Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-02-09


would remove him from her path once
and forever.
This last question seemed so unan-
swerable that l paused TO look III II
again, for it was evident that one
really insuperable objection must in
validate the whole theory. BY the
commission OF Il crime, especially Of
q crime 50 serious as this one. would
he not place himself as much i'll Miss
CroydoI'S power aS she could possibly
he in his: If she were still III his
power. then lac had committed no
crime. and if he had committed nc
crime, why. of course he had not killed
| Thompson. But in that case who had:
Where had thai diamond come from?
| knocked out my pipe ana filled il
again. | felt Il good deal rs though
was wandering around and around III
IA maze. | was getting Il little dizzy.
Ii Tremane had not killed Thomp-
| son. / asked myself again. who had?
! Not Miss Croydon. To suppose that Il
delicately reared girl would smash Il
man over the head with y piece Of pipe
was to descend To the ridiculous. Yet
| if he had attacked her she might have
nel'ved herself TO DO it, But that was
| absurd. too. since admittedly She had
Il pistol in her pocket and was not
! afraid to use ii. Who else. then:
Jimmy the Dude? But he had already
| proved an alibi: besides. Il motive was
wanting.
fEhn,, | 4hrr,1l,T Of .'n,il,- Iny1II 81
have been the assassin? Certainly il
was not Impossible. That last savage
act, that shooting of an unconscious
man, fitted i'll somehow with my esti
mate OF her character. She might have
done that. But why should Miss Croy
don seek TO shield her? Was it Cecily
who possessed the secret: Was there
some connection between them? ] re
membered the other famous case il
which had been engaged-must | loob
for the same solution here? Was there
u blood relationship between Cecily
and Miss Croydon? Clearly such I
thing was possible. | even fancied thai
one. knowing them both. might be able
10 detect subtle resemblance. l clOSel
my eyes and endeavored to recall the
features of Miss CroydOn's portrait
her face had much in common will
Cecily'S. Both We're dark, both were
\ knock at the door brought me on
Of my thoughts. | opened il and founC
the janitor standing there.
Its nothing very much. Higgins"
said, but thought you'd better fix i
before it got any worse. The carpe
has come loose here along the door
Three or four taeks are all it needs"
He stepped over the threshold ant
looked at il.
"All right. sir he said. "FlI fix it il
tn mornn'. Them fellerS what put III
carpet down didn't half do their work
/ tackled Il loose place down over Their
by tn wall jest afore you moved in"
"Wherc was it," l asked as calml.
us l could.
Right here by this angle" he said
indicating the place with his foot Sc
think maybe III better go all aroun,
tn walls tmorrer."
perhaps it would he best" l sale
Thank you" And I closed the doc
upon him.
The next instant | was down on m
hands and knees tearing away the cuI
pet, my blood singing in my ears.
had found them-the clippings-it wa
. here they must be hidden. But fo
those chance tacks driven by the jaI
, itOr Tremaine would have had posses
sion of them long ago, and perhaps W
/. should never have penetrated the my:
i terry of ThGmpson's death. Now
: would be laid bare before us - tn
, whole secret. What little thing
! was that had saved us.
l had the carpet loose-I turned
back. and there they lay. that little TO
4. of clippings, just as they had bee
z taken from ThompSOn'S pocketbool
s They We're 10 tell us the whole story
l we could not again he led astray.
was quite calm again. | picked thei
= up carefully and laid them Oh my desl
q Then l washed my hands and filed m
p pipe. There was Il certain eXuuisit
: pleasure in holding myself back frol
0 them, in tantalizing myself. in defc
= ring for u moment or two the revel
5 ton which was to come.
But at last ! sat down and sprea
them ont on the desk before me- Thel
q were twelve of them, some only fe
= lines in length. others Of half column
. OF one there We're four copies. but ,
e the others only one apiece. They wei
=, tattered and stained from long carr
!, ing: some We're in English and son
II were in French, and they were date
from places as far apart as Diepp
New York. Sydney.
r. piled them carefully beside me al
k started hopefully on the task of d
z ciphering t!em-of piecing together Il
T. story they had to tell me. But Il
IA farther l proceeded the more n
spirits fell, for they told no story. the
seemed 10 have no relation to eat
90 other-nO common thread APPARENT
81 they had been gathered aimlessly
PPS9 haphazard TO satisfy the whim of Il
"A moment. Ore chronicled a wreck