Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1884-05-31

start in life, and could make dear
Madge happy, and lift the burden of
the support of her mother from her
frail shoulders. I shall be admitted to
the bar next term, and it will be pretty
uphill work at first, unless have a
reserve capital. By-the-way," he NUT
tered. aloud, Il promised Madge to
take tea with them this evening"
Charlie Wilson had expended great
deal of thought on the most important
factor in the great land case of Arnold
cs. Sharp, the missing deed to the i'm
mense tract of Western land, and for
the past month he had spent his idle
moments visiting junk-stores, in the
hope of somewhere running across
the parchment.
In the course of his search he had
overhauled tons of old paper, but so
far he could discover not the slightest
trace of the missing document, and
hundreds of others who had been
tempted ny the large reward offered
for its discovery, were equally unsuc-
cessful
To-day he thought more about the
deed than he did of Coke and Black
stone, and was so restless and pre-oc
cupied that when the clock struck
hree he laid aside his books and left
the Office.
Mrs. Bevan and her pretty daughter
lived in an old farmhouse in the
suburbs.
Madge was employed as copyist in
a big Market Street publishing house,
and she usually finished her days work
at o'clock.
Until that hour, Charlie paced slow
ly up and down the sidewalk in front
of the tall building where she worked.
They walked home together, and
Charlie. of course. spoke of the miss
ing deed.
They amused themselves with dis
GUESSING what they would do with the
reward, supposing they should find
the important document, and were
talking in this ridiculous strain when
they reached Madge's home.
''Tea is ready said Mrs. Bevan,
greeting Charlie kindly, land I've
opened a jar of my homemade STRAW
berry-jelly just for your benefit"
While Mrs. Bevan poured out the
tea, he removed the cover of the jelly
jar. Suddenly he turned pale, his low
er jaw dropped, and he sat gazing fix
edly at the jelly-jar like one spell
bound.
care you i'll, Charlie?" cried Madge,
springing to her feet.
"You haven't come upon one of
those nasty black beetles ?" calculated
Mrs. Bevan, suspending the teapot in
mid-air.
mo, nor gasped Charlie, after
time. "It's nothing. shall be all
right directly. It's-it's-the five
thousand dollarsp'
He seized the part of parchment that
had covered the jelly-jar, and bending
over it, began to decipher the written
characters upon it.
"'Witness this, my hand-Andrew
Sharp-witnessr" he muttered; and
then raised his head and turned to
Madge, who was bending over his
chair, with a glad light in his blue
eyes. give found it, dearr' he cried.
"What?"
"a part of the missing deed; and
now if we can trace the rest" he cried,
excitedly, sour fortunes made"
"Mercy on usF" gasped Madge, be-
ginning to cry, in her bewilderment.
"Did you everP' calculated Mrs.
Bevan, and in her excitement she
dropped the teapot to the floor, smash
ing it into bits. "Madge, she finally
managed to say, 1.-THE rest of the jars
are in the cellar, on the swinging
shelf"
Charlie dashed down the cellar stairs,
and there. on shelf in the middle of
the cellar, were two-dozen jelly-jars,
4 r.