The free press., 1894-03-08

Speak 10 ulIu hDOuJ lU. Lie Ildl COLI
tanned an urgent invitation from Jack
to come and lunch with him. I must
see Jack /; L must look into his eyes
could it be that he had bought or bor-
rowed those gems?
I arrived at Atherton's five minutes
before the time he had named. One
look into his face convinced me of one
thing-he didn't suspect me of being
in the house the night before; he
knew nothing of what had done.
He asked me up to his room. went
neutrality-suspicious. like a man in a
dream. The box he had brought
down to show me still stood on his
dressing-case He laid his hand on it
and called my attention to it. ''And
1 was out of the city last night" he
said, 'and thieves might have had
their own way with it,
There was only one solution. De-
ceived by the night, the storm, the ap-
pearance of the buildings at the back
1 had failed to enter No. 7. I had
robbed one of Jacks neighbors. L
couldn't give reasonable choice be-
tween No. and No. 8.
I managed to get an excuse for go
ing into new room and looking out
into Atherton's back yard. l had,
from that point of vantage, good
view of the back yards of his two next
door neighbors. They had no revela-
tions to make. One was full of the
sort of rubbish which had impeded my
progress and handicapped my move
ments so was the other. Both gates
in the tight board fences at the rear
were arranged to open easily from the
inside. l could get no view at all
from either one of the windows that
corresponded with the board one in
Jack Atherton's domain. The whole
ing puzzle.
Within O week [ had found man
who knew a man who knew Lawrence,
who lived in Terrace Park. A Sc
ries of progressive introductions"
made me acquainted with him. When
his family came home he invited me to
! dinner. accepted, went, had thor
oughly enjoyable time, and found Miss
Adele Vinton, Mrs Lawrence's sister,
the most charming woman l had ever
met.
1t took longer to get acquainted
with Mr.. Kingdom. There were more
men in the chair. consisting of the
"man who knew the man who knew
the man," &C., in his case. On the
whole, however, I liked him better.
He was genial, openhearted, witty,
quick at repartee. l became almost
as frequent caller at his house as at
Jack Atherton's. I entertain him fre-
uuently at my club or at some hotel.
Strangely enough L never invited
Lawrence to my boarding house.
Possibly I was becoming dissatisfied
with boarding house life-since met
Adele Vinton.
Yes, was at Lawrence's more fire.
auently than at Kingdoms. But
Lawrence was not the chief attraction.
He was gentleman, to be sure, but
reserved-almost naughty, very pre-
else and matter of fact in his Ian
guage and of great gravity and un-
bending dignity. l didn't like him;
though I got into frame OF mind
such fhat the dearest wish of my heart
WAS to have him for o brother-in-law.
Kingdom took me to his place OF
business in the city-a cosy little
office in which he loaned money,
bought and sold real estate, &c. Law
renee was evidently gentleman OF
leisure.
found out nothing about the dia-
monds-nothing. Kingdoms wife
came home from her summer absence.
r made her acquaintance. Indeed, l.
became one of her most intimate
friends. She went away south for the
winter. The Lawrences were talking
of going, waiting so 1 dared think
on Adele Vinton's account; waiting
until a slow fellow should make up
his mind to speak. And not word
had been spoken, in either family,
that gave me hint at any possible
solution of my dreadful problem. And
you know I couldn't very well ask
outright-or even hint very strongly
Well, one night in early winter
when the double Difficult ties OF my