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Show 1 DSEKIT ft CLEAVER, i .. I m &sfil f SI K AH AN I lmiy COPYRIGHT k DOUBLEDAY DORAN CQ fNC tiHM. -Roxm ThTuT w(7nr off tirP key to the code letter" "Lands nllvel" I said, my nstonis-h-"'(lit ;iin admiration getting the best of my had humor. "In this short lime? Talk nbout wonders" "Not ti hit of it. The codo is so simple that 1 nm surprised that puo-Pie, puo-Pie, who h;,ve wits enough to use o code nl all, would use It "The keys on typewriters, with a standard keyboard, nro arranged, you Know, for the touch system of writing: a, s, fl, f, g, so on. All that this code nmounts to, Is taking the letters straight as they come along: a, b, o. (1 ; and so on. From the center line of loiters, they skip to the upper line, making -q' be a 'J' and from the upper line down to tho lower line, making the 'z' a 't.' They use only the letters let-ters on the keyboard, and tbe punctu ntion marks as they would rightly be used. Generally they yut a hyphen after the letter to be capitalized, though occasionally they use the capita cap-ita letter. It Is so childish that 1 fancy It Is only a friendship code, and that it is not used for matters of any real Importance." "Then this letter is of no Impor tance?" I asked. "Not to the writer. Of vart importance im-portance to us, I believe. It explains why the original letter was stolen, among other things. Here Is one of the copies that I made of It" We had come to the stream, and to the shade of the aspen trees. I sat now 'Inquires to whom nm I writing. She Is eighteen; she ha seoii you; so I dare tell her, to you, ia n far country with an amusing name -Nevada. "She mispronounces It, dellclonslv. She blows it, and you, charmingl awny from the tips of her tiny pink finders. She kisses my ears. She tolls me that she owns me. So, I sup-pose, sup-pose, I should not sign myself, as of old, Tours, with an ever Increasing devotion, Cimbi." "Good lands alive!" 1 said. My stomach hurt me, and my head ached. "I am sorry for young Mr. Stanley," Miss MncDonald said. "But, you see. I was right In thinking that Miss Can-neziano's Can-neziano's life might hold a secret." "No! No!" Danny stood there in front of us, holding tc an aspen tree for support. "I wondered whether you were coming com-ing out from behind the tree," Miss MacDonald said. "I saw you looking at me. Ion are cruel. You are very cruel." For a minute all 1 could be was i sorry for Danny. I got up and went to her and put an arm around her. "Danny, honey," I said, "are you i planning a divorce, after you've had ! your sis months In Nevada? Was he cruel to you? Unfaithful?" "No, no," she said. "Nothing like that, nothing at all. ' I can explain every word of it. But will anyone believe be-lieve me?" "You jusL try It," I urged. "I'm all set for believing you, right here and i new. Come over here, and rest, and tell us all about it." I led her across to the rock where I I had been sitting, and made a place for her beside me. She began, right straight forward I and sensible: "I knew that wtus In I the letter, and I longed to destroy it, ' on that account, but I was afraid. I ! knew that its disappearance would throw all sorts of suspicions on me. But this morning, when I saw the j thing, right there on her desk, the temptation was too great. I never J thought o her having mad a copy of it This afternoon, when I hef rd i her at the typewriter I knew, tve been in torment ever since. I have prayed and prayed that she might fall ! to work out the code. When I came downstairs, Just now, I knew that she had not failed. I thought she would tell yon about it; so I followed. I thought, perhaps, If I'd tell you both Jb truth, and pleajl wltn yew Jq be-jlle'Ve be-jlle'Ve me But now I am ashamed M offer ft "You won't beUere me. John won't jbelteva fggx Mt, ft wiis only a doll : 8fe of thcSse fSfiy, IdDj-iggl, floy'py fthings, with an adorable fac. I saw Qim in Parle, and kvad him, and jjwught him for mine. I called him jhi-istopher Clover, and said that he was my husband beeanpa I had always al-ways said that I would never marry. iewiB he was so horrid abont everything every-thing used to tease me about my lover, until I got bo tired of It, and bo ashamed, that I put im away on a i closet shelf. "After we were all packed, and tlie trunks wete lock"ed; tiat 1 day, I feund him there on the shelf (jaby Jtfanted me to earry him on ay arm that waa done quite a hit over there. She thought It was ebicj bot I, thought j It looked silly. I was going to leave j him in the apartment; but Lewis ajked me to let him hara him. I did. That is all. But wIH you let me see the copy of the letter? Gaby read it to me only