For Gold or Soul? Part 8

"Now, brace up, dear; it's all over for to-day," said Miss Jennings.

"You'll soon get used to it; that's exactly what every one of us have had to go through with, but the girls are not all like Mag; there are lots of nice ones. She wasn't so bad, either, until Jim Denton noticed her."

"Is he her sweetheart?" asked Faith as soon as she could control her voice. "I heard them talking together and I am sure she loves him."

Miss Jennings gave vent to one of her harshest laughs.

"Jim Denton is a wicked young man," she said very slowly. "He cares no more for Maggie than he does for lots of the others, but she's such a fool she can't see it, and that shows, of course, that she's pretty badly gone on him."

"You mean that she loves him?" questioned Faith, who was not very familiar with shop-girl slang.

"Well, you can't call it love, exactly," explained Miss Jennings, "but it's the best she's got. She thinks she loves him."

The girls had walked a couple of blocks and were waiting for a car. They were glad to find that they lived near each other. The same street car would land them a short distance from their homes, which were modest flats in the cheapest portion of Harlem.

As they hailed the car, Faith's quick eye caught a glimpse of a man who seemed to be following them.

As he sprang on the rear platform of the car she called her companion's attention to him.

"It's Bob Hardy, one of our detectives," said Miss Jennings, wonderingly. "Why, he lives in Jersey. He must be following somebody."

Faith looked at her a moment before she spoke again.

"I wonder if there is any truth in what that girl said about the robbery in the office. I've been thinking of it ever since. She looked at me so funny! And see, Mary, that detective is watching me, too, he has hardly taken his eyes off me since we entered the car. It can't be possible that they think I took the money, can it? You know I was in the office early yesterday morning."

She spoke so timidly that Miss Jennings gave her a sharp glance. Then she turned involuntarily and looked at the detective.

"G.o.d help you if Hardy is after you," she whispered with a shudder.

"That fellow is a fiend about making arrests. He'd accuse his own mother of stealing, I believe, if he thought he could win the regard of old Forbes by doing it!"

CHAPTER VIII.

A FIENDISH PROPOSITION.

When Faith left the car Bob Hardy followed her. He made no attempt to conceal the fact that he was watching her, and when Faith had reached the middle of a block of vacant lots he quickened his steps and was soon beside her.

"Just a minute, miss," he said, tapping her lightly on the shoulder.

Faith wheeled around and confronted him with cold dignity.

"Well, what do you wish with me, sir?" she asked quietly. "I noticed that you were following me. Have you had orders to do so?"

"Not exactly, miss," said the detective, a little disconcertedly, "but you are in a pretty bad fix over that money affair, and I just thought I'd put you on your guard as a sort of favor."

"What?"

Faith's voice fairly vibrated with indignation. "Explain yourself, sir.

I do not understand you?"

"Oh, if you insist," said the detective with a disagreeable leer, "I won't be so unkind as to disappoint a lady."

He stepped a little to one side as he spoke, and his eyes wandered scrutinizingly over Faith's lovely face and figure.

"You see," he continued, "you are badly tangled up in that affair at the office; in fact, to be plain, Mr. Forbes thinks that you stole the five hundred dollars, and it will go hard with you when he gets back to biz; that's why I wanted to warn you."

"Indeed!"

Faith's head towered above the detective's as she spoke.

"You are very kind, Mr. Detective; but, as I have stolen no money, nor anything else, I have no fear of Mr. Forbes, or any need of your most extraordinary warning. You will please allow me to pa.s.s and not follow me any farther. It is no sign because I am working in a store that I am not a lady and ent.i.tled to courtesy."

She started to pa.s.s him, but with a stride the fellow was before her.

"Not so fast, my fine lady," he cried with a sneer. "You don't know me, I guess. I don't let thieves escape me so easily."

"How dare you?" cried Faith, her face flaming with anger.

"Oh, I dare anything," retorted the detective, "especially where my reputation is at stake! I've got orders from Forbes to catch that thief, and, as you are the easiest bird to catch, I'm just going to bag you--that's all there is about it. I'll swear that I found this wad of bills in your pocket, see!"

He drew a roll of money from his pocket and flourished it before her as he spoke.

"Oh, you would never be so wicked, so dastardly, as that!" cried Faith.

"Have you no sense of honor, no manliness about you?"

Her words were so appealing that the detective winced a little. His keen eyes s.h.i.+fted uneasily. He could not face her.

"I offered to warn you," he muttered at last. "There's a way out of the fix if you are a mind to take it."

"But I am in no fix!" protested Faith. "I have done no wrong! How dare you accuse me!"

The detective went on as though she had not spoken.

"There's a way out of it, miss; you have only to say the word. I know a gent that's in love with you this very minute. He'll fix things with old Forbes--he's got lots of dough. Just you promise to be agreeable and I'll hush the whole thing up to-morrow."

As he made this fiendish suggestion he eyed the girl sharply.

Each change in her expression seemed to render her more beautiful. For a moment she was dazed and almost powerless to speak, then, as a great wave of color swept up to her very brow, she fairly hissed her answer in a scorching whisper.

"You coward! You cur! Go at once and leave me! Make what accusations you like--I am afraid of you no longer! In G.o.d will I place my trust, and He will not forsake me! Go, I say, and think well over what you are doing.

Remember that there is One above you who is watching your evil deeds and as surely as He will punish the wicked so will He protect the innocent!"

As she spoke the last words she walked hastily away.

Bob Hardy stared after her stupidly, but did not attempt to follow her.