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Show Qtiumphs of fit MJonqjOQlleM Melville Davisson Post f 19QQ NEA Service. Inc THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE J1K.IN HERE TODAY M. J UN QUELLE, greatest of French detectives, Is telling this unusual story of the great criminal it ba discovered in a luxurious English Eng-lish country house where he is dying dy-ing of a disease which bus already paralyzed the lower part of his body. Hut even In the moment of success, IM. Jonquelle senses the.t he has been beaten. The great criminal, wanted for a bond theft In England, tells how j ho went to America and at Bar Har-' Har-' bor met the beautiful American Klrl. Although a criminal, bin sense of deli de-li en v was outraged when he saw that a dissipate Englishman, YYEsritllXJE, was attempting to; marry her for her money. He went to Westrldgu. told him that he was an old friend of the girl'H jfather anil that he knows the girl 1 nt ut have $o,ooo to pave securities ! which she has foolishly bought on, margin, Tho criminal tells how ha proc,ured the security for n loan which 'West ridge raised am) then gave to jhlm to turn over to the girl. ;Q ON WITH THE STORY. CHAPTER XI. The afternoon sun lay on the terrace of the gray stone house, where the I nig creature dead to the middle, talk-led talk-led from his chair clearing lh' in:--jtery that had covered his disappearance disappear-ance from the world It wm an extraordinary ex-traordinary wtory, and I wished to get it. in detail, precisely clear, i ' It was fiction." I asked, ' this i K-pianation K-pianation to Westrldge? He looked at me in 8 sort of won-dei won-dei "Sure,'' he said. " made It up ' "There wasn't any of it true 1" "Not a word," he answered. "Ion t you understand? i 'This waa n little game that me ;and God Almighty was sottln' up on the Hide " 'You knew nothing of the girl's affairs'"' af-fairs'"' The thing seemed incredible to me. "Tljat's right," he replied, "not n thlnp. except that her father, a law-,yer law-,yer In the south, was dead, and the Ismail coin was beginning to mean .soinethln' an' of courmj the little game of this cstrldgr person It was a blind pool, nobody In on it but C.od Almighty." j I could not forbear a comment. "He seems to ha' helped you in the upcnlng." The big creature turned heavily toward to-ward me. ii ii i u i vrBirjUB more wm Ideep Irony in his voice. "I dldnf need any help to handle him. That was A B C stuff. The Mg trouble was ahead." "With the girl?" the query escaped me. "No," he replied, "that was my job too You listen. I'm comln' to It. "I looked out for a chunce to get the girl by herself, an' about four o'clock I got It. There had been B log in, It cleared a Uttlo and she went for a walk. She took the path along the sea toward Cromwell's Harbor ind I followed her. She, turned back whero the path ends at the harbor, and Just before a big house, that hadn t been .opened that season. I met her. I "I stopped In tho path. " 'Mlsslc,' I said, "could I speak to ijou a minute ?' 1 "There was no sham business about her. Sfhe was clean and straight and afraid of nothin', like an angel of God ! " Certainly,' she said 'What is it, hit ?' The big man moved his loose bulk in the chair. "I know something about stories," he said. I've had to make 'em up so a Jury would believe 'em, an' I done my best as I limped along by her ' 'I ain't always been rich,' I says rx i "Hut what should I do with the money "," -ho said. . :'I was down an' out in the eighties, an' i was agoln' to do somethln' that won! J have mined mc, when by God's luck I irfel Harry In Louisville.' (I'd heard the old wono n call her father .Harry, so I hud thar much to go on ) j " 'Al ' he says, 'what's the trouble " " 'I suppose It was In my face. I Was broke down an 1 told him. He i got It all in his head, an" then he .patted mo on the shoulder. old man.' he said, a little money ain't goln' to do you any good. I'll git you fifty 'thousand dollars an' you go out to the race-course this afternoon an' pick a ( winner." j "I tried to turn it down. I dldn t want to los,. his money. I didn't know one horse from another. Hut ho Just i laughed and kept patting me on the back. A beginner for luck,' he ;ay-. 'Where's your nerve, Al ?' Well, I picked that big Dercum colt that nobody no-body hod ever heard of, n fle-to-one shot, an' he romped in" I "I was alimptn' along the SOapath, aproddin' the gravel with my cane un" atalkin' to my feet, same as if I was afraid the recollection would get away With me if I wasn't careful The '!,'lrl didn't say nolhln' and I went on. I " 'Harry wouldn't touch the winning, win-ning, he picked out his fifty thousand and put me out of the room.' j "I llmptHl on, talking to my feet. " 'And it saved me two ways, for the thing was agoln' to do would have ruined rne.' "My VOlC? got down pretty near in a whisper. 