The daily Alaskan., 1913-12-03
A PLAN
 FOILED By ESTHER VANDEVEER

The new connection was especially un- fortunate for him and his only child, Mildred, who was sixteen years old at the time of her fathers second mar riage. Mrs. BOrland was no sooner married than she laid plan to secure her husbands fortune. He was suffer- ing from an incurable disease when she married him, and this enabled her to work her plan more easily.
 Her first move was to make the house so unpleasant for her stepdaugh- ter that she was forced to leave 1t and go to live with an aunt. This enabled her to have her husband to herself, and as soon as his daughter had gone the stepmother began systematic nagging upon her husband to compel him to make a will leaving his proper ty to her.
 Had MT. Borland been in good health be might have withstOod her prod ding; but affected as he was with a nervous disease and made virtual prisoner by his wife, 1t was not long before he broke down under the strain and signed a will leaving all his pos sessions to her, except some swamp lands that were nearly worthless.
 Previous to his marriage BOrland had willed everything he owned to Mildred. Mrs. Borland knew of this will and would have forced it from her husband that she might destroy it, but it was in Mildred's keeping. The only thing that Jezebel could do was to torture her husband into making another in her own favor AS MT Borland grew worse his wife kept ev cry one from him except his physician and an occasional friend, her brother giving as a reason that the invalid was not in q condition to see any one. She realized that MiIdreds friends after her fathers death might advise her to try to break the will, but the schooner relied upon her being able to cut off any proof that any undue in- fiuence had been brought to bear on the testator She changed the serv- ants frequently in order that they might not get an inkling of what she was doing. She once a week intro. duced into the sic5room friends of her husband, but never permitted any of them to remain alone with him a moment.
 At last Borland died. His wife pro- duced the will he had made in her ia vor, and a lawyer to whom she had paid a large retaining fee stood ready to enforce it against any demands that might be set up by poor Mildred, who had not a cent in the world to prose cute with and no one to take an in- terest in her case.
 Soon after her fathers death Mil dred asked permission of her stepmoth- CT to take away a few belongings she had left there. She was permitted to do SO was denied nothing she claim ed and went away with a bOxfui of odds and ends, among them a few books. On getting them to her home she looked them over tearfully before putting them away. Some of the books she had loved when a child One of these she took up and was reading a familiar passage when she noticed a daub on a word. Turning the page, she noticed another daub on another word A few pages farther was still another Turning over the leaves, she found the book full of these daubs that had evidently been made with differ eut substances. Scrutinizing them closely, she found that some of them might have been made with a drop of coffee. some with the juice of berry, and on one so o-much of the substance had been left that she was able to examine it closely and surmised it to ae potato.
 Mildred was puzzled. She tried to remember from what room she had taken it, but could not do so. A sus- picion came to her that these daubs might mean something. Two words that were daubed wife" and "Will' directed this suspicion. She wrote the words down in the order in which they came, but they were a tumble. If they had been daubed to tell something the person who had done the work had not hoen able to find consecutive words for li,9 purpose.
 Then AIEAved cut out the words she had writtes Hlgd began trying to ar range them so tAst they would mean something. SevergI Jmes she gave up the puzzle, but always returned to it. She made certain sentences, but found nothing ineligible for the whole. Finally she hit upon two wrrds-"my' and wife" for q beginning-which, after many transpOsitiOns, solved the puzzle. The final reading was rhis:
 My wife is holding me a prisoner. l cannot communicate with any one except her and her brother. She has forced me to make a will in her favor II Is not my last will and testament. That instrument Is possess (ed) by my daughter, to whom I give all my property.
 There was no date or signature. Mildred's theory was that her father bq6 u,au0rn5 tO l-no, fbn hOOk near