The Jasper news., 1917-11-29
CHAPTER ".
s.
Herr Skopf's Mystery.

Inc klIllDS VI LIle lTleuuleSS Oio 1tuS-
sian by his great trained ape was a
matter for newspaper comment for a
few days. Lord Greystoke read of 1t
and, while taking special precautions
not to permit his name to become con-
nected with the affair, kept himself
well posted as to the police search for
the anthropoid.
As was true of the general Pubic,
his chief interest in the matter cen
tered about the mysterious disappear
nuce of the slayer, or at least TINS was
true until he learned several days sub
sequent to the tragedy that his son
Jack had not reported at the boarding
school, en- route for which they had
seen him safely ensconced In 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 1t until month
later that careful investigation re-
vealed the fact that the boy had left
the train before it pulled out OF the
station at London and the cab driver
had been found who had driven him to
the address of the old Russian that
Tarzan of the Apes realized that Akut
had in some way been connected Win
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 when
the Russian had been quartered there
was no clew. No one had seen either
the boy or the ape from that instant,
ut 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 a grimy old
building in the slums of London the
searchers came to blank wall
baff1ed.
The day following the death of AL
exis Paulvitch q youth accompanying
his invalid grandmother boarded q
steamer ut Dover. The old lady was
heavily yelled and so weakened by age
and sickness that she had to be
wheeled aboard the vessel In an In
valid chair.
The boy would permit no one but
himself to wheel her and with his owl
hands assisted her from the chair Il
the interior of their Stateroom-ant
that was the last that was seen of the
old lady by the ships company until
the pair disembarked. The boy ever
insisted upon doing the work Of theil
cabin steward, since, as he explained
his grandmother was suffering from {
nervous indisposltion that made thu
presence of strangers extremely dis
tasteful to her.
Among the passengers there was al
American named Conlon, n blacklei
and crook, who was wanted" in hal
dozen of the larger cities Of tn
United States. He had paid little at
tentlon to the boy until on one occa
sion he had seen him accidentally dis
play roll Of banknotes. From the
on Conlon cultivated the youthful
Briton.
lie learned easily enough that tn
hoy was travelling alone with his ir
valid grandmother and that their des
tinntion was small port on the ives
coast of Africa, little below IN
equator; that their name was Billing
pnd that they had no friends in tn
little settlement for which they wer
bound. Upon the point Of their pu
pose in visiting the place, Conlon foun
the boy retlcent, and SO he did NJ
push the matter-he had learned q
that he cared to know as 1t was.
At last came the day that the stean
er dropped anchor in the lee of
wooded promontory, where scoye {
more of sheet iron shacks, making a
unsightly blot upon the fair face {
nature, proclaimed the fact that ci
Ilization had set Its heel. Stragglir
upon the outskirts were the thatchs
huts of natives, picturesque In the
Urlmeyal savagery, harmonizIng vii