Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-12-08
CHAPTER x.
I Astonish the Inspector.

l was not the only one to tremble
now. This man Of infinite experience
and daily contact with crime had
turned as pale as ever / myself had
done in face OF threatening calam-
fly
81 shall see about this" he NUT
tered, crumpling the paper in his
hand. "But this is a very terrible
business you are plunging me into. |
sincerely hope that you are not heed
lessly misleading me-
u am correct in my facts, If that is
what you mean" said I. "The stiletto
is an English heirloom, and bears on
its blade, among other devices, that Of
Mr.. Grey's family on the female side.
But that Is not all want to say. If
the blow was struck to obtain the dia-
mond, the shock of not finding it on
his victim must have been terrible.
Now Mr. Grey's heart, If my whole
theory is not utterly false, was set up
on obtaining this stone. Your eye
was not on him as mine was when
you made your appearance in the hall
with the recovered jewel. He showed
establishment, eagerness, and deter
mination which finally led him for
ward, as you know, with the request
to take the diamond in his hand. Why
did he want to take it in his hand?
And why, having taken 1T, did he drop
tia diamond supposed to be worth
an ordinary mans fortune? Because
he was startled by cry he chose to
consider the traditional one of his
family proclaiming death? Is it likely
sir? Is it conceivable even that any
such cry as we heard could, in this
day and generation, ring through such
an asSemblage, unless it came with
ventriloquial power from his own lips?
You observed that he turned his back;
that his face was hidden from us.
Discreet and reticent as we have all
been, and careful in our criticisms of
so bizarre an event, there still must
be many to question the reality Of
such superstitious fears, and some to
ask If such sound could be without
human agency, and very guilty
agency, too. Inspector, l am but a
child in your estimation, and feel my
position in this matter much more
keenly than you do, but 1 would not
be true to the man whom I have un-
Willingly helped to place In his pres.
ent unenviable position if did not
tell you that, in my Judgment, this cry
was a spurious one, employed by the
gentleman himself as an excuse for
dropping the stone"
"And why should he wish to drop
the stone?"
I Because of the fraud he meditated.
Because it offered him an opportunity
for substituting false stone for the
real. Did you not notice change in
the aspect Of this jewel dating from
this very moment? Did it shine with
as much brilliancy in your hand when
you received 1t back as when you
passed 1t over?"
Nonsense! / do not know; it is all
too absurd for argument" Yet he did
stop to argue, saying in the next
breath: "You forget that the stone
has setting. Would you claim that
this gentleman of family, place and
political distinction had planned this
hideous crime with sufficient premedi-
tation to have provided himself with
the exact counterpart of a brooch
which it is highly improbable he ever
saw? You would make him out a
Cagliostro or something worse. Miss
Van Arsdale, fear your theory will
topple over of it's own weight
He was very patient with me; he
did not show me the door