Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1917-11-30

that he kept bad cOmjany-just now
worse than ever, for the two men with
him were as Misunderstanding fellows
as 1 had ever seen. 1 followed them,
a new suspicion In my mind as they
were admitted to the very building I
have described. l took up watch and
ward over the sombre pile of masonry
for several days. Twice l saw Webb
visit the place. Always his admission
was followed by the closing and lock-
ing of the outside door. Always the
door was kept carefully reclosed until
he had departed, after a brief stay. 1
know not why, but somehow l assOci-
ated Webb with the offerings at the
engraving plant and the disappearance
of Meserve. 1 had an i~rrepressible de-
sire to explore the old rookery, and
now fate and circumstance had, I
hoped, granted my wish for admission
to the apparently ~impregnable struc"
ture.
l got to my feet and proceeded to ex-
plore my surroundings. l came to an
opening like a doorway, traversed a
corridor which penetrated the cellar of
the building and faced a pair of stairs.
These l assembled, reached q vacant
room, crossed it, opened a door, as
cended a second flight of stairs and
charity felt my way along a narrow
passage way. I accidentally b%lundered
against a swinging door. l landed in a
lighted room, tried to draw back as i
discovered that it held an inmate, and
was rooted to the spot as | recognized
in a IN standing staring at me
agape-the wife of Acton Meserve!
All the bloom I had last seen was de-
parted from that sweet face, the eyes
were sunken and haunted with the
horror of confinement aud fear.
"Mr. Illsley!" she gasped, and
reeled.
"You-you!" I breathed incoherent-
~. "What does this mean? Where is
M~eserve?"
HE is in there" she whispered, all
a tremble, and she pointed to an OPP
pOsite door. "No-nO! You risk your
life!"
But I had run at the door and
opened it and rushed towards a man at
a bench bending over a leather plate
pad, a graver in his hand-ActOn Me-
serve.
And then 1 understood the warning
Just uttered. Two men, and one of
them was Webb, sprang at me. l re-
ceived a heavy blow on the head and
knew NJ mOr l awOke, j0lted about
in a cab and held up by the best
friends | had in the wOrld-ActOn Me-
serve and his wife. They were bab-
bling with the maddest of joyfulness,
like two children released from a ter
rible captivity. Then the vehicle halt
ed in front of the engraving plant.
l was still dazed as l sat back in the
chair in the office Of the president. AS
a dream 1 caught the echo of the
tones of Meserve, telling all the story
of his mysterious disappearance.
1t was Webb who had distracted the
missing property of the plant. 1t was
Webb and accompliceS who had kid
mapped husband and wife, who had
threatened to kill the latter if MeServe
did not engrave a plate they forced
him to make. 1t was Just as / ap-
peared that the plate was finished, all
except one corner, and this Meserve
refused to complete unless immediate
liberty was promised. The %scoundrels
then abandoned the place with the
plate, Meserve agreeing to wait an
hour later.
81 believe your story, Mr.. Meserve,"
said the staid and dignifed president,
but do you not consider it very repre-
hensible to engage in such work under
any circumstances"
"Not as l worked it out" dissented
Meserve. Sir, when the law runs
down these ~miscreants, as it must, you
will find the plate worthless"
"YOu mean-T"
That the last rapid work l did was
to engrave in hair-line tracery, while
they were not looking, n word, a
warning to all the world"
"And the word wasp
UGCoun+orfoitp D