Evening star., 1909-09-10

and was met by the same evasionS that
you are still pursuing You are hardly
justified in complaining of situation
OF your own creating
Il give you notice now" said Beck
with, that if you attempt to use any,
thing connected with that vault against
client of mine, shall not hesitate to
attack your testimony and you. on the
there save in the presence OF some rep
resentative of the heirs, and that your
testimony Is prejudiced ana distorted for
purpose. / shall not expect, as a mat
ter OF course. to exclude the testimony
by such a course as this, but I shall con-
hdently expect to discredit It, so as to
reduce Its effect very materially. I shall
also demand corroboration OF the fact
that there was no money or papers there
when you entered it,
Trafford kept his eyes steadfastly on
Beckwfths face while he was speaking
and seemed In no hurry to answer when
the lawyer was done. After a pause OF
some duration he said:
Il am just studying what possible ad-
vantage you think to gain by this method.
OF course you have no expectation OF
being compelled to take the position you
outline in court. for If you do you would
not weaken the effect by warning me I'm
advance. At the same time, / can't ac-
cept 1t that you are saying this just for
the sake of saying something to cover
your perplexity. for you don't do things
that way. I admit 1 don't Just see your
game. especially as you know that I am
no boy. to do things in boys way. or
to be daunted by an impressive or die
tatorial manner. Where I need cor
roboration I generally have it. Have you
anything further to say?'
THAT I shall apply to the court for the
order concerning the money and papers"
Trafford took turn up and down the
Office. Then he came back to Beckwith's
desk.
81 don't mind saying" he explained.
that at this time such an application
would embarraSs me a great deal. Pos
sibly that is the whole explanation of
course on your part that seems to me in
explicable. I've my witness to the condi-
tion of the vault. Beyond him no one
knows even of its existence. / won't say
that one of my objects hasn't been ac-
complished today in discovering that
knowledge OF the vault did exist among
the group for which you stand. I'm not
asking which of the group knew. Knowl
edge on the part of some one is all
care for at this moment, and up to this
moment l could only guess that such
I'm keeping the matter as I am for. I
am willing to bring my witness to you
quietly to corroborate what have said.
Il never felt more like kicking a man
in my life than / do like kicking you at
this moment" exclaimed Beckwith. do
you think il your word wasn't good
enough for me personally I'd take 1t on
the backing of somebody you'd produce
in this way? I'm not questioning now
what you've said; I'm taking steps to
make it a matter Of record in the case"
You have. then. definitely made up
your mind to interfere instead Of acting
in cooperation with me?"
"Your idea Of cooperation seems highly
original While asking it. and complain
ing that 1t is not granted, you are set
ting trap to catch the very ones whose
confidence You pretend to seek"
Let me point out that evasions did
not begin with me. Your clients were
asked to work with me, and it was not
until they refused that I even thought of
them as hostile"
"That sounds familiar" said Beckwith.
"only as boys we didn't waste words.
We just said You're another"
Trafford smiled
who's laying trap now? Well. L
walk into it with eyes open. I've seen
from the start, as a blind man must have.
that if young Caiden did the killing he
couldn't be afraid that his father did 1t.
and that If the father did 1t he couldn't
think his son guilty. What haven't
seen and what 1 don't see yet Is. what
are or may be. the relations of these two
toward the actual murderer. I can't tell
you his name or put my hand on him.
but there's his handwriting" With that
he threw on the table the note OF ap-
pointment found on Atenburg's desk.
us this what you found In the vault?"
asked Beckwith.
mo. That still keep covered for the
present
"Hello!" exclaimed Beckwith, genuine
surprise sounding in his tone. did this
man keep this appointment
That's what l want your help in find
ing out The Caldens spent Tuesday
night in the Altenburg house. arriving
after dark. They would naturally. be on
the alert for any kind of danger and
ought to know whether Altenburg had
any visitors that night. l want You to
take UP that line. Since that first day
they've been about as mum with me as
young Calden's been with his own law.
YER
whoever it was" unused Beckwith.
keeping his eyes on the note and utterly
ignoring Traffords hit, now that he had
really something more important than
pickering with the detective. ''he seems
to have been posted about family affairs.
He'd been here before. and they had
some usual place of meeting. away from
the house. That was because she was
there. Now she is gone it's all right for
him to come to the house. Ergo. as we
used to say at the academy, when We
wanted to be particularly impressive. she
probably would know him by sight. Isn't
II possible she'd know the handwriting?"i
and he glanced for the first time toward
Trafford.
CTo be continued tomorrow.)