The Springfield herald., 1912-03-15

he said half interrogatiyely, half as
sertively. l told him I had not. His
next question was, "Why?"
Because of several reasons. First
of all. they did not ask me; second,
because l have no idea that Bruce is
guilty in this matter; and third. be-
cause ! did not care. under the cir
cumstances, to put his reputation in
their hands, Also, assumed that he
would Immediately acknowledge his
possession OF 1t and give an adequate
explanation You will readily under
stand that did not want the newspa-
pers to come out with sensational
story, and I, therefore, reserved that
bit of information for my own investi-
CATION. You may be sure, however,
him privately when we met again, and
only volunteered the Information to
you because ! knew you would work
up to It eventually and corkscrew 1t
out of me. Furthermore, / know l can
rely upon you to suppress details,
which although as yet unexplained. in
all probability have no real bearing
on the issues" His reply came with
out hesitation.
TON, you have known me for
years and you know that even as a
boy l always played fair. Now. have
| no more use for professional Grim
inal than have for mad dog or a
venomouS serpent. They have shot
me, stabbed me and laid in ambush
to assassinate me, and when I think
OF them I am imbued with a great and
righteous wrath. But when l come
across young fellow Of good instincts
who has fallen because OF reckless
step, ! would a whole lot rather give
him a boost than a kick. ! want you
to get me right on that statement"
/ signified my comprehension. AS
he himself said. LeDuc had always
been fair. even generous. fighter,
and his last assertion was wholly In
accord with my understanding OF the
man. Glancing about to make sure
that we were safely beyond earshot OF
any possible listener l broached
matter about which ! had been think
Ing for some little time.
BILLY. there is another thing which
the police did not bring out and which
did not volunteer. but which you
ought to know. My excuses for not
having stated it before are practically
the same as those l gave in Bruce's
case, namely, because l do not be-
lieve it has anything to do with the
crime and because I wish to shield
a certain individual from annoyance
and publicity. Under the same un-
derstanding that you are to consider
1t as privileged communication
will tell it to you. 1t is this: There
is one more person, at least. who
knew that Uncle Abner occasionally
had considerable sums of money on
hand, and to whom l impaired In
casual conversation the circum-
stance of this particular amount being
in the house. | had a little visit with
her yesterday on my way downtown
after my quarrel with my uncle. In
it | told her of Bruce's misfortune.
Also, I once left my keys at her
house through an oversight and they
remained there several days. And
while l should bitterly resent even
the intimation that she was con-
scious party to the crime. 1t is never
the less a crevice through whlch tne
information may have leaked. l sup
pose you would like to hear me out
on this line" He slipped his arm
through mine, drawing me closer to
him.
"By all means. 1t may prove decid-
edly interesting. My promise goes to
this angle Of the case as well as all
otborc Cbnof ahpqd'
Then ! do not mind telling you
that l am in the habit of calling upon
a lady who iss-well, we will call her
an exceedingly good friend of mine. l
care a great deal for her, respect her
thoroughly and believe she is fond
of me. I have incidentally told her
about Uncle Abner and his strange
ways, and one evening left my keys
in her apartments after having opened