Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1908-10-16
II.

CHAPTER II.
Bernardet was quite an original
character. Among the agents, some of
whom were very odd, and among the
devoted subalterns this little man, with
his singular mind, with his Unsuitable
curiosity, reading anything he could
lay his hands on, passed for a literary
person. His chief sometimes laughing
ly said to him:
Bernardo, take care. You have
literary ambitions. You will begin to
dream of writing for the papers,
"Oh, no, NJ. Morel! But what would
you? l am simply amusing myself
This was true. Bernardet was d born
hunter. With a superior education he
might have become a savant. a fire.
quenter of libraries, passing his life in
working on documents and in deciph-
ering manuscripts. The son of a
dairyman, brought up in a Lam
c%astrial school, reading with avidity
all the daily papers, attracted
by everything mysterious which
happened in Paris, having accom-
plished his military duty. he ap-
piled for admission to the police bu-
reau, as he would have embarked for
the new world, for Mexico or for Ton
quin, in order TO travel in a new II
try. Then he married, so that he
might have in his checkered existence,
which was dangerous and wearying, a
haven of rest, a fireside of peaceful joy.
SO he lived a double life, tracking
malefactors like a bloodhound n Gull
tivating his little garden. There he
devoured old books, for which he had
paid a few sous at some book stall. He
read and pasted in Did odd leaves, re-
bound them himself and cut clippings
from papers. He filled his round, bald
head with a mass of facts which IN in
VA IAna - -A - - -
proper place, to be brought forth as
occasion demanded.
He was an inquisitive persona very
fnqutsitive person indeed. Curiosity
filled his life. He performed with pleas
ure the most f~atiguing and repulsive
tasks that fall to a police officers lot.
They satisfied the original need OF his
nature and permitted him to see every
thing, to hear everything, to penetrate
into the most curious mysteries-today,
in a dress suit with white tie, care
leSSly CHANGING Over the crowds at the
opera to discover the thieves who took
opera glasses, which they sent to ac-
completes In Germany TO be sold: to-
morrow going in a ragged clothes to
arrest q urder in some cutthroat
den in the Glaciere.
M. Barpardet had taken possession
of the office of the most powerful
bankers, seized their books and made
them go away with him in a cab. He
had followed, by order, the intrigues
of more h n fine lady, who owed
to him her salvation. What IL M. Ber-
nardet had thought fit to speak? But
he never spoke, and reporters came out
worsted from any attempt at an inter
view with him.. An interview is silver,
but silence is gold" he was wont 10
say, for he was not q fool.
He had assisted at spiritual seances
l nFl AfAtN1 sNa.N
archists. He had occupied himself with
occult matters, consulting the magi-
clans of chance, and he had at his
tongues end the list of conspirators.
He knew the true names of the famous
Greeks who shuffied cards as one scouts
about under al ssumed name. The
gambling hells were all familiar to
him. He knew the churches in whose
dark corners associates assembled to
talk of affairs, who did not wish to be
seen in beer shops or spied upon in
cabarets.
OF the millions in Paris ne knew the
secrets OF this whirlpool of humanity.
oh, If he had ever become project Of
police, he would have studied his
Paris, not at a distance, looking up
statistics in books, or from the win
dows of a police bureau, but in the
streets, In wretched lodgings, In novels,
in the asylums OF misery and of crime.
But Bernardet was not ambitious. Life
suited him very well as he found IL.
His good wife had brought to him a
small dover, and Bernardet, content
with this poo little fortune, found that
he had all the power he wanted-the
power, when occasion demanded, or
putting his hand on the shoulder of "a
former minister and of taking a muir
derer by the throat.
One day a %financier, threatened with
Imprisonment i'm Mazas, pleased him
very much. Bernardet entered his office
to arrest him. He did not wish to have
a row in the bank. The police officer
and banker found themselves alone,
face to face, in a very small room. a
private Office with heavy curtains and
a thick carpet, which stified all noise.
Fifty thousand francs IL you will let
me escape" sal the banker.
M. lie Comte jests."
"A hundred t~housand!"
The pleasantly is very great, but 1t
Is % pleasantly"
Then the count. very pale. said, And
what II / crack yoar flead?"
MY brother officsrs are waiting for
me-" Bernardet simply replied. They
know that our interview does not
promise to be a long one. and his last
proposition. which i wish to forget like
the Others, would only a~ggravate, I be-
lieve. II 1t became known, M. lie Comics
case"
Two minutes afterward the banker
went out, preceding Bernardet. who
A 1IA-AA H.. IA 49, a