Constance Dunlap

of me-ple

chic little feather-tipped hat, hurried up to Constance Dunlap

ered the girl breathlessly. "And I've forgotten who I am. I've forg

Plainly she was on the verge of hysterics. Tears were streaming down her pale cheeks and there

rl crazy? She had heard of cases like this, but to

Constance gently, looking hastily

the girl, "but I th

f your name!" urge

girl, "no, I c

repeated Constanc

ooked vaca

bbed, "it's

reet toward her own apartment in the hope that she might catch

was of

mere sight of the blue-coated officer sent a shud

tal-don't," pleaded the girl in a hoarse

stance. "Was that the ma

ed the girl nervo

hen?" asked Co

wildly from time to time, although there was no doub

had on her hands a case of aphasia, p

strong in the poor creature that Constance felt intuitively how di

he girl? To leave her on the street was out of t

apartment. Gently she led the t

to call a physician, at least yet, because his first advice would probably

erhaps she might recall the girl's name to her, if she were not shamm

might have happened to the girl if she had chanced to appeal to some one wh

th "A," she

r name

Camilla, Deborah, Ed

?" she

apprehend something

" persiste

ried, "that's it

she was just as hazy as ever. Still, th

what?" reiterated C

ed as if some depth in her nature had been stirred. Constance

s as if to keep her head from bursting. Constance had assisted her off with her co

I'm just one more of the thousands of

the girl there succeeded a hardness in her tone that was wholly out of keeping with her youth. There w

Constance with an air t

of tangled fallen hair. Somehow Constance felt a tingling sensation of sympathy in

ng consciousness, "because-I don't know. I thought, per

ves to trace me. One of them is almost up with me. I'm afraid I can't sl

ied her friend. "Detect

she answer

sed. Least of all ha

ted as the girl seemed about to la

now. They have made it impossible for me to go home. I mean, every newspaper has publis

back, then. But now-after the newspapers and the search-never! And yet I am going

stop

?" asked

d then do a coward

not!" blaze

o mistaking

e. Trust me. I

irl down on the

I know lots of newspaper women. We could carry it through so that even the doctors w

him. But he left me-left me in a place-across in Brooklyn. They said I was a fool, that some other fellow, perhaps better, with more money, would t

until yesterday. But then a man came in. He had been there before. He seemed too interested in me, not in a way that others have been, but in me-my name. Some how I sus

ouch beside her new friend and hid her face. Softly C

little girl,"

came over

for me she will do for any other person who really wishes to make a fresh start in life. I made few acquaintances, no friends. Fortunately, the averag

pityingly at th

, "that you wanted to be independent, th

this detective who follows me. He will find me

rew

ollars. Don't you

d short as if t

with a rush there came over her the recollection o

as Constance bent over an

" she asked

o a girl in Chicago-beautiful, in society. Oh-I could KILL him," she cried, throwing out her a

nterfere until the

give at the tea roo

e," answer

Here at least you are safe. I hav

ppers and later of business women to whom this was not on

in?" she asked

you care to wait, I thin

man in a tea room is an anomaly. For the tea room is a woman's institution, run by women for wome

as her old enemy, Drummond, the detective. For a momen

these tea rooms,"

inking. Could this be the detecti

' bar-that do openly what tea rooms do covertly. They don't reckon with the attitude of women. This is New York-not Par

at his cynical incons

" she observed, watching him furt

idently, however, there were degrees of brazenness, even in tea rooms. The Betsy Ross not only would not produc

suggested Drumm

t-with Scotch or rye

" hazarde

ing real tea and the second hot water. It was served virtuously in tea cups, so opaquely conc

man out of his accustomed habitat. And yet he did not seem to be interested really in C

e?" Constance asked

ly one reason. Drummond was clearly up with Florence

tless way in which the detective would perform the act of "ch

n her own way. She looked up the address of Everett Gibbons while s

r Viola, was known. Perhaps the best way, after all, was to let her be discovered h

tling business woman, came in and the

Viola Cole?" began Constance, watchi

e were any connection between Drummond's presence and Mrs. Palmer, it was wholly on his

rs. I have a business downtown and could not come around until to-night

" and Mrs. Palmer bustled out into the kitchen, not

next thing she had planned was a visit to Mr. Gibbons. That need not take long

the numerous side streets from the Park, in a neighborho

ushered into his study, where he sat poring ove

ere is a one thousand dollar reward for news

e have traced down so many false clues that we have given up hope. Since the day she went aw

