The Secret Mark / An Adventure Story for Girls

when on the following morning Lucile lifte

xclaimed as she leaped out of bed

a desire to hide something, to defend someone. At first she could not understand what

t," she

e she slept. Perhaps there are forces we know nothing of, which work on the inner, hidden chambers of

new that she did not want to tell anyone of the strange incident, no not ev

be given out. Thousands had been returned to their places on their shelves. Was a single book missing? Were two or three missing? Lucile had no way of knowing. Every book that

ed for his exact knowledge regarding the whereabouts of the books which were under his care. She had not be

e to have any knowledge of the whereabouts of the

ickly. "Why-er"-there was a ca

nodded as

t. Will show up later." He was still smiling bu

. The set was to be removed from the library to be placed in the Noyes museum.

r, as it was used only in the reference reading room. It's not the

n his heel

up, that the strangely quaint little person she had seen in the library at midnight had carried it away. Yet she sai

it. I wonder why? I wonder if she'll come back. Why, of course she will! For the other volume, or to return the one she has. Perhaps to-night. Two volum

telling a single person about the affair, she would set a watch that very night

reground from the deepest depths of her memory the time and circumstance on which she had first seen that child. She saw it all as in a dream. The girl had been dressed just as she was Saturday at midnight. She had ente

d Frenchman, a lover of books. He wished to come near the books, to sense them

e allowed to handle certain volumes. He had touched each with a reverent hand. His

d that," Lucile had

quarry, she groped her way to the shelf where the companion to the stolen volume

spered, "there

ce in the building. To-morrow she would see. Replacing the volume

shield the child. She had seen the child render a service to a feeble and all but helpless old man. Her memory had be

she told herself.

ible. Could an old man, tottering to his grave, revealing in spite of his shabby clothing a one-time more than common intellect and a breeding abo

nly like a gentleman. He reminded me of that great old general of his own nation who said to hi

for on that night no slightest footf

. She had told Florence nothing, yet she had surprised her roommate often looking at her in a w

to, but somethi

remained in her cozy room, wrapped in a kimono, studying, yet, as the chimes pealed out the notes of Auld La

ed her along for an instant, then in a wild, freakish turn all but threw her upon the pav

uttered. "She would not c

her hiding place more than a half hour when

with bated breath and cushioned footstep she tiptoed

knew the child was at the same distance in the opposite d

aused. Had she heard? Lucile's first impulse was to s

d face. A slender hand went out and up. A book came down. The light went out. And all thi

ar the faint click which told that it was descen

f waiting and the lightning rewarded her. In the midst of a blinding flash, sh

in one hand and ulster in the o

town. She'll take the elevated. There is a car in