Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 157, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1913 — SILVER CROSS GIRL [ARTICLE]

SILVER CROSS GIRL

IWhy Farnsworth Justin Sent the Obliging Office Boy Ten f Dollars. By IZOLA FORRESTER. f’ Mr. Justin heard the pounding for (several minutes before it roused his attention from the stack of papers on •the desk. Vaguely, It annoyed him. He had stayed late at the office on •purpose to be undisturbed. But the tpounding was Insistent and it came from across the wide air well. He looked from his windows and •saw a girl trying to raise the one across the way. She did not seem excited, but why did she pound so? Just then she caught sight of Mr. Justin and waved to him frantically. 'Mr. Justin waved back mechanically as he would have answered the hail of a shipwrecked mariner. He raised his own Window, and called across the twenty-foot space. "What’s up?” ’ •> ‘Tm locked in,’ she called to him. ■*l was working in here, and the boy didn’t know I had stayed late. I don’t know what to do.” "Who has the keys?” "Jimmie, the boy. He comes early and opens up.” “Where does he live?” "Oh, dear, I don’t know ” “Don’t be alarmed,” protested Mr. Justin, kindly. "I am right here and ril get you out” “I knew you would. That’s why I pounded on the window. I can always see you at your desk over there.” “I think I can rouse the janitor'or engineer of your building,” he called' over to her. "Well be right up.” But he had forgotten to ascertain her number, and when he reached the opposite street, the great sombre fronts of rqck defied detection. There seemed to be six in the block. He tried pacing from the corner to figure how far his own office was from the street line, but lost his bearings. Finally he stopped a messenger boy and asked how to reach the engineer of the buildings. “Basement de cleaners go In,” said the boy. “Could you go in for me, and ask about a lady who is locked in on the tenth floor?” The situation’s possibilities appealed to the son of Mercury. He would, for a quarter. Justin waited anxiously outside for him while he tried one building after another. Finally the boy came out and beckoned him to follow. He had never been down in the basement of a large building, before, but he tramped carefully before the boy to the engineer’s quarters. • “The superintendent’s gone home,” said the big-coal-grimed party smoking over an evening paper under an electric light. “And the janitor’s on the top floor in his own place, eating dinner. The elevator ain’t running, either. And I ain’t got any keys, but the scrub women have. You can go up the basement stairs and ask them.” It was a totally new experience to Farnsworth Justin feeling his way up the grimy stairs into the bare, silent rotunda. The messenger boy kept him company for another .quarter, and made the rounds of each floor as they ascended, seeking the scrubwomen. The building seemed strange and unfamiliar with this spell of utter silence over it, and only a light here and there in the corridors. On the eighth floor they came on a brigade of scrubbers down on their knees on mats, washing up the marble halls. Justin removed his hat as he addressed the leader. Yes, she had a pass key to the offices. Wiping her dripping, swollen hands she took Mm np to the tenth floor, "Which room is it?” she asked, and he could not tell her. 1 Moreover it was horribly silent on the tenth floor. No sound of knocking at all. “Call her by name,” advised the f woman. “I don’t know her name,” said Mr. Justin dubiously. The messenger boy eyed him. “It must be about in the middle of the west side of the ball. The far hall, I mean, and it faces on the air well. My office is opposite.” The woman had started off on her own responsibility and was knocking on door after door, but there was no answer. "I’ll bet a nickel dhe’s tumbled over,” said the boy. "They all faint.” Justin felt uttjrly wretched and out of place. Here he was hunting for a woman and a total stranger at half past eight in the evening in a deserted building. / “I shall shout for her,” he declared, desperately. “She is certainly here.” "Wait a minute," said the scrubwoman, bending down to one keyhole. “I hear something.” Justin’s fists were tightly shut. As the door was flung open, he pushed )>ast the boy into the inner office. On -the floor by the open window lay the girt, her face like a gardenia in color. Justin lifted her in his arms, and told the boy to hurry for a taxi. He smother back the heavy wavy hair gently, and felt her wrist for the faint pulsation. “It’s too bad you don’t know her name, str,” said the woman. “She’s so young, too, ain’t she. They’ll send '■her to Bellevue 101 she comes out of it.” "Nothing of the sort," retorted Justin, curtly. "I shall take her ' Thome to my sister to-night. She has | had a nervous shock and needs rest, that '» ail ” He had not thought of taking her .home before that instant but the j

