The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-05-14

When IhOrndyke left the office he be-
gan to fear that the earlier deed, upon the
discovery of which the very life of his
case would depend, had been destroyed,
and there was small comfort in the re-
Election that there was no apparent
reason for the disappearance of both OF
them. That from Gates to the town
company was undoubtedly genuine,
and he could not understand why it,
too, should be missing. He felt keenly
the need of an adviser, but in city
where the interests of every other re-
sponsible person might be against him,
he was afraid to trust anyone. To be
sure, there were Protheroe and Dun
can; but the first was in the service of
the town company, and the Scotchman
had already emptied himself of what
ever suggestive material there was in
him. Philip expected nothing further
in the way of information from Fench
or Sharpless, but, none the less, he sent
a message to Col. Van Cott, asking him
to give prompt attention to any inquiry
from Allacoochee, suppressing only
the fact q the sepder's profession.
When that was done, Philip found
himself once more among the uncer-
tainties, but he made another journey
to the courthouse for the purpose of
copying the missing documents from
the records. For two days he pored
over these copies in his room at the ho-
tel, searching with infinite patience for
some clew that would point the way
out of the tangle. A copy of copy
proved to be barren of suggestion, but
he made a memorandum of the attest
ing notary's name, and on the third day
he paid visit to Squire Pragmore.
Nothing came of it. however. The
notary's replies grew more indefinite
as the inquiry progressed. His memory
was at fault; he had acknowledged so
many papers for the town company
that he could not be expected to recol-
lect the details of any one transaction.
Thorndyke called attention to the fact
that the older deed antedated by sew
eral years the beginning of the rush of
business brought by the transfers of
the town company; whereupon Prag-
more took another tack. It was too
long ago. He had doubtless acknowl-
edged KilgTow's signature, but he
could remember none of the circum-
stances.
Thorndyke was baff1ed again, but an
other clew came to the surface when he
reached the hotel and found note
from Sharpless asking him to cali at
the company's office. He went. was re.
ceiyed with cordiality born of the ia
vorable answer to the telegram sent by
Fench to Col. Van Cott, and was shown
the missing deeds with an air of re-
proachful frankness that almost dis
armed him.
''Since you made point of it, wired
our secretary to send them down."
Sharpless explained; and as Philip read
them he thought he could never be suf-
ficiently grateful for the impulse that
had led him to make the copies from the
records. In poring over them he had
well-nigh committed them to memory,
and single reading of the pretended
originals convinced him that these
were recent forgeries. The notary's at
testation was genuine-a fact that at
once implicated Pragmore-and if any
further damnatory proof had been
needed, it was supplied by single cir
cumstance in the acknowledgment.
Pragmore had used a rubber stamp with
n dotted line for his signature. and the