, fol- lowing their swift flight, little dreaming that in reality it was she who was, at present, following him. Yet sometimes, it must be owned, that, in spite of her courage, the dragging hours palled upon her. It was deadly dull, this having no one to talk to. And the strain of not knowing how long it would be before her captor's patience snapped and he committed some violence, alone as they were in the midst of the sea, caused her to live under a constant tension. To dispel this, she invented some work. Her rooms were literally filled with flowers, which were changed every day. The steward brought them each morning and she had the pleas- ure of arranging them. On one of her visits to Midge she had found 243 some splendid photographs of Ayres tucked away with a number of Midget's. Angela had been told to make her own selection. So she chose two of Midge, but secretly concealed between the two, was a superb likeness of Ayres. It was just a head, but the photographer had caught an expression so typi- cal of the young man at his best high-spirited, expectant, alert, and far-seeing that Angela re- joiced over it exceedingly. She had brought it with her, and, being affronted not only by notes and messages from Mr. Fro- bisher, but likewise by a most repellant photograph of him, whose eyes followed her every move, she resolved to alter matters somewhat. She removed it from its magnificent frame, put Ayres' in its place, rehung it over the mantel, then banked roses solidly from the floor to the base of the picture frame. She fairly rioted in her task, stripping all three of her rooms of their choicest blossoms to do service. She did this on the morning of their fifth day out, and nothing that she had ever done gave her more satisfaction than the expression on the stew- ard's face when he came to lay her luncheon and saw her work. In that one glance she read his hatred of his master, and she knew that she had at least one ally and one friend on board. That she would need him and perhaps soon, Angela felt sure, for Mr. Frobisher's notes were becoming more exigent, and she herself felt that a crisis was approaching. The steward ventured oniy one respectful com- ment. " Ye have rare taste, mem ! " he said. Then, as Angela smiled brilliantly upon him, he added : 244 ANGELA'S QUEST " If so be ye might be needing anything or any- body, mem, would ye kindly remember that me name is McPherson, and that three rings of the steward's bell would tell me to come quick?" Angela gave one long look into his kindly face. Then she went toward him and held out her hand. The man flushed with embarrassment as he gin- gerly took her slender fingers within his own, and hastily dropped them again, proud to have had the privilege of shaking hands with the beautiful young lady he was so fond of serving, but too re- spectful to presume upon it. " I will remember, McPherson," she said. She paused a moment and then added : " I am a little surprised to find you steward of such a yacht." Instantly the man made answer: " Indeed and did ye think any of us except that French hussy knew what was going on? I can tell ye that there have been rare fights between him and his missis on board this yacht in times past, but never a hint of what is happening now ! But you hold out ! There'll be something happening soon ! " "Will there, McPherson? Will there?" cried Angela. "What makes you think so?" " Because, Miss," here he lowered his voice and came toward her "the wireless operator tells me that the Altessa, owned by Mr. Arbuthnot, and the fastest steam yacht afloat, is just ahead of us." " Ahead of us ! " exclaimed the girl. " Why " She paused suddenly and bit her lips. Suppose McPherson were but a tool of her captor, sent to draw from her admissions which might be dam- aging? " Are you sure the 'Altessa is ahead? Don't you mean following us? " " I mean ahead of us, mem ! We are just trail- THE SLAVE OF PASSION 245 ing her! Mr. Frobisher thinks that whenever tie wants to, he can overhaul her! I wish I may see the day he orders us to try it ! " "You don't like him, then," said Angela. The man's brows lowered. " I have come to hate him ! " he growled. " And so has my brother-in-law, Angus McLeod. The mas- ter made us both hate him on his last cruise, and Angus left him. He is the best yacht captain on the high seas. Mr. Arbuthnot had been wanting him for two years, but Angus had signed with Mr. Fro- bisher, and was not the man to break his word. When his time was up, he went to Mr. Arbuthnot, and a happy man was Angus to get his hands on a yacht which can beat the Koenigin Luise. If ever Angus gets the right chance, he will have Ralph Frobisher's life, and I, for one, will never cry him down for it." " What did Mr. Frobisher do to your brother-in- law to make him hate him so?" asked Angela. McPherson's hands clenched at his side. " 'Twas the cruelty of the thing, mem ! " he ex- claimed. " Maybe 'twould have happened anyway, but it was after Mr. Frobisher found that the berth of captain on the Altessa was open to Angus, and that Angus had said he would not sign again as mate with Mr. Frobisher. He sent for Angus and taxed him with wanting to leave, and Angus was just courageous enough to tell him 'twas the truth. With that Mr. Frobisher offered to let him name his own figure if he would stay, and Angus re- fused. Refusal of any kind seems to drive that man mad. He swore a bitter oath that he would get even with Angus, and he did. He bided his time, and when my sister Nellie, Angus' wife, took sick with pneumonia, and Angus wanted shore leave to be with her for a few days at the worst of 246 ANGELA'S QUEST her sickness, Mr. Frobisher got up a special cruise of only a week in bitter weather, and took a party down to Hot Springs, just to keep Angus on duty. When we got back eight days later my sister was dead. That's all. It may not seem much to the likes of you, but 'twas cruel hard on me and him, for we were both rare fond of her." " Indeed," said Angela, with humid eyes. " I think it must have seemed very much! I am not surprised that your brother-in-law was incensed. How does it happen that you can feel as you do, and yet stay in his employ? " "My time is up, mem," answered McPherson, "but I heard rumours of something queer being on foot, and I thought perhaps my duty