The Benson signal., 1917-05-26

the others noticed it, but II Is my busi-
ness to take in even inconsiderable de-
tails The pen was still between his
fingers. His hand was CONSTRUCTED and
the pen had not dropped out-in fact,
/ myself took it out and laid it on
the desk"
"His last conscious act was to write
something, therefOreY
"Yes; for confirmation I ascertained
that there were ink-stains on his fin
gers"
"What did he write and to whom?"
81 don't know. can only guess"
"What do you guess?"
''The assumption of entire responsi.
bility and the exculpation Of his son,
probably to some paper"
"From the same motives that
prompted Bert?"
"No, 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.
She had sat down opposite Rodney
at the table and was leaning toward
him. Her color came and went, her
breathing was rapid and strained un-
der the wild beating of her heart.
'The blotter on the desk. I exam
ined 1t at my leisure. 1t had been
used some time. went over it with
magnifying glass. Meade, ST., had evil
dently written a letter. / found the
words fault is mine have the blot
| ter 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, and though this
| is weaker and feebler and more trregu-
| lar than was his custom-Ordinarily
| he wrote bold, free hand-this is uR
mistakably his. OF course no one can
say that he wrote any letter. This is
lpiling assumption upon assumption,
and, Furthermore, there is no evidence
of any signature having been written
beneath it,
SIS 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 know"
"These plans were taken over by
the Martlet company after Meade's
death, and Mr.. Curtiss and 1 examined
them. We found that sheet missing"
"It's wonderful !" cried the girl, her
eyes shining. II was convinced be-
fore, but, if had not been, you would
have persuaded me beyond a doubt
II have persuaded myself, too," said
Rodney. "But there is not a single
thing here that would justify any pub
licity, even if we were prepared to go
against Meade's obvious desire. AS
say, it is all assumption. No one could
prove it."
"You are wrong" said the girl
"Shurtliff."
II wondered if that would occur to
you"
"Of course. You think that Meade,
| Sr., wrote letter assuming the blame
because it was his. / have no doubt
in the world now that Bertram Meade
had made his protest in writing. Per-
haps he indorsed it 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 Mr..
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 secre-
tary have for such cOncealment?"
"He idOlized the older Meade. Mr..
CurtiSS told me about him. A failure