"Fancy knowing God--as you would your other friends! How

dreadful! Let's go to bed!"

Opal began to get out her lovely brushes and toilet paraphernalia and

Lynn let down her wonderful golden mane and began to brush it, looking

exquisite in a little blue dimity kimona delicately edged with'

valenciennes. Opal made herself radiant in a rose-chiffon and old-point

negligee and went through numerous gyrations relating to the

complexion, complaining meanwhile of the lack of a maid.

But after the lights were out, and Lynn kneeling silently by her bed in

the moonlight, Opal lay on the other bed and watched her wonderingly,

and when a few minutes later, Marilyn rose softly and crept into bed as

quietly as possible lest she disturb her guest, Opal spoke: "I wonder what you would do if a man--the man you liked best in all the

world,--had got killed doing something to please you. It makes you go

crazy when you think of it--someone you've danced with lying

dead that way all alone. I wonder what you'd do!"

Lynn brought her mind back from her own sorrows and prayers with a jerk

to the problem of this strange guest. She did not answer for a moment,

then she said very slowly: "I think--I don't know--but I think I should go right to God and

ask Him what to do. I think nobody else could show what ought to be

done. There wouldn't be anything else to do!"

"Oh, murder!" said Opal turning over in bed quickly, and hiding

her face in the pillow, and there was in the end of her breath just the

suggestion of a shriek of fear.

But far, far into the night Marilyn lay on her sleepless pillow, her

heart crying out to God: "Oh, save Mark! Take care of Mark! Show him

the way back again!"

Afar in the great city a message stole on a wire through the night, and

presently the great presses were hot with its import, printing

thousands and thousands of extras for early morning consumption, with

headlines in enormous letters across the front page: "LAURENCE SHAFTON, SON OF WILLIAM J. SHAFTON, KIDNAPPED!"

"Mrs. Shafton is lying in nervous collapse as the result of threats from

kidnappers who boldly called her up on the phone and demanded a king's

ransom, threatening death to the son if the plot was revealed before

ten o'clock this morning. The faithful mother gathered her treasures

which included the famous Shafton Emeralds, and a string of pearls

worth a hundred thousand dollars, and let them down from her window as

directed, and then fainted, knowing nothing more till her maid hearing

her fall, rushed into the room and found her unconscious. When roused

she became hysterical and told what had happened. Then remembering the

threat of death for telling ahead of time she became crazy with grief,

and it was almost impossible to soothe her. The maid called her family

physician, explaining all she knew, and the matter was at once put into

the hands of capable detectives who are doing all they know how to

locate the missing son, who has been gone only since Saturday evening;

and also to find the missing jewels and other property, and it is hoped

that before evening the young man will be found."




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024