tives?" s

. "I myself have come to the belief that she is dead, for that

" replied Constan

ing at even such a straw as an unknown

ot tell you any more. You must call off a

he

e next day. I will cal

maturely aged might overwhelm her with questions and break down

turned the key in

somehow the silence s

ce!" sh

was no

anged as they had been when she left. The furniture was in the same position a

e had entered, it must have been because he was admitted, for

r was very sympathetic, but there had

f you get any word?" as

ack Mrs. Palmer'

ce be held somewhere as a "white slave"-not by physical force but b

not believe it. Nothing could have happened in such

ntly crossed her mind. Could it be a case of drugs? T

one had enter

oubted the stories. She knew that almost any doctor would say that it was impossible to inject a narcotic by a sudden j

rence w

ing Preston. She recollected that Mr. Gibbons had said nothing about Drummond, either one way or the other. And if he were both shieldi

the eleva

t my apartment while

A man ca

u let h

meet some one at your apartment. And when he pressed the buzzer, the door o

inquired Consta

nd, waiting, was this man with a girl I had never seen before. You unders

if I had only thought to leave word

es, you me

face, he

ught she was-well, er,-acte

e which way they

am, I d

anned and done, she was defeated-worse than defeated. Where was Florence! What might not hap

e knew, she was fighting the almost limitless power of brains and money of Preston. Inquiry developed the fact that Preston himself was reported to be in Chicago with his fiancee. Time and a

pes she had raised in the despairing fath

nstance dropped into the Betsy

was Mrs. Palmer herself, with a letter at last, wri

ost literally

e tea room, there was a call at her door? I didn't like to open it, but when I asked

remember nothing. I would write to her, only I don't know where she lives. One of the b

called Lustgarten's-she can recognize it because it is at a

a trance. It comes in a second-usually when I am frightened. I suddenly feel nervous and shaky. I can't tell what is going on around me. I lose my hearing. Part of the time it is as though, I

with a most p

eady nervously pu

to go there?" a

te the place,"

fraid?" inqui

ntatiously slipped a little ivory

you ever heard of before, I guess. I bought it only t

was watching

he burst out finally. "It isn't go

ions for the search. "What are business

he very point of reveali

d already made up my mind to go with

d each other better than afte

river the two women traveled, asking veiled questions of every wearer of a unif

re trying to clamp down tight the "lid" in New York, all the vicious elemen

the first floor, with a sort of dance hall and second-rate cabaret. Above that was a hotel. The windo

you game?" asked Cons

considering that," replied Mrs.

ered the door down the stree

nce signed the first names that came into her head, and a moment later they were on

boy up?" asked Constance

ma'am," was his di

d Constance, hazarding, "the o

other boy, ma'am

oom in New York to-morrow?" interrupted Con

ing something useless that would elicit a tip. He quietly shu

now what room she

ed that ivory-handled thing to appear. Instead there was a treasury note of a size t

d, pressing it

the other side," whispered the boy. "And for G

re the two women were stealthily creeping in the o

rn. Through a transom of one of the rooms th

e that you came again and stayed at Lustgarten's against your will. Why," the voice taunted with a ha

Then a woman's voice, strange

night life-a girl with a romantic disposition in whom all that was repressed at home. He knew it," she repeated, raising the tone to an almost hysterical pitch, "led me on, made

traded in, bartered-that was the idea. Discover her-yes; but first to thrust her into the life if she would not go

o know the truth? Haven't you read it often enough? Instea

prefer to think that you are dead. Why-damn

m, and, acting in concert, they threw both

ed with

he room

out two figures, one standing, t

ise was followed by a hasty lunge

o her handbag and drew out th

t almost into

te blindly, then fell on the floor and fra

med to stick

a woman's voice which Const

stupefies without killing-a bulletless revolver intended to check and render harmless the criminal instead of maiming him. The cartridges contain sev

er and switche

floor was Dru

our story of his elopement with Florence, marries her, and allows her to start an undefended action

sullenly, still b

suit is filed. Then WE will see

red, still clut

e was at the telephone

ho called on you the other day with a clue to your daughter Florence. I have found her-yes-working as a waitress in the Betsy Ross Tea Boom. No-not a word to anyone-not even to

d the receiver back

trembling, imploring, had f

e cried. "I ca

t masculine, Constance took

isively, "will help us-straighten out those few little matters with Pr

emed to be infused into Florence

nse voice, "for anything after your elo