Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1910-12-16
And you have no trace Of any YES

"Lloyds can tell us nothing"
IL remained to see what Baron LOUIS
de Rothchild would have to say: and
wnen l had reminded hurry Of that, I
took my leave.
And this Will bring me to the last and
most astonishing feature OF this per-
pIexlng mystery. Baron Louis ex-
pressed the greatest i~ncredulity when
he heard Of the loss Of his famous
lewel. 1t was at his bankers In Paris,
he declared. A telegram to the French
mouse brought the reply that they had
the stone sure enough, and that 1t was
IN safe keeping; both literally and in
metaphor. To this I answered that Ii
tne pankers would cause the stone to
De examined for the second time. they
would inc 1T to be false. One more
fact confirmed my suspicious. The
Jewel In Paris was a coarse stone, of
little value, n as unlike the real gem
as any stone could be. Plainly, the
baron had been robbed, though when
and by whom he had not the remotest
idea.
with three fingers, and met him at last
In a ballroom In Kensington.
sever Bohemians went at my charge
10 the Fancy Fair and Fete at Ken
slngton. l remained three hours. If
you say that q woman solved the rid
ole, l viii answer, In a measu yes"
Joan Fordibras introduced herself to
me by thrusting a bunch OF roses into
niy faoe. some story in the girls ex-
preston, some power Of soul shining
IN her eyes, enchanted me and held ma
last. Inc story, / said, had no moral to
IT, Iney were not the eyes OF an inno-
cent child of 10, as they should have
been. They were the eyes of one who
a seen and known the dark side of
the lantern of life-who carried a great
secret and had met a man who was
prepared to fathom 1t.
Joan Fordlbras, that was her name.
Judged by her impulsive manner. the
brightness of her talk and the sweet
ness OF her laugh, there was no more
light hearted girl in England that
night. l alone, perhaps, in all that
room could tell myself that she carried
a heavy burden and would escape from
IL by force mateur of an indomitable
will.
When | had danced twice with her.
she presented me to her father. Cen
eral Fordibras-a fine military figure Of
a man, erect and manly and gifted with
eyes which many a woman must have
remembered. General t'ordibras, II
appears, had but three fingers to his
left hand.
Who was this General Fordib~as. and
what did the daughter know of his life?
| invited them both to my house in
Suffolk, and thitheT they came in the
spring of the year. Okyada, the
shrewdest servant that ever earned the
love and gratitude Of an a]ffectionate
master, could not help me TO identify
the general. l concluded that he was
Just what he pretended to be, French
man naturalized in America; a rich
man to boot, and the owner of the
steam yacht Connecticut, as he him
self had told me. One less persistent
would have put suspicion by and adj
mitted that circumstances justified no
doubt about these people; that they
were truly rather and daughter travel
ing for pleasure in Europe. and that
any other supposition must be an out
rage. Indeed, / came near to beliey-
ing so myself. The pearls which had
been stolen from me in Paris. was II
not possible that the general had
bought them in market overly. To say
that his agents had stolen them, and
that his daughter wore them under
my very nose, would be to write him
down a maniac. In moments Of senti-
ment / could recall the womanly ten
derness and distress OF little Joan For
dibras n wonder that I had made SO
slight a response. There were other
hours when l said: Beware, there is
danger; these people know you; they
6IG SCNllAlS q Trap y YOU. Lei us
blame human nature alone if this lat
ter view came to be established at no
distant date. Three men burglaring
my house In Suffolk in the month OF
June. Two of them escaped; the third
put hts hands upon the brass knob of
my safe n the electric wires I had
trained there held him as by a vice
of fire. He fell shrieking at my feet,
and in less than an hour I had his
story. OF course, I had been waiting
for these men. An instinct such as
mine can be diverted by no suggestions
either romantic or p~latonic. From the
first, my reaso had said that General
Fordibras might have come to Deep
dene for no other reason than to pre-
pare the way for the humber instru-
ments who should follow after. Ok
kada my little Jap, he of the panther's
tread and the eagle eye-he stood sem
tinel during these weeks, and no blade
of grass in all my park could have been
trodden but that he would have known
it. We were twice ready for all that
might occur.
l dragged the thief to his feet and
began to threaten and to question him.
He was a lad of 20, I should say,
hatchet-faced. and with tousley yellow
hair.
Now. COME / said, here is seven
years penal servitude waiting for you
on the doorstep. Let me see that there
is some spark Of manhood left in you
vet. Otherwise" but here I pointed
to the electric wires which had burned
mis- hands, anu me shuddered at by
gesture.
'Oh, I'll play the game" he said;
'.you won't get anything out OF me.
Do what you like-I'm not afraid Of
YOU"
Continued Next Week.)