The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-08-28

onoo stepped to the platform. A boy, whose
business IL was TO carry the mail, took tho
pouch over his shoulder aud started up the viii
lage street, never dreaming that chief In
spoctor Of the postal service was following him
on the other side OF tho street and was watch
ing him like hawk, while seeming to watch
nothing. IL was q beautiful June day, the
birds were singing, and although twas high
noon the leafy, lofty trees lining the quiet
street cast such deep cool shadows that Mr..
Barrett did not find walking unpleasant. For
about quarter Of a mile the boy kept on, fol-
lowed by the Inspector and then turned into "a
small frame building, with white and black
sign over the door, labeled, "Postollce."
"Now" said Mr.. Barrett inwardly, "my
letter s in that pouch and has reached its des-
tination."
There was crowd Of villagers inside OF the
little postoifice and outside who swarmed to-
ward the desk "to get their mail, and Mr..
Barrett waited some fifteen minutes, until
they had all gone before he entered the place,
and saw u handsome girl about seventeen
years old dressed in an old-fathidned bodice
and light-colored skirt sitting behind tho wire
grating in rocking chair sewing.
SIS there letter here for James Lancas-
ter?' said the inspector, and everyone who
knows his benevolent face and figure will not
wonder that the girl took him for q well-to-do
coulAryman.
mo" she said, after sorting some letters liz
a case marked -"
but with no better result.
~ am sure the letter must have come" said
Mr. Barrett, and J. who know him well, can
imagine how gently he said 1t.
tits not here"
care you the postmaster@,
"No, am the assistant. My father is tho
postmaster"
"Who opened the pouch that came by tho
last tramp
81 did"
"No one TO help your"
The girls bright eyes looked as iDnocently
at Mr.. Barrett as any girls bright eyes ever
looked at any man.
"Maybe it stuck in the pouch. I've heard
Of such things" he said. "Won't Won look ?''
She took the pouch, turned it upside down,
shook it, and looked inside. No letter,
won't you let me come in and help you
look for it?" said Mr.. Barrett.
"No. No one Is allowed in here"
The chief inspector drew from his pocket his
commission from the United States govern
1nent, with its official signatures and seals,
and showed IL to the girl. asking, as she read
! it, "Can / come in now"'
EYES," blushing family, ~ beg your par
DON"
"You did perfectly right, my child" said
the venerable agent OF the secret service.
There was a board partition six feet high
beyond the wired window, and a gate in the
end Of this partition, toward which the
postmaster's daughter went, but Mr.. Bar
rett thought she moved very slowly. At
| last she turned the key in the lock,
| opened the solid gate and admitted the uspec-
tor. He walked forward few feet and looked
around
There was nothing In sight but bare deal
shelves and the letter boxes, and he knew his
mission was not there.
81 mailed a letter myself TO James Lancas-
| ter, he said at last. "That is a fictitious
name, Lancaster being my mothers maiden
name. That letter was put In that pouch by
the mail clerk on tho train, who took mem
orandum Of 1t and locked the pouch in my
| presence. When that pouch was put off az
| the station followed 1t and kept 1t In sight
until IL was taken into the postoffice. Now
| you say you opened IL alone-that no one else
| touched II. Where Is my letterY"
81 never saw it, sir. III you doubt me you
! can search me-"
Mr. Barrett said he would not do that, and
| that he had never dOno such thing to wo-
man. and he began 10 pace the floor in deep
thought. The girl moro beautiful than ever
| in her excitement, sat down IN the rocking
| chair, crossed her limbs and began to rock.
| The inspector paced the floor in deep thought.
"Call your mother and she can search you in
my presence" said he at length.
'My mother is dead"
Again the secret service agent paced the
floor. He looked into an adjoining room,
| brightly and neatly furnished, and wondered
| whether the girl could have secretcd the letter
| there while she pretended 10 DO going toward
| the cato to let him in. AS he paced back and
| forth be- noticed the swinging feet of the post
| masters daughter, that one OF her stockings
| had sagged down and that under that stocking
was the shape Of an envelope.
"Your stocking has dropped" said Mr.. Bar
rett.
Tho girl turned scarlet and whito an(