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Show I r zjr i i I I J 35 he Mystery of ,BS- j 1 Mart ley Mouse ,"lhy IRWIN MYERS h J Copyriuht by Ceorje H. Doran Co. had iniidp It easy for the maid to searrh tliroufjli his lilon'inf,'s. Anes did not know what value was attached to the manus;riiit. It was her obligation merely to pet It. The lawyer was to have an automobile automo-bile waiting on the road beyond the oak grove. He was to be by the small door, through which the maid escaped. She ransacked Jed's room In the fash-Ion fash-Ion of which I saw the result, and found the box cunningly hidden in his bedsirli)gs In a manner so contrived that except to careful Investigation It seemed to be a part of the structure of the bed. Agnes sttld that she had planned to make her escape after my round of the house, but her excitement at finding find-ing the thing so earnestly sought betrayed be-trayed her into Incautiousness. The lawyer's plan wi.s to take the road we would think them lesrj likely to take In case there were pursuit, nnd for that reason nd gone toward Ilorwlch. The Spaniard was not expected ex-pected to meet them, but he knew they Intended to go through Horwich, and he knew approximately the time they would get I here if they were successful. suc-cessful. The train which stopped at Horwich to let off passengers allowed him to act upon a plan which his suspicions sus-picions of his lawyer's good faith suggested. sug-gested. He thought that If the lawyer saw a barroom light he would stop for a drink. He was In Horwich unexpectedly to meet the girl and the lawyer. The scene in the Half Day barroom followed. fol-lowed. The Spaniard was determined to have possession of the manuscript. The lawyer was determined he should not have it. They struggled as the lawyer tried to drive the car, having several narrow escapes from the ditch. Then the Spaniard, In a rage, abandoned aban-doned all caution and threw himself bodily on the lawyer, who lost control con-trol of the car and hit a tree. That was all the girl knew. I thought a while, trying to make up my mind what further to do with the girl. Finally I said : "Agnes, I am Inclined to compromise compro-mise with the law. I will prefer no charges against you now, and without forecasting the future, I may Intimate Mrs". Aldrich came immediately, and I told her the girl Agnes was to be trf-ated with every consideration and that If It were possible to have the other maids regard her kindly so as not to make her feel obloquy, It would be only Christian. Mrs. Aldrich was a very stanch churchwoman and I could see In the tightening of her lips that such soft treatment of a woman caught in crime did not satisfy her ideas of morality. She went out dissatistied, but I knew she would do her best. Jed came In, still In his superservtceable mood. "Would you like srtnie coffee, sir?" he asked. I was tired and did want a stimulant. "Yes, Jed I would thank you," I said as heartily as I could, determined to break down his triumph of Imperturbability Imper-turbability by a commonplace handling of him. He brought the tray. "Sit down," I said. "Your schemes have come to a bad end in this house. It will do you no good, and it may destroy de-stroy the family. Things are beyond your control or my control. The Sian-iard Sian-iard has the manuscript he was after. Your power is gone. It is transferred to him." "So you are familiar with this affair!" af-fair!" "I am not. T only know what has happened since I came here. I do not want to know any more." "You are wise. There is nothing but unhappiness and danger In knowing. It is not news to me that Dravada has Mr. Sidney's diary. They released me after they learned that the manuscript had been found and that the lawyer and Dravada had It." Jed then sat down and told what had happened to him. I was very angry, remembering Isobel as she came hunning in that night with her sleeve torn from her waist. I wondered that I could hear the man calmly, but he had extraordinary power, being moved by extraordinary emotions. "In the first place," he said, "may I say. that I have been preposterous? You think I am a lunatic. Sometimes I am, almost. It is easy enough to be a cabbage if you are one. It is sometimes some-times hard to seem one If you are not. I've been a fool but I've been hunting for something that I have not been able to find. I want happiness and importance. im-portance. My egotism asks for It, but my common rense is going to have its way. That's preliminary." Then he told his experiences. He had become violent with Isobel. He wanted it understood lhat he had been desperate but respectful. He