The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-02-12
Continued from Yesterday,

NCOAtAhuCu LLOEU
-
Holmes n I had listened with the
utmost interest to this extraordinary
statement, which had been delivered
in the ierky, broker fashion of a ma
who is under the influence of extreme
emotions. My~companion sat silent now
for some time, with his chin upon his
hand. lost in thought.
Tell me- said he at last, could you
swear that this was a mans face which
you saw at the Window"
Each time that I saw it I was some
distance away from it, so hat it is
impossible for me to say"
"You appear, however, to have been
uisagreeably impressed by it,"
1T seemed to be of an unnatural
color. and to have a strange rigidity
about the features. When l APP
preached, it vanished with a jerk"
"How long is it since your wife asked
you for a hundred pounds?"
Nearly two months"
Have you ever seen a photograph
of her first husband?"
mo; there vas a great fire at At
lanta very shortly after his death, and
all her papers were destroyed"
And yet she had a certificate of
aGdLI. say llldI yOu odM II.
Yes; she got a duplicate after the
fire.
"Did you ever meet any one who
knew her in American
NO..
did she ever talk of revisiting the
place?''
Mo-
"or get letters from it?'
'N3." vs- ~
THANK you. 1 should k to hin
over the matter a little now. If the
cottage is nov permanently deserted
we may have some difficulty. If, on
the other hand, as I fancy is more
likely, the inmates were warned of
your coming, and left before you en-
tered yesterday, then they may be
back now, and we should clear it all
up easily. Let me advise you, then,
to return to Norbury, and to examine
the windows of the cottage again. If
o have reason to believe that it is
inhabited, do not force your way in,
but send a wire to my friend and me.
We shall be with you within an hour
of receiving it, and we shall then very
soon get to the bottom of the bust
ness"
And if it is still empty?"
In that case 1 shall come out to-
morrow and talk it over with you.
Goodby, and, above all, do not fret
until you know that you really nave a
cause for it,"
81 am afraid tina this is a bad bust
ness, Watson said my companion,
as he returned after accompanying
Mr.. Grant Munro to the door. what
do you make of it?'
"Tt had nm YoIu co,,nd - 7 ooeuroco5
Yes. There's blackmail in it, or 1
am much mistaken
And who is the blackmailer?"
"Well, it must be the creature who
lives in the only comfortable room in
the place, and has her photograph
above his fireplace. Upon my word,
Watson, there is something very at
tractive about that livid face at the
window, and l would not have missed
the case for worlds"
You have a theory?'
Yes. a provisional one. But l shall
be surprised if it does not turn out to
be correct. This woman first hus-
band is in that cottage"
why do you think so?"
How else can we explain her fren-
zicd anxiety that her second one
should not enter it? The facts, as l
read them, are something like this:
This woman was married in America.
Her husband developed some hateful
qualities; or shall we say that he on
tracted some loathsome disease, and
became a leper or an imbecile? She
flies from him at last, returns to Eng
land, changes her name and starts her
life, as she thinks, afresh. She has
been married three years, and believes
that her position is quite secure. hav-
ing shown her husband the death GER
ti1cate of some man whose name she
has assumed, when suddenly her
whereabouts is discovered by her first
husband; or, we may suppose, by some
INSCRIPTIONS woman who has attached
herself to the invalid. They write to
the wife, n threaten to come and
expose her. She asks for a hundred
pounds, and endeavors to buy them
off. They come in spite of it, and when
the husband mentions casually to the
wife that there are newcomers in the
cottage, she knows in some way that
they are her pursuers. She waits until
her husband is asleep, and then she
PUSHES down to endeavor to persuade
them to leave her in peace. Having
no success, she goes again next MORN
ing, and her husband meets her, as
he has told us, as she comes out. She
promises him then not to go there
again, but two days afterwards the
hope of getting rid of those dreadful
neighbors was too strong for her, and
she made another attempt. taking down
with her the photograph which had
probably been demanded from her. In
the midst of this interview the maid
rushed in to say that the master had
como home, on which the wife, know
ing that he would come straight down
to the cottage, hurried the inmates out
at the back door, into the grove of fir
trees, probably, which was mentioned
a. standing neal In this way he