lay in ac- cepting his offer for extra wages for this special cruise. The very moment I saw you, mem, and heard from that French hussy that the missis was left on purpose, I saw clearly the reason I had stayed aboard, instead of chucking my job the day my time was up. You may need McPherson, mem, and if you do just remember that it was my sis- ter as well as Angus McLeod's wife ! " As the man left the room and Angela slipped the bolt behind him, the girl realised as never before how the man who held her fate in his hands was in turn the prey for which a thousand evils, mostly of his own creation, were fighting. He was the victim of his own venomous hate the slave of his own unbridled passions. Angela believed strongly in the potency and reality of good, but she saw no promise of this man's yielding himself to its gov- erning principle. " Only with thine eyes," she murmured to her- self, thinking of the sweet belief Emelie Cray had instilled into her mind, "shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked." THE SLAVE OF PASSION 247 She threw herself down on a couch to think things over, to separate, if so be, the real from the unreal, and try to figure out what the Altessa could possibly be doing in the lead. Finally she rang for McPherson. "Could you find out from the wireless opera- tor," she said, "why we are following the 'Altessa?" "I will try, mem! Thank you!" he answered, highly pleased to be able to be of some serv- ice. Twenty minutes passed in deep, concentrative thought on Angela's part, when, without a word or sound to prepare her for such a shock, a succes- sion of short, sharp blows fell on the delicate pan- elling of the door, smashing it into a hundred fragments, and over the debris Kalph Frobisher stepped into the room, alone. Angela started to her feet with a cry of terror. " Don't, Angela ! " he implored, hoarsely. " Don't look so afraid of me! If you hadn't been such a fool as to lock yourself in, I wouldn't have broken down the door. You have only yourself to blame. What's the matter now? " Angela drew herself up haughtily. " I am not in the habit of being called a fool," she said, coldly. " Gee, how like a woman ! " grinned Ralph Fro- bisher ; " madder at the words a man uses than at having the door broken open! Though perhaps you regard that as a compliment? Women like impetuosity, I am told!" Angela simply looked at him, her utter contempt and scorn blazing in her eyes. " Well, well ! " he growled uncomfortably. He tugged at his collar and his face reddened. "Damn it! " he burst out, "Why do you stand 248 ANGELA'S QUEST there simply looking at me, as though I was the dirt under your feet? Don't you know who I am? Don't you know what I can do for you? If you will only let me love you, I'll do anything in the world for you. I'll settle enough money on you so that if I do anything you don't like, you can quit me at a moment's notice. And don't think I won't do right by you. After we get home from this cruise, the old lady will divorce me on your ac- count, and then I'll marry you. New York will be too hot to hold me, but we can live in Paris for a couple of years, and then we'll come back home. We can, by that time. People forget. You needn't look at me like that. I tell you they do! Why, if the crucifixion itself should take place again on 42d Street, New Yorkers would forget it in two years. I know 'em ! " His tone suddenly changed. "Angela, don't turn me down! I love you, I tell you! You could do anything with me. You are all alone in the world. Your mother will never be any better " " My mother is almost well ! " declared Angela with emphasis. " You father is dead " he went on, as if she had not spoken. His manner was growing more confident. <( He does not think so ! " said Angela, pointing with her slender hand and arm at the photograph of Ayres Arbuthnot, with its altar of roses be- neath it. Kalph Frobisher turned and looked where she pointed, and as his mind took in what she had done in supplanting his own portrait with that of his tormentor, he uttered a howl of rage and started toward her. " If you dare to tell me that you love that in- fernal cub, I'll kill you where you stand ! " he THE SLAVE OF PASSION 249 cried, beside himself with anger and humilia- tion. "The wireless telegrams, miss!" said the voice of McPherson at the door. " How dare you how dare you interrupt me, you low hound ! " shouted his master, turning on him furiously. " The young lady gave me an order, and you laid your commands on us to obey her every re- quest on the second or we'd get the sack ! " replied McPherson, with appreciative unction. The owner of the yacht snatched the sheaf of papers from the steward's hand and ran his eye over them. "What's this?" he cried. "When was this re- ceived? Why wasn't it brought to me at once? Estrellada! Altessa bound for Estrellada. That means " He stopped abruptly, gnawing his fingers and rumpling his hair, as if suddenly distraught. He strode up and down once or twice, as forgetful of Angela and McPherson as if they had not existed. And, truth to tell, at that moment of fearful de- cision, no one existed for Ralph Frobisher except his own supreme will. Suddenly he seemed to remember Angela. He looked first at the rose banked portrait of her lover and then to the girl, and gave a short, sharp laugh of cruel delight. " You shall decide the matter, after all," he said quietly. " Tell me, do you love this Ayres Ar- buthnot?" Angela's face flushed divinely. Her eyes grew black. Her whole form lifted. " I love him with all that there is of me," she breathed softly. For a moment Ralph Frobisher saw nothing but red. The long years of yielding his self-control to 250 ANGELA'S QUEST the fierce power of his anger, had so weakened his body that for a moment he almost staggered from the weight of his rage. He was too shrewd a thinker not to know that Angela was irretrievably lost to him, no matter what happened, so all he could think of was revenge upon the man who had robbed him of her. " You have said it," he answered quietly. Then turning to McPherson, he said : " Send the chief engineer to me, and those new gunners I took on the day we sailed." He turned and smiled at the sight of Angela's ashen face and clasped hands, as the meaning of his orders penetrated her mind. For several