This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THAT ROYLE GIRL
149

immediately upon the night when they had met and in every encounter since.

"I must go on," he replied.

"You mean you won't eat with me any more than you would at the hotel," she countered, flushing scarlet and she gathered up her dishes, without another glance at him, and returned to the other table, leaving him on foot behind a chair and before him his beef pie and the plate and the serving spoon which she had placed for him.

He was conscious of eyes upon him. Not eyes of recognition, but amused, half hostile eyes. Several girls snickered and Calvin felt himself flushing hot. With what dignity he could muster, he deserted his absurdly untouched beef pie and strode out to the street; and he hastened away about the business which had brought him to the locality. He proceeded to the side street, upon which Ketlar had lived and where also the Royle girl dwelt, and he walked to the lake with the formal purpose of timing himself over the route which the defense would testify that Ketlar and the Royle girl had taken on the night of the murder.

So, watch in hand, he absorbed himself with the timing and checked it carefully. From the beach, he went to the building in which Adele had been killed and duly he reapproached the Royle girl's home, when her voice surprised him.

"Who's your date with here?"

"Date?" said Calvin, halting as she confronted him in the dim light at the corner of the court. He recollected his watch, and after a glance at it, thrust it into his pocket. "I was doing some timing," he explained.

"Oh! Of Ket and me!" she comprehended immediately. "Mr. Elmen's done that, too. How'd your time work out?"

Of course he did not reply to this. He said, seeing