The Saint Paul globe., 1904-12-18

now draw the enemys fire.
4 March 8. Chivers has called and af-
fects to regard my proposition as abb
| surd. / have riposted by raising my
i price to seventy five thousand dollars.
He protested angrily, and Immediate
| ly made it one hundred thousand dol
lars
! March 5. Five days OF silence and
| then another caE from Chivers. l met
him with the statement that now I
would not take less than one hundred
and twenty five thousand dollars. He
seemed Hurried and said that he would
/ have TO consult his principal. AS you
like remarked, carelessiy, but it will
| then cost yeti one hundred and fifty
| thousand dollars Magnus IL evidently
| alarmed and Is wondering how much
| I really know.
March 9. No word from the hostile
camp. The Inference fs that / may
now look for move on my antago-
| nists' part. Otherwise. as he says IN
that precious note, there will have to
| be q new adjustment OF averages Pre-
cisely.
The position is probably a danger
GUS one. and l must take the obvious
precautions. 70 begin with. shall not
| leave these rooms until the affair Is
| over, and / have made arrangements
with an uptown restaurant to supply
1 4ilS Wil1 HiCulS All BSdASa f6S5E1S. i
| am thus Insured against q street as
sault and poison. But all this is prob
ably useless. The MagHus method Of
| attack viii be far more subtle.
| L have just written to Chivers that
two hundred thousand dollars will now
| be necessary If he wants those phone-
/ graphic records.
| March IL. have had a talk with
Louis, the janitor, about the Barowsky
/ "a fairs rFhrao IN he
big chair that faces the center table in
my living room The date in every
case was the 21st of March. If not an
| extraordinary coincidence, there is food
| for reflection in this plain statement.
! 1t gives me ten clear days, and I can
eat my dinner tonight in comparative
I comfort.
! March II. / have assumed that the
| psychological moment is scheduled for
| March 81, but both the direction and
| the nature of the blow are still un-
! known. / have made a minute exami-
! nation of the rooms and all that they
| contain, but can discover nothing in the
nature of a trap. There are no secret
/ doors, no coiiapsing walls, no hidden
| tubes for the dissemination of poison
GUS yapors. My windows are not over
| looked from any outside point of van
1 tage, thus eliminating the silent bullet
Of the air gun. In q word, the ma
tchinery of the melodrama seems to be
| entirely non-existent. And yet | know
/ that unless / can get the end of the
! clew before the 21st Of March ] shall
| sit dead in the big chair over there.
| just as the three who have gone before
/ me.
! March Is. Still no answer from
Chivers. I have sent him final COM
| munication fixing my price at $250,000,
| and saying that unless the proposition
| is accepted within three days further
negotiations will be broken off.
! March 10. The offer is accepted.
| At noon on Friday, the 21st, $3.50, zoo
] in negotiable securities will be placed in
| my hands, and / am to give in return
an order on the safe deposit company
for the photographic plates. But there
| is one paragraph in the letter that
| puzzles me. 1t reads:
| My client will come in person on
| Friday to conclude the business, but
! only in the event of the day being
bright and sunny. If-rainy or cloudy
you may expect him at q somewhat
! earlier hour on Saturday or the next
| clear day whichever it may be-
| "Now what does this mean? On the
| face of it, dlsinclination on the part
| of an elderly gentleman to expose him
| self to these chill March winds. But
| Magnus is not very old, and he does
not look in the least rheumatic.
| Il have forgotten to mention the one
popularity that / discovered in the
| furniture Of my living room. The big
chair is immovably fixed to the floor,
its heavy pivot base being riveted down
/ to an iron bed-plate. And the chair
| itself is not made of mahogany, as
| had supposed, but of an unknown
| metallic alloy that Stimulates the wood
| very closely. Well, I was prepared for
something like this.
Another interesting point. The
| windows in the living room face in a
| southerly direction. and the sun is now
| every day getting a little farther round.
| penetrating a little deeper. at every
| noon hour into the room. On the 21st
! it will cross the line, and at least one
ray will illumine a spot that for sew
| eral months has not been touched by
the direct sunlight. What spot?
'Tt is nearing IL o'clock. and as l
sit in the big chair can see the bar
Of golden light creeping steadily on
| ward. 1t reaches the chair, and half
way round the pivot base. Then the
| heavenly clock begins Its retrograde
movement, and the ray of sunlight is
| forced to retreat. But tomorrow it
will come a little farther, and SO again
| on the day after.
Around the sash in the big window
| the architect has inserted row OF
glass bulPS-eyes, style of ornamental
| tion suited to the semi Oriental tastes
of William H. Seward square. l go up
and examine them closely. They seem
ordinary enough-but Stopi The third
from the bottom; it has peculiar
depth and clearness. It might very
well be lens-a burning glass, to use
| the old-fashioned term. How close has
! the sun drawn to this particular Bulls
| eye? Tomorrow will take note.
| March 90. At high noon the sun
| has reached within hairs breadth OF
| the third bulls-eye from the bottom.
| Tomorrow 1t will surely shine through
my suspect, and If the latter be a true
! lens 1t will concentrate, for several
minutes. a high degree of heat at the
particular spot upon which its rays are
| focused. That spot I have found, by
experiment, to be one of a series of
| small bosses set in the pivot base OF
the big chair. applied the flame of
match and Immediately the metal boss
began to soften. I understand now.
The boss is made of fusible alloy that
| ulelts at q certain prearranged tenn
perature; It is simply variation OF
| the common safety plug used in all the
systems of mechanical protection
against fire. At noon tomorrow. March
! 21, the rays of the sun will be concen-
trated by the lens in the window sash
and will fall upon this boss Of fusible
metal The plug will melt, releasing
a spring, let us say. and train of