hours thereafter Angela's brain was in a whirl. Then her efforts at self-control and courage were rewarded and she regained her poise. She knew some unusual proceedings were on foot, for not only was the motion^of the boat ac- celerated, but she could hear the tramping of many feet and the shouting of orders. A sense of unrest and disturbance was in the very air. McPherson came to her again. "He's doing it, mem! The very thing I prayed to see! We've orders to overhaul the Altessa, and Angus McLeod is on that good yacht's bridge! Wait till old Frobisher finds out that he's just wasting coal tq, try, but don't be around when he finds out, for he's liable to kill anybody that gets in his way when he's angry! " " McPherson, are they going to fire on the 'Al- tessa? " asked Angela in a low, intense voice. "They've orders to, mem, but wouldn't it be strange now, if even those trained gunners should never be able to hit their target?" "Oh, McPherson, you don't mean it? Will they miss on purpose? " "Give yourself no uneasiness, mem! But THE SLAVE OF PASSION 251 wouldn't you care to come on deck, seeing that the commodore has so thoughtfully opened the door for you?" Angela smiled. " Do you know, it never occurred to me that I could ! I've been locked up so long, I had forgot- ten how to be free in my body. My mind has al- ways been free. That's a wonderful sense, when you understand it, isn't it, McPherson?" " It is indeed, mem ! " answered the Scotchman. " John Young of Edinburg has written a great deal on that matter. Have you ever read anything of his, mem?" " No, I have not, but if he writes on such sub- jects, I will. Now help me to find a place on deck where Mr. Frobisher will not see me, and I can have at least a few moments to myself before any- one tells him where I am." When Angela found herself on the deck of the Koenigin Luise, she felt as if she were on an ocean liner. The size of the big vessel was almost over- powering, and with so few on board, it seemed doubly large. Her maid saw her and ran to fetch things to make her comfortable. The air was mild, and it was plain that their five-days' sail had been almost due south, for the heat of the summer was in the atmosphere, al- though the swift motion of the yacht made a cool- ing breeze. Angela remained on deck all the afternoon and evening. She had her dinner brought to her, and although Mr. Frobisher knew where she was, he made no effort to join or to disturb her. About ten o'clock McPherson came to her. " The wireless operator is a friend of mine," he murmured, " and I just got him to slip off a mes- sage saying, ' Propose to overhaul you, Angus Me- 252 ANGELA'S QUEST Leod. Our engines are faster than yours ! ' The answer came back, 'McLeod says he will see you in hell before he lets your engines even speak to ours,' and the commodore got it ! He doesn't know it's an answer to one from us. He thinks it is just a valentine from his friend Angus McLeod, and he accepted it in a similar spirit." The man was well pleased when he heard An- gela's musical laughter. " I'm glad you told me that, McPherson ! It proves all my hope for the safety of my dear ones to be based on understanding," she said. " I'm go- ing below now. In the morning, bring my coffee to me early, as I want to see all I can of this wonderful race." As the Scotchman called her maid and saw them disappear together, he shook his head. " It is just as well that I made her laugh instead of telling her that our head devil has given orders to close in on the Altessa all we can in order to fire on her at sunrise ! " The master of the yacht never closed his eyes all night. He paced deck after deck, restlessly roving hither and yon, his face haggard for want of sleep. For the first time in his life he was kept awake because of his love for a woman, and this irked him the more because he secretly despised all women, holding them as inferior to man in every way. If anyone had told him that danger threatened him at the hands of a woman whom he had driven too far, he would have laughed derisively. But as he tramped the decks of his strong yacht and meditated on the futility of all his posses- sions, when the one thing he coveted spurned him, strange thoughts on the vanity of life came into his mind, and in the grey dawn of another day, tears of self-pity smarted in his hard eyes. CHAPTER XXVI ON THE HIGH SEAS If that strangely missing man, Christopher Cra- vanath, had not possessed a strong philosophy and a deep religion, he probably would not have sur- vived his twelve years of persecution and impris- onment at the hands of the tools of Ralph Fro- bisher. That he had not died, was a surprise to the man himself, for scarcely a form of ill-treatment had been denied him. Bodily and mental torture of an indescribable nature had been his fortune. Incarcerated for the first six years in a mad- house, he had all but lost his reason, but he held on to his sanity mainly by closing his eyes and ears to the sights and sounds around him. He realised that to allow them to enter his mind as realities would be to lose his grip upon his own sanity. By doing this systematically, and with a trained mind, obedient to his will, he was able to perform this difficult feat. He finally came to believe that he lived in a dream, and that real existence lay beyond the walls of his vision. That, in so doing, he often laughed where another would have wept, induced his keepers to believe that he was as in- sane as their other victims, and he was often treated with a harshness he might have escaped, had his keepers realised that he was really more sane than many another man who conducts his daily existence differently. 