once." I gave It to her. CHAPTER XIII Continued. GHAPTER XIV Danielle' Secret I found him in the living room, play-ag play-ag solitaire. Mrs. Uicker was In tlie iair by the window, tatting. "Lands, Sam," I said, sitting down icross the table from him, "when did iou take to sitting around and wast-ig wast-ig good time like this?" j "I am helping Miss MacDonald," he said. "Making It easy for her to jratch me and convincing her that fm more or less of a nut, at the same iime. Two birds with one stone " j "She Isn't watching yon," Mrs. kicker spoke up. "She Is watching Jnbert and me. If I don't leave here, )oon, I shall have to be taken to an insane asyluir. I tell you, I can't Jtand it!" She Jumped up from her thgir, and went rushing out of the Wna through the front door. On the orch she droppe 1 Into a chair, and !d her face In her hands. As I looked at her, sitting there, 1 membered that It was she who had und the body. Hei story had iounded straight enough ; but, before jhe had told it, she had had plenty '& time to make it a straight one. erhnps she had had help in making it j straight one. i Hubert Hand. He had, by his own imission, served a term in prison for ;:rgery. He had had notes from Gaby, ltd had destroyed them. Was it pos-' pos-' j,'We that he might have written the 9 jrewell note to Gaby, and the lnscrip- 1 ou on the photograph? Sam could 5 t swear tlwit Hubert Hand had been J ji the barn the entire hour between J j.e and six o'clock. J j Would it have been Kssible for iubert Hand to have slipped into the jouse, through the front door, during tat hour, without Danny's having 2j pen him? Possible that wag all. Irs. Ricker, of course, woald have sen Hubert Hand pass through the J bom ; but Mrs. Ricker could keep a $ Kret. 2 j Again, what had he thought that I fjl id overheard that day in the cabin? -ffhat motive could he have had for 2 ping Gaby? Suppose that. Gaby had o.J m to Danny about the entire con-g con-g Ms of the code letter, and that, 3 ier all, the money had been bidden a b the place. That would be aa ex- Sanation for Canneaiano's coming to spent Th jT!e"7mmt h, ,md wTial iTTey had spent it for. I don't know yet whether It was cunning, contrariness, or courtesy that propelled Sum up those stairs, with the envelope tight In his hand, and without having allowed me as much as a peek at its contents. I went into the kitchen and put through a fairly good batch of baking, considering that I'd got a late sturt at it I was all through and frosting the cakes, when Miss MacDonald tele phoned down to the kitchen and asked me to go for n walk with her. I told her thnt I'd like nothing better bet-ter than a breath of the clean, sage-seasoned sage-seasoned air. and that I'd be ready In ten minutes. I gave Zinnia a few di rections, and went upstair to change my sho- s. As I came down the front stairs. Into the living room, I saw Mrs. Ricker coming up 'the steps to tlie porch. She was toting a big old shovel; carrying it out in front of her, and carefully, right side up, like it was a pancake turner and she had a pancake on it. She stopped to turn sidewise and open the screen door with her foot, and then she came straight along into the living room, poking the thing toward Miss MacDonald. "I want you to look at this," she said. Miss MacDonald, all crisp ia white linen, backed away a mite; but she locked, as directed. I came hurrying to look, too. 1 don't know what I expected to see nothing less than a dead scorpion ; but, certainly, something more than I did ee: an old Iron shovel with dirt on It. "Well?" Miss MacDonald questioned. ques-tioned. "I was going to Martha's grave when the shower came up. I stopped in the cabin. This shovel, and another one, were Inside the door there. Look at that earth it Is fresh earth. Now I tell you, two people have been digging dig-ging around this place; and they were at It not longer ago than yesterday, more likely this morning." "My wordl" said Miss MacDonald. It seemed to me there was more annoyance an-noyance in her voice than there was interest or astonishment "But surely, around a farm, a ranch, that is, around a place of t.Ms sort there must be a great deal of digging going on. Gardens vegetables, yen know. That Is one thing and another." She fum- XT'- It i Unfolttal the Paper 8he Had Qtoefl to Me, aid Read. down on one of the rocks, above the first flShing h,Sle, and unfolded fine papers she bad given to me, and read : ''Salntationfl I Dp yon rmeoJber, my dear and gay Gaby, after the V. affair, When yeu visited me to the hospital, hos-pital, thai you said, wKk your Imitated Moha Lisa snjlle, 'Sorry, old dear, I nrade a trifling mla$abe, did I not? T'he Incident has