Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-09-27

they were put He would have got them
from her, if he could, induced her to rob her
husband for his benefit, 1t was toward
that point he was urging when Grace's
summons called her suddenly away, and
he was left in the room with the money
within his reach. Then came the diaboll-
cal temptation, an easy step from dishon-
orable dealing to absolute theft. The man
who had never hesitated at cheating
creditor became in moment the midnight
robber Then the surprise, the pistols
lying there fatally ready for use, a shot
fired at random, perhaps, and hasty es-
cape by the open window.
While she was thus picturing the horror
of that night, Mr.. Penwern was out in the
balcony making a further investigation.
A box of mignonette stood in his way as
he stepped from the window to the
balcony 1t must have been in the way of
the burglar in his flight. Mr.. Penwern
knelt down and examined the flowers and
the mold under them. Yes, the man had
trodden ON the mignonette; there were
broken stems, bruised leaves, and the
deep print of heel on one side of the box
"a smallish heel, worn down on one side.
"A fashionably made boot, but a dooced
old boot" said Mr.. Penwern to himself as
he studied that point in the mold. Il
never knew Covey to sport anything as
shabby as that. Convey was always neat
about his understanding. A man who has
to get across country against time can't
afford to be slipshod or down at the heel"
The footprint in the mignonette box
made the matter of the burglars escape a
certainty to the mind of Mr.. Penwern.
He went downstairs with Colonel Stukely,
and made minute examination of the
Italian garden in front of the balcony. He
was able to trace footsteps in diagonal
line across the garden, deeply stamped
upon flower-beds, and but family indicated
here and there ON the gravel walks. The
man had worn odd boots. one boot
with broader heel than the other, and a
hole in the middle of the sole, both boots
seemingly in the last stage of dilapida-
ton.
"Egad" exclaimed the colonel, after
the detective had expatiated upon these
marks, she must have been shabby
devil"
AS he spoke sudden scare took hold Of
him. What If this man should have been
the French adventurer, Grace's disrepu-
table lover? The man had been seen lying
on the common, was clad like a tramp,
on the fiower-beds pointed to lust such a
man. Taking this fact in conjunction
with Camillac's disappearance, his silence
toward Grace, the colonel felt that there
was ground for fear. Unhappy Grace, if
her folly should have brought this ruin
upon her fathers house.
And to pursue this investigatiOn-which
Penwern was conducting with ill-con-
cealed cheerfulness as of one certain of
distinction and reward-to pursue this in
vestigation to the end might be to infiict
ineffable shame upon his goddaughter.
Were this Camillac the offender, any trial,
any public examination, must need bring
that miserable episode of Grace's Partisan
education into the broad glare of news
paper publicity.
Mr.. Penwern seemed troubled in his
mind after the discovery of these irregular
prints in the flower-beds He went back
to them-he scrutinized them as closely as
great chemist might have watched some
curious experiment. He was evidently
dashed in spirits. He had made up his
mind that this little affair had been car
ried through by the distinguished Convey.
1t bore, as he thought, the very stamp of
Coveys workmanship; for Convey was I'M
scrupulous, and would not have hesitated
at shooting down any one who came in his
way. He did things neatly, but he did not
mind little blood now and then. But
Mr.. Penwern seemed to know Convey as if
he were his brother, and he could not be-
ieve that any turn Of fortunes wheel
could bring Convey to wear such boots as
those disgraceful objects that had left the
print of their down trodden heels on the
tiower-beds of Darnel.
If l could believe in a tramp clever
enough to do such neat work, should say
that this had been done by tramp" said
the detective, with conviction; "but never
knew tramp yet that could rise above
kitchen-window robbery"
"Come back to the house and have some
lunch,' said the colonel, with the sinister
intent of giving the detective such liberal
entertainment as should at least take the
sharp edge off his power of perception.
He could not hope to make such a re-
spectacle man drunk; but he thought it
might be possible to get him slightly mud
died.
The colonel urged Purdew in a confiden-
tial aside to do the very best he could for
MIR. Penwern, and Purdew opined from
the colonel's tone that there was some
especial reason for making much of the
stranger He sent peremptory order to
the kitchen, and he brought forth a fat,
cobwebby bottle of his choicest Burgundy,
a velvety Chambertin, with an aroma of
violets. Beside the sacred wine, which re-
posed slanting- wise in a basket, the butler
placed a pint decanter of dry sherry, bright
to the eye, pleasantly bitter to the taste,
tonic and an appetizer. The cook was
quick to respond to the major-domo's Or
der. In little more than quarter of an
hour, just time enough for Mr.. Penwern
to look at Sir Allans pictures and to wash
his mouth out with a couple of glasses Of
dry sherry, the meal was ready. A filleted
sole with olives and mushrooms salmi
of cartridges, with plenty of truffies in an
Incompatible gravy.
The detective lunched luxuriously;
and now he leaned back in his chair,
made himself thoroughly comfortable
with his toothpick, and slipped the big bell
shaped glass of Burgundy.
"A very pleasant wine" he said, approx
ingly; "a sound. wholesome wine"
Don't be afraid of it, Mr.. Penwren,n
said the colonel, lit is too good wine to
do you any harm"
Not after such luncheon as have
partaken of" said the detective, who was
evidently in an expansive mood.
"A light little meal like that leaves a
mans intellect free to work out diff
Guilty, whereas your cold sirlion and
pickles weigh him down like lead, and
your table beer stupefies him. And yet in
almost all the houses go into it's the
same old story-beef and beer They for
get, sir, that a man in my position can get
beef and beer at home. He needn't go