The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1910-12-23

hensive.
THE Japanese got it." added Orme,
ruefully. That she had the right to
this information it never occurred to
him to question.
The girl stood rigidly. Whatever
shall do now" she whispered. my
poor father!"
She looked helplessly at Orme. His
self-possession had returned, and as
he urged her to chair, he con-
demned himself for not guessing how
serious the loss of the bill must be to
her. "Sit down." he said. Perhaps l
can help. But you see, / know so nit
tie OF what it all means. Tell me
everything you can"
With sigh she sank into the chair.
Orme stood before her, waiting.
THAT bill tells, If l am not mis-
TAKEN" she said, YEARLY, where GER
tain papers have been hidden. My ia
Their is i'll at our place in the country.
He must have those papers before
midnight tomorrow, Or" Tears
came into her eyes. Orme would
have given much for the right to com:
fort her. so much depends upon
finding them." she added-"more even
than | can begin to tell you"
Let me help" said Crme, eager to
follow those papers all over Chicago,
if only it would serve her. Hear my
story first" Rapidly he recounted the
adventures of the evening. She lis
tened, eyes intent, nodding in recog-
milton of his description of Poritol and
Alcatrante. When he came to the
account of the fight in the porter's Of
| fee and spoke of the Japanese with
the scar on his forehead, she inter-
rupted
oh! That was Maku," she ex-
claimed.
"Maku?"
Our butler He must have over
heard my father and me-"
Then he knew the value of the pa
pers?"
He must have. I am sorry, Mr..
used"
That doesn't matter" he said.
"They didn't hurt me in the least.
And now, what is your story? How
did YOU get on the trail of the bill?"
1--WE came back from the east few
days ago." she began. my father had
to undergo a slight operation, Snd he
wished to have it performed by his
friend, DR.. Allison, who lives here, so
we went to our home in-one of the
northern suburbs.
Father could not go back east as
soon as he had expected to, and he
had the papers sent to him, by spe
cial arrangement with the-with the
other parties to the contract. Mr..
Poritol followed us from the east I
we had known him there. He was al
ways amusing company; we never
took him seriously. He had business
here, he said; but on the first day of
his arrival he came out to call on us.
The next night our house was entered
by burglar. Besides the papers, only
a few things were taken"
"Poritol?" exclaimed Orme, incredu-
lousy.
1T happened that a Chicago detect
i've had been in our village on bust
ness during the day" she went. HE
had recognized on the streets a we'll
known thief, named Walsh. When we
reported the burglary the detective |
remembered seeing Walsh, and |
hunted him out and arrested him. In
his pockets was some 'jewelry belong |
ing to me, and in his room the other |
stolen articles were found-everything
except the papers"
Did you tell the police about the |
papers?"
No, it seemed wiser not to. They |
were in sealed envelope with--with |
my fathers name on It, and would |
surely have been returned, if found
with the other things. There are rea-
sons why they would have-would try
to. please my father. We did not let
them know that an envelope contain
ing something of value had not been
recovered, and told them to make
thorough search.
hS olICihOOl dLlOl JllC
the news of Walsh's arrest was tele-
phoned out to us from Chicago. l
talked with my father, who was not
we'll enough to leave the house, and
it seemed best that some one should
go to the county jail and see Walsh
and try to get the papers. My father
had reasons for not wishing the loss
to become known. Only he and l
were acquainted with the contents of
the envelope; so l insisted on going
to Chicago and interviewing the
burglar,
She laughed, intercepting Orme's
admiring look. ooh, it was easy
enough. l planned to take our law
yer as an escort"
did your"
NO, and that is where my troubles
really began. Just as l was preparing
to go, Mr.. Poritol called. l had for
gotten that we had asked him out for
an afternoon of golf. He is such a
funny player.
"As soon as l told him was going