The Dolores star., 1917-09-07

- sensrs noticsa q, Ut Il b my buss'
ness tp TAKE In even Uncomfortable de.
tails, The pen was SIN between his
fingers. His hand was constricted and
the pen had not dropped out-n tact
1 myself took IL out and laid II on
the desk"
@His last conscious act was to writs
something. therefore"
"Yes; for confirmation I ascertained
that there were ink-stains on his mn
gers"
"what did he write and to whomr
sI don't know. I can only guess
"what do you guessT'
The assumption Of entire responsl'
bIlity and the e1culpation Of his son,
probably to some paper"
"From the same motives thai
prompted BertT
"No, because It was true. But that
is only an assumption, although not al-
together without further evidence.
.And what Is. thatT asked the WON.
m eagerly.
She had sat down opposite Rodney
Mt the table and wns leaning toward
him. Her color came and went, hel
breathing was rapid and strained IN
der the wild beating Of her heart.
'sThe blotter on the desk. exam
ined 1t at my leisure. 1t had been
used some time. went over 1t with Q
magnifying glass. Meade. ST.. had evi.
IDENTIFY written a letter. ] found the
words fault Is mine / have the blot
ter in my desk. The word fault IL
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 irreg,f
lar than was his ordinarily
he wrote bold, free hand-this is I'M
mistakably his. OF course no one cat
say that he wrote any letter. This II
piling assumption upon assumption,
and, furthermore. there is no evidence
Of any signature having been written
beneath It."
els that all7"
"There is one more UIt 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 ths
bridge"
"How do you know7"
"These plans we're taken over BY
the Martlet company after Meade'a
death, and Mr.. Curtiss and 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 IL 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.
"Shurtlifr."
II wondered If that would occur to
you"
"Of course. You think TINT Meade,
Sr., wrote a letter assuming the blame
because it was his: have no doubt
in the world now that Bertram Meade
Alu lHuuc HIS I'EotsSt III WElliuS. TeEs
haps he Endorsed II on the missing
Sheet" continued the woman, making
bold and brilliant suesses. "Or maybe
he wrote n letter that was attache,.
to the sheet that we lack, and Mr..
Meade got 1t 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. Shurtlifr 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