The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-23

pity. "It seems like a crime to dis turb them
 "ve shan't. my child. Our midnight friend wasn't digging wonder for fad ed keepsakes. These papers are the things" The admiral cut the string and opened one of the documents. "B'm! Written in French. So is thIs.'' looking at another. ''and this. Here. Laura, cast your eye over these and tell us why some one was hunting for them"
 Fitzgerald eyed Breitmann thought fully. The whole countenance of the man had changed Indeed. it reHem- bled another face he had seen some where. and it grew in his mind, slow ly. but surely. As dawn grows. that Breitmann was not wholly ignorant in this affair. He had not known who nAd Deeu working at night. but tha. dizziness of the moment gone. the haste In opening the case. the eager ness of the search last night-aI these. tO FItzgeraId's mind. pointed to Ons thing Brsn mann knew.
 ''I shall watch him."
 Laura read the documents to herself first. Here and there was a word which confused her. but she gathered the full sense of the remarkable story. Her eyes shone like winter stars.
 Father" she cried. dropping the papers and spreading out her arms 'Father. it's the greatest thing in the world. A treasurer
 "Whar's that, LauraF straininE his ears.
 "A treasure. hidden by the soldiers of Napoleon. put together franc by franc in the hope of some day rescu- ing the emperor from St Helena. It is romance! A real treasure of two millions of francsI' clapping her hands.
 .'whereF" It was Breitmann who spoke. His voice was not clear.
 "CorNicaT'
 ''CorsicaT' The admiral laughed ike q child Right under his very nose ail these years and be cruising all over the chart. Laura. dear. there's no reason in the world why we shouldn't take the yacht and go and dig up this pretty sum-"
 .No reason in the worId!" But the secretary did not pronounce these words aloud.
 "A telegram for you. sir" said the butler. handing the yellow envelope to Fitzgerald
 "Win you pardon mel" he said. dra wing on to q window.
 "Go ahead" said the admiral. finger ing the medal of the Legion of Honor.
 Fitzgerald read;
 "Have made inquiries. Your man never applied to any of the metro pOlitan dailies. Few ever heard of him"
 He damned the meaSage into a pock- ct and returned to the group about the case. Where should he beGin7 Brett maun had lied.
 The story itself was brief enough. but there was plenty of husk to the grain The old expatriate was .Querulous, long winded. not niggard with his ink when he cursed the English and damn- ed the Prussians, and he obtained much qualification in jabbing his quill bOdkin into what he termed the sniv- cling nobility of the old regime. Dog of dogs. Was he not himself noble7 Had not his parents and his brothers gone to the Ruillotine with the rest of them7 But he. thank God. had no wooden mind. He could look progress and change in the face and follow their bent. And now all the crimes and her oisms of the revolution. all the Rlo- rious pageantry of the empire. had come to nothing. A Bourbon. thick skulled. sordid. worn out. again sat upon the throne. while the great man IaL guished on a rock in the Atlantic. Fools that they had been not to have hidden the little king of Rome as against this very dog! It was pitifuL He never saw a shower in June that he did not hail curses upon 1t To have lost Waterloo for a bucketfui of water! Thousand thunders: Could he ever forget that terrible race back to Paris? Could he ever forget the shame of it? GrOurhy for a fool and Butcher for a blundering ass. We'll. they would soon tumble the BourbonA into oblivion again
 A rambling desultory tale. Just a little corporal from Corsica: think of 1t: And so on. all keyed with tre- mendous interest to the listeners and to Laura herSelf. It was the golden age of opportunity, of reward. of sud den generals and princes and dukes. All gone. nothing left but a few battle flags. England no longer shaking in her boots. and the rest of them divid ing the spells. No: there were some left. and In their hands lay the spIen- did enterprise.
 Quietly they had Dieced together this sum and that. till there was now stored away 2.OOO.OOO francs. Two or three frigates and a corvette or two: then the work would go forward. Only little while to walt. and then they would bring their beloved chief back to France and to his own again. Had he not written Come for me. mon brave. They say they have orders to shoot me. Come. better carry my corpse away than that ! should rot here for years to come" They would come. But this year went by and an other. One by one the old guard died of. smaller and smaller had draw the circle. The vile rock called Helena still remained impregnabIe.