Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-03-14
CHAPTER xvl.-(continusd.)

81 have nothing further to say at
present than to repeat that you will
repent Of your tdiocy later" was my
frigid comment He laid aside the
card case as having been disposed of
and began toying with the book 20
ker's ticket
Being now thoroughly convinced
Of your guilt ! began worrying my
head for good, tangible proof OF it;
proof that would convince Y men
who would be naturally prepossessed
in your favor at the beginning because
Of your appearance and good record.
1 hated to believe you capable of a
thing like this, but was forced to;
and as you know when I tackle a man
in any contest, friendly or otherwise. 1
am going to down him if I can; leav-
ing the matter of what I will do to
him after I have thrown him depend
emit a good deal upon his own actions.
II he yells quits I am always inclined
TO help him up but if he wants to
fight it out to the end of course / am
not going to give up. Now your de-
vOtiOr to Mrs Dace was we'll known
about town and when I became ad-
vtsed Df it l began thinking hard. It
went FithOut saying that it was cost
Ing you money to court her, and I did
not believe that your salary was suffi-
ctent Cor you to be able to keep up
the ps.ce long on that alone. There
fore I naturally wondered where you
got tie rest. When in tracing YOU back
wards | found out that you had been
TO the Derby, another bright thought
occurred to me. You remember the
mysterious man who came to your
house with the forged note and got
the SUIT of clothes you had worn on
that day? Well, that was another
artifice of mine. I wondered if there
could POSSIBLY be any evidences in
your packets of a gambling transac-
ton on that event I know from per-
sOnal experience how apt a man is to
carry around expired passes and
worthless truck of that kind for a
considerable period before destroying
them, so I sent an employee of mine to
your house with an order written on
one of the cards | had found calling
for the Derby day suit, not knowing
how else to describe it. He got it
without trouble. and l intercepted him
on the way to the tailor and searched
the pockets. In them I found your
worthless ticket on Eagle Boy. You
had bet $1,000 on that race in the
hope of winning ten thousand; had
lost and failed to destroy your good
for nothing ticket
I suppose in your infinite wisdom
you also know that I had money left
me by my father which l wa. at lib
e'.ty to use as saw fit" l broke in
cuttingly. He acknowledged that he
possessed that information.
Yes, found out that you had SOME
thing in reserve: but the most i'm
DOrtaut fact it conveyed to me was
that YOU had taken to secret gambling
in the hope of winning enough to en-
able you to keep up your new life.
And knowing somewhat Of the nature
of men. I knew 1t was improbable 10
suppose that having made a big loss
yOu would stop without an attempt to
regain it. There is no public gam
bling TO any extent going on in town
except on the board Of trade and
stock exchange; so the chances were
ST sou We're doing anything along that
line it would be at one of those
places. BY a few days Of Swallowing
yOG j ascertained that YOU went to a
certain brokers' office. and having
found that out It did not take me
long to learn what medium you were
backing It was the same stock that
Bruce went broke on the day before
the robbery, and knew in the nature
of things that you had gone broke at
the same time he did. You were
therefore, as hard hit as he, but
showed splendid nerve and never
turned a hair or let a hint drop. ]
mad now uncovered your sudden des.