Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-23

The man swore a horrible oath and erpped
the back of Jordisons chair with his fingers.
The latter did not look round at him. but his
right hand stole TO his pocket, though search.
| ing for his handkerchief
Take my word for it. Ipp" he said ouiety
You are safe enough here"
-Wot OF Jermy and Susanson?" said the
I "Ihere'll be thousand pound reward for this
! JOB, may be five thousand pound may be ten
thousand pound Ole 'Etherstone won't spare
expense Dyer think 'uman natur' II stand il
Jordison made no reply But the thought ran
through his mind that he himself was equally
dangerous to Bpp. He kept his hand in his
pocket.
Dyer think I'm goin' to put my neck in their
dirty ands, or yours either?" continued the ruff
fan, echoing Jordson's own thoughts. 81 amt
such babe and sucking"
Jordison turned sharply round and caught the
look in his servants eyes-a murderous evil look
lie also saw pair of thick muscular hands un.
pleasantly near the back Of his neck. The man
drew back, as he turned, and showed his yellow
teeth.
"That'n do, Bpp" Jordison said; an see
that Jenny and Susanson keep their mouths shut
AS Tor me, I'm in the same boat as yourself
Now, will you kindly go, as / want to read my
letters and finish my breakfast, and, mark you
Lipp, no tricks. You'll find me an unpleasant
person to deal with if you cut up rough. But
if you stick to me I'll stick to you. Do you
understand"
Eyes, guvnor," the man replied; 'but gi' me
your solemn oath"
Jordlson rose to his feet and neld out his hand
Here's my hand on it, Lpp, and my word
of honor"
The took the proffered hand and peered
into Jordison's face. Then he grinned and the
master knew what was passing through the ser.
wants mind, and his face flushed. Word Of
honor!" The phrase had come to his lips from
the past, when it had had a real meaning.
There's honor among thieves" he said bitter
ly; you can trust me, Lipp."
"Swelp me bob, I believes yer guvnor. I'll
stick to yer"
Neither Jermy nor Susanson must leave the
house until I've decided how to keep their mouths
shut. l can rely you to see to that"
Fright guvnor" the man answered, as he
slouched out of the room.
| When the door closed Jordison hastily swallow.
ed few more mouthfuls of breakfast but his
eyes never left the letter which lay on the right
of his plate, and every and then he fingered
| it expectantly. The envelope was thick to the
touch, and bore monogram of B and w. inter.
twined gracefully as to be barely intellgibe
| When he had finished his breakfast he tore
open the envelope, and, pulling out several sheets
of paper, studied them carefully.
The letter from Messrs Briggs & Warlock ran
as follows:
/
structions we sent out our special agent to Val.
paraiso to investigate the supposed death Of
your son. We enclose you his report, from which
we regret to learn that Mr. Richard BehaQ is
undoubtedly dead and was in all probability mur.
dered by his friend, Mr. Arthur Sterious Per.
haps you will wish to let the matter end at this
point. If you desire to trace the murderer of
your son our services at your disposal We
have so far not gone beyond your instructions.
We are, dear sir,
Yours respectfully,
BRIGGS & WARLOCK."
Enclosed was the following report. written on
foreign paper in a neat but commonplace hand,
DEAR MIR. WARLOCK:
81 sailed for Buenos Ayres August o Within
few hours of my arrival | called on the chief
of police and asked for his cooperation in the
matter which had been placed in my hands He
treated me with GOODNESS, but when | carelessly
pulled out my wallet on pretence of searching for
a letter, and thereby disclosed considerable
bundle of English banknotes. his manner under
went marked change and at the end of half
an hour we became the best of friends A week
afterward L received note from him asking me
to call at his private house, and there with
the help of some excellent wine and cigars he
told all that he knew about Richard benag
at appears that when Behag left his shin at
MI
trading house of Hicks, Sterious & Company, who
were one of the leading English firms in the city.
He seems to have been a young man of con.
siderable intelligence and more than average edu.
cation, for by the end of the year I find that he
had been promoted to the responsible position of
head cashier. 1t also seems that he mad formed
somewhat undesirable friendship with Young
Arthur Sterious. The latter was the eldest son
of the principal partner in the firm From all
that 1 could gather he appears to have been a
young man of athletic build and pursuits but OF
a peculiarly wild and vicious character. They
were both fond of the Arthur Sterious own.
ed two yachts, one the Pajarito, small fve-ton.
ner, and the other the Pajaro, ffty-tonner.
Behag had been a sailor by profession and was
probably glad to be passenger on the bigger
boat, else potter about in the smaller one for
his own amusement. At any rate he seems to
have spent much of his spare time on the water
'Then one Sunday morning Behag and Sterious
went out in the Pajarito, and since that day no
one has ever set eyes on them again
at was fine warm day with slight souther-
" breeze. Both experienced sailors and
It is extremely unlikely that they could have
come to grief in fair weather. But for all that
the Pajarito was never picked up. A week af.
terward her dinghey came ashore twenty miles
north of Valparaiso, bottom upward.
"The general opinion at the time was that for
some reason other the yacht had foundered.
and that the two men had put off in the dinghey
and met with an accident in the open sea.
"But three months afterward it was r1mored
that the great firm of Hicks, Sterious & Com
pany were in difficulties. A month later they
failed, and in the subsequent inquiries into the
matter it came out that they had been robbed of
cash and negotiable securities to the enormous
amount of two hundred thousand pounds and
that the fraud had been discovered twenty-four