The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1910-01-14
CHAPTER TX.
HIGH AND LOW.

worth back into the study. When all W
quiet again. and they found an opportuni
10 speak, Mr.. Gryce remarked:
"0ne very important thing has been sc
tied by the experiment we have just mad
Barlow is acquitted Of participation
this crime"
Then we can give our full attention
the young people. You have heard notl
ing from them, ] supposey'
Nor from the old man who lausheds"
Miss Butterworth looked disappointed.
II thonght-it seemed very probable
that the scrap of writing you found wonl
inform you who these were. II il was in
portant enough for the dying man TO tr
TO swallow il, il certainly should give som
clew TO his assailant."
Unfortunately, il does not do So II wa
veritable scrawl, madam, running some
thing like this: i return your daughte
will ever see me again. Remember Eve
lyn!' And signed, 'Amos's Son..
"Amos's son! That is Mr.. Adams him
self"
so we have every reason to believe.
Strange! Unaccountable! And thu
paper inscribed with these words was
found clinched between his teeth! Wai
the handwriting recognized"
'ies, as his own, II We can Judge from
the specimens we have seen Of his sigma
ture on the Ay-leaves Of his books"
well, mysteries deepen. And the re-
tanning Of this paper was so important to
him that even in his death throe ne thrust
il in this strangest of all hidingplaces, as
being the only one that could be consid-
cred safe from search. And the girl! Her
first words on coming to herself were:
You have left that line Of writing behind.
Mr.. Gryce, those words, few and mex
plicable as they are, contain the key to
the whole situation. Will you repeat them
again, if you please, sentence by sentence!'
with pleasure, madam; have said
them often enough to myself. First, then:
1 return your daughter to you!
80! Mr.. Adams had someone's daugh-
ter in charge whom he returns. Whose
daughter? Not that young mans daugh-
ter, certainly, for that would necessitate
her being small child. Besides, if these
words had been meant for his assailant,
why make SO remarkable an effort to hide
them from him."
Very true! l have said the same thing
to myself"
yet, if not for him, for whom, then?
For the old gentleman who came in later!"
1T is possible; since hearing of him l
have allowed myself to regard this as
among the possibilities, especially as the
next words of this strange communication
are: She is here Now the only woman
who was there few minutes previous to
this old gentleman's visit was the light
haired girl whom you say -arried out"
Every true; but why do you reason as
if this paper had just been written? 1t
might have been an old scrap, referring to
mast sOrrOws or secrets
'rThese words were written that after
noon. The paper on which they were
scrawled was torn from sheet of letter
paper lying on the desk, and the pen with
which they were inscribed-yOu must have
noticed where it lay, quite out of its nat
ural place on the extreme edge OF the ia
Certainly, sir; but I had little idea Of
the significance we might come to attach
to it. These words are connected, then,
with the girl saw. And she is not Evelyn
or he would not have repeated in this note
the birds catch-word, Remember Evelyn!
l wondered if she is Evelyn proceeded
Miss Butterworth, pointing to the one
large picture which adorned the wall.
1--WE may call her SO for the nonce. So |
melancholy face may well suggest some |
painful family secret. But how explain
the violent part played by the young man,
who is not mentioned in these abrupt and
hastily penned sentences! 1t is all a mys-
terry, madam, a mystery which we are
wasting time to attempt to solve"
'Yet | hate to give it up without an
effort. Those words, now. There were
to me-"
'They came before that injunction, Re
member Evelyn! They bespoke a resolve.
Neither she nor you will ever see me
again."
"Ah! but these few words are very sig
nifcant, Mr.. Gryce. Could he have dealt
that blow himself? May he have been
suicide after ALI"
Madam, you have the right to inquire;
but from Bartow's pantomime, you must
have perceived it is not q self.inficted
from an outraged hand. Let us keep to
our first conclusions; only-to be tair to
every possibility-the condition Of Mr.. !
Adams's affairs and the absence of all fam
lily papers and such documents as may
usually be found in wealthy mans desk :
prove that he had made some preparation
for possible death. It may have come
sooner than he expected and in another y
way, but it was thought he had INDUCED !;
in, and-madam, have confession to n
make also. | have not been quite fair to +
my most valued, colleague. The study +
that most remarkable of rooms-contains !,
a secret which has not been impaired to 1t
you; very peculiar one, madam, which Z
was revealed to me in rather startling
This room can be, or rather O.
could be, cut off entirely from the rest Of Ii
the house; made death-trap of, or rather r
a tomb, in which this incomprehensible IL
man may have intended to die. Look at Ii
This plate of steel. 1t is worked by
mechanism which forces it across this open
doorway. l was behind that plate of steel a
The other night, and these holes had to u
be made to let me out" n
'Ha! You detectives have your expert =
snces | should not have enjoyed spend nv
ng that especial evening with you. But ~
what an oldworld tragedy we are un- n
'arthing here! | declare the good m m
ady actually rubbed her eyes-'T feel as if Co Co
back to medieval days. Who
ays We are living in New York within
ound of the cable car and the singing of gr
he telegraph wire?" W;
Some men are perfectly capable Of tn
ringing the medieval into Wall street. l ay
hink Mr.. Adams was one of those men. sn
cath he died. Nor did it cease with his ro
cath. 1t followed him to the tomb. Wit ge
less the cross we found lying on his bos- WI
M"
''That was the act of another's hand, tn
he result of another's superstition. That su
hows the presence of priest or woman tr
t the moment he died" pc
yet" proceeded Mr.. Gryce, with 70
omewhat wondering air, "he must have ca
ad grain of hard sense in his makeup. be
III his contrivances worked He was a To-
,echanical genius, as well as lover of tn
lystery." w
"An odd combination. Strange that we be
o not feel this spirit injecting the very at
ir of this study. l could almost wish it
o.n.l4 hon, h. lod Ia fhlal =.