253 254 ANGELA'S Christopher Cravanath also had constantly in his mind the knowledge that he must keep sane for the sake of his wife and child. At first his vivid imagination tortured his wak- ing hours and even penetrated his dreams by pic- tures of their possible calamities. This at first so undermined his health that he finally hit upon a scheme of counteracting this tendency. He constructed an imaginary story of their lives, in which his wife, radiant in health and beauty, was living in a beautiful semi-tropical island, waited upon by faithful servitors, and surrounded by a few choice friends. In this dream she be- lieved her husband to be away on a long voyage of important discovery, and to her he had entrusted the bringing up of their only child Angela. The lonely man even made himself follow the child in her lessons. He mentally heard her taught to read and write. He was amused by her efforts to spell. He imagined her learning French, Ger- man, Italian and Spanish, and followed in minut- est detail the changes in her appearance. When he was allowed paper and pencil, he wrote down these imaginings, and illustrated them by sketches of this island home, with his wife and child, its centre and circumference. That he was not always able to hoodwink his weaker self, was evidenced by long lapses, in which his face grew haggard and his hair whitened. He always fought this demon of natural fear and con- quered it, but not without scars. Then came the time when Frobisher grew fear- ful that Cravanath was too near New York, and Marvin Cray had him transferred to a prison in the island of Estrellada. Here his fate at first was so terrible that even Don Rafael took pity on the white man and housed ON THE HIGH SEAS 255 him separately, where tropical fevers could feed upon him at their convenience. He arose from this process of acclimation, so wasted and weak that for months he only dozed in the shadow cast by his prison walls, and prayed to die. Years crept by until finally he escaped. By what means he never knew, but his freedom did him no good. He could make no one believe his story, he was sick, penniless and hopelessly lost in the in- terior of the island, where he never saw a white man. As his strength returned, hope was born anew, and he began to make for the coast. There he knew he must eventually meet with someone who would believe and aid him. Ill-luck attended him still. He was delayed with fevers and misdirected until, when he finally came to where he saw and smelled the salt water, and knew that only the sea separated him from Amer- ica and his home, he nearly died of sheer joy. Surely the sight of the Atlantic never meant more to any man. But his happiness was short-lived, for he soon discovered that he was in a tiny hamlet, hedged in by dangerous coral reefs which prevented any large vessels from approaching. This drove all commerce to the open ports and prevented settle- ments or progress of any sort. When this despairing conclusion was finally reached, he had come to the most lonely and unin- habited part of Estrellada. When he realised that to reach shipping he must cross the entire island, he decided to take a small boat, provision it as best he might, and set sail for the ocean pathway, where he might be picked up by a passing vessel. Failing this, he could at least circle the island be- 256 ANGELA'S QUEST fore his food gave out, and reach Yabos, where he was confident he could persuade the United States Consul to assist him to reach home. He had nothing to barter for a good boat, so he had to mend, patch, provision and launch one so un- seaworthy that no one laid claim to it. It took so long to perfect even these crude arrangements, that, although he had entirely lost count of time, it was just thirteen years from the day Ealph Fro- bisher imprisoned him in the Belair Sanatorium that he paddled his shaky old boat, with two oars and a sad apology for a sail, out in the smooth lagoons which lay between land and the coral reefs. He had no compass, no rudder, and no informa- tion, for the natives were of the densest ignorance, many of whom had never seen a white man before, and to whom he could talk so little that they mostly communicated in signs. A man less desperate than Christopher Crava- nath would never have risked his life in so crazy a craft nor upon so apparently impossible an es- cape. But this man was not himself. He had reached the limit of his endurance, and, if he had known positively that he was sailing to certain death, he would still have made the attempt. Had he only known it and sailed west, instead of east, he would have reached, not only the end of the coral reefs, but civilisation in one day's pad- dling. But his destiny led him otherwise. He was in no danger as long as his course lay within the comparatively smooth waters of the great lagoons, but when he came within reach of the reefs, where the sea boiled angrily over its un- seen obstructions, he found his frail craft utterly unable to cope with the violence before it. For one whole day he rowed and sailed length- ON THE HIGH SEAS 257 wise of these reefs, vainly seeking a way to cross them and reach the open sea. But his old tub rode go low and shipped so much water that he could make no experiments. At nightfall he was almost dazed with grief and disappointment. He shipped his oars, reefed his sail and let his boat drift rudderless. He felt that this w r as his last night upon earth. He was alone in a shell of an open boat upon an unknown sea, not a sail in sight, nor in a spot where one was liable to be seen, and hemmed in between an ocean terror and an inhospitable island prison. Despair, utter and complete, settled down upon him and overwhelmed that brave spirit w r hich for more than a dozen years had proved unquenchable. He leaned his head upon his hand and looked up at the strange nearness of the stars. So large they seemed, so intelligent, so friendly. He knew r them all by name, and as he gazed at them, it seemed as if they spoke to him, and bade him take courage, as He who guided "Arcturus with his sons " would also protect all His children according to His promise. Just as the message of cheer came to his heart, he saw r , far away on the distant horizon, two tiny moving lights. He held his breath and watched. He closed his eyes and counted a hundred. They w T ere still there! Two vessels were within his range of vi- sion, their lights growing more distinct all the time. He knew much ot shipping, could calculate dis- tances, and made allowances for his excitement, still he had never seen anything like the swiftness of their approach. If it should prove that the civilised world was 258 ANGELA'S QUEST in a state of war, he believed that he was watching a race between the contesting gunboats which would be historical, An excitement so intense that it was physical pain, took possession of him. He worked him- self almost to a frenzy trying to imagine which was the