Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-22
CHAPTER XIV.
Cross LIGHTS


vestigations was more complicated than
he had suspected, and re very soon per-
ceived that three OF four days must nee
essarily elapse before ne would be at
liberty to return to Westcliffe and follow
up the new trails.
In the meantime he by no means ban
Ished the matter from his mind. On
the contrary, he rather devoted every
minute of his spare time to its considera-
ton. to the no small disturbance of his
peace of mind.
Sitting at night, after his days work
was over, with the various pieces of evil
dence, which he had obtained with so
much diligence, spread out upon the Ia
bic before him, he puzzled and puzzled,
turning and twisting the matter over in
his mind with no result save the constant
increase of his bewildeTment.
''The police have no clue to the per-
petrators of the dastardly deed is uG-
fortunately q sentence of such frequent
occurrence in our daily papers that it
might very well be, and possibly is,
stereotyped, but this was by no means
Mr. Padger's uredicament at this time.
He was laboring desperately but inef-
fectually, against a plethora of clues, a
very labyrinth Of paths, crossing and re-
crossing running together and diverglng
leading in every possible direction, but
no two to the same destination. Each
theory was satisfactory in itself, until
cOntrasted with some other, and no two,
as far as be could see, were either separ-
able or consistent. Suspicion founded it
is true on circumstantial evidence, but
on good and sufficient evidence of Its
kind, pointed TO Miss Ennis, to Mr.. En-
mis- and to DR.. Benton. 1t was difficult,
almost impossible to disentangle anyone
of them from the net, and 20 me cir
cumstances Of the case N he as
sumption that all tn "a "DI 4 rned.
If Mr.. Ennis did q ~. g or
with their knowIe, II the
meaning of the scenes IA. and Gener9rd
and witnessed between Miss rs for su.nd
Dr. Benton? If they alone did it, what
was to be made Of Mr.. Ennis pretended
journey TO London? If Miss Ennis was
innocent, what explanation could be
found of her subsequent behavior? What
more particularly was to be gathered
from the discovery of the steel-bound
jewel case?
Again there is a welI-known rule,
''First find the motive, then the man!''
there was motive, sufficient or insult
fcient, according to the dispositions of
the individuals, for when a man can be
found to barbarously do to death a
helpless old fellow creature for four pen
MES, or fling woman over q bridge for
a cup of coffee, who shall say that any
motive is not strong enough to urge an
other to the most brutal crime?
Jealousy, the intolerable burden of
violent tempered and dTink-ridden wo-
man, the CALLING opposition to a desired
marriage, above all and beyond all the
presumed contents of that mysterious
casket.
Everything seemed TO lead back to
that. That secret closed every road to
success like a gate of iron, and Mr..
Padger concluded that he would never
succeed in unraveling the tangle until
. that point was cleared up.
THAT is the heart of the mystery, my
boy, - he said to himself. ''and until
you can understand that you may wander
III Ignorance of the rest.
Yet how was he 10 discover the secret
of the CIPHER with such scanty materials
10 work upon-the thing itself, and the
plain initials G. F.?
II was a sufficiently remarkable object,
if be only knew where to search for the
person likely to be in position to recog-
EiZe it; but the removal Of the lining of
the lid seemingly prevented that effect
ually.
al can but try - said Mr.. Padger
after period of profound reflection and
hesitation.
He took from his pocket sharp pen
knife, and drawing the box to him raised
the lid. With a deft hand he cut around
the plush covering and tore it away, re-
vesling the contents of the box. 1t was
lined on all four sides and at the bottom
with a thickness of wood, and into the
interior of the oblong which these formed
the oval center was neatly fitted, but
there was no mark of any kind to indi-
cate the place Of Its manufacture.
The oval was lightly glued to the bot
tom Of the box, but very little exertion
seemed TO displace il, and it came out
intact. It also was covered with red
plush, and scarcely hoping for any re-
suit he ripped this of. The core Of
stiTenng material seemed at first sight
TO be constructed of plain white card
board but a little investigation showed
him that it was in reality composed Of
long strips Of paper rolled round and
round. The outside piece was securely |
gummed all along, but when he had
carefully cut through this the rest un-
coiled as easily as a fishing line OF a
reel.
Inch by inch he unrolled it, his hands |
trembling, and his heart beating high |
with excitement Inch after inch was |
blank white paper bearing no sign or
mark upon its surface At last, when he |
was beginning TO despair, piece with |
some printing on it came in sight and the |
last six or seven inches were closely COW |
cred with words and fragments OF words. |
Hastily but carefully he smoothed it |
out. and proceeded 10 examine it line by /
line. Il was Enthusiastically part Of a /
but it was very narrow and /
had been clipped from the center of s
column
''was there, ''he asked himself with |
terrible anxiety, anything 10 be found |
in it TO point out the place of its publica-
tion?''
The first side to which he devoted his
attention appeared TO be portion of a
market report. Among many words of
no Importance he noted gold -
wool, ost and lam, the last two being
obviously merely portions of words The
Ofbar side was utterly iDpou1 1,re n an sibia