Evening star., 1909-07-13
CHAPTER v.
The Truth Suppressed.

Lie AIuIu suppressed.
BY this amazing discovery / was ab-
solutely staggered. All the grim theories
| had formed fell Instantly to the
/ ground.
The face of the dead woman was GER
tainly not that of Lydia Popescu-the
woman ] had seen in the hanson in the
courtyard of the Cecil. The white face
l had gazed upon was somewhat young
er than that Of Garshore's companion,
the features even more regular and more
beautiful. And yet, the black dress.
trimmed with silver seemed, as far as
1 could recollect, to be very similar to
that worn by the woman sight of whom
had filled Granny with mysterious and
bitter hatred.
Thoughts such as these flooded my
mind.
Cunliffe noted my confusion, no doubt,
but probably attributed it to the shock
consequent upon sight of the lifeless
woman. The mystery there was / saw
greater than l had anticipated
Why had the knife been taken from
my room-by Granny Cough undoubted-
ly-and why left there as evidence
examined it for blood stains, but, find
, ing none, had placed it aside, together
with several letters and other things,
including silver-topped. green glass
bottle of smelling salts that had been
Knocked over upon the floor in the
struggle they had discovered in their
search.
The letters quickly proved to be the
property of the proprietress of the house
and to have no bearing whatever upon
the identity of the fair foreigner. The
knife. however. was regarded by the
police with both curiosity and suspicion.
1t was their intention. Morton remarked,
to ask the owner of the house if it was
her property. In that l scented danger
danger to myself.
If that weapon were traced back to
me l should be suspected. and the sus-
.picion would be strengthened by the
fact that l had induced my friend Cum
life to allow me to accompany him
there. A fact well known to crimnolo-
gists is that the murderer will in many
cases return to the scene of his crime,
drawn there by some strange unex-
planned faScina tiOn--the fascination
Paris to go to the morgue and gaze
upon the bodies of their victims.
My presence there would. l felt con-
vinced. be the most weighty evidence
against me. And yet, what had l to
fearo 1 was innocent.
Granny might be the cause of
considerable unplesantness if any crime
were brought home to him.. He was an
cealment of the fact. He was an ad-
venturer, and yet an honest one wthal-
as honest, indeed. as half the men who
constitute what we today know as the
city"
Where had he gone? What really could
have happened? Ay, that was the great
question which was exercising my mind.
The men there with me. experts in the
investigation of crime, were all in utter
ignorance. I alone held the clue to this
secret-or, rather, would have held it had
the dead woman been the fair Rouman-
ian.
What Granny had told me regarding the
desire of the minister in Bucharest to get
rid Of her from Roumanian soil required
to me. Had there been some clever and
subtle conspiracy of which his excellency
the Minister SoutZo had been the insti-
gator? I had met the Roumanian states
man in question on two or three occasions
in Bucharest and l had heard rumors con-
cerning him and his gambling operations
at the jockey club, which were not Alto
gether creditable to minister of state.
He and his colleagues had been respon-
sible for the recent agrarian rising In
the north, in which so many Of the un-
fortunate peasantry were shot down. 1t
was said in Bucharest that he spent
every afternoon in the club from 3 to 4,
and openly challenged everybody to play
games of chance. He was a sportsman, it
was true, but some of his actions min
lister had been severely criticised by hon
est folk He had riser quickly from the
position of a third-rate advocate in
Ploesti, a provincial town, to become in a
few brief years the owner of a fine es-
tate at Hirsova and a member of the
Roumanian cabinet. How? Mainly by re-
ceiving bribes from foreign applicants
for concessions.
A man bearing such a character it was
but natural to suspect of cunning and
double-dealing Cough had declared that
the presence of Lydia Popescu. the hand
some woman / had seen in the cab, had
become distastefu to his excellency. She
knew too much in all probability. In
every country, save perhaps England and
the United States. woman has more or
less finger in the direction of the flow
of underground politics. In almost every
move of the game, If you probe deep
enough, you will find the woman.
(To be continued tomorrow