words sprang to his lips. When the taxi came, he had the satisfaction of seeing her open her eyes, and she walked down the long stairs supported by his arm. “It was silly of me to faint,” she faltered. “But after you had gone—it —seemed so long, and I thought perhaps you wouldn’t bother to help me.” Once in the taxi she closed her eyes and leaned back. “I live way out in Brooklyn.’’ “You are going to my sister’s for the night,” he said firmly. “You are in no condition to take any long trip. If you wish to ’phone to anyone, you may at the house when we arrive.” “No,” she said, she had no one to ’phone to. The hint of hidden pathos in her tired tone stirred old heart strings. He said nothing more, but stared out of the window at the shadowy street vistas. Undoubtedly Barbara and himself had led a self-cen-tered life in the old Gramercy Park house. Life had slipped along' in smooth channels for them. They had never known want or loneliness. He wondered what she would say to this Child he was taking to her. Once, years before, he remembered bringing home a lost kitten he had found pressed close to the iron railings of the park, and Barbara had told him she would send word to the proper authorities to care for it, but it could not remain in the house. He turned to the girl again. She had taken off her hat and her eyes were The questions on his lips remained unanswered. He noticed her ringless ' hands. She held her gloves clasped loosely on her lap. He saw they had been mended. Even a bachelor has some knowledge of proper garments for the daintier portion of humanity. He knew that she was not clad ' like Barbara and her friends. The long grey cravenette inexpensive and a bit worn at the cuffs. Her shirtwaist was of wash silk, her skirt dark blue serge. The hat on her lap with a pin pushed through its crown was v a soft grey straw, shaped he would haVe said, Hke a fruit dish. It bore a crushed bow of gray satin, and cluster of tiny hand made silk roses. “Is your sister nice?” Her voice startled him. She was regarding him anxiously. “Won’t she mind?” “Not at all,” said Justin flatly. “She is quite accustomed to anything I may do that is—well, say unusual.” “I think everything you do is un-usual.-The development at Silver Cross was splendid.” “Silver Cross!” he stared at her almost suspiciously. He had not believed a single soul in New York city knew of his connection with the isolated properties far up in the mountains which held the greatest promise of wealth in years. He had covered every track. Not even Barbara knew of his trips there. For six months he had beep dropping capital into the earth holes there, and only holding communication with Dave Richards, the owner of the original claims. “How do you know I have been in Silver Cross?” “I am Juanita Richards. Last year Dave sent me down to New York to find the right way, don’t you know. We were struggling along out there the best way we could, and there was no way to get in touch with the right people here. So I came down, and got a place with Willis & Heath. It was only clericel work, but I knew they were the best firm in the mining business. And I kept asking and asking for someone who would tell us the truth about the properties out there, somebody who would play fair. And they told me you would. So then I just wrote to Dave, and he wrote to i you, and that’s all. I’m going back home next week. Dave says I may. He heard from you that the mines were paying, and so I won’t have to work here any more.” She paused, but Justin did not speak. He only looked at her. “I’ve wanted to know you so much,” she added, impulsively, “but brother told me to wait until I met you out at Silver Cross. How queer it came about all of its own accord, didn’t it?” He drew in a deep breath. “We are little dancing marionettes, Miss Juanita, with Fate watching tbe strings and wires. I have been working tonight on a full report to your brother. The mines are now on a paying basis. In three months' time we can declare our first dividend and it will be a beauty." He took out his handkerchief, and wiped off his eyeglasses abstractedly. “I am leaving for Silver Cross next Thursday with Barbara, my sister. Perhaps you could be our guest until then, and leave with us. I wish you would.” Something in his tone warned her then. A woman’s intuition is wonderfully sensitive to impressions. Juanita knew then, looking into Farrington Justin’s eyes, that unless she could face all that they told her In the future, she had better not accept the invitation. “You know, we have you to thank for our participation in the strike out there,” he added. "If you had not selected me for Dave to write to, all this would not have happened. I think we are all partners together in great good < fortune. Why not in friendship, also?” \ He put out his hand, and she laid hers in it. “I’ll go with you,” she said, happily. “How wonderfully it has all come about tonight.” Just tn smiled at her contentedly. They were just turning into Gramercy Park. * “I must remember’ to send that office boy ten dollars,” he said. (Copyright, 1913. by the McClure Newspupet Syndicate.)