The daily Alaskan., 1912-08-31

through Paris and was on its way back to the fatherland. The com munlsts had sacked Psrissand burned many public buildings. including the historic paiace of the Tuileries. The republic had been established. and once more quiet was restored 10 France The Marquis de Ia ferriere had succiimbed to the horrors of the commune. His son had returned. had been wounded In the defense of Paris. had been nursed by Mile. vIIlaret and had recovered. The day for the we'd ding of the young marquis and his fiancee had been fixed. and the shadow that hung over France in their case had been frightened by their coming nuptlals.
 When the day arrived for the mar riage settlements victor went to his ia ther's safe to get the paper that had put him in possession of his Inherit ance. A suit had already been com menced to deprive him of It, but he had no fes,r but that when 1t became known that he had Teen tue owner for some time before hls fathers death !t would be withdrawn Opening the safe. he took out the tin i'ox and be gan to hunt for the paper he wanted. It awas not to be found Again and again he went through everything Ia the box. but nothing transferring any property to him appeared. Beside himself with anxiety. he examined every document In the safe. Not a scrap Of pen either transferring or bequeathinsl property to him was there.
 Hastening 10 Natalie. he asked her If she had not been mistaken in the place his father had told her she would ind the transfer She replied that she was positive the marquis had said 1t was ln a tin box in the safe.
 When NJ. villaret was apprised of the fact that Victor must gain posses sion of the estate as heir-st-law through the courts, that a suit for 1t had al- ready been commenced by yictor's cousins. he refused to give his consent 10 the marriage. Natalie would have been willing to wait till the inheritance was decided. but suits In chancery are long drawn put. and unless the estate involved Is a very large one it Is usu- ally eaten up in litigation. Victor was too honorable to permit her to remain tied to him with so desperate a pros peCt before him.
 But the love between Victor and Ns- talie was too strong to be broken. though their union was given up. The courts permitted the young marquis to retain temporary possession of the family residence In the Faubourg St. Germaln. and Victor spent many an hour in his fathers cabinet trying to conjure up some reason for the non appearance of the missing paper which his father had evidently mislaid in stead of putting away in the box. as he had supposed he had done.
 The old world has not, or at least had not at that time, done away with many of Its ancient usages. The Ia Ferriere residence was a very old one. Tn the cabinet was a huge fireplace with one of those enormous chimneys requiring to be cleaned al stated times. The chimney sweep. with his smock frock and sooty face, even to this day, Is an institution in parts of Europe. Victor was sitting In his cabinet one day when his major domo ushered In sweep and tcld him to clean the chin. uey.
 So wrapt was Victor in trying to solve the problem of the missing pa- per that he was unconscious of any one having entered the room. Sudden ly he looked up to be confronted by the black face and white eyes of the sweep. who stood before him with outstretched hand, in which there was something yellow and black. Victor took a crumpled paper from the sweep, smoothed it out and at a glance recog- nlzed the paper for which he had been hunting,
 When, a few moments later, he ran out of the cabinet, meeting the major domo in the hall, the latter thought some accident had happened to his mas ter, for victor's face and shirt bosom were covered with soot He had em- braced the sweep. He was selzing his hat to % to inform Natalie of the find when the servant held him and begged him to look In a mirror before leaving the house. He did so and saw that he must delay to wash the soot of his face and put on clean linen.
 There was rejoicing In the two families at the recovery. Its posses sion forced victor's opponents to with draw their claims as heirs of his father and begin all over again as heirs of the late marquis grandfather. Discouraged, they were ready to listen to a proposition Victor made them to pay the costs of the suit, which had already become considerable.
 When Maitre Joussieur was informed of the recovery of the transfer be had executed he remembered that when he opened the door to leave the late marquis cabinet a draft had swept the papers of the table. His theory was that the paper the marquis bad just signed had been carried into the chimney. where 1t had lodged in a