Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-10-07
MARY Roberts Rinehart' 81
Thrilling Mystery of
The Curve of the Catenary'
Roberts
Thrilling Mystery Of


tainly careless of George to carry it
off, He'd better be made to look for
it."
However 1t was not to be found.
We sat around a bit ana waited. but
without any result. 1t was while we
were waiting there that l mentioned
the big jewel robbery.
1T was q haul, l said. close on
n million. maybe more"
i've been wondering why they, or
he-since you say it may have been
a one man job-why he didn't go
after the vaults of one OF the Dig
banks. The bank protection service
was destroyed with the rest, accord
ing to the papers,"
I pulled a gold piece out of my
pocket and held it out to him.
Feel that" 1 said.
Feels good to me-"
ITS heavy. How much of that
could you carry about? Ten tnou-
sand dollars, twenty-five, perhaps. l
don't know But take pearls and
things like that A fellow could carry
a considerable fortune in his pocket.
Good for you.' said Martin. Hon
est, Ollie. I didn't think you had II
in YOU"
bank notes of large denomination"
He smoked meditatively.
81 see" he said. "Of course. he's
got to hide them for a while. That's
not so hard, l suppose, as getting
them
Charlie Thomas came up about that
time and wanted Martin to have the
postponed party for Lottie Murray.
But somehow what we'd been through
had taken the party feeling out OF
both of US, and Charlie called us
cutters.
"Il have the party and not invite
YOU" he threatened.
60 to it," Martin said. "Ander-
son is nursing his right foot, which
| is so per cent of his business capital,
but daresay the girl would stand for
some sort OF a celebration"
1t was after Thomas had drifted
off that drew out of my pocket the
slip on which Martin had written the
! dead woman's address and showed
| him the reverse side.
What it is?" l asked, IAN acros-
tic?"
where did you get that?"
You gave it to me. I'd like to
know what the deuce it is"
Its a formula"
Whats the Curve of the Caten-
ary?"
Some time" he said, as he rose,
when I have lots of time, and you
haven't been up most of the night,
I'll explain the Curve of the Catenary
to you. It's mighty interesting
Well, the glass was gone and Mar
tin. having finished his cigar, went
back tc the office: At he was to
pick me up. So I had more than two
hours to spare.
Ny brain was foggy. I felt like
man wandering about in a darkened
room and knocking into things. Every
way l turned l struck something, but
l couldn't find a door. Not bad, that!
1t was a bit soon after lunch to
box, which I usually do at Sam Blake's
when 1 feel groggy. 1t sets me up.
But I thought I'd go to Sans anyhow
and do little light work. 1t was on
my way to Sans that 1 got the first
light on things.
was thinking about old Mr.. Haz-
eltine, and his wanderings about at
night, and his baby camera, tied to
camera dealers just then and I stop
ped at the window. There were all
sorts OF cameras, but none small
enough to tie to a birds foot. And
then I saw a duplicate of the glass
affair I'd picked up, only not so
large.
OF course. 1t was the lens of a
camera.
Disappointing? Well, that's as you
1 look at it. A camera is not as sensa-
tional as q revolver or a bomb, per-
haps. But there are exceptions.
l was to learn, some time later, that
camera may be a party to a crime,
may steal and murder, may
I'll be giving this thing away in a
minutei
1t cleared the whole situation for
me in a twinkling. Or I thought it
did. The old man had been out TAX
ing night pictures, and he'd lost his
camera. Perhaps he'd slipped into
Boisseau's and was working from an
upper window. Then he dropped the
thing and it tore a hole in the avn
ing. Do you get it? Probably the
springs were part of it. Then the
girl went out to look for him, and for
the camera. She found him and sent
him home and stayed out, looking
around, poor little kid. Then, when
she learned what had happened at
Boisseau's, she went to pieces.
All this in a minute. I think that
way sometimes.
But when got down to brass tacks
it didn't all fit together. How did
the other spring get across into the
park? Why should she think the
camera had lodged In a tree? It
couldn't have got into the park from
Boisseau's unless it had been fired out
of gun. If it fell on the awning.
where was it? Was there any con-
nection between it's falling and the
attack on the policeman? He heard
the spring fall and was STOPPING, you
know.
If he'd had a fractured skull, I'd
have been satisfied. I mean of course