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" "Probably the Manchurian devil shows itself only to you," said her father jokingly. "Well, be careful, dear. If it takes a notion to jump out at you, call me and I'll exorcise it for you." Betty blushed and laughed again. She looked at Marable, expecting to see a smile of derision on the young man's face, but his expression was grave. The light from above was diminishing; outside sounded the roar of home-going traffic. "Well, we must go home," said Professor Young. "There's a hard and interesting day ahead of us to-morrow, and I want to read Orling's new work on matrices before we begin chipping at the amber." Young turned on his heel and strode toward the locker at the end of the room where he kept his coat and hat. Betty, about to follow him, was aware of a hand on her arm, and she turned to find Marable staring at her. "I saw them, too," he whispered. "Could it have been just imagination? Was it some refraction of the light?" * * * * * The girl paled. "I--I don't know," she replied, in a low voice. "I thought I saw two terrible eyes glaring at me from the inky heart. But when father laughed at me, I was ashamed of myself and thought it was just my fancy." "The center is liquid, I'm sure," said Marable. "We will find that out soon enough, when we get started." "Anyway, you must be careful, and so must father," declared the girl. She looked at the block again, as it towered there above them, as though she expected it to open and the monster of the coolies' imagination leap out. "Come along, Betty," called her father. She realized then that Marable was holding her hand. She pulled away and went to join her father. It was slow work, chipping away the matrix. Only a bit at a time could be cut into, for they came upon many insects imbedded in the amber. These small creatures proved intensely interesting to the paleontologists, for some were new to science and had to be carefully preserved for study later on. Marable and her father labored all day. Betty, aiding them, was obviously nervous. She kept begging her father to take care, and finally, when he stopped work and asked her what ailed her, she could not tell him. "Be careful," she said, again and again. * * * * * Her father realized that she was afraid of the amber block, and he poked fun at her ceaselessly. Marable said nothing. "It's getting much softer, now
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