The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1917-12-07
CHAPTER w.
Herr Skopf's Mystery.

The killing OF the 1rlenuleSS oIu NUS
sian by his great trained ape was a
matter for newspaper comment for u
few days. LORD Greystoke read OF II
and. while taking special precautions
not to permit his name to become con-
nected with the affair, kept himself
we'll posted as to the police search Tor
the anthrOpoid.
AS was true of the general pubic,
his chief interest in the matter CEN
tered about the mysterious disappear
ance of the slayer, or at least this was
true until he learned several days sub
sequent to the tragedy that his son
Jack had not reported ut the boarding
school, en- route for which they had
seen him safely ensconced in q railway
carriage.
Even then the father did not connect
the disappearance of his son with the
mystery surrounding the whereabouts
Of the ape, nor was it until q month
later that careful investigation re-
vealed the fact that the boy had LETT
the train before it pulled out OF the
station ut London and the cab driver
had been found who had driven him to
the address of the old Russian that
rarzan of the Apes realized that Akut
had in some way been connected with
the disappearance OF the boy.
Beyond the moment that the cab
driver had deposited his fare beside
The curb in front of the house in which
ortar there
was no clew. No one had seen either
the boy or the ape from that instant,
at least no one who still lived. Inc
proprietor of the house identified the
picture of the lad as that of one who
had been frequent visitor in the room
of the old man. Aside from this he
knew nothing.
And there at the door of q grimy old
building in the slums of London the
searchers came to a blank wall
baffied.
The day following the death of AL
cxis Paulvitch a youth accompanying
uis invalid grandmother boarded a
steamer at Dover. The old lady was
heavily veiled and so weakened by age
and sickness that she had to be
wheeled aboard the vessel i'll an In
valid chair.
The boy would permit no one but
himself to wheel her and with his own
hands assisted her from the chair to
the interior of their staterOonl-and
that was the last that was seen of the
old lady by the ships company until
the pair disembarked. The boy even
insisted upon doing the work of their
cabin steward, since, as he explained,
his grandmother was suffering from
nervous indispositicn that made the
presence of strangers extremely dis
tasteful to her.
Among the passengers there was an
American named ConlOn, q blackleg
and crook, who was wanted" in half
a dozen of the larger cities of the
United States. He had paid little at
tention to the boy until on one occa-
sion he had seen him accidentally dis
play q roll of banknotes. From then
Cn Conlon cultivated the youthful
Briton.
BOY was travelling alone with his in
valid grandmother and that their des
tination was small port on the west
coast Of Africa. q little below the
equator; that their name was Billings
and that they had no friends in the
little settlement for which they were
bound. Upon the point of their pur-
oose in visiting the place, Conlon found
the boy reticent, and so he did not
push the matter-he had learned all
that he cared to know as it was.
At last came the day that the steam
er dropped anchor in the lee of
wooded promontory, where q score or
more of sheet iron shacks, making an
unsightly blot upon the fair face Of
nature, proclaimed the fact that civ
ilization had set its heel. Struggling
upon the outskirts were the thatched
huts of natives, picturesque in their
primeval savagery, harmonizing with
the background of tropical jungle and
accentuating the squalid hideousness
Of the white mans pioneer architec-
ture.
The boy, leaning over the rail, was
looking far beyond the man-made town,
deep into the GOd-made jungle. A lit
tie shiver of anticipation tingled his
spine, and then, quite without vOlition,
he found himself mentally gazing into
the loving eyes of his mother and the
strong face of the father which mir
rored beneath its masculine strength
a love no less than the mothers eyes
proclaimed. He felt himself weakened
In his resolve.
The task of lowering the boys
grandmother over the side to waiting
canoe was rather difficult. The lad in
sisted on being always at her side,
and when at last she was safely en-
sconced in the bottom of the craft that
was to bear them shoreward her grand
son dropped catlike after her.
So interested was he in seeing her
comfortably disposed that he failed to
observe the little package that had
worked from his pocket as he assisted
in lowering the sling that contained
the old woman over the steamers side.
nor did he notice it even as it slipped
out entirely and dropped into the sea.