American boat and which her European enemy. Was it England, Germany, Japan or pos- sibly France? He eliminated France first, then England, then Germany. He decided that the leader (the Al- tessa) was Japanese, and that the Koenigin Lulse was an American. This theory was gradually discarded as he real- ised that the leader was still drawing away from her pursuer. The golden sun suddenly sprang up, full-orbed, above the horizon's rim, and to his surprise he saw a faint puff of smoke from the pursuer, and there was borne to his listening ears the faint detonation of a monster shot. The leader was not touched. She made no reply, unless an added burst of speed could be called such. This seemed to anger her enemy, for a sec- ond shot followed, and then a third. Although the steamers were fast bearing away from him, the man's curiosity as to who and what these strange vessels were, almost drove his disappointment at being ignored by them, out of his mind. Suddenly he became aware that he was missing an accustomed sound. He gathered his scattered faculties together and looked around. At last it came to him. He could no longer hear the sound of the boiling waves over the coral reefs. His boat had drifted beyond their limits. In an ecstasy of renewed hope, he shipped his oars, rigged his sail as a flag of distress, and began to row toward the fast disappearing vessels. ON THE HIGH SEAS 259 Every few minutes he could hear the futile boom- ing of the guns, which suddenly seemed to become louder. He turned himself and watched. At first he could not believe his eyes. But at last the truth was forced upon him. The two vessels had turned completely out of their course, and the gallant leader, whose beauti- ful lines were momentarily becoming more appar- ent, was headed straight for the coral reef, with her enemy following. Both would be wrecked before his very eyes, and to his surprise he saw they were not men-of-war, but steamers ! Without thinking, he sprang to his feet, waving his hands wildly and shouting. As if his feeble voice could carry all that distance! Yet still he stood in his rocking boat, shouting and wringing his hands, going, if need be, to his death, but gal- lantly doing his best to the very last, to warn the doomed ships. Finally the leader, headed straight in his direc- tion, came so near that he could make out her col- ours. She was an American! Tears filled his weak eyes and ran unchecked down his cheeks at the sight of the flag, flying so gallantly from her masthead. What memories of wife and child that flag evoked! What precious American lives she pro- tected ! If only he could warn them in time ! He sobbed aloud in his weakness. Suddenly a new thought came to him. He re- membered the story of those reefs the natives had told him, of how the breakers only indicated the lesser danger. The worst were where? Then he knew ! The American steamer evidently knew the depths ^ reefs and that she could pass over them in 260 ANGELA'S QUEST safety. She was luring her deeper-draughted en- emy on to self-destruction ! He held his breath. On, on came the swiftly flying 'Altessa, cleaving the shining blue sea like a white-breasted sea gull. Over the treacherous, submerged reefs she went like a bird, while behind her loomed larger and larger her more heavily-built enemy. Suddenly came a grinding roar, and the Koenigin Luise seemed to lift herself half out of the water in her brave attempt to ride over the coral reef. Then she lurched forward, her prow half burying itself in flying waves and spray. The Altessa, which had slackened speed, in evi- dent anticipation of this catastrophe, turned her- self and slowly steamed back to the wrecked yacht, when there was a loud report and a shot, the last one possible from the rapidly sinking vessel, sped swiftly on its venomous errand, missing its target, the Altessa, but striking the tiny shell of Christo- pher Cravanath, shattering and sinking it. CHAPTER XXVII THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAPTAIN'S BRIDGE "With all due respect to you, Mr. Arbuthnot,'' said Angus McLeod, " I must return that fire, or lose all that life holds dear! Do you want Mr. Frobisher to think that we are cowards? " " No, I don't, captain, but on the other hand, I don't want to think of myself as a murderer or a pirate. She hasn't damaged us yet or is she likely to, as you very well know. So oblige me by simply drawing away from her. You yourself know their pride in the speed of the Koenigin Luise, so you must realise that to render her ridiculous in their eyes would be a keener revenge than even to return her fire and sink her." For a moment the captain's pride as captain of his craft nearly overpowered him. He had a short period of rebellion, in which he almost determined to assert his authority even over Mr. Arbuthnot. But the truth was that he adored the Altessa and it would have punished him sorely to have been obliged to give up command of her to pay for a short-lived victory. He thought hard for a few minutes, then a slow smile spread over his rugged features. "Very well, sir. I defer to your wishes as owner, though my pride as captain is sorely tried." " I can understand that," answered Mr. Arbuth- not, "but possibly she won't fire again " A dull boom interrupted him. The captain's eyes flashed fire. 961 262 ANGELA'S QUEST "Very likely not, sir! " he said, sarcastically. Had not the captain been obsessed by his secret thoughts, his anger might have been more stirred, but as it was, he looked almost joyous at the ad- vent of the second shot and broke away from his employer without ceremony to give his orders. To maintain discipline, the guns were manned, all passengers ordered below and the decks cleared for action. Then an order rang out which set the stokers to sweating. Black clouds of smoke began to pour from the Altessa' s funnels and in less time than it takes to tell it, the greatest yacht race in the his- tory of sport was in progress. The American built craft was more delicately wrought, was of less draught and was built for greater speed, albeit this capacity had never been tested to its utmost, while the Koenigin Luise was a more pretentious yacht with more powerful en- gines, deeper draught and bulkier. But the engineer of the Altessa was a down east Yankee, who believed in his