The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-14


 unhappy woman, who had assumed the name of Madame George, had not been l able to find a trace of him. Rudolph, bent on knowing the poor and l the criminal as they really were, took a personal part in the search, Clad as an artisan he went into the low quarters of Paris and mingled with the people In their wine shops and dives So it happened that one stormy night in the autumn of 1898 found him as a fan painter in the White Rabbit one of the worst of the thieves refuges that lined the narrow streets between the Palace of Justice and Notre Dame Cathedral
 He sat beside a former convict known as Slasher because the crime for which he had served 15 years in the galleys had been the stabbing of some comrades while he was in the army after they had goaded him into fury.
 On the other side sat a girl whose presence in such place would have seemed amazing to any stranger.
 She was not more than 16. Her face was a perfect oval and almost angelic in expression. Long eyelashes half yelled a pair of beautiful, melancholy blue eyes. Her small, touchingly sad mouth was like a rose. Splendidly shining auburn hair crowned her. Even in her shabby, ugly clothes she looked almost royal.
 Yet she was only poor waif of the dens-a girl of unknown percentage, taught to beg in her childhood by an old hag and thief, seized and put Into a re- formatory while still hardly more than an infant and turned loose when she had become IS without advice or guarding hand to save her from the sin of a great city.
 Wretches who found their profit Tn it had met her even at the reformatory doors and lured her into their low quar- ters. She had been there for some weeks when Rudolph met her by chance and in quired into her history.
 La Goualeuse," as they called her, be- cause of her sweet voice. was still telling her story when she stopped suddenly with little cry of terror.
 Two truly frightful creatures had en- tered One was a man whose every mo- tion betokened a vast strength That even the most reckless ruffffian in the place feared him was evident from the haste with which all made room for him, as the whisper ran around the den "The Schoolmaster!"
 Rudolph shuddered when he saw this creatures face It was scared, furrowed and eaten away in every direction as by some friehtful burn
 The woman with him was an old, skin ny, bony wretch, with an extraordinarily hooked nose and a single round green eye which had earned her the most ap- proprate name of Screech Owl
 Hardly had the woman entered before she spied La Goualeuse, and sprang at her with a cry: why, I should recog- nize you! To be sure Come! You must go with me! I think that I shall be able to find who your parents were!'
 The Goualeuse shrank behind Rudolph. The Schoolmaster reached over to grasp her. Rurodph sprang up to oppose him. At that moment gigantic coal heaver entered the place, hurled the ruffian to one side and pulled Rudolph away. Be- fore the Schoolmaster could interpose the two had vanished with the girl. The coal heaver was Sir Walter.
 The next day La Goualeuse, still im- agining Rudolph to be poor artisan, was taken by him to model farm which he had started near Paris under the management of Madame George. That good woman took the girl gladly into her keeping on learning her story, and poor little Goualeuse, bewildered at her res- cue felt as if she had been taken to heaven.
 The Grand Duke immediately set his agents to work to find out from the Screech Owl and the Schoolmaster what they knew of the girls percentage; but the old thief was too cunning. Rudolph decided to trap them.
 He baited a house in a retired avenue with plate and money so arranged near windows that the Slasher was able to show 1t to the Schoolmaster. The School master decided to rob the place that knight, and the Slasher, who had con- ceived a dog-like affection for M. Ru- dolph," lost no time in notifying him at an appointed rendezvous.
 The vermin entered the trap and its jaws closed on them. Before he knew tt the Schoomaster was seized by four great fellows, thrust into a big chair and bound fast after he had been searched.
 A large pocketbook full of papers was taken to Rudolph, who waited in an ad- joining room They startled him. He had made a wonderfully lucky capture.
 The first document that he picked up showed that he had caught no less a villain than Anselm Duresnel, the hus- band of Madame George
 The Slasher had already told him that the Schoolmaster was known to be an escaped convict from the galleys, who had burned his face with vitriol, to defy identification-a process successful be- yond his desire, since it had practically obliterated his entire face.
 The next bundle of papers furnished evidence that Duresnel had committed no less than three murders since his escape.
 Then came the papers concerning La Goualeuse. They showed that the girl had been delivered to a vagabond by 8 Madame Seraphine, who had then been and still was housekeeper for a promi- rand. The vagabond had turned the lit- tie one over to the Screech Owl, who had learned of Madame Seraphine's connec- tion with the case only recently and was xxrtf ha nlrvno tartu