TIGER

Franklin Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 107, 12 September 1938, Page 2

TIGER

(By STERLING NORTH)

"They'’'will he sale if you accede cai'ei'uiJy lo all of my demands,'’ Joe said. "But we wece comparing our cards a moment ago, and lhere is still one card J have not laid upon the table, it you should think, by any chance, that you still hold the whip hand over me. watch . .

He pressed the button on the arm of the chair in which he was sitting. Into the wide and beautifully appointed living room of Joe Middleton’s country estate stepped twenty gunmen from as many hiding places. "It’s all right, boys. 1 touched the button by mistake,” Joe said. They stepped back silently into their hiding places. INSTALMENT 25. "And what are the demands with which you would have us comply?” Jerry asked. "First,” said Joe, "I wanted you to realise that I was in a position to make demands. Now I can go ahead and tell you the terms by which you can buy your release from this house. "Demand number one is that both of you forget completely and for all time any evidence you have against me. "Demand number two is that Peter Baird leave Chicago immediately for a long trip to distant parts of the world. "Demand number three is that Jerry Hartford move into the house I have built for her not later than Monday evening.”

"And have you the effrontery to imagine we will accept?” Peter asked.

"You have no choice,” Joe said can make you accept.”

“I hate you, Joe Middleton,” Jerry said. "I hade you from the bottom of my heart. I wish ... I wish you could be tortured.”

"Hating is very close to loving," Joe said with unruffled calm, “and now I think we had better all retire. A good night’s sleep may help to clear your heads on this matter. May I show you to your rooms?” Sleep seemed to Jerry the most precious gift any one could give her. D was already Sunday morning, perhaps 2 o’clock, and Jerry had been in one continuous flurry of excitement since she had stepped from her bed nineteen hours before. Nineteen hours! It seemed like as many days. Was it only last evening that they had been exploring the deserted steel mill? Jerry was taken down a long hallway, broken by little casement windows through which the sound of a fountain could be heard, in the moonlit courtyard, to a huge master bedroom on the first floor of the house. Peter's bedroom was only two doors away, and yet how far it seemed.

Jerry had hall'' expected that Joe would try to I'orce his way into the room, but once lie had shown her the place where she would sleep he had shut, the door behind her and . . The lock clicked. She realised that she was a prisoner. SI ill, if she must he imprisoned this was the sort of prison she would have chosen.

A fire of pine knots burned in the lire place, taking the chill from the autumn air which entered at tin? windows looking out upon the lake. The bed and vanity and oilier furniture were of waxed cherrywood, exploiting simple curves, feminine to a degree. The small hooked rugs upon the pegged floor, the hand-blocked wall-paper of delicate pastoral design, and the crisp organdie curtains at the windows were all of a pale but spirited green in perfect complement to the cherry wood.

The room glowed with welcome in the firelight and Jerry sank down upon the low bench before the fire almost too tired to undress. I wish some one would undress me, she thought, and even while she thought it a maid came in from another door which led la Jerry's hath and dressing room and helped Jerry out of her clothes with deft, experienced fingers.

“I shall be madam's maid at (he new house on the north shore,” the rather prelly, black-haired young woman said. ‘Tf will give me great pleasure to have a mistress as lovely as madam. My name is Colette.” Jerry's hath was wailing and Jerry was broughl a hoi toddy as a nightcap. And Jerry slood for several minuies before a lull mirror and looked a I her scarcely concealed body in Hie almost Iransparenf black lace night-

gown 11 1 o maid had broughl. her and helped her lo slip info. "Yes,” Jerry localised, "1 have a certain amount of beauty. But (here arc so many oilier women in (he world more beautiful. 1 wonder why lie chose me from all Hie others, Colei te?” “Because you are the mosl beautiful of lliem all,” Coletle replied. “Bui I can never accept the things he wishes io give me, Coletle. W’liat would you do if you were in my 1 ikeef” "I would he very sensible, madam, and ijuickly accepi his offer.” ”1 wish il were dial simple,” Jerry said. “Bui whal of Peter?” “Who is Peter'.’” Coletle asked. “Is Peler your cheri?” ‘My dear friend, Colette. Not my sweetheart.” “lie must he your sweetheart,” Colelle said, “Ihat is whal makes you hesitate.” “You think lie is my sweetheart,

