The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1912-09-20

LAoui hm 30 sorry ABOUT EeL6r
Johnsonl You should never have lost
sight Of him."
I'VE gave him money and God
speed" reminded her.
Captain Macleod must go back
there. where you left him. Where
was it2 siasconseti He must trace
him. His trail won't lead to Glouces-
ter, I'm sure OF that"
My Self-esteem was not being v.gor-
ously stimulated by the young lady
at this juncture. Indeed, was being
made to feel more and more my stra-
tegical inferiority.
"And l." she continued, with the
methodical expedlency of command
erin-chief. so curlously inapposite in
ose 80 young and inexperienced as
she: "and shall find out about those
letters"
"Flnd out what" I asked in aston
ishment.
"Find out what manner Of man
wrote them." she ampliAsd.
But how can your l inquired.
"That seems a pretty big undertaking
Of Itself, for one so small"
II have thought Of a way" she do.
clared, noncommittally.
"And what am to do?" was my
next question, feeling miserably small
beside this efficient child.
"You must give me the letter you
have, and help me look for the 9TH
ers."
The first part Of the command was
easy enough Of obedience; for the
letter was In my pocket at the mo.
ment. But my assistance In searching
for the first two communications was
more energetic than successful To
gether we ransacked desks, bureaus,
tables, closets, trunks, clothes. In
deed, every possible hiding place both
at Cragholt and on the Sibylla was
carefully and systematically delved
into and exhausted without reward.
Either Cameron had destroyed the let
ters, or he had them on his person
when he vanished from the yacht.
At Evelyn's request, however,
wrote copies of those two strangely
couched, malevolent epistles, as near
ly as / could remember them; and
save, perhaps, for possibly two or
three verbal errors they were, l think,
quite accurate.
"And now" asked again, what am
/ to do"
1t was nearly midnight, and was
leaving her, my car waiting in the
sopping driveway to carry me home.
"You are not to worry any more
than you possibly can help" she told
me, with brave little sm lie, "for we
are going to succeed And tomorrow
you must go to your office, and keep
very, very silent about what has hap
pened. And then you are to come to
me again In the evening, and | will
tell you all l have learned"
With which she gave me her hand
to kiss, In the odd little French way
she had--a way that could scarcely
have been a part of her convent teach
ing.
I AS I come to review these matters
now, 1t seems singular that I should
have so readily consented TO be guild
ed by this girls will in case OF such
grave Importance; yet I cannot but
believe there was something providen-
tial both in her assumption of leader
ship and in my own unquestioning &C.
quiescence. For the day Of office
work and silence, which she enjob ed,
was exactly what l needed to restore
my nerves to their normal tension. 1t
was IN fact, sort Of counter-irritant,
which brought me up standing, with a
revived self-confdence and recuperat-
ed energy.
SO when, little before five o'clock
that afternoon, just as l was making
ready to run for my train, l heard
Evelyn's voice over the telephone, l
was fairly tingling with ardor for the
game; and her request to call on Pro-
fessor Griffin, the expert In Oriental
literature, who occupied a chair In Co.
lumbia college, and lived mile or
more back from the Greenwich sta
ton, was welcome call to action.
Very briefly she explained that she
had seen the professor that morning,
and had laid before him the original
letter and my copies of the others,
and that he had kindly promised to
make careful study of them and ac-
quaint her with the result later in the
day. She thought it better, however,
that I should call upon him for his
conclusions, she said, as they would
probably be verbal, and she doubted
her own ability to convey them to me
with entire accuracy. OF course she
had told him nothing rs to the clrcum-
stances surrounding the letters. AS
they bore no dates, and were unad-
dressed, she had him to infer that
they were autographs curiosities be-
longing to her uncle, In which we
were all three interested.
had met Professor Griffin on sew.
eral occasions Once or twice he had
contributed articles to The Week, and
while we were scarcely intimate, we
were on terms Of friendly aequaint-
anceship. He was an oldish. white
haired gentleman, Of rather the ascot
lc type, with long. somewhat peaked
face, and light, watery blue eyes,
IL l.nl.l..l a