The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1895-01-11
proof against aaoa fasoinatlons As JaE-


--a1e utterly above sneh a possibility"
Old Maynard wrung his comrades
hand. lyon make me hope ia spite Of
myself, my past experiences, my very
senses, Arnlitage. I have leaned on you
SO many years that I missed you sorely
when this trial came. If you had been
there, things might not have taken this
shape. He locks upon Chester-and it's
one thing Chester hasn't forgiven In
him-as a meddling old granny. You
remember the time he so spoke Of him
last year, but he holds you IN respect
or Is afraid Of you, which IN q man Of
his caliber is about the same thing. It
may not be too late for you to act Then,
when he is disposed of once and for all,
1 can know what must be done, where
she is concerned.
And under no circumstances can
you question Mrs. Maynard?''
No, no! If she suspected anything
Of this, it would kill her. In any event.
she must have no suspicion of it now. -
'But does she not ask? Has she no
theory about the missing photograph?
Surely she must marvel over its disap-
pearance. "
"She does, at least she did, but
I'm ashamed to own it, Armitage-we
had to quiet her natural suspicious in
some way, and I told her that it was
my doing; that I took it to tease Alice,
put the photograph in the drawer of
my desk and hid the frame behind her
sofa pillow. Chester knows of the ar
rangement and we had settled that
when the picture was recovered from
MIR. JerTold he would send it to me.
Armitage was silent A frown settled
on his forehead, and it was evident that
the statement was far from welcome to
him. Presently he held forth his hand.
Well, good night, sir. I must go
and have a quiet think over this. Hope
you will rest well. You need it, colo
neil "
But Maynard only shook his head
His heart was too troubled for rest Of
any kind. He stood gazing out toward
the park, where the tall figure of his
ex-adjuUant had disappeared among the
trees. He heard the low toned, pleasant
chat of the ladies in the sitting room,
but he was limo mood to join them. He
wished that Arnitage had not gone, he
felt such strength and comparative hope
in his presence, but it was plain that
even Armitage was COMPOUNDED by the
array of facts and circumstances that he
had So painfully and slowly cOmmuni-
Gated to him. The colonel went drearily
back to the room in which they had had
their long conference. His wife and sis
ter both hailed him as hepassed the sit
ting room door and urged him to come
and join them-they wanted to ask about
Captain Arlnitage, with whom it was
evident they were much impressed-but
he answered that he had some letters to
put away. and he must attend first to
that.
Among those that had been shown to
the captain, mainly letters from Chester
telling Of the daily events at the fort
and of his surveillance in the case Of
Jerrold, was one which Alice had
brought him two days before. This had
seemed to him Of unusual Importance,
as the others contained nothing that
tended to throw new light on the case.
1t said:
II am glad you have telegraphed for
Armitage and heartily approve your de-
cisiOn to lay the whole case before him.
1 presume he can reach you by Sunday,
and that by Tuesday he will be here at
the fort and ready to act. This will be
great relief to me, for, do what
could to allay it, there is no concealing
the fact that much speculation and Cos
sip is afOat concerning the events of
that unhappy night. Leary declared he
has been close mOuthed. The other men
On guard know absolutely nothing, and
Captain Wilton is the only officer to
whom in my distress Of mind I betrayed
that there was a mystery, and he has
pledged himself to me to say nothing.
SlOat, too, has an mixing, and big
one, that Jerrold is the suspected party,
but I never dreamed that anything had
been seen or heard which in the faint
est way connected your household with
the matter until yesterday. Then Leary
admitted to me that two women, Mrs.
Cliford's cook and the doctors nursery
maid, had asked him whether it wasn't
Lieutenant Jerrold he fired at and if it
was true that hewa trying to get in the
cOlOnel's back door Twice Mrs. Clifford
has asked me very significant questions,
and three times today have officers made
remarks to me that indicated their
knowledge Of the existence of some
grave trouble. What makes matters
worse is that Jerrold, when twitted
about his absence from reveille, loses
his temper and gets confused. There
came near being a quarrel between him
and Rollins at the mess a day or two
since. He was saying that the reason he
slept through roll call was the fact that
he had been kept up very late at the
doctors party, and Rollins happened to
come in at the moment and blurted out
that if he was up at all it must have
been after he left the party and remind
ed him that he had left before midnight
with Miss Renwick. This completely
staggered Jerrold, who grew confused
and tried to cover it with a display Of
anger. Now, two weeks ago Rollins
was most friendly to Jerrold and stood
up for him when assailed him, but
ever since that night be has DO word to