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Colette? What makes you think that?” "Because you hesitate oi accept the other, madam, and because you sigh 1 when you speak this Peters name. ’ | "And would Ibe right in not accepting the oilier, Colette, if my heart

was elsewhere?” "Hove is Ihe only thing in the world that really matters, madam. Let your heart decide.” A iter Colette had gone, locking (lie door very carefully behind her, Jerry wandered about her bedroom, touching the- satin surfaces of Hie cherrywood furniture. Perhaps she would never leave lids house alive. Perhaps'Peter, for all his brave intellicence. could not get. them away trom tin's place without promising to meet the Tiger's demands. But fonighl Jerry had luxury beneath her small, pretty feet. Tonight she was for the hour what she must never be for the rest of her life, tire pampered guest of a rich, cruel man.

That man! He knew how to break a woman's heart into a thousand little pieces and scatter all the pieces on the wind. Tins room, for instance. Jerry bad no doubt at all Unit within Hie last week lie bad bad it completely redecorated for her, certain that some dav site would sleep in it.

And the maid ! That had been only another bit ot strategy. She had been coached, of course, to tell Jerry how beautiful she was and how she, Colette, would be her maid in the new home on the north shore. Rut Jerry wondered how any one could reconcile the cruelty she had seen in Joe that evening with the almost feminine delicacy he showed in the rapier wit and deft aesthetics which marked his mind. Who could design a room like Joe, or choose a dress, or turn a phrase?

And yet that very evening he had threatened to blacken her name so thoroughly that she could never live down the scandal, to take her life and Peter's if they insisted upon crossing him, and even to harm the children.

Would she lie right in accepting his better than to expose them all to furhouse, she wondered? Would it not be ther danger? It would even be excusable to drop the investigation of bis crimes. But what of Peter? No, Jerry could never send him away. Away from the children he had just come home to and away from her. There could be but one answer to this man’s demands.

And then, as ihe flames in the fireplace burned low, Jerry noticed two of the I all casement windows, which were really French doors onto a little balcony only a few feet above the lawn, were open.

She threw a cherry-coloured satin rohe about her shoulders and stepped over to investigate. Was it possible that Joe Middleton had accidentally left her an avenue of escape? Her mind raced with the possibilities. If she could slip out of those windows, jump from the balcony, and plunge into the deep woods which skirled the lawn she might be able to reach help. She- saw herself wildeyed and in lovely disarray returning with men to surround the place in the early dawn. They would capture Joe and free Peter.

Then Peter and she would go back safely to Sarah and the. children and Joe would not have been able to make them agree to any of his unreasonable demands.

But as she stepped out onto the little balcony above the smooth green lawn, she saw a shadow disturbing the otherwise placid moonlight. The shadow shifted. She saw the flare of a match against a horrid face, and Ihen the red point of light that marked the glowing tip of a freshly lightened cigarette. No, Joe had not been so thoughtless as to let his quarry escape. And Jerry realised that Peter's room would be even more closely guarded.

There was nothing for Jerry to do hut to slip in between the sheets of her bed and get a few hours of much in eded sleep before another strenuous day began. She could only wait lor what the morning would bring and hope against hope that somehow it would no I lurn out to he a day of tragedy and disappointment. And then for one fleeting instant .'lorry wished she could accept Joe Middleton's gifts, and live in a lovely house, and go to bed at nigh I in such a tied as this, and have a maid like Colette to tix her bath and bring her a hot toddy and to, undress her. But she brushed the wicked, shining I hough I away and remembered Peter's face, and Ihe children. She was gelling drowsy now-and would drop off >o sleep in a Second. How sweet this Tr.ko Geneva air after Ihe dirty air ot Chicago! She would sleep well tonight . But: jus I as steep brushed over her she heard tiie lock of her door turn. A moment later, in the dim moonlight, she saw Joe Middleton standing in her room.

To he Continued)