MANSLAUGHTER

BY ALICE DUER MILLER

AUTHOR OF COME OUT OF THE KITCHEN, Etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY
F. R. GRUGER
AND WITH
SCENES PROM THE PHOTOPLAY
A PARAMOUNT PICTURE

GROSSET & DUNLP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

Made in the United States of America

COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
ALICE DUER MILLER

First Printing, Oct., 1921
Second Printing, Oct., 1921
Third Printing, Nov., 1921
Fourth Printing, Nov., 1921
Fifth Printing, Dec., 1921
Sixth Printing, Jan., 1922
Seventh Printing, Feb., 1922

Printed in U. S. A.

SHE FELT HIS HAND, FIRM AND CONFIDENT ON HER SHOULDER.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII

THE NOVELS OF MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD'S STORIES OF ADVENTURE
EDGAR RICE BURROUGH'S NOVELS
FLORENCE L. BARCLAY'S NOVELS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SHE FELT HIS HAND, FIRM AND CONFIDENT ON HER SHOULDER.

LYDIA LITTLE REALIZES WHAT A TEMPTATION SHE IS PLACING BEFORE EVANS.

O'BANNON BEGINS HIS INVESTIGATION OF THE THEFT.

IT WAS A VERY TERRIFYING MOMENT FOR LYDIA.

LYDIA HAD SEEN THE BRACELET AND SHRUNK FROM IT.

SHE FLUNG HERSELF FACE DOWNWARD ON THE SOFA AND SOBBED.

MANSLAUGHTER

CHAPTER I

Whenever she and Lydia had a scene Miss Bennett thought of the first scene she had witnessed in the Thorne household. She saw before her a vermillion carpet on a mottled marble stair between high, polished-marble walls. There was gilt in the railing, and tall lanky palms stood about in majolica pots. Up this stairway an angry man was carrying an angrier child. Miss Bennett could see that broad back in its heavy blue overcoat, and his neck, above which the hair was still black, crimsoning with fury and exertion. On one side of him she could see the thin arms and clutching hands of the little girl, and on the other the slender kicking legs, expressing passionate rebellion in every spasmodic motion. The clutching hands caught the tip of a palm in passing, and the china pot went rolling down the stairs and crashed to bits, startling the two immense great Dane puppies which had been the occasion of the whole trouble.

The two figures, swaying and struggling, went on up; for though the man was strong, a writhing child of ten is no light burden; and the stairs, for all their grandeur, were steep, and the carpet so thick that the foot sank into it as into new-fallen snow. Just as they passed out of sight Miss Bennett saw the hands of the child, now clenched fists, begin to beat on the man's arms, and she heard the clear, defiant young voice repeating, "I will keep them! I will!" The man's "You won't" was not spoken, but was none the less understood. Miss Bennett knew that when the heads of the stairs was reached the blows would be returned with interest.

Usually in the long struggle between these two indomitable wills Miss Bennett had been on Joe