The Alaska citizen., 1911-06-12
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Vile tEe telegraph wire~ were singing with messages iu code from Lewis to the octopus. there Dam" two words from Frau1ucs ro Lewis They were
 Come home"
 Lewis scented real danger. he came The newspaper men me' him ar the railroad station with rhe amiable intention of pjuuiug him against wall and extracting from him an answer To tha' one vital question What about those letters Lewis smiled pleasantly and told them iha' his motoring trip had been great success "Hu' the letters" His car ran w"ll-Eery well indeed The letters ." II" wa, pleased to say he had found fEc roads in magnificent condition. "L''- ters?" The weather was ideal II" smiled and climbed into cab.
 There was a parploXed wrinkle on Lewis brow as he entered his apartments at the Hotel stanton Franques was waiting for him there. For the first time in his life Lewis was vaguely suspicious oi his swarthv henchman of his For len years FranQues had served him and h. had come to rely upon him i'm plicitly; for ten years Franqu"~ had been practically in charge of his affairs even his private papers II" alone knew the combination of fhe safe where those papers wer" kept;
 Good evening. Mr Lewis" Fran ques greeted
 Where did Jim Warren get those letters" Lewis uueried His eyes were steely. but there was no trace of anger in his voice: instead. he was fairly purring Franquos recoe nized il as his most dangerous mood. Where did Jim Warren gct those letters"
 If you'll step into 'his room?" Franques requested
 Lewis followed him n silence With wave of his hand Frank ques indica'ed the safe a small old-fashi0ned unsubsran'iaI affair. One stupefod glance and Lewis dropped down on his knees in front of it. The safe had been robbed The lock had teen cur away from the door clean; 'hc work had been done with q drill There ,n his knees Lewis stared dumbly Here was a possibility he had never tor" seen Franques' wicked e}e~ liah' ed
 Finally Lewis arose and fell limp ly into a chair Every record ef all his multifarious political iniguitje~ had been kept in hat safe. If They had fallen into the hands of an other man Jim Warren Hi face went asheu al 1he thought. his jaws snapped his fingers worked nervonslv; h. suffered an odd cen sarion of choking.
 "ls anything else missing he de- manded suddenly The Guestior question came with an effort.
 Nothing is missing" Franoues as sured him unemoriOnally-"no evel the letters" He produced them Evidently they were photographed and put back.
 Lewis began 10 breathe again. Fol the second time he dropped on his knees and teverishly ransackod tho safe
 T think youIl find everyrhine there" his henchman venrured. have looked through carefully"
 But that was something Lewis would take no mans word for. not even Franques' He removed every thing to his desk and for nearly ar hour he sal there going through a litter of documents for ne r iy an hour. and no word was "nok en Al last he turned up.n Fran cues
 Why" he asked slowly Why shonld the man who robbed ihc safe photograph only those letters when there are so many other things here that would have been of even greater value to him tc Jim Warren?'
 There is nothing 10 indicae Q ina, everything in the safe wasn't pho.o graphed.' Franques pointed out quietly.
 Realization of this possibility brought Lewis 10 his feet. He stood glaring al Franques. breathing heaN' fly. his face gone haseard.
 He would have had plenty of time" Franques went on 10 eX plain monotonously. "iou've be An away for two weeks. your apart ments have been locked and even the servants in the hotel didn't enter your rooms in that time. came here once few days ago and put in the safe the two letters that have been published One got back from you; the other was returned by the interests according to your agreement. When they were printed came again and found everything practically as you see It now. It's clear. then, that fl the safebreaker had been able to gam admission between my visits he could have worked at his leisure. YouIl notice he didn't blow open the safe. That would have attract ed attention
 Lewis listened speechlessly.
 If he did photograph everything in that safe" he broke out violent ly. it means" He stopped.
 Tt means you'll have some hard sleding to get back to the legisla- lure." Franques finished the sen tence for him. T am assuming. of course. that the other photo graphs will be given to the news papers,
 Tt means more than that. Fran oues," Lewis declared slowly. "lt means that. with all the power I've got in this state, we'll go to jail unless We can recover those mood of