Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-08-27


haltingly of course, anything that
can do"
The girl laughed. a merry ripple OF
sound; then caught herself and
changed her manner to grave earnest
ness. ut is very important" she said.
IT am looking for a fve-dollar bill
that was paid to you today"
| Orme started. What? You, toof"
"I, too? Has-has anybody else-?"
Her gravity was more intense.
why. yes" said Orme- "a little
| man from South America"
"Oh-Mr. Poritol?" Her brows were
knit in an adorable frown.
"Yes-and two Japanese"
! "Oh!" Her exclamation was appre-
hensive.
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 1
can help. But you see. know so lit
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-
J FOL hn w 'yuh
tain papers have been hidden. My ia
Their is ill 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 I can begin to tell you"
LET me help" said Orme, 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
account of the fight in the porter's Of
uCS anu SpOhS Vi luS JdpiuSSC WAld
the scar on his forehead she inter-
rupted.
ooh! 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. am sorry, Mr..
Orme. that you have been so roughly
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?"
I'VE came back from the east few
days ago." she began. MY father had
to undergo slight operation, and 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. l.
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
few things were taken
"Poritol?" exclaimed Orme, incredu-
lousy.
at happened that Chicago detect.
i've had been in our village on bust.
ness during the day" she went He
had recognized on the streets 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-everythinS
Tcept the papers"
Did you tell the police about the
papers?"
mo, it seemed wiser not to. They
were in a 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 a
thorough search.
THE afternoon after the burglary
the news of Walsh's arrest was tele-
phoned out to us from Chicago.
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
were acquainted with the contents of
the envelope; SO 1 insisted on going
to Chicago and interviewing the
burglar"
She laughed. intercepting orme's
admiring look ooh, it was easy
enough. 1 planned to take our law
yer as an escort"
did your"
"No, and that IS ,=hsre ny troubles
really began. Just as I was preparing
! to 60 Mr. Poritel called | had for