Marion Marlowe's Skill, or, A Week as a Private Detective — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

} *Have you any idea which one it was?” asked one of the floor-walkers, coming up. “How could I tell in this jam?” was the woman’s answer. “Oh, find her, do! I haven't another cent of money!” Marion moved slowly away. She could be of no service. | As she passed the counter the crowd broke open a little. She was still looking for the woman with the shabby dress, so she was thoroughly sur- prised when Bessie Ross confronted her. She close to the table. Marion looked away just in time to avoid bowing to her, and at that moment she caught a glimpse of the woman she sought. x — door of the on the sidewalk Marion saw something that building, and as she stepped out astounded her. A carriage with two mag- nificent horses was standing at the curb. ‘There was a coachman in livery on the box and a footman stood waiting just outside the As he saw the shabbily- dressed woman he touched his hat respect- store entrance. fully. The next moment she had entered the carriage and was being driven away rapidly. Marion looked at her watch. She had been out three hours. thing more to-day. di oo ars The madame would expect her at the hotel in half an hour. She would have to pay her visit to Danny some time in the evening. CHAPTER YL ACCUSED OF SHOPLIFTING. Fortunately for Marion, Mr. Merton did not come home to dinner, and she was obliged to wait for hrm so long that a visit to Danny that night was impossible. If she had known what she escaped she would not have mourned so‘over it, but the generous girl was really eager to see and help the poor cripple. MY QUEEN. had been in the thick of the crowd, standing She was evidently on her way to the rear There was no time for any-. 15 Once more her stern sense of duty hindered her. She owed it to Mr. Merton to tell him what she had learned as soon as possible, and then, again, she longed almost feverishly to eet it all off of her conscience. Danny’s dollar would probably supply him with the necessaries of life, but Marion de- termined to See him the very first thing the following morning: She spent thé entire evening running back and forth from her room to Miss Merton’s, but both brother and sister remained absent. So at eleven o’clock she sadly retired, and her terrible knowledge kept her tossing and wakeful far into the night. It was the woman with the shabby clothing that stood out clearest in her mind—the woman who left her carriage at one store while she visited another, and who certainly did not dress so poorly except for some ul- terior purpose. It had been the young girl’s good fortune to find all this treachery at once, instead of coming upon it gradually, as would ordinarily have, happened. Of course, there were dishonest clerks in every store, but Marion was justified in think- ing that this was no haphazard thing—it looked more like a case of systematic rob- bery. Who was this shabby woman with the handsome carriage? And how did it happen that Terence O’Connell knew her? These questions annoyed her, for she quite wisely decided that it was in the answer to them that she would find the key to the solu- tion of the whole matter. The clerks knew the woman, and were rob- bing their employers for her with a reckless- ness that astonished the innocent country girl. It would have been so easy to have detected their acts! Surely the buyers and “heads of stock” must notice these discrepancies, if not ina day or a week, most certainly in a month: COMICHOOKS. EO