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her voice full of tears, "who who "
"Sought to ease your hard way for
the sake of a dead sister, who bade
me never to turn from a woman in
distress. Forget the incident and
me," spoke Maurice in a clear, manly
fashion.
"I cannot take it," said the girl
stonily and placed the bank note on
the table.
t "You must take it Listen, young
lady," said Maurice, hastily and per
suasively, "I shall be unhappy if you
refuse. It is more than a free gift,
for I have plenty. Not as a gift, then,
my dear miss, a loan."
She hesitated. She thought of the
dark, gloomy streets, a doorway shel
ter, lurking, sinister birds of evil prey.
He had taken out his card case. He
pressed card and money into her fal
tering clasp. "See, this is my name
and address," he went on, "when you
get work send the money back to me,
if you choose. Good night, and heaven
guard you!"
Her eyes were swimming with
tears. She was sobbing convulsivelyj
so tnat sne coma not speaK . ane
took up his hand and lifted it to her
lips.
"I will: prove myself worthy of your
confidence," she finally brokenly ut
tered. Then she left his side and the
place.
It was anew Winnie Vaughan who
proudly inclosed a $20 money order
in an envelope at the post office three
months later, directed to "Mr. Mau
rice Steele, Temple Apartments."
"If he-knew the grateful heart be
hind it," she murmured "if he real
ized what that loan meant to me!"
The episode passed, but never the
memory of the noble soul that had
to come to ner rescue so opportunely.
W More than that, his handsome. ODen
face was ever before her. She mar
veled what joy ineffable it must be to
some woman to be beloved by this
grand noble being, who had pitied
her as though she had been some dear
sister.
Another three months passed away.
Winnie had a pleasant, permanent.
and well-paid position at a hotel tele- i
phone exchange. She was on the .
nigh shift, and about 9 o'clock-one
evening as she was attending to calls
a striking incident came to her notice.
Someone, a man, was connected
from the buffet with a man at another
hotel As she caught the name,
"Maurice Steele," all of her interest
was immediately aroused. x
"Get into action, at otfce," went
over the wire1 "it's a sure job and an
-easy one Temple apartments. I'll
meet you outside and we'll trim this
Steele bloke. He's been sick, and I
happen to know that the man attend
ing him is off duty till midnight
Steele has all kinds of dough. Get
busy!"
"Maurice Steele Temple apart
ments! These were thieves in confab!
And he was threatened the man she
adored! Winnie formed a speedy de
cision. She found a substitute, threw
on her hat and coat and hastened to
the Temple apartments.
Winnie remembered the number of
the suite occupied my Mr. Steele. She
reached the floor where it was lo
cated. Was she in time to warn him?.
She tried a door. It opened to her
touch. Three apartments en suite
showed, a light in only one at the re
mote end, where she made out the ob
ject of her solicitude reading at a ta
ble. As she hastened across the two in
tervening rooms she uttered a wild
scream. Two men were lurking in
the shadow. They sought to stop
her. She broke loose from a staying
hand. She heard the1 ruffians pur
suing. Where a hat rack stood was
a heavy cane. She turned at bay.
"Mr. Steele!" she cried sharply.
"Here are thieves," and she swung
the cane. And then a shot, and she
knew no more till morning.
She lay on a couch in the Steele
apartments and the steward's wife
bent over her. She told Winnie that
her wound was slight, that the rob
bers had been captured, that Mr.
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