'I never saw Harry after that, I bays, 'until last night." "She stopped quick, an' I went on a step or two 'My father"" she said. " 'Yes,' I pays. not looking up "Harry, Jut as he looked that morning In Louisville only he was troubled.' 'Then l turned on her like i was makin' a clean breast of It I had the tears start, n' and the right choke-. choke-. up, an' It wasn't all Jury dope. I dldn t want that heavenly angel fouled 'over by little Westrldge. It balled the heart out of rue " 'Now, Mlsslo.' I said, 'you've got to help me even this thinp up I don't know- nothin' about your affairs I don't want to know But you've got to take that same bunch of money and chance it on something." "She shook her head, and I had a bad hour. All along that sea-path, with the fog dodging In and out, I kept right at her; I never lost a step. I was old and rich; money was nothin' I to me. htut wnat should I do with the money?' sho said, finally, In a sort of queer hesitation. " Til tell you that tonight,' I answered. an-swered. " The hugj creature seemed I to relax, as though there had been B ltal tension In the mere momorv of the thing. "That cleaned up my end of it," he continued, "and after dinner when , it wus gotting a little dark, I limped over to the church. I had the last copy of the Financial Register In my hand I stopped in the door. Tho Ichurch wa-s closed and It was dark,! but I didn't need any light for the I business I come on. "'Governor,' I says, "the rest of ;thls Job's up to you. I'm aj?oln' to ; jopen this magazine here in the dark 'and tho first thing that's advertised at the top of the page on the right-hand right-hand side is the thing I'm agoln" to tell her to put tho coin on Heady." I says, "go to it:' and I folded bark the page and went over to tho hotel." Again he paused. "I got a Jolt when I saw the page. It was. some sort of Canadian gold mine, so fishy that the letters had scales on em. But i says to myself. 'That's the Governor's business.' an' I rut it out, put it Into an envelopo with I the draft, and left It at the desk for , her.". He, paused. The next morning I slid out Eight months later the plague struck me. I crippled into Kngland, asked her to hide me while 1 died, and she put me here." "And the gold stock." I said. "1 suppose It turned her' out a fortune?" i The energy camo back for an ln-stant ln-stant into his voice "It was so rotten," he replied, "that the Governor-General of Canada sum-Imoned sum-Imoned all the victims to meet with him for a conference in Montreal." At this moment I caught the sound of a motor entering tho gates at some dlsttancs through tho park. Tho huge-paralytic huge-paralytic also heard it. and his attention atten-tion was no longer toward me It was I on the great coach-colored limousine drawing Up at tho end of the avenue: of ancient beech trees I looked at him. A girl helped out by footmen stepped step-ped down Into the avenue, carpeted now with the yellow of autumn leaves ' Even ut the distance it was impossible! to mistake her. Her charm, her beauty were the wonder of England. And on; the Instant, as in a flash of the ev I recalled the painted picture hanging in a great house In Berkelej Squan the picture from which this creature's mutilated photograph had been iak n. the picture of a young girl, In an ancient an-cient chair, with no ornament but 0 jbit of Jade on a cord about her neck. i It's tho young Duchess of Hur-llngham," Hur-llngham," I paid. The big creature ,plde mo was .struggling to rise, his voice in an ex-, cited flutter. "Sure," he said, "God Almighty dldn t throw mo down When she went up to that conference In Montreal, Mon-treal, He had young Hurllngham on the spot fine, straight, clean young-' ster as ever was born. It was love jher at sight; an' now," ho made a great gesture as though to includo something without a visible limit "she s got all these places in England, an' all that Standard Oil money that belonged to his mother's people." The girl, radiant as a vision, was advancing on the carpet of golden beech-leaves, and I hastened to put a final query, the thing I had come here to find out I had given up the Idea of on arrest Tho man was dying. W hat did you do with the registered regis-tered bonds that you got when you cracked the vault of the British embassy em-bassy In Washington tho night before be-fore you went to Bar Harbor? The' had Lord Dovedale's name on them, and they could not bo negotiated " The whole sagging body of the unsteady un-steady creature strained toward the advancing vision as toward an idol His voice reached me. stuttering as with fatigue "That's the stuff I put up with Westrldge for the loan go and take It. away from him!" A startling story of mystetry ami horror. ' The Thing on tho Hearth,'" Will begin In our nc.vt Issue. |