The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1916-09-09
JAFFREY-PART ii.
CHAPTER v.
-HERE are few things more PAL

ful than to pry into the In
timacies Of those we have loved
and Janery and I had to pry
alone. because Doria. who might have
saved our obligatory search from i'm
fpertinence. lay. herself. on the Border
land.
DO. one dark morning. Jaffery and,
unlocked the study door and entered the
gloomhlled, barren room. ! turned on
the electric light. With its white. dis
tempered. pictureless walls. and Its
scanty office furniture. the room looked
fnexpressibly dreary. We went to the
library table. A Quill pen lay on the
plotting pad. its point in the midst Of
= couple OF square inches Of idle
arabasQues. On three different parts
o. the pad marked by singularly little
dotted matter the Quill had scrawlsd
God. A Novel BY Adrian Boldero."
On q brass ash try noticed three olga
rettes. OF each Of which only about an
eighth Of an inch had been smoked.
Janery. who had the key that used to
hang at the end Of Adrians watch
chain. unlocked the iron safe. Its heavy
door swung back and revealed Its con-
tents. Three shelves crammed from bot
tom to top with a chaos Of loose sheets
OF paper. Nowhere a sign of the trim
block of well-ordered manuscript
Pretty kind of hay" growled Jaffery.
surveying IT with 2 perplexed look.
We'll have our work cut out"
It'll be all right" said 1. Lift out
the top shelf as carefully as you can.
You may be sure Adrian had some sort
OF method"
Onto the cleared library table JafYery
deposited three loose. ragged piles. We
looked through them In utter bewilder-
ment Some Of the sheets unnumbered
unconnected. one with the other. were
pages Of definite manuscript: these we
put aside; others contained jottings,
notes. fragments of dialogue. q confused
multitude OF names. incomprehensibie
one has stuck in my memory "Lanceiot
binlow seduces Guinevere. the false I'm
macuiata, and Jehovah steps in" Other
sheets were covered with meaningless
phrases. the crude drawing that the
wriung man makes mechanically while
ne ID thinking over his work, and arabes-
pad. ''e ''''''"s
In a little while we tried TO out tho
sneets together in their order, going
oya 'n ne 6rs sequence Of the
or the next. but rarely could we OBJ
vain more than three or four Of such
consecutive pages. We were con fu sed,
t te9' ~ at least dozen headed Chap
There's another shelf. anyhow"
said Janery. turning away.
nodded and went on with my pug
11hng task Of collation.. But the moro
l Examined the more did my brain
reel. I could not ind the nucleus Of
coherent story. A great shout from
Jamery made me start in my chair.
Hooray! At last! I've got II! Here
He came with three thick clumps of
manuscript neatly pinned together in
brown paper wrappers and dumped
them with bang in front Of me.
>There" he. cried. bringing down
Thank God!' said l.
He removed his hand. Then. as he
t Soiat me- me safterward; sprang to my
For there. staring me in the face, on
white label gummed onto the brown
paper. was the hand-written inscrip-
"The Diamond Gate. A Novelty
Thomas Castleton."
Lookw ! cried. pointing; and Jar-
fery looked. And for a second or two
We both stood stock still.
and tho sr Wrsnx vas az Tsm .cSn
tiston's-Tom Castieton. the one ge.
MUS OF our boyish brotherhood, who
hs I'd, died on his voyage to Australia
square, virile hand was only too ia
miliar-as different from Adrian,
precise academical writing as Tom
Castleton from Adrian.
Then our eyes met and we realized
the sin that had been committed.
There was the original manuscript,
Of The Diamond Gate" The Dia
mond Gate" was the work not OF
Adrian had stolen The Diamond
Gate" from q dead man. Not onl,
from a dead man. but from the dead
friend who had loved and trusted him
The great epoch-making novel die
It had never existed. Even n Adrian
had lived It would have had no posi-.
bflity OF existing.
What was It that in the first place made
him yield to temptation? What kink ir
the brain warped his moral sense? God
p MS Judge. poor boy. not !. Ton
:Ths Diamond Gate" into his hands
Undoubtedly he was to arrange for It.
publication. Castleton's appointment t
the professorship In Australia had beer
necessitatinx a feverish scramble to &c,
his affairs In order before he sailed
why did not Adrian In the affectionst'
glow of parting send the manuscrip
straight off to a publisher? At first 4
was merely question OF dispatchini
a parcel and writing a covering letter
why were not parcel and letter sent
Merely through the sheer Incidence tina
WAS characteristic OF ADRIAN. Thei
came the news OF Castleton's death
From that moment the poison OF temp
tation must have begun to work. Fo
years. In his easy way. he struggled
against It until. perhaps. desperate 70
DORA. he succumbed. What script
type or hand-written. he sent to Kite
kind. the publisher OF The damon,
Gate" ! did not learn TIL later. Blu
why did he not destroy Tom Castleton'
original manuscript?
And when the book blazed into instan
taneous success, and he accepted
gay and debonair. what could have bee
the state Of that mans soul?
Well he had been swept of
his feet. II any man ever loved
woman passionately and devotedly. Ad
rian loved Doria. For what II may b
worth. put that to his credit: he SHINE
for love OF woman. And the rest
The tragic rest? His undertaking I
write another novel? Indomitabl
self confidence was the keynote Of tn
man. Careless, casual lover OF cas-
that he was. everything he had def
nitely set himself to do heretofore. h
had done.
No wonder he could not sleep. N
wonder he drank in secret.
Jaffery threw a couple OF logs on tn
fire-the ship logs that Adrian lovet
the sea-salts. barium. strontium an
what not. gave green and crimson an
lavender flames.
rrl kn ol, ltt,o al