CINDERELLA OF THE SKIES

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7242, 13 June 1930, Page 10

CINDERELLA OF THE SKIES

(By Vera* Brown)

she* hold the precious package safo in her arms. Grace raised her head and tho smoko cleared; the room seemed suddenly" to bo full of policemen, all taking orders from. Murphy. Loretta she saw", halffainting, in the charge 'of-two young officers. The man was slumped down in his chair and another policeman was examining him. “You didn’t .fool with that one, boss,” said the officer,>'as he.looked up at Murphy. “He’s dead as a doornail. Bight through thotheart! ”

Begin Here To-day the Thrilling Story of the Love and Adventures of Jean Braudes, Who Loses Heart in the Old Home Town and Goes Away to the City to Become a Modern Business Girl

Grace Thomas and Detective Murphy have waited day after day near the apartment of Loretta Lansing* a beautiful blonde employee of the Frontenac Motor Company, in a vain hope of getting evidence which will free from gaol Jean Brandcs, a lonely orphan, who is being held by the police, charged with the theft of 60,000 dollars’ worth cl bonds. Both the detective and Grace are sure Jean is innocent, although the police believe they have an open and shut case. William A. Decker, a multimillionaire automobile manufacturer, for whom both Jean and Loretta worked, and who has been interested in Jean’s business career, offers Jean her freedom if she will tell where the missing bonds are. Then the saleswoman who testified at the hearing that Jean, purchased an expensive fur coat end dress informs Murphy that the girl •tforo a jade bracelet. The same night Murphy and Grace watch Loretta, iressed in her old clothes, slip from the apartment building where she lives.

INSTALMENT THIRTEEN £ £ A LL BIGHT! ■ Keep your /\ head!” Murphy ordered as he stepped on the accclerator of the car without turning on tho headlights. The motor purred softly as the girl they were watching walked np the street. “There’s a gun in the pocket of tho car. Take it if we get out,” he added shortly. Grace’s eyes were glued to the girl, who walked undecidedly down the street, her hat pulled well down over her eyes. Sho wore an old blue suit, a wool scarf about her neck. She was a nondescript figure. “She’ll take a bus, not a taxi,” prophesied Murphy. As ho spoke, the girl turned and walked toward Fifth avenue. A bus was coming and the girl boarded it quickly. Murphy’s car shot into the line of traffic and followed the up-town course of the bus closely. “Now watch! Can you sco her?” he asked nervously. “She’s sitting on this side,” Grace told him, and she slipped her hand into the pocket of the car and transferred tho gun to her own coat pocket. The show-down was near, and she knew it. The bus lumbered on through the early winter evening. It was past the rush hour and the traffic had thinned and had not swelled again for the early theatre crowds. Unexpectedly, at ,110th. street, Loretta got off. The two who followed her had not counted on her reaching her destination so soon. Loretta hurried toward Columbus avenue as Murphy pulled his ear slowly toward the kerb. “She’s stopped to buy a paper,” Grace told Murphy, as they followed at a discreet distance. Then Loretta stopped before a cheap eating place, and Grace’s hand was on the car door. She leaped out as Murphy parked the car, and sped toward the dingy restaurant as Loretta walked in the door. As the light hit Loretta’s faco squarely, Grace breathed a sigh of relief. There was no mistake. From behind . a parked ear Grace watened the girl through the grimy windows. Most of the customers in the place were- men, many of them shabby, but some of them well dressed. Saving money on food that they might afford a taxi later in the evening, thought Grace with a smile. , , Suddenly Grace felt a hand on her arm and she almost cried aloud with terror. But the hand was Murphy’s. “She ’3 ordered her food and is waiting for it,” Grace told him. Just at that moment the man behind the counter handed the girl a sandwich and a cup of coffee, and she looked about casually for a place to sit down. A short, dark man courteously moved his coat so that she might have tho vacant place beside him, a chair turned away from the door. - “We’re going in! Got your gum and Murphy took Grace's arm and hurried her in with as casual an_ air as possible, making sure both of them kept their faces away from the girl on the other side of the room. They ordered sandwiches quickly and found chairs where they could observe Loretta and the dark man sitting next to her. Preparatory to eating her sandwich, Loretta folded the paper she had purchased outside the door and put it beside her in tho chair. As she did so, the man next to her fumbled in his pocket, straightened his coat and turned back to his dinner. Murphy stood up suddenly, and m half a dozen strides stood before the pair. “Hands up! Give me those bonds! His voice came liko'a pistol shot above the clatter of disnes in the eating place. Loretta sat stunned, while the man reached for his hip pocket. “None of that! Put ’em up!” Murphy’s voice brooked no refusal. The hand came away from tho pocket. “Grace, take that newspaper from the seat,” Murphy commanded. As Grace reached for it, Loretta made a gesture. “Get out your gun!” Murphy cried. Grace obeyed, but even in tho crisis she-smiled when sho realised just how much her right hand trembled. She picked up the folded newspaper quickly", and a long, heavy package fell out. As she stooped to retrieve it she saw tho man make a quick, movement. Then there was a loud report. Two shots came so close together that Grace was not sure whether one' or tw r o had really been fired. Sho was trembling so much she could scarcely stand. She wondered if slic had been shot. Bui

Murphy to follow Jean, and when tho door closed lie said:

“Where do you live, Grace? I’m putting this young woman in - your charge. That’s to bo your job until the New Year. You both need a vacation! I want my secretary to bo in good health when sho begins her new duties!”

