The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-03-08

M
The cabinet contains so
cret drawer This Is inevitable II 1t
really belonged to Mime de- MonteSpan
Any cabinet made FOR her would be
certain to have a secret drawer That
drawer must be adequately guarded.
and therefore mechanism was de-
viRpd to xtah the perSon attempting to
open II and "a inject into the wound q
poison 80 powerful IA To- cause instant
death Am right so far?''
"Wonderfnliy right" I nodded. 81
had DOT put II 80 clearly even to my
self 90 ahead."
I'VE come tO thes conclusion then"
continued Godfrey. that the business
Of tiliA unknown Frpmhman with Van
tine In some way concerned this cabi
net
-yRnfine himself fh,ught So" broke
I'm. f'S7e told me- aftarwari that II was
berhtme ne Thought 80 he consented e.
see nip.s
SsGocd. That would seem 20 indi-
cate that we are OH the right track.
The Frenrhnian's business. then. had
something % do with this cabinet and
with this secret drawer. Left 20 HIM
self. he discovered the cabinet In the
room adjoining the anteroom. attempt
ed to open the dra wer and was killed"
"Tes." agreed And now how abort
vantineT'
.'vantfne's death isn't 80 simply ex-
planned Presumably the unknown wo-
man Rhso called on business relating TO
the cabinet she. also wsated TO open
the secret drawer. in orier to secure
its contents. That seems fairly Ger
taiEcf from her connection with the drst
caller"
"You still think It was her photo
graph he carried in his watch?'
al am sure OF It. But how did It
happen that 1t was vantine who was
killed. Did the woman. warned by
the fate OF the man. deliberately set
Vantine 20 open the drawer in order
that she might run no risk: Or was
she also ignorant OF the hanixm?
Above all. did xhe succeed in getting
away with the contents Of the
drawer7'
= ''whaf was in the drawerT
~Ah. " we only knew
~Perhape the woman had nothing TO
do with IL. vantine himself told me
that be was going to make careful
examination OF the cabinet No doubt
that 10 exactly what he was doing
when the woman's arrival interrupted
him. lie might have let her out Of the
house himself. and then. returning to
the cabinet stumbled upon the secret
drawer after she had gone"
Yes: that is quite possible too. But
there are objections. and rather
weiehty ones In the frst place. If
the :Frenchman got the drawer open
who closed it:'
Perhaps 1t closed itself when he let
so Of It."
"And closed again after vantine
opened itT'
yes"
ssIt's possible. We must remember
that the prisoners Of those days were
very Ingenious. But there Is one thing
that Isn't possible. and that II that q
poison which. II II In administered an
we think Il is. must be liquid. could
remain In that cabinet fresh and ready
| for use for more than 800 years. It
would have dried up centuries ago.
Nor would the mechanism stay In or
der 40 long. u must he both compli-
Gated and delis-ate Therefore IL would
have 70 be oiled and overhauled from
tdme 70 time II Il Il worked by a
sprtng-@nd don't see how else IL can
be worked the spring would have 90
DO renewed and wound Mp
'Welsy- ] asked AZ be raused.
We'll Il 10 evident thar the drawer
contains something more recent than
the love letters OF Louis XIV. II must
have been put In working order Quite
recently. But By whom and for what
purposef That In the mystery we
have % solve. and II II a mighty pref
ty one And here's another objection"
ne added That Frenchman knew