The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-05-29
CHAPTER TX. :.
Sweet Are the Uses Of

N0VSt stoSUtSuhs
/. The spurious Stephen Quaintance
thus successfully launched on his
nefarious enterprise, and the man
whose empty place In the world he
meant to usurp firm in his resolve
to have nothing whatever to do
with the dead Miles Quaintance' S
project or the money 1t would pro-
duce, time licked away five full
days of the few that were left be.
fore the IL months should be up
and the dead mans adopted daugh.
ter become entitled to all those
millions.
The real Stephen Quaintance felt
safely assured that the strange
precautions he had taken for her
welfare would in due course result
satisfactorily for her and himself
He had paid a long price, at his
own discretion, for the right to
live his own life, to follow out his
own ambitions. He had only one
aim now, and it engrossed him en-.
tirely, to the exclusion of all other
interests.
He had spent these days in an
exhaustive but fruitless search OF
the Long Island suburbs, where II
seemed just possible that the girl
whom he meant to marry might
have her home. The only faint
clue he possessed was that afford
ed by the rat-faced Frenchman's
appearance at Rockaway Beach
very vaguely confirmed by what
he had overheard from his own
offensive namesake at the Cornn'
copia club.
The Night and Day bank had
notified him that the funds which
it had collected for him were now
freely at his disposal. and he had
paid for the car in which he roam
ed the countryside, with an especi.
ally keen eye to the multitudinous
runabouts he met on his many ex-
cursions. Once, at O'Ferrals be-
hest, he had taken Cornoyer with
him, but that volatile youths
seemingly irrepressible spirits and
equally inexhaustible talent for
getting into mischief did not in
duce him to repeat the expert
ment. Until he should have
achieved success in his quest he
would not be in any mood for
making merry. And while he was
in such a state of mind it suited
him best to be quite alone.
There were now and then mo-
ments when the magnitude of the
task he had undertaken depress-
ed him, but, none the less. he was
fixed in his purpose to persevere.
However it had come about, he
was altogether obsessed by the
memory of a girls face. And even
while he, on occasion, chafed
against it's sudden, mysterious
potency of influence over his &C
lions, while he was still sane
enough to realize that ne might
never see 1t again, he was deter
mined that, If it should end so, he
should not have to blame himself
for any failure or remissness.
On the evening of the fifth days
futile pilgrimage he passed, pre-
occupied, down Broadway, from
the garage at which he kept his
car to the Fifth Avenue hotel,
where he had made his permanent
headquarters, trying in vain to
evolve some more likely scheme
of search. The possibility of en-
ploying a detective agency had, of
course, occurred to him, but he had
dismissed it at once and for good,
so repugnant was it all to his
ideas. There seemed to be moth
ing for 1t but to cover every inch
of Manhattan. and then try else
where If that produced no result.
He must be thorough in all his
methods.
A bellboy caught sight of him as
he entered the vestibule of the
hotel, and, knowing him always
liberal in his acknowledgment OF
such service, brought him word
that there was a telephone mes
sage awaiting him. which turned
out to be from O'Ferral. and mere
ly said:
See tonight's Telegram. page
nine. second column, ad. twenty
five.'