The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1901-12-14

when he had finished. lie couldn':
md single clew. not q thread to
start a search, not thing to go upon
and he made a close search. too for
the thought Of the $500 reward made
him strain every nerve.
re was almost giving up at last when
suddenly tiny scrap of cardboard
fallen between the mantel-piece and
the wall caught his eye. He took his
penknife and began forcing it up. II
might be nothing. of course. bat he
mad turned over every scrap of paDer
and every book in the room, and he
would miss no chance.
The cardboard came up slowly #
was wedSed in firmly between the
mantel-piece and the wall, but he
loosened it at last and held it I'D to
the light
When he saw it he gave a little ges-
ture OF disappointment 1t was the
photograph OF a child. That it be-
longed to Emberson seemed the last
thing likely.
He called up the landady and held
it out to her. She shook her neau over
1t. She had never seen it before but
1t must have belonged to Mr.. Ember-
son she said, for her own daughter
had occupied the room refore he had
had it, and the photograph was of 10
child they knew.
NARROW looked at it again and made
| a note Of the photographers name,
| which was printed on the back 1t
bore the address of a small town. and
he frOwned little as he looked at it,
What had Fred Emberson, a thier, to
do with little child?
He shut his pocketbook 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 ticHct-not to Lon
don. as they had expected, but to a
little place called Staybridge, half way
down the line. It was a trick OF
course. He would go On to Euston and
the London crowd
Still Marrow 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 a 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 little, quiet country station The
town lay behind it-a 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
tcgraph he had brought from Ember-
sons rooms. 1t had been taken just
about a 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.
Il suppose you know nothing of her,
do your 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.
Staybridge! He was on the road at
last, surely! Staybridge was the place
to which Fred Emberson had booked
the place at which the worklngman
had got out, Detective Marlows
pulse quickened and ten minutes lat
er he was walking away from Topping
toward the distant village.
It 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
struggling houses and quiet shops
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.
It lay close to the road, low wall
hemming in it's little square patch of
garden. and little wooden gate lead
ing to the tagged path, bordered with
wallflowers and lupins and lavender.
He looked up half carelessly, Won
dering if Emberson was living in
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