The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1900-04-28

| the person wha had victimized the 0a,
xette to the extent OF 500. And now ]
was intent upon shielding Tint person,
or some one whom supposed TO be
that person, from the results of her
misdemeanor.
| At times / could not bring myself
| to the belief that she could be the guilty
one. Looking at that umbrella, her
| umbrella, her school umbrella, cudg-
eled my brains for explanations and ex-
cuses. They were rather unsophisti-
Gated people, this father and daughter,
and perhaps they had done this
wretched thing when hard pushed for
money, and without realization of its
| Nervousness. Some excellent people,
women especially, saw nothing wrong
in cheating the government by SNUG
| Cling in laces and gloves-rather the
contrary; they boosted to their friends
| of their success. Perhaps Miss Rob-
ertson saw nothing worse in getting
the best OF newspaper. Such an
| achievement gave evidence of moral
| bluntness which / could not associate
with her; and yet-and yet-the evil
dence was certainly against her. But
was IL? After all, what did my precious
| evidence amount to? 1t was not
enough to convict professional thief.
to say nothing of this young girl. With
| this comforting reflection i went 10
bed, 10 dream that the heavens rained
fire and birthstone and that my only
defense against the downpour was that
umbrella-her umbrella.
AS II would be necessary to have some
scrt Of story ready for Miss Robert
son when j met her at the library the
next morning, left my boarding house
early and stopped at the shop Of my
umbrella dealer. In dozen words /
told him the story and showed him the
umbrella. He smiled good naturally.
1T doesn't seem bad idea to you,
Mr.. Seymour" said ne, "but TO anyone
in the trade it's absurd, for number
of reasons. In tie first place, you
| never could make a water-tight joint
where that glass is fitted in; there
would always be leak there. II that
was not enough 10 damn il, people
would not carry such an umbrella, be-
cause other people would look after
them and perhaps laugh; then the
glass would prevent the umbrella being
furled up into the tight thin roll that
fashion demands; finally, no one would
pay penny more for an umbrella with
an eye-glass in IL than for one without.
IL anyone wants to sell you the patent,
avoid it ms you would the plague. It's
capital idea-to let alone"
There was nothing more TO be said,
and / walked on to the library hugging
that umbrella. With all its faults, il
was still precious. At the doors met
Miss Robertson, who had evidently
been on the watch for me.
WELL" she said. her eyes dancing
with eagerness, "was your friend en-
thusiastic?" How could i dash her
hopes?
"He said IL was n capital idea," re-
piled. She saw that i was not full of
hope. "But he suggested weak points,"
/ went on. And gradually / told her
the whole story. She made brave
show about IL, but her eyes were dim
with n suspicion of tears.
"What does one mans verdict amount
to?" / said, as cheerfully as / could.
Probably this particular manufac-
turer is an idiot"
"You said that he is an intimate
friend of yours, didn't your" and there
was a ghost of smile.
"of course" said, only too happy to
see the mist of tears disappear; but
he may be an idiot all the same"
"0h, I'm afraid not. You see, two
umbrella dealers to whom papa spoke
said about the same thing, and declined
TO go into the matter even to the ex-
tent of making few such umbrellas.
To tell the truth, / had no very great
hopes, and il is better to know the facts.
Poor papa! / must do good days
copying to console him; he was more
sanguine than i. Thank you all rhc
same, Mr.. Seymour. I'm sure you have
done your best"
With her sunniest smile she tripped
into the library, and was soon en-
crossed in her work. There was n boy
from the Gazette Office waiting for me
with a note from my chief. Another
bother was in store for me. / was
needed for hurried expedition to a po-
litical convention in Boston, and Bur-
ton, the managing editor, wrote that
he had decided to put n professional
detective on the matter of "Daisy's
Quest" and release me from the job.
Would he SO good as 10 write out what
/ had accomplished in running down
the thief, IL anything, and turn IL into
the Office before left town? II might
be useful to the detc9tive in question.
Here was pretty pickle! Unfor-
tunately, l had told Burton that was
searching the cards of the Manhattan
library for any person who might have
taken out n copy of the Londoner for
fQAQ NJ, fr;o,1 .Eo Ntt.~n...o.. .....tr