Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1912-02-09

that can make to you IS 10 ask you
end your friend to join me at dinner.
You will, | am sure, excuse the aD-
sence of Lady Blythe, who is still con-
fined to her room. And if bottle or
AS port can induce you to let me IN
! on the secret, why"
And the blunt, short-spoken Eng
lishman proved the most delightful
guest that l ever met. After the cof-
fee had been brought in and the
cigars lighted Crewe eXpounded his
theory to us.
81 do not pretend to be infallible,"
he said, "and it is possible that am
wrong. If you can hit upon happier
solution you are at liberty to adopt 1t,
for it seems evident that the secret
will perish with the murderer. But
here is how the matter struck me-
He turned to me. "Langton, he
said, what was your impression
when you looked at the dog blanket"
THAT it was a deg blanket" re-
piled. 81 saw nothing peculiar about
| it."
did you not see that it had a
| crooked seam?"
l shook my head.
Nor that the seam ran in series
of zig-zags exactly corresponding to
the zig-zag cut upon the mutilated
rug?"
II confess that I did not notice
that"
Crewe smiled tolerantly. well"
he said, 1T is ineyplicable to me that
you should not have seen it. 1t
seemed as plain as Pixies Peak that
here was the missing fragment, right
| under the eyes of our host himself.
And by the way, Sir Arnold, that dog
blanket was not an imitation Persian,
but, as you see now, genuine Per
sian. Moreover, the other half of the
dog blanket had originally formed
part of the original rug. In fact, in
joining the two together the Armen-
| ian, as we must now call the sup
posed Syrian, was merely replacing
what had been removed centuries
ago. Again, the 'arabesques, the sup
posed meaningless border, when
joined to the other half, proved to be
the top portions of the Persian let
tering. And this inscription, far from
being a conventional wish, was, in
fart an ancient deed
"To be succinct, the original rug
was what is called a chirograph. 1t
was a deed to the wealth of Arabian
and the treasure Of Mulik's castle
| Each party to the deed retained one
| half Of this woven document, which
| was slit in such a way that it could
only be restored by the two owners
| fitting the halves together. This eff
! fectually prevented any forger from
presenting spurious fragment and
claiming the property.
apparently, at some remote pc.
Rod, the owner of one portion, fear
ing the loss of his piece of the rug,
had it cunningly woven into one cor
ner of the larger rug which came
into your possession. But the legend
fingered and the family which in
herited the other half of the deed al
ways hoped to fit the two pieces to-
gether and thus some day recover
the property. Finally the one half
came into the possession of the man
whom we will call Armenian A.
"In company with friend he set
| sail for New York to recover the Sec
ond fragment of the deed. He learned
that it was in Mr.. Boone's possession
and succeeded in stealing it, But he
knew that the police would certainly
discover it. There was no place to
hide his trophy. Thereupon he hit
upon most ingenious scheme. Hav-
ing sewed together the two frag-
ments, thus completing the deed, he
induced Armenian B, his friend. to
place it over dog and sell the crea-
ture upon the streets. He was to
| keep watch over the animal and, as
! soon as the police search had been
concluded, to steal it from its owner.
BY some extraordinary chance Lady
Blythe became the purchaser of the
dog and, with it, obtained the deed,
| in the form of a dog-blanket.
Meanwhile Armenian B, the dog
seller, elated by the possibility of be-
coming sole owner of the wealth of
Arabian and the treasures of Mulik' S
CASTLE gave his friend the slip. He
| wanted all for himself He did not
let him know who the purchaser was,
or where she lived. Had he done so
] the two together would Individually
| have managed to regain the animal.
Armenian B played lone hand for
several days, but the man whom he
had betrayed succeeded in locating
him this afternoon. The consequence
of their encounter is now known to
you. think you will no longer be
troubled, Sir Arnold Blythe, and you
can restore the rug to Mr.. Phineas
Boone intact, and with it the tabled
properties in Persia, if he should care
| to put in claim to them, for the
other half of the deed is also yours"
Suddenly Sir Arnold leaped out Of
his seat and came swiftly toward
Peter Crewe.
81 have been wondering how you
gained your knowledge Of rugs" he
said. mo man but one is able to
controvert my judgment. Are you
the man? Are you the Crewe who
wrote a monograph on The Rugs of
Kurdistan and the Lower eau
casus?'"
Here the conversation became too
| technical for me. | have no interest