probably passed from your fiw'inpry. It ha not padeed from mine, tMajtise I did not bfUeve' then, and 1 do pot believe now, littt you in-' tended to fire that shot at V. Instead of at e. ion proved your inno-cenee, inno-cenee, hpweTer, like the expert you are; -so, 'let trie dead past ' et cetera. Particularly since I did not die, but have lived to make, also, a trifling mistake. ipf ;e ranch. But suppose that Hubert land had found It, or bad known that toy had found It 2 "Come home, Mary," Sam'a yolce, leaking estra low, cut In oa my 2 kerle. "1 want to know what yon 5 link about this. 2 1 set Canneziano to mending the Wn clover fence this morning. I 2;d him I was going to north clover. fi$ my way there, I passed the house, g jlmpnened to remember how slick -ss MacDonald had cleaned the attic. 2 jieemed a shame not to use it so I at np, taking my field glasses with k, for IUck. I'd watched about Ave S ioutes, out of the window, when I Is i Canneaiano leave the fence and S tke np toward the cabin. I came 2 wn, Jumped on Btfbble Burns, arid 2 Itled around the hili, back of tbe 5 iln. Just as I got my glasses taed, 1 saw Danny, walking to beat 2? W, coming away from the cabin. j -on't know whether she had been ia I to not I didn't see her come out of 2 ) I rode straight down. Before I f'in quite reached the cabin, Canne-2 Canne-2 h me out of It He was carry- j $( a fishing rod, and he went right ! j to the stream with It. What Sii wondering is, had he and Danny hlt at the cabin, and had a talk?" v"l know exactly what Mrs. Ricker ij ans," 1 said, "about losing her mind 'm this place. It has come to the pass ft no one can do sny simple thing bout being spied on and suspected, jnny always takes her walks In the fection of the cabin. ',Ve all do. It the prettiest, coolest walk on the ee." Sam rubbed the back of his head, j? Joe ! I hadn't thought of that." Thlnk about it now, for a minute," advised. "When yon get through, j to think whether you know of uny fee where we could get hold of a 'ap or two of Gaby's handwriting. have the last note she wrote to !wy, but we want something more. 'You've come to the right place, for ;e," he said, and took a long en tpe oui of his pocket. l guess I never happened to men ii to you, did I, that I fixed up n I'll checking account for the girls the Telko bank. Their bank state fits and canceled checks came in h days ago. Here they nre. Do you pt me to take them up to Miss Mnc-liald?" Mnc-liald?" I'll take them," 1 offered, "nnd save j the trip." I longed to see how of Sam's money thelrls Jd j i bled it, like that "We don't make garden here In July," I told her. "The vegetable gardens gar-dens and greenhouses are about three miles away from where Mrs. Ricker found the shovels." "To be sure." She puckered her brows. Danny had come downstairs. 1 gue3s we must have looked fanny, the three of us, standing there and staring star-ing at the shovel, which Mrs. Ricker was still holding as If It were a pancake pan-cake turner. "But what Is It?" Danny Inquired. 'It is a shovel," said Mrs. Ricker.' "Yes, 1 know. But what about It?" 1 "It has fresh earth on it," Mrs. Ricker explained. "It means that some one is still bunting for something on this ranch." "I don't understand," Dannj faltered. fal-tered. "fou do, If anyone does,' Mrs. Ricker said, trying to make it sound off-handish; but it did not. To my snrprise, Miss MacDonald answered, "I think that you are mistaken mis-taken Mrs. Ricker. Miss Oanneziaao knows, 1 fancy, no more about the shovel than you do." Mrs. Ricker's face flushed. She carried car-ried the thing out and threw It Into the yard with a gesture of furious anger When Miss MacDonald and I passed her on the porch, she turned her head away and did not look at us. -If we hurry," I said, "well bave time to walk to the cabin and see the other shovel. "Bother the other shovel I We don t want to hurry. Can t we get down to the stream, somewhere dose here, end find a place where we can be alone t0'RIght down this path," I annwered, and started down it. She followed me For fifty yards or more neither of us said a word. I was too put about to feel like talking. I must have made .1 sound that was pjicgeslive of my disgusted annoyance, for Miss MacDonald stepped np walk beside me on the narrow path. "I nm sorry," she said, "that 1 have seemed so exasperatingly stupid: but 1 know that those shovels are of no Importance. You'll understand nil about It. later. Please don't he vexed 1 have some really good news. Mrst. the handwriting on the checks, tar photograph, and the note all lall.v accurately. ac-curately. That must mean, lb:; Qahriplle Canneziano wrote all "I find that 1 was In error concerning