Murphy was smiling faintly. A mirror behind his head was shattered by tho dead man’s bullet, but Murphy was unperturbed. “It was either him or me, and I’m not tired of living. Look through his pockets, quick!” Murphy led Grace over to a table, and while the officers ordered out excited customers and onlookers, Murphy opened the heavy envelope. Out slipped

stiff, gilt-edged bonds, 60,000 dollars’ worth of them, Murphy counted. Across the room Loretta was sobbing hysterically". “Make her slop tnat and tell where that man lived,” Murphy ordered as he pointed to the dead man. But before she could bo questioned, tho policeman searching his pockets found an address. ‘ ‘ (let out "there immediately! ’’, Murphy said. There were a lot more orders, anil the clanging of tho police patrol wagon sounded above tho excitement. The officer still bending over the dead man called to Murphy.; He held up a bond. “He was holding out on his pals,” and he tossed the security over with a shrug. “■Where is Johuson waiting for you?” Murphy demanded, stepping before Loretta. ” The girl closed her lips tightly". Sho did not speak. Even in her terror and her fear, sho was loyai to tho man she loved. “Tell me!” tho big detective added. “Tell me, if you expect any mercy from us! ” Loretta’s face was livid. The officers were waiting to take her away. Finally she gasped out a name. It was that of a quiet hotel on-the west side of the town. “Is he registered there or were you to meet him in tho lobby?” ,llc pressed her for an answ'cr.

Loretta’s white lips managed to frame the word: “Lobby!” Then she fainted, and Murphy noticed as she was carried away to the police station that her green jade bracelets had slipped down to her slim white hands. , “ Don’t let anybody talk to her until I got there!” the detective ordered. He turned to Grace with a smile, but she could sec tho strain of the last few moments in his blue eyes. “Now for Johnson!” he cried gleefully. The two of them ran out into the street just as the patrol wagon carried Loretta and the dead man. away. Murphy knew the manager of the hotel Loretta had named. When they walked into the. lobby ten minutes later it was well filled, but there was no sign of Johnson. The manager listened to tho story of the bonds and the arrest. “Do you know Johnson?” The manager admitted ho did. “But he wouldn’t como here. He’s owed us a bill for six months. This blonde girl? I thought she was his wife. He introduced me to her once.” “Then the girl lied to 11s! MurjAv said in disgust, “just to let that blackguard got away. I’d give anything to get my hands on him!” Immediately Murphy telephoned to Johnson’s home. The maid answered. Mr. .Johnson, she said, was not home and was not expected for several weeks. He had left town on a business trip to San Francisco.

“Oh! He’s going to get away! He’s going to get away!” Grace wailed. Murphy next called headquarters and talked to the Commissioner, then he and Grace raced back to Centre street. The Commissioner was waiting, and tho detective walked into the otfice of tho “big chief” and tossed the 60,000 dollars’ worth of securities on his desk without comment. The Commissioner and his assistants pressed forward eagerly as the bonds spread out on the polished surface; a small fortune which had caused the death of one man and almost wrecked the life of an innocent girl, lay before them. “Splendid work!” roared the Commissioner, shaking hands with his officer. “But where’s this Johnson?” When'he heard of Loretta’s ruse he shook his head. “Bring her down here. Sho lied, ot course! ” When Loretta, shrinking and crying, was brought before the officers, Murphy understood for tho first time just how she might impersonate Jean. Her hair hung in wisps .".brut her face. Her eyes were no longer beautiful. In shabby clothes, sho might have been any insignificant working girl. Loretta faced tho men -with hanging head. But wheu she saw Murphy and Grace she blazed out at them: “You didn’t get him!” she cried. “And you won’t!” The Commissioner ordered Loretta into a chair before him. • “Where did he go?” he demanded. “I don’t know,” Loretta said with a faint smile. “But you’ll never get him. It was all planned. If I was late, he was to know something was wrong.” She looked at the clock above tho Commissioner’s head.

