Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-06-21

forgot his woes and became absorbed in my affairs. Parole d'honneur? he would see that mine was never un-- sullied. He himself would escort me to the maison de Capitaine Cram. He would rejoice to say to that brave en- nemi, Beholdi here is thy lieutenant, of honor the most unsullied, of cour- age the most admirable, of heart the most magnanimous. The Lord only knows what he wouldn't have done had we not pulled up at his gate. There l helped him out on the banquette. He was steadied by his row, whatever 1t had been. He would not let me expose myself-even under Pierce's umbrella. He would not permit me to- suffer from times so of the dog You will drive monsieur to his home and return here for me at once,' he ordered cabby, grasped both my hands with fervent good night and the explanation that he had much haste, implored pardon for leaving me-on the morrow he would call and explain everything then darted into the gate. We never could have parted on more friendly terms. stood for a moment to see that he safely reached his door, for light was dimly burning in the hall, then turned to jump into the cab, but it wasn't there. Nothing was there. jumped from the banquette into berth aboard some steamer out at sea. They tell me the first thing l asked for was Pierce's umbrella and Larkin's hat"
 And this was the story that Waring maintained from first to last. ''Pills" ventured a query as to whether the amount of Krug and Clicquot con- sumed might not have overthrown his mental equipoise. No, Sam declared, he drank very little. "The only Bac- chanalian thing I did was to join in 1ovial chorus from a new French opera which Lascelles' friend piped up and had heard in the north:
 "Oui, buvons, buvons encorei
 Sn est un win qu'on adore
 De Paris a Macao,
 Cest le Clicquot, c'est le Clicquot"
 Asked if he had formed any conjec- ture as to the identity of the stranger, Sam said no. The name sounded like "Philippes," but he couldn't be sure. But when told that there were rumors to the effect that Lascelles' younger brother had been seen with him twice or thrice of late, and that he had been in exile because, If anything, of hope l0SS pdSSlOu TUT AAAo oAoOOA law, and that his name was Philippe, Waring looked dazed. Then a sudden light, as of newer, fresher memory, flashed up in his eyes. He seemed about to speak, but as suddenly con- trolled himself and turned his face to the wall. From that time on he was determinedly dumb about the stranger. {, What reused him to lively interest and i conjecture, however, was Grams query | as to whether he had not recognized in ! the cabman called in by the stranger the very one whom he had "knocked endwise" and who had tried to shoot him that morning. "No," said War ing, "the man did not speak at all, that I noticed, and did not once see his face, he was so bundled up against the storm" But if it was the same party, suggested he, it seemed hardly neces- sary to look any further in explanation of his own disappearance. Cabby had simply squared matters by knocking him senseless, helping himself to his watch and ring and turning out his pockets, then hammering him until | frightened off, and then, to cover his tracks. setting him afoat in Anatole's | boat.
 "Perhaps eabby took hand in the murder, too," suggested Sam, with eager interest. "You say he had dis appeared-gone with his plunder. Now who else could have taken my knife?'
 Then Reynolds had something to tel him; that the ''lady" who wrote the anonymous letters, the belle annie whom Lascelles proposed to visit. the occupant of the upper floor ot
 the dove-cot," was none other than the blighted foweret who had appealed to him for aid and sym pathy, for fifty dollars at first and later for more, the first year of his army service in the south, ''for the sake o1 the old home." Then Waring grew even more excited and interested. "Pills' put stop to further developments fol a few days He feared a relapse. But in spite of "Pills," the developments like other maladies, throve. The lit tie detective came down again. Ht
 was oddly inquisitive about that chan son boire from "Fleur de The
 Would MT. WaringShum 1t for him? Ant
 Sam, now sitting up in his parlor
 turned to his piano, and with long
 slender, fragile-1ooking fingers rattlec
 a lively prelude and then faintl.
 quavered the rollicking words
 "Odd," said MT. Pepper, as they hat
 grown to call him, "I heard that sung
 by a fellow up in Chartres street twt
 nights hand-running before this thing
 happened-a merry euss, too, with |
 rather loose hand on his shekels. Lot
 of people may know 1t, though, mayn'
 they2"
 "No, indeed, not down here." sait Sam. "It only came out in New Yorl
 within the last four months, and hasn'
 been south or west at all, that lnov of. What did he look hke2"
 ''Well, what did the fellow that wa with you look like2"
 But here Sam's description grey vague. So Pepper went up to have beer by himself at the cafe chantan on Chartres street, and didn't retur for nearly 8 week.
 , Meantime came this exquisite Apri morning and Sam's appearance in tn