The Columbus journal., 1911-02-08

"Oh!" Her exclamation was appre-
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 I do now!" she whispered. NY
poor father!"
She looked helplessly at Orme. His
self-possession had returned. and as
he urged her to q chair. he con-
demned himself for not guessing how
serious the loss of the bill must be to
her. "Sit down." he said. Perhaps I
can help. But you see, know 50 lit
tie OF what 1t all means. Tell me
everything you can"
With a sigh. she sank into the chair.
Orme stood before her, waiting.
That bill tells. II I 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 l can begin to tell you
Let me help" said Orme. eager to
follow those papers all over Chicago.
II only 1t 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
flee 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..
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 a few
days ago." she began. MY father had
to undergo a 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
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..
Por;tol 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-
lously.
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
seeing Walsh. and
hunted him out and arrested him. In
MS pockets was some jewelry belong
ns to me. and in his room the other
stolen articles were found-everything
except the papers"
Did you tell the police about the
papers?"
mo. 1t seemed wiser not to. They
we're in sealed envelope with--with
ny fathers name on It. and would
surely have been returned. II found
with the other things. There are rea- |
sons why they would have-would try
% please my father. We did not let |
hem know that an envelope contain
ng something of value had not been |
and told them to make a |
thorough search.
THE afternoon after the burglary |
he news of Walsh's arrest was tele- |
ohoned out to us from Chicago. |
alked with my father. who was not |
we'll enough to leave the house, and |
t seemed best that some one should |
90 to the county Jail and see Walsh |
ind try to get the papers. My father |
lad reasons for not wishing the loss
% become known. Only he and I |
we're acquainted with the contents Of |
he envelope: so I insisted on going |
o Chicago and interviewing the |
burglar"
She laughed, intercepting Orme's
ldmiring look. ''Oh. it was easy
enough. I planned to take our law
'er as an escort"
Did you?"
mo, and that is where my troubles
'eally began. Just as was preparing
o go, Mr.. Poritol called. I had for
gotten that We had asked him out for
IN afternoon of golf He is such a
unny player.
"As soon as I told him was going
o the Chicago Jail to interview
burglar about some stolen goods. he
insisted on acting as escort. He was
70 amusingly persistent that I finally
!greed. We set out for the city in my
ar. not waiting to take a train.
when We reached the Jail / pre-
erted a letter which my father had
written, and the officials agreed to let