engines as most men believe in Fate, and who knew how to get the last notch of speed out of them. His one great griev- ance had been hitherto, that Mr. Arbuthnot was nothing of a sport, and ran the Altessa as if she were a wheelbarrow. In addition to knowing all this, Angus McLeod had for nine years been a pilot in the South At- lantic waters and knew the island of Estrellada as well as he knew the East River. He knew all the reefs, where they began and where they ended, and as he had been first mate on the Koenigin Lnise, he knew her draught. Therefore, without a word to Mr. Arbuthno f of his plan of revenge, he prepared to carry out a scheme of his own which would not only re- THE TRAGEDY 263 establish his self-respect, but would support him in the eyes of his crew and yet would not endanger his position as captain of the Altessa, for Mr. Arbuthnot could never be sure that he wrecked the Frobisher yacht purposely, albeit he might sus- pect. The only thing Captain McLeod did not know was that Angela was a passenger on the Koenigin Luise. His conscience compelled him to ask Mrs. Fro- bisher if any of her family were on board except her husband, and in her grim monosyllable, he caught only the echo of her hatred of her husband, which he had shrewdly suspected ever since she came aboard the Altessa, but, although there had been some whispers of another woman, her identity was not even suspected, and if such a passenger existed, she was supposed to be one of the sort not worth taking into consideration. Angus McLeod proposed to make rather a neat thing of this wreck. He did not intend to lose any lives. He planned rather a coup de theatre. His own boats would be in the water, ready to go to her rescue the moment she struck the reef. The Arbuthnots, father and son, stood together in their determination not to return the Koenigin' s fire. But while to Squires Arbuthnot, it spelled only a murderous spite, to the keener intelligence of Ayres, it had a more sinister meaning. He felt sure that Ralph Frobisher must fear that Christopher Cravanath had escaped alive, and that possibly the missing man was in closer prox- imity to them than they had dared to hope. Therefore he took the most powerful telescope on board, and during the entire night when the splendid yachts were engaged in their spirited race, Ayres Arbuthnot was sweeping the horizon 264 ANGELA'S QUEST with his telescope, and at dawn his were the only eyes which saw the tiny speck upon the waters, making its piteous effort to warn the doomed yacht, in brave disregard of his own danger. Ayres realised that something unknown to him- self was going on from the expression on the captain's face and actions. Just before he spied the frantic spectre in the small boat, Ayres felt the motion of their yacht suddenly slacken and then she slowly circled around. He shouted to the captain, who was on the bridge. "Man in small boat signalling us, captain. Give orders to lower a boat ! " Instantly the pounding of the engines stopped and without a word to anyone, Ayres was in the boat, almost as soon as she touched the water. The eyes of all were upon the rocking craft of the unknown man, and not until the final shot was fired from the Koenigin Luise, which wrecked Cra- vanath's boat, did any of them turn to look at the Frobisher yacht. But as the grinding crash when she struck the reef, came to their ears, they looked, just in time to see the catastrophe. She seemed to leap into the air, her prow out of the water, to hang trembling for a moment, then overpowered by her own for- ward weight, she sank her bow into the ocean and began settling with hideous slowness, rocking and trembling as if endeavouring like some human thing, to catch at every obstruction which might avert her inevitable doom. Fear paralysed all hands in the small boat, and for a moment they stared helplessly. It was Ayres who recovered himself first. He saw the head of the unknown man rise to the sur- THE TRAGEDY 265 face and seizing an oar he gave a shout of en- couragement to the struggling swimmer and bent himself to his task. It was his supreme moment, for every instinct in his whole nature cried out to him to rush to the rescue of the woman he loved, whose tragic fate his own eyes had just beheld impending. But other boats from the Altessa were instantly manned and all were nearer to the sinking yacht than he was. Therefore he accepted the duty nearest at hand and pulled steadily away from the wreck and in the direction of the spent swimmer. Eager hands reached out for the almost dying man and barely in time to save his broken life, Christopher Cravanath was hauled aboard the tight little craft by the strong young arms of the man who loved his daughter. With a gasp he sank fainting against Ayres, who was eagerly scrutinising his wasted features. " Pull, men, for your lives," exclaimed Ayres in a low, tense voice. "Miss Cravanath and Ralph Frobisher must both be saved ! " With a scream like an animal in pain, the ap- parently lifeless man they had just rescued struggled to a sitting posture, then climbed to his knees. Smiting his hands together, he electrified his lis- teners by crying out: "Ralph Frobisher! My God! Did you say Ralph Frobisher? Is it possible that that devil is alive yet! Oh, to see him die with my own eyes after all these years of hell he has meted out to me ! And Miss Cravanath ! Boy, did you say Cra- vanath? Or did my ears deceive me? Can it be my little Angela my baby girl that man has in his power? Oh, God! Oh, my God!" 266 ANGELA'S QUEST Turning and twisting as if his physical agony equalled his mental anguish, the white-haired man shook Ayres by the coat, patted his cheeks, implored him with voice broken by sobs: "Tell me, young man! Speak those names again, just to let me be sure that I heard ! " " Angela Cravanath is alive and well, but on that yacht, and, as you see, in great danger," an- swered Ayres, controlling himself with an effort. " If you are her father " " I am Christopher Cravanath ! " interrupted the man. " Dead these many years to all eyes, but those of my God ! Oh, my boy, give me an oar and let me help ! God ! How slowly we go ! " " But others are at hand," said Ayres sooth- ingly. " Here, take these glasses and you can see ! They are taking them off in our boats already." To