"I had a visitor this morning--Pierre Landis, of Wyoming."

She rose, came to him, and clutched his arm. "Pierre? Pierre?" She

looked around her, wild as a captured bird. "Oh, I must go! I must

go!"

"Jane, my child,"--he put his arm about her, held her two hands in

his,--"you must do nothing of the kind. If you don't want this Pierre

to find you, if you don't want him to come into your life, there's an

easy, a very simple, way to put an end to his pursuit. Don't you know

that?"

She stared up at him, quivering in his arm. "No. What is it? How can

Advertisement..

I? Oh, he mustn't see me! Never, never, never! I made that promise to

myself."

"Jane, you say yourself that you are changed, that you are not the

girl he wants to find."

She shook her head desolately enough. "Oh, no, I'm not."

"He isn't sure that Jane West is the woman he's looking for. He's

following the faintest, the most doubtful, of trails. He heard of you

from Yarnall; the description of you and your sudden flight made him

fairly sure that it must be--you--" Jasper laughed. "I'm talking quite

at random in a sense, because I haven't a notion, my dear, who you are

nor what this Pierre has been in your life. If you could tell me--?"

She shook her head. "No," she said; "no."

"Very well. Then I'll have to go on talking at random. Jane at the

Lazy-Y Ranch was a woman who had deliberately disguised herself. Jane

West in New York is a different woman altogether; but, unless I'm very

wrong, she is even more completely disguised from Pierre Landis. If

you can convince Pierre that you are Jane West, not any other woman,

certainly not the woman he once knew, aren't you pretty safely rid of

him for always?"

She stood still now. He felt that her fingers were cold. "Yes. For

always. I suppose so. But how can I do that, Mr. Morena?"

"Nothing easier. You're an actress, aren't you? I advised Pierre

Landis to stand near the stage exit to-night and watch you get into

your motor."

Again she clutched at him. "Oh, no. Don't--don't let him do that!"

"Now, if you will make an effort, look him in the eyes, refuse to show

a single quiver of recognition, speak to some one in the most

artificial tone you can manage, pass him by, and drive away, why,

wouldn't that convince him that you aren't his quarry--eh?"




Most Popular