The Penn's Grove record., 1888-03-10
compartment and proceeded with it to

compartment and proceeded with IL 10
Euston.
at Euston, Mr.. wylie claimed the
portmanteau. and boldly putting 1t on
the top Of a hansom-cab, drove to
King's-cross station on the Under
ground railway. and there he took a
ticket to Clearinghouse. Carefully
choosing an empty compartment, he
co%ntrived, during the course of the
journey, to effect a change in his dis
guise such, that while no more like
himself than ever, he was still a very
different looking man IRON the one
who claimed the portmanteau at Will
lesden. When he arrived at Charing-
cross it was quite dark, and there were
few people about. Taking the heavy
portmanteau in his hand, he carried it
himself from the station to his office In
Duke street.
The moment he got safely into his
private office he produced a bunch of
skeleton keys and set about picking the
lock. Succeeding in this, he eagerly
searched through the articles III the
bag for the letters he wanted. To his
chagrin, he could discover no trace of
them. Over and W again be searched
the contents, but each time with the
same result. At length he paused in
his work, almost faInting with anxiety
and disappointment.
"Another failure" he said to him
self, land a worse than before"
AS he spoke he continued aimlessly
turning over the portmanteau's con-
tents.
"What a fop the fellow isl" he ex.
claimed. "Why, half of his luggage
Is brushes. And now that l notice it,
what strange brushes they are! What
heavy backs they havel"
The backs Of the brushes certainly
looked very thick. and when MIR.
Wylie examined them closely he found
that they were even thicker than they
looked, for the hair in the centre was
much shorter than at the sides, and the
backs, therefore, must bs deeper there.
Indeed, they looked so suspicious that
the detective at once began to try if
they did not open in ONE way or other,
He oon discovered that they did. The
top scale Of polished wood ran in a kind
of groove, and was easily movable. He
pulled it back, and there, in the middle,
was a hollow space crushed full Of let
tiers. Trembling with excitement, he
lifted them out and looked at them.
To his delight they were the very one
he was in search of.
There were two cases, each contain
ing two brushes. In the first brush he
opened there were sixteen letters from
Lady Noodle; in the second there were
fifteen. These were all in English.
The brushes in the other case had also
but a glance at the handwriting showed
him that they were not Lady Noodles.
He glanced rapidly over the letters.
Their contents were OF the most inno-
cent character, mere commonplace con-
CALCULATIONS, condolences and inquiries
such as u friend wodld write to a
friend.
"I don't see," SAID the detective to
himself, why she should be afraid of
her husband getting these. But she
said there were more than forty of
them, and there are only about thirty
here. Let me see. BY Jove, l have
It'll She told me there were only a few
of them that were OF a doubtful charac-
ter. 1t is just those few that are miss
ing. He has them IL his pocket and
l've failed againl"
He sat silent and still for a moment,
dazed by this discovery; but he quickly
regained his habitual GOODNESS and
decision.
"Well," he said, 81 may as well see
what the other letters are about"
He began rapidly to read them. They
were in various handwrItings, but
most of them in one which he somehow
or other thought he had seen before.
These letters were signed simply with
an ''H," and were couchei in the most
affectionate terms.
81 wonder who this H can be?" he
said. "She's evidently very much gone
on the count, and there's no mistake.
There's a love or a darling for every
other word. Here's an invitation for
the 18th; how sweet it is. But here
Is one IN which she has gone farther
than the H. It's signed Helena
Now, 1 wonder who Helena IS?
Hullo, what's herep A letter from a
man, and signed 'Svendeleri'-the old
Jewish money-lender and receiver of
stolen goods. That, at ~allevents, looks
suspicious.
He read the letter over carefully.
When he had finished 1t he lay back
in his chair, and drew a long breath.
GOOD heavepsi" he said, when he
had recovered his composure, "lhis is a
discovery Was there aver anything
so fortunatep I'm off by the morning
train, and our friend will be safely in
quod before he has a chance Of seeing
Sir Charles"
"But stay" he said to himself, sit
isn't quite so simple as I thought. L
must account for how L came by this
paper, which will be difficult. Besides,
I'm not sure it will be evidence against
him unless Its found In his possession.
Let me see."
He paused and reflected. Then,
after q few moments, with a cry of
triumph, he set to work replacing the
contents of the bag, When everything
was In except the letter from Svende-
leri and Lady Noodles correspondence,
he selected about ten of the most lnno-
cent of her letters, and, replacing the
remainder in the backs Of the brushes.
locked up the portmanteau. Then he
placed Syendeleri's letter in one of
Lady Noodles, put them in his pocket,
restored his disguise TO what it was
when he claimed the counts luggage,
and, taking the portmauteau in his
hand, left the office. When lie reached
the Strand he called a hanson and
drove to Euston.
at Euston he asked for the station
master. That official was duly forth
coming.
"This l fnd," said the detective to
him, ais not my portmanteau after all.
| thought it was at first, as 1t has my
initials on the side and is about the
same size, but I find that my key won't
60 into the lock, so it can't be mine.'
"No, sir, it isn't yours" replied the
station.master, sit is Count Ulrici's.
He's bsen kicking up a deuce of a row
about it, We've had half a.dozen tele-
grams from Rottenborough already.
I'm glad it's recovered. What about
your own, sirp"
'sIhat's the question. You had
better telegraph down the line for it.
1t must have been put out at one of the