Evening star., 1903-07-02

could get no further, and awaited my ar
rival in Washington with the greatest i'm
patience But once there. and the respon-
sibility Of this new inquiry shifted to
broader shoulders than my own, l was
greatly surprised and as deeply chagrlned
to observe the whole affair lag unaccount-
ably and to note that, in spite of my So
called important discoveries the prosecu-
ton continued working up the case against
Miss Tuttle in manifest intention of pre-
senting it to the grand jury at its fall sit
ting.
Whether Durbin was to blame for this
could not say. Certainly his look was more
or less quizzicaI when next met and
this nettfed me that I at once came to
the determination that whatever was in his
mind. or in the minds of the men whose
counsels he undoubtedly shared l was
going to make one more great effort on my
own account; not to solve the main mys-
terry. which had passed out of my hands
but to reach the hidden cause of the equal
ly unexplained deaths which had occurred
from time to time at the library fireplace
For nothing could now persuade me that
the two mysteries were not lndfSSolubly
connected, or that the elucidation of the
one would not lead to the elucidation OF the
other.
To be sure, it was well accepted at head
quarters that all possible attempts had
been made in this direction and with noth-
ing but failure as result. The floor. the
hearth. the chimney. and above all. the old
settle. had been thoroughly searched. But
to no avail. The secret had not been
reached and had almost come to be looked
upon as fnsolvable.
But 1 was not one to be affected by other
mems failures. The encouragement afford
ed me by my late discoveries was such that
I felt confident that nothing could hinder
my success save the necessity of complete
ly pulling down the house. Besides. all in
vestigation had hitherto started. IL 1t had
not ended, in the library. I was resolved
to begin work in quite different spot. 1
had not forgotten the sensations had ex-
perienced in the southwest chamber.
During my absence this house had been
released from surveillance. But the ma jor
still held the keys and 1 had no difficulty
in obtaining them. The next thing was to
escape its owners vigilance. This I man
aged to do through the assistance of Jimmy.
and when midnight came and all lights
went out in the opposite cottage entered
boldly upon the scene.
AS before. I went first Of all to the
library. 1t was important 20 know at the
condition But this was not my only rea-
son for prefacing my new efforts by a
visit to this scene of death and mysterious
horror. I had another. SO seemingly puer-
lie that almost hesitate to mention it
and would not If the sequel warranted its
omission
/ wished to make certain that had ex-
hausted every suspected as well as every
known clue to the information 1 sought.
In my long journey home and the hours of
thought 1t had forced upon me 1
had more than once been visited by
fitting visions of things seen In this old.
house and afterward nearly forgotten
Among these was the book which on that
first night of hurried search had given
proofs of being in some ones hand within
a very short period. The attention l had
given 1t at a moment of such haste was
necessarily cursory, and when later a sec
ond opportunity was granted me Of looking
into 1t again I had allowed a very slight
obstacle to deter me. This was mistake
I was anxious to rectify. Anything which
had been touched with purpose at or near
the time OF SO mysterious q tragedy-and
disposition of this book on a shelf 30 high