The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1908-12-03

"I repeat. NJ. lie JUICE. that the secret
is not mine"
1T is no longer a secret which can
remain sacred here. a murder mas
found, n everything you know you
ought to reveal to justice"
But if [ give you my word of honor
that it has not the slightest bearing on
the natter-with the death of Rovere?'
Il shall tell my registrar to write
your very words in reply. He has done
it. J. shall continue to question you,
precisely because you speak to me or
a secret which has been confided to you
and which you refuse to disclose to me.
Because you do refuse"
Absolutely"
I'm spite of what 1 have said to you?
1T is a warning. You know it Well"
In spite of your warning
Take care" M. Ginory softly said.
His angry face had lost it's wonted ami
bility. The registrar quickly raised his
head. He felt that a decisive moment
had come. The examining magistrate
looked directly into Dantin's eyes and
slowly said: You remember that you
were seen by the Fortress at the mo-
ment when Revere, standing with you
in front of his open safe, showed you
some valuables?"
Dantin waited q before he
replied. as if measuring these words and
searching to find out just what M.
Ginory was driving at. This silence.
short and ~momentous, was dramatic.
The magistrate knew it well-that mo-
ment of agony when the question seems
like a cord, like a lasso suddenly
thrown n tightening around ones
neck. There was always in his exam
nation a tragic moment.
i remember very well that I saw a
person whom L did not know enter the
room where l was with M. Rovere,"
Jacques Dantin replied at last.
"A person whom you did not know?
You knew her very well, since you
had more than once asked her if NJ.
Revere was at home. That person is
Mime. Moniche, who has made her depo-
Sition."
And what did she say in her depo-
sition?"
The magistrate took a paper from the
Lable IN front of him and read: When
l entered, NJ. Revere was standing be-
fore his safe, and 1 noticed that the in
dlvidual of whom l spoke (the indi-
Nlduai is YOU cast upon the III
a look which made me cold. I thought
to myself. This man looks as if he is
medttating some bad deed"
That is to say" brusquely said Dan
tin, who had listened with
broWs and with an angry expression.
that Nine. Moniche accuses me Of
having murdered M. Rovere."
You are in too much haste. Nine.
Moiilche mas not SAID that precisely.
She was only surprised-surprised and
friehtened-at your expression as Won
looked at h deeds, bills and cou-
pons."
Those coupons asked Danttn
rather anxiously-"have they, then.
been stolen:"
"Ah. that we know nothing about"
And the magistrate smiled. "One has
found in Royere's safe in the
hood of 100000 francs in coupons, city
OF Paris bonds. shares in mining So
%cletles, rent rolls, out nothing to prove
,liiat tneie was peIore the assassination
more than that sum-"
Had it been forced open?"
NO; u any one familiar with the
dead man. a friend who knew the Sc
cret or the combination of the safe, the
four letters forming the word could
nave opened it without trouble"
Among these words Dantin heard
one which struck him full in the face
.1flend-' M. Gtnory had pronounce
II in an ordinary tone, but Dantin had
seized and read in it a menace. For a
omen the mar who was being ul,es-
toned felt a peculiar sensation. It
seemed to him one day when he had
been almost drowned during a boating
party that same agony had seized
MIN; 1T seemed that he had fallen into
paralyzing him. Opposite to him the
examining magistrate experienced a
contrary feeling. The caster Of a hook
ana line feels a similar sensation. but
1T was intensified a hundred times in
the magistrate, a fisher of truth, throw
ing the line into a human sea tba
water polluted, red with blood ana
mixed with mud.
A friend. A friend could have
abused the dead mans secret and
opened that safe. And hat friend
what name did he bear? Whom did
M. Ginory wish to designate? Dantin.
In spite Of his sang froid, experienced
a violent temptation to ask the man
what he meant by those words. But
the strange sensation which this in
terview caused him increased. It seem
ed to him that he had been there a
long tfme-a very long time since he
had crossed that threshhold-and that
this little room, separated from the
world like a monks cell, had walls
thick enough to prevent any one from
hearing anything outside. He felt as
II hypnotized by that man. who at
first had met him with a pleasant air.
and who now bent upon him those
hard eyes. Something doubtful, like
agu danger, surrounded him. men
aced him, End he mechanically followed
the gesture which M. Ginory made as
he touched the ivory buttons Of an
electric bell as If on his gesture de-
pended some event of his life. A p,,ard
entered. M. Ginory said to him in a
short tone: Have the notes heen
brought?'
m. Bernardet has Just brought them
to me, NJ. lie Juge."
tcontisued Next Week.y