Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1918-02-14
CHAPTER TWO. (continued.)

uACil M evening", until you locked
It away in your safe?"
Il probably put it in the drawer
Of my deck"
And the drawer was not
forcedf"
Maitre Lepertuis seemed taken
abaek and made no reply.
"Well?" asked Perenna.
"Well, yes, | remember "
there was something that day
that same Friday"
Are yo,. sure?"
eyes. When Y came in from
lunch ] noticed that the drawer
was not locked, although / had
locked it beyond the least doubt.
At the time [ attached compare
lively little Importance to the in
cident. Today, | understand, I
understand"
Thus, little by little, were all the
suppositions conceived by Don
Luis verified; suppositions resting,
1t IS 4true, upon just one or two
clues, but yet containing an
amount of intuition, of divination,
that was really surprising in a
man who had been present at none
Of the events between which he
traced the connection so skillfully.
I'VE will lose no time, mon
sieur,' said the project Of police,
in checking your statements,
which you will confess to be a little
venturesome, by the more positive
evidence of one. of my detectives
who has the case in charge \
and who ought to be here by now
Does his evidence bear upon
Cosmo Mornington's heirs?''
asked the solicitor.
Upon the heirs principally, be-
cause two days ago he telephoned
me that he had collected all the
particulars, and also upon the
very points which But wait: L
remember that he spoke to my sec
rotary of a murder committed a
month ago today y Now it's a
month today since MIR. Cosmo
Mornington-
NJ. Desmalions pressed hard on
: bell. His private secretary at
once appeared.
Inspector Verot?'' asked the
project sharply.
tiles not back yet"
Have him fetchedl Have him
brought here! He must be found
ct all costs and without delay"
lie turned to Don Luis Pcrcnna.
Inspector Verot was here am
hour ago, feeling rather unwell,
very much excited, it seems, and
declaring that he was being
watched and followed. He said he
wanted to make a most important
statement to me about the Morn
ingtom case and to warn the police
of two murders which are to be
committed tonight and which
would be a consequence of the
murder of Cosmo Mornington."
And he was unwell, you say7'
Yes. i'll at ease and even very
queer and imagining things. By
the way Of being prudent, he left a
detailed report on the case for me.
Well, the report is simply a blank
sheet Of letter. paper.
Here is the paper and the en-
velope in which | found it, and
here is q cardboard box which he
also left behind him. It contains
: cake Of chocolate with the
marks Of teeth on it,
May / look at the two things
you have mentioned, Monsieur lie
Prefetii,,
Yes. but they won't tell you
anything.
Perhaps so
Dom Luis examined at length
the cardboard box and the yellow
envelope, on which were printed
the words, Cafe du Point-Neuf.' =
The others awaited his words as
though they were bound to shed.
IN unexpected light. He merely
said:
The handwriting is not the
same On. the envelope and the box.
The writing on the envelope is less
plain little shaky, obviously
initiated.
Which provost
Which proves, Monsieur lie.
|Prefet, that this yellow envelope.
Idoesn not come from your detective.
4 presume that, after wriiting his
report at table in the Cafe dn
Point-Neuf and closing il, he had
aSmomilant of inattentiion during
1Mlylhi6h somebody substituted for
e4nxel6lJpc another with the same
addIis1l But containing d blank
1hSeto palpElserl:..'
sls - .ssuppositionl aid the