Evening star., 1907-10-13

ing to give the thing back II he would
| the room already ransaeked and the fell
low dead when he arrived at the address
given him: that he was searching for his
property when Gfrard appeared on the
! scene.
Couldn't he have shown the note sent
by the thief?' asked Aunt LII.
He did show how note but i does e,,,t hin II,
tell what the thing was the thief had
taken from him. except that It was vaiu-
able. It does look as II he were deter
mined to make the case as black as pos
sible against himself; but then. as I said
before, no doubt he has good reasons"
| "He has no good luck, anyhow sighed
Aunt Lii who always liked lvor.
Rather nOt-so far. Why. one Of the
| worst bits Of evidence against him Is that
! the concierge of this house In the Rue de
| la File Savage swears that though Dun
half an hour when the detective arrived.
| he was there then for the second time;
| that he admitted 1t when he came. The
| first visit he made. according to the con-
| cierge, was about an hour before the sec
ond: the concierge was already In bed In
his little box, but not asleep when man
| rang and an English sounding voice asked
| for Monsieur Gestre. On hearing that
Gestre was away the visitor said he would
see the gentleman who was stopping IN
| Gestre's room. BY and by the English
| man went out, and on being challenged
said he might come back again by and by.
After awhile the concierge was walked up
once more by caller for Gestre. who an
nounced that he'd been there before. and
now he vows that 1t was the same man
both times though Dundas denies having
called twice. If he could prove that he'd
been In the house no more than half an
hour 1t might be all right. for two doc.
been dead more than an hour when they
were called in. But he can't or won't
prove it-that's his luck again and no
body can be found who saw him In any
Of the streets through which he mentions
passing. The last moment that he can
be accounted for is when cabman,
who'd taken him up at the hotel just after
he left US, set him down In the Rue de
Courbvoie, not so very far from the Elysee
Palace. Then 1t was only between Ave
and ten minutes past IL, SO he could
easily have gone on to the Rue de la Fflle
Salvage afterward and killed his man at
the time when the doctors say the fellow
must have died. It's q bad scrape. But
of course. Dundas will get out of 1t some-
how or other In the end
Aunt LII.
II hope so with all my heart" he an
swered. But his face showed that he was
deeply troubled. and my heart sank
downtown.
AS realized more and more the dan
ger In which Ivor stood my resentment
against him began to seem curfously
trivial Nothing had happened to make
me feel that had done him an injustice
In thinking he cared More for Maxine de
Renzie than for me-indeed. on the con-
trary. everything went to prove his su-
preme loyalty to her whose name he had
refused to speak. even for the sake of
clearing himself. Still. now that the world
was against him, my soul rushed to stand
by his side. to defend him, to give him
love and trust in spite Of all.
Down deep In my heart l forgave him.
even though he had been cruel, and
yearned over him with an exceeding ten
derness. More than anything on earth. l
Indeed. as the talk went on while that
terrible meal progressed 1 thought I saw
way to do 1t. II Lisa and should act
together.
that I could hardly wait to get back to
our own hotel from the Ritz. Fortunate
ly, nobody wanted to sit long at lunch. so
1t wasn't yet when l called her INTO
my room. The men had gone to make
different arrangements about starting, for
we were not to leave Paris until they mad
had time to do something for Ivor. Uncle
Eric went to see the British ambassador
and Aunt Lillian had said that she would
be busy for at least an hour writing let
ters and kilograms to cancel engagements
we had had in London. For awhile Lisa
and 1 were almost sure not to be inter-
rupted, but l spoke out abruptly what was
in my mind. not wishing to lose a minute.
II think the only thing for us to do l
SaiQ, IS 10 Tell what we KNOW, anu save
Ivor In spite of himself"
How can anything you know save
him." she asked. with queer. faint
emphasis, which l didn't understand.
Don't you see' l cried. that II we
come forward and say we saw him In the
Rue d'Hollande at quarter past twelve
going into a house there-he couldn't
have murdered the man in that other
house. far away. 1t all hangs on the
time
But you didn't see him go in.'' Lisa
contradicted me.
1 stared at her. You did. Isn't it the
same thing?"
mo. not unless / choose to say So"
"And-but you will choose. You want
to save him. of course"
"Whyr'
Because he's innocent. Because he's
your friend"
mo man Is the friend Of any woman
If he's In love with another"
''Oh, Lisa, does sophistry of that sort
matter? Does anything matter except
saving him.
II don't consider" she said. in slow.
aggravating way, that Ivor Dundas has
behaved very well toto our family. But
I want you to understand this Dr. If he Is
to be got out of this danger-no doubt
it's real dangerIn any such way as you
propose. it's for me to do 1t. not you.
He'll have to owe his gratitude to me.
And there's something else I can do for
him. perhaps-I. and only I. A thing OF
value was stolen from him, it seems;