Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-03-30

live on Monmouth avenue. There are
just the two Of us, and the servants;
q cook, two housemaids, a launderess,
a butler and chauffeur. My father
spends much of his time at the capital
and in the last two years, since my Ola
governess went back to Germany, at
those times | usually 60 to mothers
sisters at Bellwood-Miss Letitia ana
Miss Jane Maitland"
nodded; knew the Maitland Ia
dies we'll l had drawn four different
Wills for Miss Letitia in the last year.
My father went away on the tenth
of May. You say to tell you all about
his going, but there is nothing to tell.
We have a machine, but 1t was being
repaired. Father got up from break
fast, picked up his hat and walked out
of the house. He was Eritated at let
ter he had read at the table"
"Could you find that, letter. asked
quickly.
"He took it with him.iI knew he was
disturbed, for he did not even say ne
was going. He took a car, and though,
he was on his way to his office. He dla
not come home that night and Went
To the office the next morning. me
stenographer said he had not been
there. He is not at Plattsburg. be-
cause they have been trying to call MIN
from there on the long distance tele'
phone every day"
In spite Of her candid face | was
sure she was holding something back
1''Why don't you tell me everything,
1 asked "You may be keeping back
the one essential point"
She flushed. Then she opened her
pocketbook and gave me slip OF
rough paper. On 1t. In careless figures.
was the number "eleven Twenty-Five.
That was all
ri am afraid you would think mo
silly she said, lit was such mean.
ingless thing You see, the second nlgh.
after father left, was nervous ana
could not sleep. I expected him home az
any time and / kept listening for MS
step downstairs. About three O'Clock
i was sure / heard some one In the
room below mine-there was creaK-
ing as If the person were walking care
fully, / felt relieved, for l thought No
had come back. But did not hear the
door into his bedroom close, and got
more and more wakeful. Finally gov
up and slipped along the hall 10 MS
room. The door was open a few 1ncnes
and L reached in and switched on the
electric lights. had queer feeling
before turned on the light that there
was some one standing close to me, pu.
the room was empty, and the hall, too"
"And the paper?"
when saw the room was empty
went in. The paper had been pinned 70
inflow on the bed At first thought u
had been dropped or had blown there.
When I saw the pin I was startled.
went back to my room and rang Ior
Annie. the second housemaid. VINO is
also sort of personal maid OF mine.
It was half-past three o'clock when An
ME came down. / took her into fathers
room and showed her the paper. she
was sure it was not there when she
| folded back the bed clothes for the
night at nine o'clock.
"Eleven twenty-five" repeated.
.sTwice eleven is twenty-five. But that
isn't very enlightening.S /.
/ mo" she admitted II thought 1t
Knight be a telephone number, and !
called up all the eleven twenty-twos In
the city"
In spite OF myself, laughed, and
after a moment she smiled In sympa-
| thy.
| "We are not brilliant. certainly"
| T said at last. "In the first place, Miss
Fleming, if I thought the thing was
| very serious would not laugh--but no
1 doubt a day or two will see everything
straight. But. to go back to this eleven
,twenty-two-did you rouse the servants
and have the house searched?"
| eyes. Annie said Carter had come
| hack and she went to waken him, but
! although his door was locked inside he
/. did not answer. Annie and switched
/, on all the lights on the lower floor from
| the ton OF the stairs. Then we went
down together and looked around
Every window and door was locked,
hut in fathers study on the first floor,
| two drawers of his desk We're standing
omen. And in the library. the little com.
partment in my writing table where
keen my house money, had been bro
ken open and the money taken"
| "Nothing else was gomez"
"Nothing. The silver on the side
hoard in the dining room, plenty OF
valuable things in the cabinet In the
drawing room-nothing was dis
turbed.'
ut might have. been Carter re-
flected 'sDid he know where you kept
| your house money!"
| ut is possible, but hardly think so.
| Besides, if he was going to steal, there
| were SO many valuable things In the
house. MY mothers Jewels as well as
! nv own were in my dressing room and
| Al door was not locked"
"They were not disturbed?"
! She hesitated.
"They had been disturbed" she adj
mitted. "My grandmother left each Of
her children some unstrung pearls.
They we're a hobby with her. Aunt
Jane and Aunt Letitia never had theirs
strung, but my mothers were made
into different things, all old-fashioned.
| I left them locked in drawer in my
sitting-room, where have always kept
them. The following morning the
| drawer was unlocked and partly open,
but nothing was missing.
"All your jewelry was there?"
"All but one ring which rarely re-
move from my finger" I followed her
| o,,,e JIpdo,. hor olive was the outline