Evening star., 1909-08-26
XVI-Continued.

Their descriptions correspond to the
extent of his wearing trousers. though
not to the color of the article Beyond
that he had whiskers and he hadn't: he
was very tall and he was short: he was
dressed in gray and he was dressed in
black, and he weighed all the way from
one-fifty to double that
| Its queer" said Fry. interested in
spite of himself, that people should be
born with eyes when. as a rule, they're
| of so little use to EN-
Having eyes they see not" said Traf-
ford. who had finished packing. and now
threw an overcoat over the chair on
which he had placed his bag. stood his
umbrella beside them. and came and
seated himself at The table. His care in
little things and the utter absence of
| haste in all his movements had never
ceased to impress Fry. as familiar as he
was with these characteristics He
waited. under a sense of absence of i'm
patience. for Trafford's next remark.
! 'Two-thrds. perhaps nine-tenths. of
the things we spend our time trying to
ferret out and piece together pass under
the eyes of people who, if they only had
the power to see, could save us an infinite
amount of time and trouble"
| Or the power to tell what they see,
suggested Fry.
Trafford nodded assent to the amend
ment.
There's nothing one must be more
careful about than condolences. Traf-
ford went on. 'They have a fascination
of their own that often leads to our ex-
| aggerating their Importance. Still. one
can scarcely avoid asking, Could a
stranger know that drink would send
David to the village that night?"
| why need it have been a Stranger"
! .'Oh. the boys would have been quick
enough to recognize him otherwise. One
of the two must have known him. There s
| no man in this town who wouldn't be
known. to one of any two boys of the
town that you could bring together. d
trust 'em quickern any two men,
| He went to town with the intention of
getting drunk" said Fry. thoughtfully.
''That much had out of him..
'Yes. with that one drink aboard take
1t that the drunk was sure. But would a
| stranger know that?''
Still. I'm with you that it was a
| stranger. You can trust those kids to
have known and told If it wasn't. A
| LancebOrO youngster only a little less
than murder on the highway or an open
robbery AS to telling of it. they'd be
less frightened and more delighted
! I'm clearly of the opinion that 1t was
a stranger" said Trafford.
THAT settles it them" said Fry. who
was not averse to giving a little judicious
1attery to salve the criticism he had felt
it his duty to indulge in openly and Sc
| cretly.
1T settles nothing said Fry. sharply.
Probably. though, I'm right but I'm
leaving 1t for you to find out"
| Fry breathed easier The lecture and
! rigging had been far less than he had ex-
pected and had ended in an expression
of confidence.
Given a Canuck' he hazarded. feeling
bold to theorize under the condition af-
| fairs had assumed, land stranger to the
| individual need not, necessarily, be ig-
norant of that breed of cattle. He'd be
safe in calculating in ninety-nine cases
| in hundred that drink would set him
going.
well. that's for you to find out" re
peated Trafford, land you'll be a good
deal more likely to get at reliable results
| If you stop generalizing and get at the in
dividual, and especially If you lay aside
your prejudice, founded on race. religion
or something and go at the affair on the
! solid ground Of fact"
After pause to let this soak in." as
Fry said to himself, Trafford came back
| to his purposed absence.
I'm going to be away three or four
| days" he said. ''Thatll give you time to
look up this matter. Aside from that all
that l see now that you'll have to do Is
just to keep an eye on the Altenburg
| house, not let Calden or Grimbleshaw out
i L,
give it attention. BY the way. you needn't
bother any about that white bulldog. If
| he's needed any time l can putt my hand
on him.
1t would have been so easy and plaus-
ible for Fry to say Il didn't want to
bother you about him until / knew" that
it seemed to Trafford almost a merit in
him not to say it.
by the way" said Trafford. moment
after glancing at a paper the other had
laid before him and showing that he
garded the former incident as closed. Il
see that the Canadian mentioned Grimble-
shaw"
"Yes, met him. or thought he met him,
in the woods when he was on the way to
the village and his drunk.
| There seems to be quite a feeling in
the village that Grimbleshaw knows more
about this affair than he's telling
| Yes. they're saying now he could just
as we'll have disconnected the telephone
as any one else"
| "Of course" continued Trafford, half
musingly. when we come down to facts
the only thing we've got as to what
Grmbleshaw found at the house. or what
went on there. for the matter of an hour
or more. is Grimbleshaw's own story. For
| anything anybody who's turned up yet
knows. he may have done the ransacking
of the trunk and turned the room upside
down.
Are you forgetting Phil Barbero''
asked Fry, who found something to weigh
seriously in this new line adopted by
Trafford, and was not averse to get time
to weigh it.
The public can hardly be expected to
take Barber seriously It's far more like
ly to weigh the fact that Grimbleshaw W
got rid of Barber before he really had a
chance to see anything. and that all his
mysterious visitors had vanished before
help got to him.
| oh" CALCULATED Fry. Trafford was
clearly casting about for a measure of
the public's attitude, not attempting his
own opinions.
Naturally Trafford went on, ''its
told with them that he seemed SO famil-
lar with the house. It's calculated to
arouse suspicion that he'd been there be-
fore.
Yes" admitted Fry. they've been say
ing that down to Bickford's and the post
Office
How can you expect it to be other
wise? Perhaps Grimbieshaw has grounds
for complaint, but not for surprise. GER
tainlv AS to the disabling Of the phone
people are sure to see that he could have
telephoned for the police after he got his
work done and then have disabled the
instrument. Twas he. according to Nal
bon who called attention to its condi-
ton"
'.Oh. twas he all right said Fry.
eagerly. "Malbon told me so at the
time
"A shrewd way of securing witnesses
that he was there as a physician. doing