Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-11-08

WOulu MISS no chance.
The cardboard came up slowly. 1t
was wedged in firmly between the
mantel-piece and the wall, but he
loosened it at last and held it up to
the light
When he saw it he gave little ges-
ture of disappointment: 1t was the
photograph of child. That it be-
longed to Emerson seemed the last
thing likely.
He called up the landlady and held
it out to her. She shook her ileau over
it. She had never seen it before, but
it must have belonged to Mr. Ember-
son she said, for her own daughter
had occupied the room before he had
had it, and the photograph was of no
child they knew.
NARROW looked at it again and made
a note of the photographers name
which was printed on the back. it
bore the address of a small town, and
he frowned a little as he looked at it.
What had Fred Emberson, a thier, to
do with q little child?
He shut his poclletbook with a snap
and gave final look around
He was just turning away when his
man came back from the station with
the information that Emberson had
been seen taking a ticGot-not to Lon
don, as they had expected, but to
little place called Staybridge, half way
down the line. 1t was trick, of
course. He would go on to Eustnn and
pay excess fare. and be lost at once in
the London crowd.
Still NARROW sent his man to tele-
graph to the station at Staybridge
and waited, still impatiently, search
ing the room, for the reply.
1t came promptly. Only one person
had come by that train on the day be
fore, and that was q mechanic in a
working suit apparently on the look"
out for work. Evidently it was not
Emberson, and NARROW decided that
his only chance now was to go to
Topping, where the photograph had
been taken.
He started Immediately, sending his
man on to London to try to get some
information there. and meaning to
wait for him at Topping. He got out
at a little, quiet country station. The
town lay behind it-G sleepy market
town full of sheep and cattle and farm
ers' gigs, and bright with the spring
sunshine.
He found the photographer easily
enough, and there a copy of the pho
tograph he had brought from Ember-
20 ln1 1nnrn tD1y inc
about year ago. The photographer
remembered it distinctly, because the
woman who brought the child broke
down, crying at the finish for no rea-
son at all that he could make out.
81 suppose you know nothing of her,
do you?" asked the detective, and the
photographer shook his head.
mo; but she came from place not
far from here" he said. "At any rate,
sent the proofs thereto a place
called Staybridge. about five miles
away"
Detective NARROW started a little
| Stayhridge! He was on the road ct
last, surely! Staybridge was the place
| to which Fred Emberson had booked
the place at which the worllingman
had got out! Detective Marlow's
| pulse quickened, and ten minutes lat
| er he was walking away from Topping
| toward the distant village.
1t was hot walk that day. The
roads were dusty, and he was tired
when he reached it at last.
He made his way slowly through the
| ef,.o i,,gr nf Oh,
| toward an inn. He would have to
stop, of course; perhaps for some
days, certainly for one night.
He went in and had some tea. and
then set out to look around. He was
all impatience. The thought of the
$500 stirred him.
He was remembering with beating
heart the girl he meant to marry
thinking that it would not be long
now-when bend in the road brought
him suddenly upon a small cottage.
1t lay close to the road, a low wall
hemming in it's little square patch of
garden, and little wooden gate lead
ing to the tagged path, bordered with
wallhowers and lupins and lavender.
He looked up half carelessly, Won
dering if Emberson was living in a
cottage like that-if he was in Stay
bridge at all-when the sight of little
child sitting on the wall brought him
to a standstill
Something about her was familiar
At first he could not tell what. and then
he remembered the braid on her frock
and the braid on the child in the pho
tograph. 1t was the same dress, the
same child, only now she was older
and prettier.
He stopped and went toward her.
She was such little. thin child, and
her face was pale and delicate in spite
of the country air. She looked up at
him with bright eyes and smiled, and
somehow he felt oddly uncomfortable
before her.
He hesitated before he spoke, and
then his question came with a gruff,
Sham Jerk