The Huttig news., 1912-04-27

assurance of her ultimate vindication. Moreover, the doctor, in consequence of his work on the case with Britz. had direct knowledge of the importance that the suspicious of others should not be alarmed. He had been with the detective when the card of Bruxton Sands was discovered in the posses sion Of the old curiosity shop man; he knew of the note addressed to Curtis dear and signed "Millicent," and also | of the desperate attempts made by the Hindoos to find the diamonds So Fitch did not bother the sleuth as much as did other friends of Einors, and it was we'll for Britz several times was at his wits ends to dissuade Mrs. Mis- sioner and Sands from going to the District Attorney and offering a heavy security for Miss Holcomb's appear ance in the trial court However. Britz had held them off. and it fol- lowed that Griswold nursed the deu- sion that Elinor and Fitch and Sands were suspected so strongly by the Central Office men that no search for
 
 progress. Donnelly and Carson also had fostered that misconception on the clubman's part by their unabated &C., tivity in hunting proofs of the girl sec retary's guilt. Those worthies spent every day of their work on the case fin tracing Elinor's past, and in efforts to couple Fitch with her suspicious theft of the jewels. Furthermore. be- ing the sort of men who would rather win credit for detective work than do anything quietly in the way of real detection of crime or criminals, they could not refrain from expressing their belief in Elinors dishonesty at every turn. They talked literally to the sea soned reporters in the newspaper rookertes opposite Police Headquar- ters, to the newspaper men In the po- lice stations, and the magistrates courts, and to the several star repor- ters of the more enterprising papers who had been assigned especially on the case. Every word they uttered hinged on their evidence In the return of verdict against Miss Holcomb. and. with the exception of two or three unusually sapfent newspaper men who discounted the opinions of DonneIiy and Carson because they knew Britz was doing the real work and because Britz had AS yet made no revelations. the reporters quoted them at great length
 Therefore. practically all the New York papers published sSories in which Flinor Holcomb was tried. convicted, and sentenced in advance of her ar raignment for the theft of the Mission. CT necklace. Over-enterprsing Sunday papers went so far as td publish page stories. purporting to be psychological studies of the mental bent that made the trusted secretary of multimii- lionaire society woman, with com fortable career In expectation. throw all chances to the winds by yielding to momentary feminine impulse to possess herself of glittering baubles. Those psychological studies were in- teresting to the multitude. and might have been worth publishing had they been based on either psy:hoolgy or truth. They had their effes.t on Gris l that fact was that the clubnan's mind was at ease so far as the possibility that he would be connected with the | disappearance of the gems was con- cerned.
 So Griswold did not go to the Renaissance that night, nor did he dis- turb Mrs Delaroche with telephone | message although an inst ruuNent stood on convenient desk in her boudoir. and an extension wire connected 1t with a duplicate device that rested on a little Russian table beside her bed II would have been the work of moment for Griswold to get into conversational touch with Mrs. Della roche. and he would have had the ex- euse of replying to her urgent and somewhat petulant note-if he had received 1t; unfortunately for him. he never had seen that missfve. kanan- da's guess in regard to the activity Of his followers Chunda and Gazim, was accurate. for these adroit Orientals had stolen the missing note from Gris- wold's apartment before 1t came m der the observation of Curtis dear. tn whom 1t was addressed. Altogeth- CT. once more, as he would have ex pressed 1t, things were not breaking" for the susve secretary of the Iroquois Trust Company.
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