Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1918-07-18

OF research, without attaching
undue Importance to- certain
CLEANS of light which the regular
appearance of the mysterious let
tiers has she'd upon the case, all
that | possess is CASTOR SAWYER
and story. Must | not make use
of it?"
And, one again, as when one
follows a path by another persons
tracks, he began to live through
the adventure which Sauverand
had been through. He compared
it with the picture of it which he
had imagined until then. The
two were in opposition but could
not the very clash of their oppo-
sition be made to produce a spark
of light?
Here is what he said,' he
thought, land there is what | be-
lieved. What does the difference
mean? Here is the thing that a
and there is the thing that APP
pcared to be. Why did the Grim
lnal wish the thing that was to APP
pear under that particular aspect?
TO remove all suspicion from him?
But, IN that case, vas it necessary
that suspicion should fall precise
l.y on those on whom it did?'
The questions came crowdins
one upon the other. He sometimes
answered them at random, men
tioning names and ~uttcring words
in succession, as though the name
mentioned might be just that of
the criminal, and the words
uttered those which contained the
unseen reality.
Then at once he would take I'D
the story again, as schoolboys do
when parsing and analyzing a
passage, in which each expression
is carefully sifted, each period
discussed, each sentence reduced
to it's essential value.
Hours and hours passed. Sud-
denly, in the middle of the night,
he gave a start. He took out his
watch. BY the light of his electric
lamp he saw that it was II min
utes to IL o'clock.
$50 at II minutes to 10 at
night" he said, "I fathomed the
mystery"
He tried to control his emotion.
but it was too great: and his
nerves were so immensely stag
gered by the trial that he began
to shed tears. He had caught
sight of the appalling truth, all
OF a sudden, as when at night one
half sees a landscape under a
lightning flash.
There is nothing more unnerv-
ing than this sudden illumination
when we have been cropping and
struggling in the dark. Already
exhausted by his physical efforts
and by the want of food, from
which he was beginning to suffer,
he felt the shock so intensely that,
without caring to think a moment
longer, he managed to go to sleep,
or, rather, to sink into sleep, as
one sinks into the healing waters
of a bath.
When he woke, in the small
hours, alert and we'll despite the
discomfort of his couch, he shud-
dered on thinking of the theory
which he had accepted; and his
first instinct was. to doubt it. He
had, so to speak, no time.
All the proofs came rushing to
his mind of their own accord and
at once transformed the theory
into one of those certainties
which it would be madness to
deny. 1t was that and nothing
else. AS he had f%oreseen, the
truth lay recorded in Sauverand's
story. And he had not been mis-
taken, either, in saying to Maze
roux that the manner in which
the mysterious letters appeared
had put him on the track of the
truth.
And the truth was terrible. He
felt, at the thought of it, the same
fears that had maddened Inspec-
tor Verot when, already tortured
by the poison, he stammcred:
"Oh, l don't like this, | don't
like the looks of this! The
whole fhinn has henn MANNED in