The Secret Mark / An Adventure Story for Girls

lopment in the mystery. "If the books are worth all that money, how d

at they are that

the gargoyl

What right has a university, or anyone else for that matter, to have books worth thousands of dollars? Books are just tools or playthings. That's all they are. Men use them to shape their intellect

ean to do about it

we have to. If it's necessary we'll walk in upon our mysterious friends and make them tell why they took the books. Maybe they won't

bodyguard. I don't mind. Life's been a trifle dull of late. A little adventure won't go so bad and since it is endured i

t least have paused to consider, but since the things we don't know don

hem, even at night, a great city would possess no terrors. This was not true. The quiet life at the university, eight miles from the heart of the city, had done little to rid them of their terror of

return to the narrow street where the mysterious cottage stood. Nothing short of a desire to serve someone younger and weaker th

as enough that Lucile wished her to go. Other interests

d cloudy but with no rain, they stole forth

shade and see what they might discover, but, on arriving at

ile. "If she comes out we'll follow her and see what ha

she'd dare?" wh

ed once, wh

no more Sha

e are oth

es

cold. It was a cheerless task. Now and again a person

ivered Lucile, "but wha

they have our books a

dn't solve

get our bo

s,

and on her companion's arm. A slight

red. "We must not seem to fo

but this she did not do. Walking at a rapid pace, she led them directly toward

ent. "More people here. We could cat

ey found the child dressed in the cheap b

for?" whisp

ee, she is carrying a pressed paper lunch box. She'll get in anywhere wit

ept, desks and tables dusted, floors and stairs scrubbed, and I'll bet that not one in a hundred of them ever pauses to wonder how it all comes about. Not one in a thousand gives a passing thought to the poor women who toil on h

ped by a gri

she gone?" st

vanis

twenty feet befor

at each other in astonishmen

ly, "I guess that about en

o," admitt

ht drug store burned bri

s what I get for moralizing. If I hadn't been going

ring low but excited words, they turned about to behold to their vast astonishment their little mystery child being led along

would run away! Such an ungratefulness. After all w

a small but determined voice. "And I sha

my fine lady," g

oman gave a harder tug than before and the girl almost fell. Something dropped to the sidewa

s the paper lunch box they had seen th

it," she sai

let that beast of a woman get that child? She doesn't belong

s face

ity wilderness,

the good of a

ter the woman and ch

we'll get out," breathed Florenc

dragging the child, who was by now silently

l and bronze a dozen feet in air, to land in an alley doorway. At least so it seemed to her, nor was it far from the truth. For

lley was deserted. The child had fled in one direction, while the two girls had stepped quietly ou

got it. It's the child's lunch

in a relieved tone. The next mo

ry to-night," murmu

iled Florence. "But now I am int

child said, that she'd

alls the taking of

oblem. Continued in ou

t after the child had dropped it, in the corner beneath the cloak rack. Before she

he told herself. "Anyway, I'm too weary to g

s, the street, the electric signs that had encountered her gaze as they first saw the child and the half-drunk woman passed before her mind's

urmured. "I do believ

ot be? They are both down in the heart of the city and

she fell