The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1917-04-28

the others noticed it, but it Is my busf~
ness to take in even inconsiderable de-
tails. The pen was still between MS
fingers. His hand was CONSTRUCTED and
the pen had not dropped out-in fact.
/ myself took it out and laid 1t ON
the desk"
''His last conscious act was to write
something, therefore"
Eyes; for confirmation l ascertaineo
that there were ink-stains on his mn
gers"
"What did he write and to whomF
II don't know. can only guess.
"What do you guesS|'
"The assumption of entire RESPONSE
bility and the eXculpatiOn OF MS SOIL
probably to some paper"
"From the same motives that
prompted Bert?'
mo, because 1t was true. But that
is only an assumption, although not al
together without further evidence"
"And what is that?" asked the wom-
an eagerly.
IoIlt Iluu SdL uoNh OppOoitS ASoN~S
at the table and was leaning toward
him. Her color came and went. her
breathing was rapid and strained I'M
der the wild beating of her heart.
"The blotter on the desk. l exam
ined it ut my leisure. 1t had been
used some time. / went over 1t with q
magnifying glass. Meade, ST., had evil
IDENTIFY written a letter. l found the
words fault is mine I have the blot
fer In my desk. The word fault is
barely decipherable, is can be made
out with difficulty, but mine is quite
plain. I am familiar with the older
Meade's handwriting, land though this
is weaker and feebler and more irregu-
| lar than was his custOm-Ordinarily
he wrote a bold, free hand-this is un-
mistakably his. OF course no one can
say that he wrote any letter. This Is
piling assumption upon assumption.
and, furthermore, there is no evidence
of any signature having been written
beneath it,"
| "Is that all?'
"There is one more bit of evidence
The sheet of paper on which the de-
sign computations for the compression
chord members appear was not with
the other plans and tracings of the
bridge"
"How do you known
"These plans were taken over By
the Martlet company after MeadeE
death, and Mr.. Curtiss and examined
them. We found that sheet missing"
"It's wonderful p cried the girl, her
eyes shining. 81 was convinced be-
fore, but, If 1 had not been, you would
have persuaded me beyond doubt
81 have persuaded myself, too" said
Rodney. 'But there Is not single
thing here that would justify shy pub
licity, even if we were prepared to g0
against Meade's obvious desire. AS
say, it is all assumption. No one could
prove it."
"You are wrong" said the girl
"Shurtliff."
81 wondered If that would occur to
you"
"Of course. You think that Meade.
Sr., wrote letter assuming the blame
because it was his. 1 have no doubx
in the world now that Bertram Meade
had made his protest in writing. Per-
haps he Endorsed 1t on the missing
Sheet" continued the woman, making
bold and brilliant guesses. "Or maybe
he wrote a letter that was attached
to the sheet that we lack, and NE.,
Meade got it out of the safe and
wrote his letter and attached It with
Bertram's protest to the missing draw
ing and gave them to Shurtliff and told
him to take them to the papers. You
know Shurtliff said that Meade de-
clared he would assume the blame and
he told the reporters so. Shurtliff has,
or he knows who has, the missing pa
per-"
"But what motive would the seere-
tary have for such concealment?"
"He idolized the older Meade. Mr..
Curtiss told me about him. A failure