Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1908-12-04

ct repeat, NJ. lie Juge, that the secret
is not NINE
TT is no longer a secret which can
remain sacred here. A murder nas
beer committed. a murderer is to be
found, and everything you know you
ought to reveal to justice"
But il / give you my word or honor
that Il has not the slightest bearing on
the matter-with the death of Revere?
II shall tell my registrar to write
your very words In reply. He has done
1t. / shall continue to question you.
precisely because you speak TO me OF
| a secret which has been confided TO you
III which you refuse to disclose to me.
Because o do refuse"
Absolutely"
"In spite of what / have said to you?
1t is a warming. You know IL we'll"
In spite Of your warming"
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
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 a momen before he
replied, as If measuring these words n
searching to find out Just what NJ.
Ginory was driving at. This Silence,
short and momentous, was dramatic.
The magistrate knew ii well-that mo-
ment OF agony when the question seems
like a cord. like a lasso suddenly
thrown n tightening around mes
neck. There was always In his exam
lnatiOn a tragic moment
Il remember very we'll that / saw a
person whom / did not know enter the
room where / was with Nj. Revere"
Jacques Dantin replied at last.
"A person whom you did not know?
You knew her very we'll, since you
had more than once asked her If NJ.
Revere was at home. Thai person is
Mime. Moniche, who has made her depo-
Sition."
And what did she say in her depo-
sition?"
The magistrate took a pape from the
table In front of him and read: When
/ entered. NJ. Revere vas standing be-
fore his safe. and / noticed that the in
dividual OF whom l spoke (the indi-
vidual is YOU cast upon the
a look which made me cold. thought
TO myself. This man looks as If he is
meditating some bad deed"
That is to say brusquely said DAN
tin, who had listened with frowning
brows and with an angry expression,
that Nine. Moniche accuses me of
having murdered M. Revere"
You are in too much haste. Nine.
Moniche has not said that precisely.
She was only surprised-surprised and
friGhtened-at your expression as you
looked at the deeds, bills and cou-
pens"
Those coupons" asked Dantin
rather anxfously-'have they, then,
been s~tolen?"
"Ah, that we know nothing about!"
And the magistrate smiled. "One has
found in Royere's safe in the neighbour
hood Of 400 900 francs in pon city
of Paris bonds, shares in mining So
cieties, rent rolls, but nothing to prove
that there was before the assassination
more than that sum-"
Had IL been forced OPEN"
No; but any n familiar with the
dead man, a friend who knew the Sc
cret of the combination of the safe, the
-four letters forming the word could
nave opened it without trouble"
Among these words Dantin heard
n which struck him full in the face
friend" NJ. Ginory a pronounced
1t in an ordinary tone, but Dantin had
seized and read in it a menace. For a
the man who was being ques-
toned felt a peculiar sensation. II
seemed TO him one day when he had
been almost drowned during a boating
party that same agony hat seized
him; 1t seemed that he had fallen into
some abyss, some icy pool, which was
paralyzing him. Opposite TO him the
examining magistrate experienced a
contrary feeling. The caster of a hook
n 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, the
water polluted, red with blood and
mixed with mud.
abused the dead mans secret and
opened that safe. And that friend
what name did he bear? Whom did
M. Ginory wish to designate? Dantin,
in spite of his sang frold, experienced
q violent temptation 10 ask the man
what he meant by those words. But
the strange sensation which this in
terview caused him increased. 1t seem
ed to him that he had been there a
long time-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
If ~hypnotized by that man, who at
HTSl Hdu met MIN with q PHEASANT air,
and who now bent upon him those
hard eyes. Something doubtful, like
vague danger, surrounded him, men
aced him. Ind he mechanically followed
the gesture which M. Ginory made as
he touched the ivory buttons of an
electric bell as IL OIL this gesture de-
pended some event OF his life. A guard
entered. M. Ginory said to him In a
short tone: Have the notes been
brought"
M. Bernardet has just brought them
to me. NJ. lie Juge.7
(ContiRued Next Week.)