Charlevoix county herald., 1918-07-19
TheCurSe:
of QuetZal:
BY J. u. cIEsY a J. 3. SMITH
Authors of Semi-Dual Stories !
Copyright.
The Frank A. Munsey Co.
CHAPTER TX.
Where Is the lmaae2

whatever of conceit in my own powers
of detection / may ever have held
seemed to fade swiftly away. Why
Is II the obvious so often escapes OBJ
servation? Is it that we blind our
selves to the near at hand in seeking
to look further?
The one who advised us to hide a
thing in plain sight knew the truth OF
that, doubtless.
All the long night and today Day
ton and Heffy and Osborne and i had
gone looking into what seemed baf-
fling completely of facts, seeking to
see through them to the guilty beyond
and never regarding the one who
walked beside us as possible suspect
at all. Only Dual had seen with his
unerring vision, and so actually kept
that one at his side until he had gath
cred up all that material proof needed
to support his strange occult knowi
edge, and make his charge binding TO
the minds of everyday men.
Now saw it all clearly; that
Laredo was of the physique he had
mentioned; that his feet were long
and narrow; that one heel was slight
ly worn off on its outer side, show
ing that he walked partly on that
edge of his foot-and / recalled that
the night before, as ! watched his
skillful manipulation of his cue In the
game had played with him, had
noticed the partial absence of the
last finger of his left hand.
And / think of all in that room,
save, perhaps, Dual, the Mexican him.
self was the most utterly controlled.
Perhaps he had even sensed the
thing coming, and had nerved himself
to it, for now he played what must
have been a premeditated part. He
started back a pace. Surprised in
credulity rather than fear looked out
from his eyes-that and, perhaps, re-
= sentiment. Il, senor?" he cried.
"Dios! A sorry jest to make such an
accusation"
Sorry. indeed, If jest" said
Dual.
"Then"-Laredo drew himself up
to the full measure of his inches
then, senior, must tell you that you
are mistaken. l was Wingarde's
friend. / helped him in his Mexican
work. ], too, was interest in his
same pursuits. /, Rodriguez Laredo,
am well known in my cn,;-.,4y. Iou
nave but to inquire"
II have" said Dual. "Senor, pray
sit down."
But am accuse. ! demand
proof" Laredo insisted, seating him
self and keeping his eyes upon Semi.
"You shall have it," said Dual.
"As often happens, throughout this
entire matter, you have, from time to
time, made remarks which drew my
attention to yourself-and told you
I read minds, If you will remember.
Senior, read you from the first. My
whole endeavor was to prove what
read that others might believe"
Laredo shrugged. ut would be
needful-I should think"
Exactly. A few moments ago,
however, you once more brought up
the one point of weakness in my story
as an argument, as you hoped, in
favor of yourself. In reality it acted
against you. For you were right
The man who planned the theft of the
emerald and the image would have
needed prior knowledge.
"By your own confession, you had
II, so far as Wingarde's trip here was
concerned. He obtained his knowl-
edge of the objects in question in
your Mexican city. May you not also
have obtained a similar knowledge?
This morning when i inquired about
the bills your name appeared in the
list the clerk gave me concerning
those who had received some of the
smaller bills.
And, senior, your physical descrip-
ton Tailed with the man shown by
the stars as being the one who killed.
with the double suggestion to go
on, l cabled to Mexico City to a man
well known to myself. He is a man
in touch with sources of information,
and one to be relied on. / asked for
information concerning one Rodri-
guez Laredo. You yourself saw his
mtSbdBc VI Icply uCliNCiCu " llc tlio
morning at table. 1t reads"
Thrusting his hand into a pocket
he drew out the telegraph form and
gave us its contents:
Rodriguez Laredo. resident this
eity-travels widely, however, seldom
long resident here. Suspected by
government agents of endeavoring to
incite uprising of various Indian
tribes against federal government for
past two years. Under surveillance
much of time by secret service. Left
lately, assigned destination United
States-exact locality unknown. Some
times calls himself Prince of Monte
yuma.
you see, senor," he continued,
putting the message away, you are
well known indeed; and It is men
toned that you have sought to pro-
duce an uprising among the Indian
tribes, which would doubtless elevate
you, the self-styled Prince of Monte
yuma, to temporal power II success