Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1916)

74 The Catspaw she would shortly become engaged to the banker. And so it happened that one night, after a dinner given in Rokane's honor by the greatest social power in the town — Mrs. Shackleton — Bonwit managed to draw her into the conservatory for the proposal that he had planned to make from the day they met. Rokane was well aware what was coming, but she had made up her mind to let the banker go his gait. It was all in accord with her purpose to engage herself to him. As they strolled into the glass room, two figures beyond a screen of palms caught her eye. Rokane flushed, in her eyes there burned a new fire of jealousy, and she bit her lips to keep back the exclamation she was almost on the verge of making. She saw a man bending over the laughing face of Dorothy Paget, whispering something into her pink ear. The man was Kittredge St. John! Then she heard Bonwit talking to her in low, earnest tones, telling her of his admiration for her, and finally — she heard it as in a dream — he asked her to be his wife. The sight of Kitt leaving with Dorothy Paget robbed the conquest of all its triumph for Rokane, yet she did turn to Bonwit, and, with a half smile, which he took for signs of shyness, she consented. He seized her in his arms eagerly, but she struggled from his embrace and laid a finger upon her lips. "Hush !" she whispered. "Not now, please ! There is something else to be considered. I — I must — ask you to keep our engagement a secret for a short while. My husband's estate is not yet quite settled, and I dare not run the risk of having our engagement known. Will you promise, dear boy, just for a short time?" She smiled so alluringly at her new fiance that the banker could not find the heart to refuse. He agreed to any length of time she might wish, and Rokane saw at once that here was the easiest victim she had ever met. He escorted her home early, and when she was alone she could not help wondering what Kitt had been saying to that Paget thing there under the palms. At the thought of the little debutante, her eyes gleamed anew with a dangerous glow, and she tried to plan a course to retain his love. Perhaps he was at that very moment spinning along under the moon somewhere with her in her car. The thought was maddening. But as a matter of fact, Kitt was slipping noiselessly along a shadowed areaway that lay next to the Milville Bank. He had planted the double successfully, first at the Shackleton dinner dance, and later at the Milville Club, with Archie Varnum and Holbrook, and he had decided that now the time had come for his first coup. He glanced at his watch. It was close to half past twelve. By now, the Double would have left the Shackletons to join the two clubmen in a card game which had long ago been arranged by the card fiend Varnum for the sake of settling a mock championship. Kitt felt in his coat pocket. The jingle of metal told him that the necessary tools were all ready, and it remained only to open a bar or two in the window and climb through. Beyond lay half the wealth of Milville. He felt cautiously for the bars ; it would be fatal to be heard now, for discovery at this stage would mean ruin. Then he produced a tiny file and a metal saw. The nearest passer-by could not have detected a soft rasp as the instrument bit its way into the painted iron. In a few moments the first bar parted, and he wrenched it to one side. Another series of rasps — a pause. Then a gleam of triumph crossed Kitt's face as the second bar gave way. It was easy work to one accustomed to such things. Through the narrow opening he had made he forced up the wnndow and