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"Marette, you believe me?" he entreated "You believe that I love you, that I didn't kill John Barkley, that I aht?"
For a ently froht, Jeems"
She went from him quickly At her door she turned "Go in now, please," she called back softly "If you care as you say you do, go IN"
She did not wait for his reply Her own door closed behind her, and Kent, striking a -place In a hted this, and his first movement then was to close the door and turn the key that was in the lock After that he looked about him The storeroom was not more than ten feet square, and the roof was so close over his head that he could not stand upright It was not the smallness of the place that struck him first, but the preparations which Marette had h floor of the place was carpeted with blankets, except for a two-or-three-foot space around the edge of it
Beyond the box was a table and a chair, and it was the burden of this table that otten that he ry It was laid sumptuously, with a plate for one, but with food for half a dozen There were a brace of roasted grouse, brown as nuts; a cold roast of olden potato salad; olives, pickles, an open can of cherries, a loaf of bread, butter, cheese--and one of Kedsty's treasured thermos bottles, which undoubtedly held hot coffee or tea And then he noticed as on the chair--a belt and holster and a Colt autoun in the affair at barracks, and her foresight had not forgotten a weapon She had placed it conspicuously where he could not fail to see it at once And just beyond the chair, on the floor, was a shoulder-pack It was of the regulation service sort, partly filled Resting against the pack was a Winchester He recognized the gun He had seen it hanging in Dirty Fingers' shack
For a matter of five minutes he scarcelybut an unplastered roof was between him and the storm, and over his head the thunder crashed, and the rain beat in torrents He sahere the as, carefully covered with a blanket Even through the blanket he caught faintly the illu Thisoverlooked the entrance to Kedsty's bungalow, and the idea ca it In darkness he took down the blanket But theitself was nothi out into the chaos of the night