The Cook County news-herald., 1917-08-15

---.
.ths others noticed Il, but Il e nv buats
ness to take "a even inconsiderable de-
tails. The pen was still between hiG
fingers. His hand was CONSTRUCTED and
the pen had not dropped soutin fact,
! myself took II out and laid It on
the desk = .5.:S -
''H1s last conscious act was to write
something, therefore 2"
Yes for confirmation ascertained
that there were ink-stains on his fins
gers
"'What did he write and to whom?"
II don't know. I can only guess"
s'What do you guess?' ;.>:ss - d.
'The assumption Of entire response
bility and the exculpation Of his son,
probably to some paper" 81:
= ssF'rom the same motives that
prompted Bert?' e:4....5sr s.. :, J. i. ].
mo, because it was true. But that
is only an assumption, although not al.
together without further evidence" =.
'And what is that?" asked the wom-
an eagerly 49,.
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 it at my leisure. 1t had been
used some time. went over it with a
magnifying glass. Meade, ST., had evi-
dently written letter. found the,
words fault is mine.' I 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 sm familiar with the older
Meade's handwriting, and though this
is weaker and feebler and more irregu-
lar than was his custom ordinarily
he wrote bold, free hand-this is un-
mistakabit his. OF course 10 one can
say that he wrote any letter. This is
piling assumption upon assumption,
and, furthermore, there is no evidence
Of any signature hhving been written
beneath IT,
''Is that all?"
''There is one more tit of evidence,
The sheet Of paper on waich 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, Meades
death, and Mr.. Curtiss and examined
them. We found that sheet missing"
tits wonderful" cried the girl, her
eyes shining. II was convinced be-
fore, but, if had not been, you would
have persuaded me beyond 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 I
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,
ST., 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 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 will,
Bertram's protest to the missing draw.
ing and gave them to Shurtliff and told
him to take them to the papers. You
know Shurtlif 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