the frantic father and lover it seemed as if, in spite of all possible speed, they seemed to be im- movable, yet in reality they were eating up the distance as fast as stout hearts and strong sinews could manage it. Both Ayres and Christopher Cravanath held powerful binoculars to their eyes. Suddenly an oath burst from the younger man's lips. He sprang to his feet, trembling in every limb. " A hundred dollars to each of you men, if you double your speed ! '' he cried. Without daring to turn, the men obeyed. "Lighter her of everything!" cried Cravanath, and instantly he and Ayres flung overboard all the costly furnishings of the beautiful boat. She responded by cleaving the water like an es- caped sea gull. Suddenly came a cry from the doomed yacht. THE TRAGEDY 267 She had listed to starboard and her decks were at such a slant that all were flung precipitously to the starboard rail. One of the Altessa's small boats capsized, but a larger one nearby righted her, and drew as near as possible to the dangling rope ladders from the overhanging decks above. The stewardess, the French maid and several other women servants were bundled down in safety. But no Angela and no Frobisher had yet appeared. Suddenly on the captain's bridge, two figures could be seen. And these, sighted by Ayres through his glasses, were what had caused his emotion. They were Ralph Frobisher holding Angela in his arms. The powerful man stood there like a rock, holding against his breast the figure of a young woman, who seemed not to struggle, nor even show signs of life. From Fro- bisher's attitude, the triumphant smile on his heavy features, his immovable stand, the compel- ling manner in which his arms surrounded the slender figure which lay against him, as if crushed and broken, all pointed to the fact that, knowing he was trapped on every side, the man had resolved to defy his every enemy to the last and take with him to his death, the one being whose purity and beauty possessed power to move him. His act was a final tribute to her influence. The Altessa herself had now drawn near enough so that all on board had seen, with consternation and horror, the impending tragedy of the captain's bridge. Mrs. Frobisher's face was a study. No one could tell what ti T aultuous emotions were tearing at the heart of this woman, who had never learned 268 ANGELA'S QUEST self-control, and who was a stranger to it now. That she made no outcry was in itself ominous. It was as if she knew what Fate's next move would be. 'Mrs. Cravanath alone was calm. She was sus- tained by a knowledge which was certainty. Midge and Bettie were openly weeping and even Mr. Arbuthnot was wringing his hands and groan- ing aloud at his impotence to help. Suddenly a cry arose. From behind the two on the captain's bridge, appeared with the swiftness of lightning and with thunderous countenance, the towering form of Ayres Arbuthnot, He was coatless and hatless and his white shirt and blue trousers were wet and clinging to him. tWith a whirl which sent him spinning, Ayres jumped at Frobisher, who all unprepared for the assault, was caught without warning. The younger man tore Angela from Frobisher's arms, and hold- ing her half-fainting form with his left arm, he parried the other's fierce blow with his right. But it was a position impossible to hold, and in a moment more, Ayres would have been at the mercy of his enemy, had not the weak figure of Christo- pher Cravanath, weeping, babbling, straining at his last ounce of strength, crept on hands and knees up the steps after Ayres, and, just as Frobisher made a rush, Cravanath caught him around the knees, and with an effort which brought blood from his nose and mouth, he tilted the great man back- wards over the railing to the deck beneath. Then his strength failed him utterly. A shout went up from the Altessa as this feat met their eyes. But their triumph was short-lived, for with' scarcely a moment to spare, the Koenigin Luise THE TRAGEDY 269 groaned, shivered, and then, with a roar and crash against the white jaws of the coral reef she plunged headlong and sank from sight, leaving only giant waves, surging foam and the tossing boats of the Altcssa on the surface of the sea. CHAPTER Two .White to the lips, the [women on board the r Al- tessa viewed the tragedy on the captain's bridge, and the almost instantaneous disappearance of the chief actors therein, but with widely differing emotions. Mrs. Frobisher spoke no word when she saw her husband with Angela in his arms. To the anx- ious glances of the others, she seemed carved from stone, so set and tense were the lines of her figure, so cold and hard her face. But when Ayres tore Angela away from Fro- bisher, and she saw her husband wrenched from his theatrical position and pitched headlong to the deck beneath, a long sigh burst from her lips and she smiled maliciously. To the onlooker her first sigh might have been mistaken for one of anxiety for his safety. But when, after the Koenigin Luise sank, and there were tense moments before it was known that those four were alive and could be saved, she saw the rescue of her husband saw him dragged, helpless, and only half alive, into one of the Altessa's boats, she turned upon Alan Patrick so savage a look of triumph and potential revenge, that even that easy- going youth, callous to most emotions, shrank back appalled, and rejoiced that it was not himself who had called forth such an expression on any woman's face. (His own emotions were decidedly mixed, for his 270 TWO WIVES 271 anxiety over his friend's fate was turned into self- ish and lively rejoicing, when, as the yacht sank, Midge, flung herself, with a cry, into his arms and clung to him, white and tearful and wholly his own. Mrs. Arbuthnot hid her face likewise against her husband's shoulder unable to look, for fear, of all those who were reappearing, Ayres, her beloved son, should be missing. No one noticed Mrs. Cravanath. But she, who had most at stake, never took her eyes from the scene of action. She had risen and was standing, clinging to the gunwale, with one frail hand white with the tight- ness of its clasp. In the other she held a tiny pair of powerful glasses. As she saw the feeble figure of some man crawl up the stairway to the captain's bridge and wit- nessed his valiant etfort at