The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1916-04-13

I saw him shake his head in answer
to Godfrey's questioning look and snew
that Silva had not been found. Then
| brought him forward to Miss Waugh
an and him.
Mr.. Sirnmonds," / explained, has
been in charge of this case; and it
was he who arranged to watch the
house, for fear some harm would be-
fall you :"
81 know" broke in Miss Vaughan,
clasping Simmonds' hand warmly. An
ME told me all about it this morning.
l don't know how to thank you, Mr..
Simmonds."
"Oh. it wasn't me, especially" pro-
tested Simmonds, red to the ears. 1T
was really Godfrey there, and Mr.. Les
ter. They were worried to death"
we We're rather VERIFIED" Godfrey
admitted; especially after we saw you
at that midnight fireworks party"
You saw that?" she asked quick
ly; "but how :"
"oh, we had seen the show every
night for a week. 1t was its failure to
come off last night which first told us
something was wrong"
WELL" said Miss Vaughan, with a
deep breath, sitting down again and
m%otioning us to follow her exampleS
lit seems to me that o have a story
to tell. too! But I'll tell mine first.
Where shall begin?"
begin, SugSeS4ea, az tee molnenI
when you first suspected the plot"
That was when you were telling
me of Fred's arrest. When you told
me of the handkerchief and then Of the
finger prints, I knew that someone was
plotting against him. And then, quite
suddenly, I thought of something"
you Jumped up" / said, "as though
you We're shot, and ran to the book
case over there and got down that all
bum Of finger prints, and found that
SWANS were missing. That seemed to
upset you completely"
1T did; and I will tell you why.
My father for many years had been a
friends were compelled to contributes;
and whenever he made a new ~acquain-
lance, he got his prints, too, if he could.
He believed that ones character was
revealed in ones finger prints. 1t was
a sort of hobby; but it was, for some
reason, distasteful to Senior silva. He
not only refused to allow prints to be
made of his fingers, but he pooh-poohed
my fathers theories, and they used to
have some terrific arguments about 1t.
One night. after a particularly hot ar
| gument, Senior Silva made the asser-
ton that he could, by hynotic sugges-
ton, cause his servant Mahbub to re-
produce n finger prints he desire.
Mahbub's finger tips had been manip-
ulated in some way, when be was a
CNllQ, SO IfldI they showed only q Sc
ries of straight lines"
Yes 1 said, "his prints were AXE
at the inquest" /,
Father said that if Senior Silva could
| show him proof of that assertion, he
would never lock at finger printes
again. Senior Silva asked for a week
in which to make a study of the prints.
in order to impress them upon his
memory; at the end of that time the
test was made. 1t was a most extraor-
binary one. Senior Silva, father and
l sat at the table yonder, under the
light, with the book of prints before
us. Mahbub vas placed at a little
to US, and Senior Silva proceeded to
hypnotise him. 1t took only a moment,
for he could hypnotise Mahbub by
pointing e finger at him. He said NAH
bub was a splendid subject. because
he had h%ypnotised him hundreds of
times, and had him under perfect con-
troll. Then he placed an ink pad on
the table in front of him-nothing else.
My father wrote his name and the date
upon the top sheet of a pad Of paper,
n Senior Silva placed it before, Nah
bub. hen he sat down with us, Sc
lected a page of prints, and asked us
to concentrate our minds upon it. At
the end of a few moments, he asked
me to bring the pad from before Nah
bub. / did so, and we found the prints
upon II 10 De luenllcal with thOSe on
the page we had been looking at. My
father touched them with his finger
and found hat they were fresh, as the
ink smeared readily. His name was
on the corner of the page, where he
had written it. There could be no
doubt that in some way Mahbub had
been able to duplicate the prints.
Senior Silva repeated the experiment
with another set Of prints and then
with another. l think there We're six
altogether, and every II of them was
successful"
Was SWANS one of them?" asked
Godfrey.
mo-; but when Mr.. Lester told me
that Fred was suspected because Of
those finger prints, the thought flashed
into my mind that if Senior Silva and
Mahbub could initiate those Of other
people, they could initiate Fred's, too;
and when I looked at the album and
found that sheet torn out, I was sure
hat was what had happened"
and so Q decided to stay in the
house, to win Senior Silva's confidence
by pretending to become a convert, and
to search for evidence against him." L
said. That was a brave thing to do,
Miss Vaughan"
mot so brave as you think" she
objected. Shaking her head. II did not
believe that there would be any real
danger. with the three ervan in the
mouse. Only at the last did l realize
the desperate nature of the man.
She stopped and shiVered slightly.
Tell us what happened" / said.
1T was on Sunday afternoon" she
continued, that l went to Senior Silva
and told him that l had decided to
carry out my fathers wish, renounce
the world. and become a priestess Of
silva. l shall never forget the fire in
his eyes as he listened-they fairly
burned into me-"
it,"
She looked at him in%quiringly.
Except upon on hypothesis" he ex-
planned, that action on your part
would LAY embarrassed Silva, and he
would ave tried to dissuade you. He
had lett him by your fathers will this
valuable place and 81, 600, 00O. If money
had been all he sought. that would
have satisfied him, and he would have
tried to get rid of Won That bo di1