Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-10-26


garrulous with accounts of the sensa-
ton of the preceding night. What they
told him only confirmed the history Of
his Yife's career as detailed by the
gratuitous Mr.. Ember There was,
however, no suggestion in any report
that Drumm0nd had not in fact COM
mitted suicide. There had been. ap-
parently, but u single witness of the
felo de Sc, who in the subsequent CON
fusion had vanished. No one dreamed
Of questioning the authenticity of the
report. Several sensational sheets ran
exhaustive resumes, deliberately illus
trated, of the public life of THE De.
stroying Angel II seemed to be an
unanimous assumption that the news
Of Drummond's suicide had in some
manner been conveyed to the woman
while on the stage.
In the course of the forenoon a note
for Whitaker was delivered at the hO-
tel.
The heavy sheet of white paper,
stamped with the address in Ftfty-sev-
enth street, bore the message in
STRONG out nervous mana.
me. This marriage of ours that Is no
marriage, must be dissolved Please let
my attorneys-I-anders, Grimshaw &
Clark, 149 neutrality-suspicious. when and
where you will accept service. Forgive
me if I seem ungrateful and unfeeliug. l
am hardly myself. And please do not try
and thank you; today-it's impossible l
am going away to forget, if | can.
Mary Ladislas Whitaker.
Before nightfall Whitaker had sat
istied himself that his wife had, in
truth, left her town house. The serv-
ants there informed all who inquired
that they had been told to report and
to forward all letters to MeSSrS. Ian
ders, Grimshaw & Clark.
Whitaker promptly notified those at
tOrneys that he was ready to be
served at their convenience. But be-
yond their brief and businesslike &C
acknowledgement, he heard nothing more
of the action for divorce.
He sought Max several times with
ort success. When at length run TO
ground in the roulette room of a Forty
Hurth street gambling house, the man.
ager was grimIy reticent Warned by
the managers trucu1ent and suspicious
tone that his secret was after ALL
buried no more than skin deep, Whita-
ker dissembled artfuIly his anxiety,
and abandoned Max to his pet vices
The newspapers reported Sara Law
as being in retirement in several wide
~ separated sections of the country.
She was also said to have gone abroad,
sailing incOgnito by a second-class
steamship from Philadelphia.
The nine-days' wonder disintegrated
naturally. The sObriquet of 1.-THE De-
stroying Angel" disappeared from the
newspaper scare-heads. SO also the
name of DrummOnd. Hugh M0rten
Whitaker, the dead man come to life,
occupied public interest for a brief
halliday. By the time that the eXecu-
tors of Carter DrummOnd and the at
torneys representing his clients began
to make sense of his estate and in
terests, their discoveries failed to COM
mand newspaper space.
Drummond had appropriated to his
own uses every dollar of the small
fortune left in his care by his erstwhile
partner. No other client of his had
suffered, however. His populations had
been confined wholly to the one quar-
ter whence he had had every reason to
anticipate neither protest nor ex-
posture. In Whitaker's toO-magnani-
nous opinion, the man had not been
so much a thief as one who yielded to
the temptation to convert to his own
needs and uses a property against
which, it appeared, no other living be-
Ing cared to enter a claim. The mon
etary loss was an -incOnSiderable thing
to a man with an interest in mines in
the Owen Stanley country. He said
nothing. Drummond's name remained
untarnished, save in the knowledge of
@ few.
Of these, Martin Ember was one.
Whitaker made point Of hunting him
up. The retired detective, received con-
frmatton of his surmise without any
amazement.
"You still believe that he's alive?"
Implicitly" Ember asserted with
conviction.
Gould you find him, if necessary"
'Within day, 1 think. Do you wish
me to?"
Ember permitted Whitaker to con-
slider the matter in silence for some
moments. Then, do you want adj
viceY" he inquired.
"Well?
"Hunt him down and put him behind
the bars" said Ember instantly.
whats the good of that?"
''Your personal safety"
"How?"
with you out of the way, he could
come back without fear"
Ember permitted another pause to
lengthen, unbroken by Whitaker.
''Shall [ try to find him for you? he
said quietly, in the end.
NO" Whitaker decided. "No. Let
him alone-pOor devil"
Ember disclaimed further RESPONSE
bility with a movement of his Shout
ders
"But my wife? Could you find her
as readily?"
Possibly" the detective admitted
cautiously. But I don't mean to-"
"Why notF'
principally because she doesn't want
me to. Otherwise she'd let you know
where to look for her"