Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-09-16
S ilv e r
Sandals
A Detective Story of Mys-
terry, Love and Adventure.
By Clinton H. Stagg
Copyright. w. j. Watt & Co.,
International News Service.
CONTINUED From esterdayo

"Philip must have been in the city.
Whv didn't he go?" The blind man
was impatient.
HE was afraid" There was cur
ious contempt in her voice.
"Philip Bracken killed John Nell
ton, and you know it," The problem
ist made the accusation unqualinedly
tensely, dramatically.
Silver Sandals did not answer at
once. Tho silence, following the ex-
clarnation, seemed doubly oppressive.
He heard the light swish of her dress
as she half turned toward him, then
the sound of her silver sandals on the
carpet. She stopped in front OF him;
again he felt the stare of her eyes IN
the instant before she spoke.
mo" she said, and the harsh voice
seemed very quiet. II killed my
brother!"
There was no emotion in the tone,
no feeling. 1t was just the voice that
had been softened to make 1t more i'm
pressive. 1t was not a confession. IL
was an incontrovertible statement.
Colton's answer, too, was quiet, and
it seemed queerly incongruous. Hls
hand took from his pocket tne pa
pyrus sheet and held it toward her.
III ere is the cryptogram. You nave
earned 1t. :. -.
She took it eagerly, spread 1t out
ON the table his cane had felt when
he took his seat. He knew what her
eyes were seeing - tne same stranse
puzzle that his fingers had visualized
in his brain. The legacy OF the man
who had been murdered: piece on
paper worth a million dollars, that ne
had intended to be solved by the wo-
man who had just confessed murder
ing him! Another queer klnk In the
case that had been mass or KINKS.
Cotton, in the eye of his mind, saw
the papyrus with its roughly drawn
characters; the strange VIII OF
strange man. The silver -sandaled wo-
man, who had lived all her life as
charlatan, must be honest now. She
must solve the riddle. The blind prob
lemist had always been interested In
cryptograms He knew their hundred
forms, but never had he seen one IKE
that which the woman studied on the
table. It appeared 20 conform to no
rule of cryptography, but seemed
merely disorganizeG design of freak
sh-looking characters.
The woman apparently forgot
everything in her absorption in the
papyrus sheet. There was no sound
but her regular breathing, which the
super-keen ears Of the blind man
caught subconsciously He could pic
ture her staring at the thing her
brother had left behind him. He could
picture her coal-black eyes glinting
and glowing with determination not to
let the dead man beat her. Apparently
all thought of the murder had gone
from her mind. All thought Of the
-. .t-1z - - a
sight of the hieroglyphic-c covered pa
pyrus. Nothing existed in her world
but that one thing.
Cotton let his body relax bit in
tn chair. His hand pushed the tor
toise-rimmed glasses up on his high,
white forehead, and one hand covered
his eyes, that were beginning to feel
again the pain that had been alleviat-
ed by the cold air He shot a question
suddenly:
"Tell me how you committed that
murder!"
No answer. No movement to tell
that the woman had heard.
Want help on that cryptogram 2"
His tone was casual, but 1t command
ed instant attention.
What do you know of it?" she
asked, and 1T was more than a ques-
ton: it was q plea.
Merely the significance of the sig
nificant," he answered. There are
thirty-three crows pictured. Figure
where you have the number thirty
three before. 1t is thirty-three years
since John Nelson discovered the
S2iseogyus Stone of the Cycles of Life.
You were at the Beaumonde's table
thirty-three minutes"
He told me to leave him them"
she said, and for the first time there
was a note of interest in her voice.
II had wrist watch. 1t seemed only
another part of his plan of passing"
Thirty three seems a number of
peculiar significance" Cotton paid no
attention to her calling death plan
of passing" "There were thirty-three
joints in the silver-steel frame"
She looked up from the papyrus.
THE cycle that ended with my broth
er's death was his thirty-third since he
was Silver Sandals. OF the twenty
thousand Egyptian deities, the crow
ranks thirty-third. The crow!' she
exclaimed.
Has nothing but it's word" Cotton
said "Poughkeepsie."
i've listened to it or hours" Again
her head bent in concentration on
had known were crows the minute his
fingers had felt them.
once more the problemist heard
the raucous voice of the bird Pough-
keepsie Poughkeepsie! There was
the key. Cotton Strengthened his re-
laxed body at the sudden association
of ideas. The key! He remembered
then the town name as the crow had
screeched it. Pough- was
what 1t had said. But where was the
key In that, and how was it to be
used? There was no starting point
in the queer design, no end. The Poe
method OF counting letters was use
less. There was no mathematical
beginning but the number thirty-three
What significance had that? The
words on the bottom of the crypto-
gram. the words that had never been
finished, came back to him. mo hu-
man hand can unlock it. From ont
the dead dynasties --" No human
hand could unlock 1t because the crow
was the key. The crow was the key.
That was it! But where did the kew
mt in the strange assortment of f1e-
ures? From out the dead dynasties?
The crow had been named Rameses
The old man had believed implicitly
that 1t was a reincarnation of a
Pharaoh.
So the blind mans mind worked
keener. ten times, at solving puzzles
than the average mind, because his
lack of sight had made all life a puz-
zle that must be solved, even to the
steps he took, Colton's brain could
axe nothing of the cryptogram that
old man had left to be solved by the
woman who had confessed to his muir