The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-11-16
AHalf Solved Mystery
By MARIA l.. COOPER
Copyright. 1910, by American Press
Association.

Despite the opposition of my parents
and certain head shakings on the part
Of intimate friends, persisted In my
! engagement to Edward 1llsley. There
was something about him beyond
these warnings that made me uncom-
Portable. He would make an engage
ment to be with me during an evening.
break it and give no satisfactory ex-
PLANTATION. After he had done this
several times resolved the next time
to corner him by forcing him to tell
me where he had been. When that
next time came round he claimed that
between the hours of 8 and II he had
been at home. Without his knowledge
l asked his sister as to his where
: ubouts on the evening in question. and
she told me that he had not been at
home, but said he had been with me.
This convinced me that he was de-
ceiving me. and l told him he must
either make a clean breast Of the mat
ter or l would break our engagement.
He took a solemn oath that he never
left his home between o'clock during
the evening he was supposed to be
with me and o'clock the next morn
, Ing. When asked how that could be
/ he told me that to tell would involve
| others whose acts he had no right to
divulge.
| Curiosity now became my dominant
, motive. I would have broken with my
! fiance had it not been that 1 believed
could get his secret by remaining en-
gagged to him, whereas If I sent him
away l would never know it. pre-
,, tended to be very much hurt at his
want Of confidence in me, and he
seemed equally put out that did not
feel assured his statement was true
and because should endeavor to
force him to reveal secret which in
volved others.
The result Of half hours probing
gave me the impression that he was
, connected with several persons Of both
sexes who were united by some secret
bond, but that this bond was Of any
especial Importance did not appear. 1t
did not in any way explain how Ed
ward could have been in the house for
three hours one evening when he was
supposed to be visiting me. And what
had the events Of these three hours to
do with the persons whose secrets he
would betray by making an explana-
ton?
After a long period Of questioning
and waiting. questioning again and
waiting again, gave up trying to get
the secret. I, however, applied one
test before taking final action. asked
to be admitted to this coterie Of which
Edward was supposed to be a mem
Der. He Said that l must be elected
and the number was complete. By
this time I knew that should get no
satisfaction, and, since was not mind
ed to marry man who had secret
from me. broke the engagement.
All this was few months before the
great earthquake when our city was
destroyed. Among those who did not
turn up after that dreadful calamity
was my former fiance. His house was
one that fell at the first shock. and
only one member Of the family had
had time to escape. This person said
that Edward Illsley was not in the
house at the time Of the quake. When
the debris was removed every body
was found except his. This indicated
no ha ho no IN b
where. But, though his friends kept
track of all the bodies taken out, his
was never found-at least not identi-
fed
Very naturally l connected his mys-
terious disappearance with the reasons
for which 1 had broken my engage
ment. If I had been puzzled before I
was more puzzled now. A new devel-
opment was that one of Edwards
most intimate friends was among the
missing, and his body was not found.
There were other persons not ac-
counted for, but the man mentioned
was the only one happened to know
as one Of his friends. This deepened
the mystery for me, though for me
alone, for l never revealed what Ed
ward had told me, or. rather. what he
had not told me.
One morning took up a newspaper
and saw an explanation of the mystery
that was haunting me so persistently
that was beginning to break down
under it. The paper contained an an
nouncement that the lot on which
knew had stood the Illsley house had