had no idea of taking hold of her or of tearing tear-ing her sleeve. She had been magnificent. magnifi-cent. She had given him a moral shock. He felt like a worm. He had been attacked suddenly by the men who had overpowered him. They had come upon him from the brush. He had recognized Dravada at once. He might have overcome the Spaniard, but the desperate little lawyer, in a frenzy of activity, had been just bold and strong enough to interfere so that Jed had been made helpless. Another man had come breathlessly to help. Jed had been hound and gagged. He had been hustled into the screen of woods and beyond them to a waiting automobile. auto-mobile. His captors, In the automobile, had headed for the city and entered it after midnight.' They had taken their prisoner pris-oner to a tenement on the East side. . CHAPTER X Continued. 12 "Finally the old boy got up with the case held tight under his arm and went toward th( door with the girl and the foreigner following him, and the foreigner talking fast and loud. 1'hey got outside and all got Into the cur, tin." girl beside the old boy, who was driving, and the foreigner behind. "As the old boy started the car, the foreigner made a grab for the case, tint I In; old boy was too rpilck for him and drii-pncd It to the door. The car '! 7-.-wl toward the ditch. "'You can't drive a car that way,' 1 said. 'You'll better tell that fellow to lay off.' "'I've told him,' said the old boy. 'If he keeps on bothering me, I'll tell him with a gun. He'll kill all of us.' "So they started, but they hadn't gone a quarter of a mile when I heard the girl scream. I got my motorcycle, which was out In front, and went down the road after them. There was sure going to be an accident If the foreigner for-eigner kept grabbing at the man at the wheel. They must have been going go-ing pretty fast. I chased them a mile nnd a half, and several times I heard the girl cry out ahead In the dark. "I was within two hundred yards of them when the girl screamed louder than ever, and I heard a crash. I knew they'd get It, and they had. The car tiad gone Into a tree at the side of the road. "The old boy was dead, and the girl was unconscious! but the foreigner was gone." "What about the leather case?" asked a ninn In tha group about the constable. It was the question I could have shouted out myself. "It was gone, too. The old boy did not have a single pflper In h'.s pockets, but after I got help and we got attention atten-tion for the girl, we found a letter In her purse addressed to Miss Agnes Mitchell, Hartley house. Hartley. That was the only ldentiflcal ion we had. I telephoned over to Hartley and a man said he would be over. That's all I know about It. I've got to be getting over to 1 lie station. It's about time that man from Hartley was looking jne up." As he went out, I followed him, and on the sidewalk I introduced myself. CHAPTER XI. The constable looked at me for an Instant as if uncertain whether to regard re-gard my niiinner of getting his narrative narra-tive as altogether friendly. "You were telling what I wanted to know," I suggested. "I came In because be-cause I was directed to inquire for you there. I did not interrupt you, but It was without intent of gaining Information that I did not expect to gain otherwise." "It's all right," said the constable. "Y'ou see through me, though. I was Just thinking how uncomfortable I ought to have been with you listening, and I was pretty near getting sore. The first thing is the identification of the body. For the time being, It is In the station-house." There was no possible doubt, even before I looked at the face, from which the constable drew the sheet which covered the body as it lay oh a bench. The shabby little lawyer's rascally schemes, timid but villainous necessary, neces-sary, probably, in his gnarled and un-hpppy un-hpppy I i f e were closed by death. "Dravada used to be very stwpld, but his cupidity has given him a sort of Intelligence. He allowed Brown to think he was perfectly satisfied, but he wasn't at all. By seeming to b satisfied he learned all about the de tells of the plan, and he knew that Brown, to avoid pursuit. Intended to take the way to Horwich. "He knew that if Brown went through Horwich he would stop for several drinks. He would need thera if he was disappointed. He would have to have them if he had the manuscript and was excited by it. So DravadH went to Horwich. It all worked out, and when Brown got to the village, he found Dravada. Then he telephoned R the fellow Sim to let me go. I was perfectly harmless. It was an interesting inter-esting situation." "I could wish Dravada had tortured you," I said to Jed. "He has tbf means now, through you, to tortim this family." "I said I knew Dravada had ths manuscript," said Jed. "I did that for effect. 