“It’s been an homy” slio added. “You’ll never get him now"!” Tho Commissioner issued a lot of orders. His men were to weave a not about the city", and post men at tho Canadian border. While telephones jangled and everybody talked at once, William Decker, handsome in evening clothes, hurried into tho office. Ho was pleased and smiling broadly, and lie shook hands with everybody". The Commissioner had notified him at his Long Island homo wi-tli the first flash of the shooting in the restaurant, and Decker’s chauffeur had broken all speed laws in the dash back to the city. “Well, well, don’t I know when I have an honest employee!” Decker said jovially. “'But y"ou don’t know when you have a dishonest one!” retorted the head ot tho police force. Decker counted over the bonds and found them all there.

“You’ve done great work on this, Commissioner,” he said heartily. But tho Commissioner shook his head. “No, don’t thank me; thank my youngest detective and a girl from your own office,” lie said with a smile. “Bring her in,” said Decker, and Grace and Murphy were presented to the multi-millionaire. “I shall never forget what you’ve done, my girl,” Decker said, shaking Grace’s hand. Then ho congratulated Murphy and beamed on everybody. “No, I don’t want to sco that girl,” he said bitterly w r hen Loretta’s name was ■mentioned. “I w r ant to sco Jean. The -poor kid is not to stay in gaol another minute! ” It was already past midnight. In the prison for women theinmates had long since gone to bed, if not to sleep. An inspector explained this to Decker. “I don’t care; get her down here right away!” ho ordered. “Don’t toll her what’s happened!” Thus it was that in the middle of the night one of the matrons awakened Jean and told her to get dressed immediately. Breathlessly Jean hurried into her old suit and brushed her hair. “Perhaps this is. what ,Dr. Dowling, meant,” she kept repeating, and hoi hands trembled so she could not button her blouse. When she was ready an officer was waiting for her at tho matron ’s desk. “Come on,”'ho said. Tlton behind his hand he said to the matron; “Pack her things; she’s going, out,” and 110 winked over liis shoulder as they went out the door.

Going down iu -the elevator, Jean tried to compose herself.' ’She .yhoillat-'. ed between, a hope she was to' and a terror. that this might bop-morci trouble. The officer with her .opened the door into a brightly lighted room. Somebody cried: “Jean! Jean!’’ and she felt Grace’s arms about her and knew that Grace was crying! Then suddenly sho saw" Murphy, Air. Decker and tho Commissioner and a lot of other people —all..smiling broadly at her. Decker pointed to the bonds on the table. Everybody, talked at once, and Jean, dazed and happy, found Mr. Docker holding one hand.and Grace tho other. “Never, mind understanding,” the Commissioner said. ’/’lt is too complicated. You’re going homo with this girl, and you’ll hear all about, if later.” Then good-byes were said, the precious bonds were, locked up in the Commissioner’s safe until morning, and Decker himself led Jean out into the December night—free. Murphy and Grace followed. As Jean shivered from tho cold night air which swept off the river, Decker wrapped his own fur coat about the girl and helped her into the limousine bv which she had been struck on her first day in New York. Tho multi-millionaire . motioned Grace and

Jean’s blue eyes shone and, sitting there between Mr. Decker and Grace in tho luxurious ear she looked out on' Broadway and its glittering lights. Sho was too happy to speak. She sat watching tho brilliant lights flash past. There were a thousand questions she wanted to ask; a thousand grateful things she wanted to say to Grace and tho big detective, and to Mr. Decker. “How did you ever get suspicious of Loretta?” Decker asked Grace, for the three made up for Jean’s silence. “I was always suspicious of her, .and I never liked Johnson,” • Grace explained. “Then I know Jean was innocent and somebody inside must have in on the theft..' 'Ji. wasn’t hard after that with Murphy'here-i,o : tell mo what to do. Tho jade bracelets' helped, too.” Decker beamed his apprOytrli and laid his hand on Joan’s. ‘ I.'iW : “Don’t, think, child, Speyer ' thought you were guilty. I- didri'% : but 1 couldn’t buck tho .fylvolc*. jdli.ee department. I- sent that tolyo.u on Christmas Day bceaugeVf couldn’t bear to think of you therg ru gaol.” Jean smiled her forgiveness and her eves were filled with 'fears.

Soon they reached Grace’s apartment and Jean, still wearing Mr. Decker’s coat, was taken into; the house and comfortably ensconced l on the davenport. A “To-morrow’s Christmas Day for Jean,” Mr. Decker said-ns he was about to leave the little apartment. “Keep an eye out fol; the a'rrival of the turkey and fixin’s.' . They’ll be along about noon.” Ami as Jean lay backv smiling, too

happy for words, Murphy grabbed Grace about the waist and the two sprung gaily about .the apartment to the oue-step the detective whistled, until somebody 1 humped loudly on the floor from tho apartment below. It was not until Jean had fallen asleep that Grace and Murphy, rummaging about the kitchen for food, found the mysterious’ note, pushed in the package receiver, addressed to Jean. (To Be Continued on Tuesday.)