concern-ing the train robbery. After due reflection, re-flection, I have remembered that, reading of the details in the Denver papers, your respected father and I merely regretted that we had not had the forethought, and the cleverness, to have pulled the affair ourselves. Since this Is the case, we cold not have hidden the money, ag I seem to recall telling you that we did, on the Desert Moon ranch. It was a pretty dream 6t oars' that Was all. "Shall I explain? Do yeu remember remem-ber the sweet cocotte with the colored sash at Cannes? Very yeung, very exquisite, and almost Tery Innocent? She watched us, foom her table, out of the violet corners of her long, long eyes. When we left the place, you and I, my gloves were missing ond I returned for them. You were duped, my dear, were you not? "She Is not as lovely, not as gay as you were at eighteen. But you are no longer eighteen. And you have grown exacting, and a bit vicious (recalling, (re-calling, again, the V. affair), and a bit selfish, too. (I knew that you collected col-lected the final five hundred pounds from Baron T.) "These, and all things considered, I seem to myself to have acted rather nobly, rather compassionately. I spared you fhe heartache of witnessing witness-ing ybur suppiantatlon. Ours was a tender leave taking, was it not? I paid the expenses Of a !ong and costly Journey for you and the gentle Danielle. (Gad, Gay, I'd have paid twice as much to b rid of you for half the time!) 1 sent you to fond relatives. 1 provided you with an Interesting nnd romantic occupation-treasure occupation-treasure hunting. I gave the right eons Danielle the opportunity f:i which she was niiiin-;: the opportnnii to try her hand at turning you in!'-'an in!'-'an honest wo i an.' "Tell her, by the way, that lie: lover, or as she virtuously insir-i'-'' her husband is still with me. and tl-" he is hehavins himself admirably, su.opect that my l.ili is a hit over fm of him: but I have warned her r . j one -.vho has had Hie riuiste afTeei; ". of I lie little nun wnuhl he unii'.rh i I succumb to tier a Piricies. "See," ahe said, eagerly, "h9 oalU me righteous. See Iiqw h spefiVi of ' the doll and Mb LIU. He wouldn't j have spoken like that about a man, nor said that he was behaving him- i self. See, too, he calls me a ntm. If you'll be fair It seems to me yon can easily believe me." "Honey child," I said, and spoke the truth. "I do believe you. I beileve every word you've told us." "And you?" she appealed to Miss MacDonald. "Your explanation is reasonable. You have told the truth about everything every-thing else in the letter. Certainly, I shnll give you the benefit of the doubt" "You won't tell John." Danny pleaded. "Of course not Nor anyone else, just now. Shall we go back to the house?" Danny and l sat still. "I'll run along, then," she said, and went away without us. "Danny," I began at or.ee, "you take my advice. You get to John as quickly quick-ly as you can and tell htm the truth about this." j "Have you noticed,'' she questioned, slowly, "that John hns been dife'rent very different, ever since" "We've all been different, dear," I told her. "Yes, I know. But John has been more different Mary, tell me, am I silly? Have you noticed that John seems to be very much Interested In this Miss MacDonald?" "Danny," I said, "It U Just thU. Men don't wear well In times of trouble. They can't help it It is the way they are made. So we women I was thinking. At the end of that time, dip"ver:np that 1 had not turned out one single rational thought, I pave it up and went to lind John. John was on -the perch, talking to Miss MacDonald. When I got close enough to them to see aow he looked, I felt as if my heart would break for him. He looked, In sp'te f Dls tan like death. When I had reached the foot of the steps, both of them, without saying an aye, yes, or no to me, get up and went into th houc. Hy lPgw were shaking under me. I had to go slowly np the steps. Neither John nor Miss MacDonald was In the living room when 1 got there. I went on Into the kitchen. Miss MacDonald was putting on her big apron. "John knows, doesn't he?" I questioned. ques-tioned. "Knows?" "I think that I know what you" "Don't 1" she shot out at me, and 1 wouldn't have jumped any higher If she had shot a gun instead of a word. "Don't," she calmed down and came over to me nnd spoke In a whisper, "say anything In here. Not anything." "I've got to," I said. "I'm human. You listen to me." I whispered It. right intt her ear. I hadn't half finished what 1 had to say before she moved away from me; hut sho nodded tier bead, with those quick, short little nods that always mean confidential agreement (To Be Co2Be4) |