'What I ought to have said was that I knew he thought he had the manuscript. If I had no more than the intelligence you credit me with, doctor, I could not have conducted this affair so long. What Dravada has Is not th diary of Mr. Sidney." Until I felt the relief following Jed'g explanation that the blackmailers haA stolen on!y a decoy, I did not fully realize into what despondency our predicament up to that time ha, thrust me. If Mr. Sidney's diary wtre being rend by unscrupulous men, we might expect anything. The lawyer, whose shrewdness and lack of morals made him formidable, was dead. The Spaniard would soon discover his disappointment and would be furious. I thought the physical danger to Jed was greater than ever and found some pleasure in telling him so. He was convinced of that himself and was not happy. "Why don't you end your rascality?" I urged him. "Why don't you give the manuscript to Mrs. Sidney and allow her to make whatever disposition she wants of it? Then your conscience will be easy your position in this house will for the first time be tolerable tolera-ble to a decent man, and your physical physi-cal security will be promoted." He would not. He seemed to hesitate hesi-tate for a moment, but his purpose was too long fixed and too much a part of his life. He no longer was surly with me, and I seemed to have lost my ability to enrage him. We parted with my telling him that there would be no possible truce or peace between us unless he respected the women of the household. He bowed. "Anything else, sir?" he asked; and then he departed as the servant. Mrs. Sidney's relief to find that the robbery had proved only a hoax on the robbers was such as would come from escape from tangible horrors. The'lady had been keeping control of herself, as was necessary to protect her husband and daughter from her own agony of mind and to keep the household fron finding significance in what could be passed over as a trivial triv-ial piece of robbery. When she learned that the alarm was over, she relaxed limply in her chair, and I feared that she might collapse; but in a moment she had struggled back to command of, herself. Then she excused herself and went into her bedroom for prayer, I knew. Mr. Sidney's joy at the return of Jed was robust, and Jed went to bed very tipsy with two bottles of wine in him. I found him in the hall as I went my round3 of the house. He was singing. I knew we'd hear again and soon from Dravada, but not in what manner. man-ner. Naturally I was apprehensive, and no doubt Jed was more so, although al-though to save himself from my contempt con-tempt he tried to conceal his fears. The Spaniard could not be expected to accept his failure as final. He would try again. That expectation was fulfilled in a disconcerting fashion. fash-ion. Thus far we had been dealing with chance, with apparitions and threats. WTe now came to deal with inevitability. inevitabil-ity. Our experiences had been disagreeable, disa-greeable, but they had not presented unescapable consequence. We had a choice of ways. Now we entered a way from which there was no escape. es-cape. Four clays after Jed's return a man came to Hartley house and Inquired for me. He was a detective. His name was Morgan ; he was the head of the Morgan Metropolitan Detective agency. I thought on first seeing him while yet wondering what his business busi-ness with us could be, and yet knowing know-ing instinctively that it had to do with Dravada that this newcomer had more than a suggestion of shrewd malevolence in his face. Before he was through his Interview Inter-view with me, or rather his inquiries of me, I knew that inevitability had entered our ease. We were no longer progressing at the mercy of opportunl. ty or chance. Morgan was fate. The whole aspect had been altered. Morgan, Mor-gan, a muscular, black-haired, sordid, unscrupulous man of action and obviously ob-viously of queer action, was pure Greek tragedy to us. (TO US CONTIXUED.) " MM "Because I Am a Thief and Know the Business and Have a Record." that no charges ever will be preferred against you if I may have you removed to Hartley house, where you wi!i have every care, but where you must remain re-main under a sure but unobtrusive surveillance until we give you permission per-mission to go." In spite of her pain the girl smiled. "You would amuse the police," she said. "Why?" I asked. "Why do you suppose the lawyer hired me for this job?" "Because you were available, suitable