Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1916)

92 Photoplay Magazine you are too emotional for it. We won't say goodbye just yet, will we?" Truth to tell, Doris was surprised and a little humiliated to find that her threat had so little effect. She never permitted her emotions to sway her deeply, but she was too proud to let Gordon Evans thus simply choose between his crazy ideas and herself. She wanted to delay the game until she would be at a tactical advantage, and haughtily dismiss him. When Mordant received the account of the interview from his daughter he understood at last that he was dealing with a determined man, and that unless steps were taken to disarm Judge Evans permanently, he might chance upon the trail that led to the central power of the vice ring. So he sent for Burke, and together they worked out the scheme, not a new one and not always effective, but too frequently employed to shatter reputations. Burke was to arrange to have, among the girls who were to be sent to Evans' farm, several who would follow instructions, old habitues of the tenderloin, to whom the word of the stool pigeon was the only law they knew. They were to await their opportunity, and when Evans went to visit his farm, as he was sure to do, place him in a compromising position which could be used to oust him from the bench and discredit him in the public eye. JV/JEANWHILE Kitty had come to look upon the judge as the greatest man in her little world. With all the primitive force of her simple nature, she worshiped him. Twice he had saved her — once from danger and once from disgrace. In him she saw all the qualities of the heroes of the romances she had read. She looked upon herself as a Cinderella and upon him as a fairy prince, and to her unbridled imagination there was no dream of the future too glowing or extravagant. Arriving at the farm she found a kindred spirit — a homeless waif who likewise was a beneficiary of the judge's bounty. His only name was Bobby. To him also the judge was a wonderful hero, and with this in common he and Kitty soon became close friends. . But to the other girls who were sent to the country this was only a different kind of jail. The love of nature and simple life does not come instantly to the denizens of the night life. It was dull. There was nothing to do, no place to go. Willingly would they have traded their clean beds and wholesome food for the rank fare of the cheap hasheries and their dirty, noisv tenement rooms. The leader in the spirit of discontent was known to her friends and the police simply as Lou, and it was to Lou that Burke's agents had entrusted the task of compromising the judge. Gordon Evans, to her, represented nothing but the enemy in the eternal strife between the underworld and the law. To disgrace a judge was to win a skirmish in the age-long battle. That another judge would take his place meant nothing to her. and she experienced no difficulty in getting the other girls to see things her way. But little Bobby scented out the plot, with his precocious wisdom, and reported to his friend. Kittv. "Dere's sumpin' rotten goin' on," he told her. "I dunno jus' what it is, but dey're plantin' sumpin' on de judge." Together they went to Lou for an explanation. "Look here. Kid," Lou said to Kitty. "You're kinda stuck on this judge, ain't you?" "Never mind about that." Kitty replied. "He's been square with me. and I aint goin' to see anything framed up on him." "Do you happen to know that he's engaged to a swell dame up on the Avenoo — Doris Mordant?" "How do you know that?" "Never mind. I know it. If we put over this thing on him. the dame will give him the icy. and then maybe little Kitty will have a show. Get me?" Love and loyalty strove for mastery in Kitty's heart, and the fierce, primal passion conquered. It was like one of the old romances. The hero would come out victorious, and then — who could tell what might happen? So she sought seclusion in a corner of the big house, and dreamed. TJNSUSPECTINGLY the judge came ' out to visit his rescue farm and note the progress of the girls toward rehabilitation. The trap was simple and easily sprung — the ancient trick of the concealed camera and flashlight, touched off as Lou, ^meeting him in the hallway, threw her arms around his neck. Before he could recover