The Secret Mark / An Adventure Story for Girls

he Portland chart room of the famous old library. "We'll go back to Tyler street and look in at the window with the torn

rence. "He might pick up enough old books in a secondhand st

hundred thousand dollars' worth of old books in a s

" said Florence, wrinkling her brow. "He seems to be sort of specializing in those bo

have never taken the trouble to look into that papier-mache lunch box the child lost on the street, t

agreed

rs trembled as they unloosed the clasps which held it shut. And well they might have trembled

with a little cry of surprise, d

exclaimed Floren

e worth sixteen hundred dollars. And it's been right here in this room all the t

eer!" said Flo

would, by posing as a scrubwoman's child, and had made a safe escape when t

enough case against her, if our Shakespeare one isn't. You'

surer that that's the thing to do than I was before

of the front cover was exposed to view. T

ays the gargoyle? And how could a child with

tly staring at the gargoy

o and talk with

ell him all

don't

looked

ing to take

e said after a moment's th

y-w

ate's face, then went about the business of

"I think you are as big a riddle as

. "I am only trying to

is an old proverb which runs like this: 'To do

ean a sale lost, yet she did not wish to return it, not at this time. She did not wish even so much as to admit that she had the book in her possession. To do so would be to put herself in a position which required further explaining. The book had been carried away from th

ounted toward the upper floors,

try it," she

anced up at her from over an ancient volume he

"A folio edition of Shakespeare or only t

there really original manusc

ou chance to come across one, I'll pledge to sell it for you f

ucile, "that wou

remembered her rea

" she asked, her lips aquiv

ank Morrow himself

and unclasped her hands, "if I were to tell you that I know exactly where your book

pon the top of his desk, yet as he turned to look at her there was

ably know I offered a hundred dollar reward

it. And what wouldn't two hundred dollars mean to her? Clothes she had longed for but could not afford; leisure

sound absurd. To protect two persons whom you have never met nor even spoken to; to protect them when to all appearance

heard again the shuffling footstep of the tottering old man, tho

"But if I were to tell you that for the present I did not

world, full of many mysteries that have never been solved. I shou

where the book is or to see that it is returned, drop in or

he rose to go. She wished to t

a customer waiting for t

vent I should say that the customer w

ely missed bumping into an immaculately tailored young

pardon," h

t," said Lucile

n turned to

yet?" h

t y

el

you know i

otion I know where t

he sale, but I can't promise d

s not a

rha

ay out so quickly that Lu

ey Ramsey, Jr., a son of one of our riche

as if he had been spea

elsewhere? Why, this Frank Morrow was a real sport! She found herself wanting more than ever to tell

e before her. Again on the street at night in the clutches of a

h she tiptoed t

ice startled her, "you live ove

es

ing me a

ainly

ooks by hand; fine books, you know. I have two very valuable books which must be bound in leather. I'd ha

t overcome by this token

ank

arefully and handed them t

m. Perhaps," he suggested as an afterthought, "you'd like to b

hing that has to do wi

a note on a

"and no thanks due. 'One good turn,' y

lief that she saw the books safely in his hands. She had seen so much of vanishing books these last few day

ugh the bindery she kept for another time.

try. And this is one of them." Little she realized as she left the long, low building which hou

went once more to Tyler street, to the tumble-down cottage where the two myster