suit-able and easily templed." "Because I am a thief and know the business and have a record." That was a facer, but It did not change the present need. "You have less reason, then, for wanting to come to the attention v,f the police again." "I have no reason at all." "Then you will come to Hartley house as I suggested?" "Sure, if you can get me there without with-out killing me." I made the necessary arrangements, and Agnes set out on her return, in an ambulance. The servant who opened the door as we drove up was Jed. I could not help showing by a start and by the expression on my face that I was astonished by his reappearance. This pleased him. When he acted he liked to produce effects. He looked inquiringly in-quiringly at the ambulance and then inquiringly at me. By that time I was able to accept him as a usual part of the household. "Get someone to help you with a stretcher. Jed," I said. "Agnes, a maid, has been hurt. Then tell Mrs. Aldrich I should like to see her In the office as soon as it Is convenhnt." "Yes. sir," said " J For several days the lawyer and Dravada Dra-vada had tried to extort the secret from Jed by threats. They had tried to buy it by promise of an equitable division of profits. The lawyer had been quite frantic part of the time. Jed said, bounding about in an ecstasy of rage. At other times he had been friendly and persuasive. Dravada had been savage and wanted want-ed to try torture, but the attorney, enraged en-raged as he frequently became In his failure and disappointment, would not permit this and had got a trustworthy rascal of his acquaintance, named Sim. with two other men, to keep a constant con-stant guard over Jed with a view not only to prevent his escape but to keep Dravada from doing him harm or taking tak-ing him away. The lawyer, both dismayed and enraged en-raged by Jed's obstinacy, had finally thought of corrupting someone in the house to find and steal the manuscript. The best he had been able to do was to persuade a maid to prove false enough to introduce the real thief. "Dravada and the lawyer never had any hesitancy at h.iving their quarrels in the room where they held me." Jed said. "Brown was afraid Dravada would corrupt the fellow Sim, torture me and get the story. Dravada was afraid Brown would corrupt someone in Hartley house and get the manuscript. manu-script. Each one feared that the other would succeed independently and get away without making a division. divi-sion. "Dravada pretended to be satisfied when Brown told him that he must not appear near Hartley. When they thought they were going to succeed in stealing the manuscript out of my room Brown proved to Dravada that the only one of them that could go to meet the maid was Brown. Dravada appeared to accept that as reasonable, and he must have put Brown off his guard, because Brown told him all the ulans. A deputy of the coroner was present, and he took a deposition by me which gave merely the dead man's name, stated that lie had called several times at Hartley house on business and that I had no personal knowledge of the manner in which he came to his death. That was all the authorities needed of me. A maid by the name of Agnes Mitchell had been given temporary employment at Hartley house. It was undoubtedly she who was the companion com-panion of the man who had been killed. I asked the constable where I might pee the maid and whether she was too badly injured to talk to any one. He said that she had been taken to the nearest hospital, which was ten miles away. He did not know how-serious how-serious her injuries were. I had my driver take me to the hospital nnd found that as a representative of the family for which she was employed I might talk to her. She was in pain and heavily bandaged, ban-daged, but was conscious and willing to talk. "Agnes," I said, when the nurse had left us, "I am not here to make a great deal of trouble for you, but if I show leniency it will be in exchange for your confidence. We have known that an iineonsciona!o gang of rascals have had designs on Hartley house. Evidently Evi-dently you have yielded to some temptation temp-tation they offered you. Deal with me frankly, and I'll lie more than lenient." Site told mc that the lawyer had tried to corrupt thu maid. Anna, who had asked, later, for a month's leave. 5he found that she did not have the ourage for the work. The lawyer cviived the plan of introducing a resolute reso-lute and reliable woman Into the house by !: epc(il"iit adopted. Her Instructions In-structions were to find and take away a ii;,:'!si npt she would find concealed ir -7.1'k i".tii. The abduction of Jed |