rescue, a leap of her heart told her that this man was her husband. How, she could not have told you, for the glasses showed not one resemblance, in the white-haired, bearded stranger, to the highbred patrician hus- band of her youth. Still, as she beheld the swift downfall of Ralph Frobisher, caused by such evi- dent feebleness, she felt that only righteous resent- ment could arm frail strength with such Herculean power. And only too well, she knew the cause. Swift as lightning came what followed. The sailors manning the Altessa's boats had been pre- pared for the sinking of the Frobisher yacht, and the survivors Angela, Ayres, and Mr. Cravanath were rescued without difficulty. Not so with llalph Frobisher. Stunned by his fall and with both ankles broken, his body rose once and disappeared. It would have been easy to allow their efforts to 272 ANGELA'S QUEST save him to have failed, but to Ayres Arbuthnot that would have been inadequate punishment. From having an impersonal, altruistic desire to run this man to earth for his crimes against the family of the girl he loved, his rage at seeing her in Fro- bisher's arms inflamed him with a passionate de- sire for a physical revenge and turned him from a pursuer into an avenger. He turned swiftly to his men. " Frobisher must be saved ! " he cried. " Don't let him cheat the hangman, boys! A thousand dollars reward to the man who saves him ! " The eyes of all turned instinctively to one man, Joe Littlejohn. He was of powerful build and lithe as a panther. Without a word he stood up, stripped off his coat and plunged over the side of the boat. In a moment he rose, and struck out swimming, hand over hand, with long powerful strokes to the spot where Ralph Frobisher had disappeared. A shout reassured him. The man he sought re- appeared for the second time, but sank before Littlejohn could reach him. Ayres ground his teeth with rage and swore softly. A sailor turned. "You don't know Joe Littlejohn, Mr. Arbuthnot. He is an expert diver. He'll save him if he has to go to the bottom for him. Look ! There he goes ! " Sure enough the man disappeared. It seemed as if whole minutes passed before he emerged. He came up a boat length nearer to them than when he went under. He was swimming easily with one hand. With the other he held the head of Ralph Frobisher above the water. As eager lianas pulled the unconscious man into the boat and Lii'lejohn clambered aboard, his eyes TWO WIVES 273 dancing at having performed his feat in the pres- ence of such an audience, Ayres seized his hand. " I double what I promised you on behalf of my governor, Littlejohn ! " he said, heartily. " That was magnificently done ! " Slowly the heavily laden boats pulled for the 'Altessa. Angela, conscious, but unnerved, was clasped in the arms of her lover, wholly oblivious to aught but that she had reached a haven of comfort and happiness, while the radiant expression on the face of Ayres, brought an answering smile to the eyes of all who beheld and in a measure, shared his happiness. Everyone naturally loves a successful feat of strength and power, and especially when coupled with just revenge. Therefore the act of Ayres in tearing the woman he loved from the foul embrace of an illegitimate lover, raised the young man to the pinnacle of a hero in the eyes of both crews. In like manner, the heroic act of the feeble cast- away, in pitching Frobisher, the tyrant, to his doom, roused the enthusiasm of all to the point of ex- plosion, which, however, kept itself under until the survivors were being taken aboard the 'Altessa. Then, their enthusiasm burst all bounds, and as Angela, her father and Ayres set foot on the shin- ing decks of the Arbuthnot yacht, cheer after cheer, spontaneous and hearty, rent the air. Frobisher, unconscious, still lay in the bottom of the small boat in charge of a single sailor, not a hand being offered to raise him, until the others had been cared for. There was not a dry eye among those who wit- nessed the meeting of Christopher Cravanath and his wife. She stepped slowly forward, her face working painfully, but tears held back bravely, 274 ANGELA'S QUEST while the spent and broken wreck of her husband, white-haired, unkempt and clad in filthy rags, tottered across the deck supported by Mr. Ar- buthnot, smiling, but tremulous with excitment. With a low cry Mrs. Cravanath held out her hands to her husband and gathering him into her arms like a tired child, her bonds of silence were broken and she spoke aloud the words : " My God ! I thank Thee for this moment ! " At this, Angela, who had not been told of her father's identity, ran forward and flung herself on her knees at the side of her reunited parents, her long ropes of auburn hair sweeping the deck as she gazed rapturously into their glorified faces. From a distance, Mrs. Frobisher was a witness of this scene, but for the most part her gaze was riveted to the powerful figure of her husband, ly- ing prone in the boat just below. No one was with him, the last sailor having hastily fastened the boat, in his hurry to join his mates on deck to see Joe Littlejohn come into his promised fortune. Her intense gaze seemed to galvanise her victim. Although Mrs. Frobisher witnessed the man's desertion, she said nothing for it suited her pur- pose to have her husband alone, when he should re- cover consciousness, as he was then showing signs of doing. The injured man was lying on his back when he came to himself. At first, he lay with closed eyes, trying to realise where he was. Suddenly he re- membered. With an oath he struggled to rise, but the agonising pain in his ankles pulled him down and he sank back with a groan of anguish. Then, lifting his eyes, he met the basilisk gaze of his wife, bent on him from the deck above. This was the first the wretched man knew of the presence on the Altessa of the woman he had so TWO WIVES 275 outraged and scorned. His face paled, and a great fear took possession of him. Slowly he saw her hand creep into the bosom of the loose white laces of her gown. Something glis- tened in the sunlight. Then a cry burst from her lips startling all on board. Hastily rushing to her side they looked where her shaking finger pointed. An empty boat was gently rocking on the sur- face of the sea. THE END .yBRARy FACILITY A 000 038 806 6