The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-22
THE ALTENBURG CASE
Bv GEORGE DIRE ELDRIDGE
COPYRIGHT. 1909, BY GEORGE DYRE ELDR1DGE

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 l Fry made his note of this disappear ance, significant as it might prove, both from the time of it's occurrence and because of the seemingly utter failure of one and all to take note of It. If there had been a. bulldog alive around that farm that night he would surely. have been heard from, whence | 1t seemed to Fry that degree of preparation not before supposed was indicated. There could but be signi- f1cance in the vanishing of dog that was alive and close at home at 6 o'clock, andsyet utterly gone two hours later, when the need of him was most pressing.
 Fry.
 l Non. An meets nobody only ze dog. He geets heem out of my vay.'''
 Who? The dog?'
 l Non. non. An tells you An meets ze dog. An say. Go home!' ze man he geets heem out of ze way" l What mani? You haven't said any thing about a man." said Fry, on the alert at once. ] l "Ze man zat walks in front me- Ze l | 'Sacre,' An tink; Inais, he geets out ze l way into ze trees. He hides''
 ''The devil he didp' exclaimed Fry.
 What'd he do that for? Was he l afraid of you?'
 zis way; he looks zat way; he go! He ees not dair: he lak ze dog; he gop' | Was he going toward the farm?" asked Fry.
 "Ah, oui. He come; he see me; he stop. Zen he go! He no here: he no | zair he where? Me, An cannot tell: he go. An tink he hide"
 Il Did you see enough of him to know who he wasp asked the impatient Fry.
 An not see heem goot. An see heem in ze dark; mais, he look lak ze doc
 taire cen ze vile; ze doctaire viz ze
 funny names; what you call heem,
 hain't eet ?'' I "Not Grimbleshaw,' interrupted Fry.
 "Oui. oui. oui! Be Greembr shah; zat
 heem; ze doctaire viz ze funy names; ze Greembr shah!"
 And he was coming toward the
 farm at 6 o'clock. and hid in the woods i, | when ne saw your 1Ou1, oui. He zair; he come: he : gone, zip! An look he zair; An look
 anoder tam. he not zair. An know not where he go. Me. An see .heem no
 morer'
 The sting of this discovery was that
 it's source lay so near the surface that any possible that Trafford should not
 already have stumbled upon it. In
 deed, the situation suggested to Fry,
 whose suspicious were already aroused by his own purpose to play double
 with his chief. that a trap had been
 set to catch him. Why else had he 7 been assigned to. work on the Cana ii dian, when anybody might have pump ed him and got out of him all that he , was so ready to tell? Yet the doubt whether it was so or not presented , just those conditions that were em-
 barrassng. If this was what Trafford had done. then he had it in his power completely to blind the latter as to his
 own purposes by going and telling him
 what he had found out. On the other ! hand. if it was not so, it was clearly
 the proper thing to keep the informa- tion secret. both as running in line
 with his suspicious as to Grimbleshaw and as confirming his fear of Traf- ford's intention to shield him. i Still. he was too shrewd a man to . study a difficult situation long with
 out finding some plausible excuse for doing as he wished, and this came I with the consideration that fairness 1 demanded he should first make certain whether or not the physician was in the vicinity of the farm at the time
 named. Davidis statement was simply t that the man he saw looked like the doctor but there was also the state :: ment that it was dark and that the s man disappeared quickly, so that the
 resemblance was made at least ques- tionable. It clearly was not fair to throw this added suspicion on a man already looked at askance by the pub-
 lie without first exhausting every means of information. The most seri-
 ous consideration that assailed him in
 the purposed course was the impossi- = bility of preventing David giving to others the same information that he ! had been able so easily to extract from , | him. He could see no way of avoid- ' ing this risk, and so had to make up his mind to take it.
 Aside from the question of heSiden- | tification of Dr. Grimbleshaw as the
 mysterious individual seen near the farm, the suddenly evolved bulldog had
 self vigorously to the task of discov- | ering his fate.