The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1914-05-22
By JOHN Y. LARNED

AFTER leaVlng cOlleGe l SCuu1eO law
and in time put out my single as an
attorney. had not practiced long be-
fore I received by mail a copy Of a
book handsomely bound and. altogether
quite an acceptable gift. After tearing
of the cover, which was much soiled,
1 looked eagerly on the flyleaf for the
name of the donor and was surprised
to find the leaf as blank as the day it
came out of the manufacturers hands.
l ran through the pages, expecting
that a card would appear, but found
none. Then L opened the book and
shook it. There was nothing in 1t.
l examined the writing on the cover,
which was in a woman's hand, but 1t
was not familiar to me-; at least I did
not remember 1t. I was addressed as
an individual, not as a lawyer. l looked
all over the wrapper, but saw nothing
to give me any clew. The book, con-
sidering the way it came to me, was
a mystery.
A few days later l concluded to read
the book, hoping that there might be
something in the text that would sug-
gest an explanation. It was a book Of
travels and to m very dull I was
about to give up its perusal when l
came to a light lead pencil mark under
the word my" l noted the fact and
read on. On the next page the word
dear" was similarly underscored. This
began to look as though I was On the
track Of something. l now ceased to
read, but looked for another marked
word. It was "old." The next was
SCHOOL" 1 vas somewhat disappoint-
ed, for my dear old school" meant
nothing to me. But l turned the leaves
till 1 came to the word mate"
These Eve words were a revelation.
My mind at once turned back to my
school days. but l had a number Of
friends among them and could not set
tie on any one who would be likely to
send me any such mysterious commu-
nication. I read on and evolved the
following sentence: II need both q
friend and a lawyer" At this point l
vas 70 eager to learn who was my
correspondent that I turned to the
back Of the book and examined it from
the end to the beginning. Here I
found letters, not words, u~nderscored.
The first letter marked was a d."
the next In a." the next an &C." the
next an H." the next an e." 1 knew l
was noting the letters backward and
kept trying by reading them in reverse
order. When l came to the ':f' I no.
ticed that thus far they spelled '6eld."
-Four letters more, read also in reverse,
gave me mans" The two syllables TO-
gether gave Mansfield"
Could the communication come from
my old chum Hazel Mansfield? Hooked
eagerly for the next letter. and, sure
enough, it was an H." I ran over the
pages rapidly, coming to &C." e." "a"
H." In sequence.
Having discovered my correspondent,
I was nov impatient to know why she
had need Of q friend and q lawyer.
Turning to the forward part Of the
book where I had left OF, l began
again reading the message. It inform
ed me that the writer was held q pris-
oner in a country house with no other
near neighbors by the executor Of her
fathers estate. She was kept there
waiting legal permission to place her
In a retreat for feeble minded persons
or to be disposed Of In some other way
that would enable the executor to ap-
propriate her estate. A part Of this she
knew and a part she surmised. She
begged me to do something to extricate
her from her terrible position.
Her reason for sending me the book
was that she was not permitted to
communicate with any one. She had
found the book in the library and at
times when she was not watched had
underscored the words and letters that
composed the message. She wal per-
mitted to go out riding guarded BY a
woman who was her jailer. She had
concealed the book. which she had
wrapped. addressed and stamped, In
her muf and while being driven out
managed, when the woman was look
ing-the other way, to drop it out Of the
carriage.
All being explained, l went to work
on the case at once, applying to the
court for a habeas corpus, ana before
anything could be done by the enemy /
got Miss Mansfield ont Of her jailer's
possession. I unearthed 90 much ras-
cality that before long ! had the ex-
ecutor Of the estate fleeing to some for
eign land, where he went into hiding to
keep out Of jail. He had squanderedA
one-half the estate that he had been
appointed to manage, but / saved the
other half Tor IT. legitimate owner.
~ the husband of the heiress / man
aged the property % successfully that
= = nov Whist 4. was when her fAtAer
Gtie1.