Grand Forks herald., 1917-02-08
North Dakota's Greatest
Classified Section

- oS ~~~SO~8S y I
I consider the suggestion monstrous."
he squeaked furiousiy.
We'll. II you won't you won't. But
may change your mind, you know"
I said cheerfully. "Good-by."
He said good-by peevishly.
| l went home and into my once.
showed Jack my drawings Of the
much interest in them. But he was
interested in Miss Ponderbury's scrap
with her gutta-percha papa, and said
that she was treating him as he want
ed treating.
Well. i hope I helped to frishten
the silly old india-rubber ball into
some out-of-the-way corner whore hs
can't bother me with his internal
/ fussy letters" I said.
ITS possible. Let's hope for the
best" said Jack.
We discussed the question Cat least
did; Jack did not seem interested
IN IT. Of who was playing the trick
At last Jack said: "1t might be
to the preposterous old idiot, the
first thing he would 60 and do would
be to go and scrawl hieroglyphies on
his porch wall"
"He 10 bouncing temptation to the
average sportsman" I said.
1t was plain that Sir Marmaduke's
theory about anarchists was rubbish,
but to make quite sure, I went round
to see that rising young politician,
my cousin. Herbert Polkington, and
asked him II Sir Marmaduke Ponder
bury were sufficiently important for
n rchiafa n fhrnxu hAvnha
Herbert 10 an austero fsh. and
meek; but at my question his eyes
| flashed. his pasty face turned pink,
he thumped his table and cried: "1m-
portant! Ponderbury important? Il
being the most psstiferous old buay-
body to be made a peer for it. II being
important, then he is important. He
posters my life out. since I'm one Of
the people who look after the party
rewards. get hundreds Of letters
from him. and he's always forcing
himself on mo here and evesywhere.
I wish to heavens the anarchistS
would blow him up!"
had not seen Herbert % s1pfee4
for years; and spent a good half.
hour trying to persuade him that II
was q very serious matter ana he
ought to come round to tho Gardens
and look at the hieroglyphics him
refusing to waste his time on doing
anything Of the kind; and I Left him
ruffled.
He had cleared my mind Of the
last bit Of unsasiness about the Mer.
! oglyphics: but decided to back
time I got the chance. A man who
could SO infuriate Herbert that he
turned rose-pink at Just the mention
of his name, was dead certain Of II.
He must be a perfect pertinacious
beggar.
/ soon had proof Of It. I had nve
letters in the next three days, begsing
him from his tenancy. Then no ad-
| vertised In the Daily Mail. offering a
hundred pounds reward for informa-
tion about the person who scrawled
figures OH the wall of his porch.
laughed when Jack showed me the
whom the Ponderbury mystery. with
pictures and explanations Of tho hier-
oglyphics, filled columns in the pa
pers, and the swarm of amateur de-
tectives settled in tho Gardens. There
were scores Of them. There must
have been forty clean-shaven young
men who looked like the pictures of
Sherlock Holmes; there were dozens
of retired army and naval men, all
! trying to look like born detectives,
and there were about twenty women,
young, middle-aged and old-English
and foreign. I could not go out of
the house without getting nine pierc-
logged by half a dozen men and
women to my club. There was al
ways a group in the porch Of Number
12, examining the scrawls. and twice
l saw Muriel Ponderbury in the win
I dow, watching them with great enjoy
kIox 20 Aryly
respondence was delivered In big
sacks; and all the papers called him
"the man who stands by his order"
1t really looked as If the government
would have to give him q peerage at
once.
went round and aw Herbert
again, ana asked him If this was not
so. He only turned roso-pink. like a
blushing debutante, as told him
and cursed me.
Then 1 met Ponderbury coming out
of one Of my clubs-the Palladium;
he bounced once and squeaked: Eng
Lord Garthoyle. I have had letters
from all over the country, bidding mo
fight on against the Hood of anarchy"
"I'm still laying Ave to four on the
flood. All this will mako them keensr
than ever to out you," I said.
Never a "Or0 OK Dy1up1Iuy Ox OOus
graduation from my own order he
squeaked. And he hoanced. poutdng.
down the steps.
There were no new hiorcgtyphiee.
for there were always four or ave
amateur detectives in tho porch OF
Number 12. They were q nuisance.
They were all over the place; they
were always being turned out Of the
Numbers 10 and II. One had to be
removed by tho police with a hre
escape from the roof OF Number 10.
They positively nested in the trees
in the garden Of the triangle which
overlooked the porch, and they fought
one another for places in the shrub
berry opposite 1t. But since they were
always there, on the watch, they pre-
vented any new hieroglyphios being
written, and began to lose their keens
ness. They grew fewer and fewer
quickly: and In a few days tho last
one had gone.
The very next morning, on tho same
wall Of Sir Marmaduke's porch, there
was a freshly-scrawled Agure. the flg-
ure which he had called q bomb. This
one:
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