Omaha daily bee., 1919-07-02
CHAPTER x.
The Two Secretaries.

Come my friend" Trent was
saying to himself, as he made few
notes in his little book. Have you
got your eye on Mrs. Henderson?
Or haven't you? know that col
orless tone of the inspectorial voice.
l wish l had seen her. Either you've
got something against her and you
don't want to get hold Of it; or else
you've made up your mind she's in
nocent, but have no objection to my
wasting my time over her. Well,
it's all in the game; which begins to
look extremely interesting as we 60
on" To Mr.. Murch he said aloud:
We'll, I'll draw the bedroom later
on. What about thls?' -.
"They call it the library" said
the inspector. "Manderson used to
do his writing and that in here;
passed most of the time he spent
indoors here. Since he and his wife
ceased to hit it off together, he had
taken to spending his evenings
alone, and when at this house he al
ways spent 'em in here. He was last
seen alive, as far as the servants are
concerned, in this ROOM"
Trent rose and glanced again
through the papers set out on the
table. Business letters and docu-
ments, mostly" said Mr.: Murch.
Reports, prospectuses, and that. "A
few letters on private matters, moth
ing in them that | can use. The
American secretary-Bunner his
name is, and a queer card+ never
saw turned-he's been through this
desk with me this morning. He had
got it into his head that Henderson
had been receiving threatening let
tiers, and that the murder was the
outcome of that. But there's no
trace of any such thing; and we
looked at every blessed paper. The
only unusual things we found were
some packets of bank notes to very
considerable amount, and a couple
of little bags of unset diamonds. l
asked Mr.. Bunner to put them in
safer place. 1t appears that Man
derson had begun buying diamonds
lately as a specula tion-it was a new
game to him, the secretary said, and
It seemed to amuse him" ~,
what about these secretarles!.
Trent inquired. Il met one called
Marlowe just now outside; NICE
looking chap with singular eyes, I'M
ouestionably English. The other, It
seems, is an American. What did
Henderson want with an Enghsh
secretary?"
"Mr. Marlowe explained to me
how that was. The American was
his righa- hand business man, one
of his office staff, who never lett
him. Mr.. Marlowe had nothing to
do with Manderson's business as a
financier, knew nothing of it. His
lob was to look after Henderson
horses and motors and zach and
sporting arrangements and that
make himself generally useful, as
you might say. He had the spend,
ing of lot of money, ! should
think. The other was confined en-
tire to the office affairs, and dare
say he had his hands full. AS fol-
being English, it was just a fad Of
Manderson's to have an English sec
,, rotary. He'd had several before Mr.
Marlowe."
"He showed his taste" observed
Trent. 1T might be more than in
teresting, don't you think, to be min
lister to the pleasures Of a moderr
plutocrat with a large P? Only the,
say that Manderson's were exclu
sively of an innocent kind. Ger
tainly Marlowe gives me the i'm
preston that he would be weak ii
the part of Petronius. But to re
turn to the matter in hand" HI
looked at his notes. "You said jus
now that he was last seen alive here
so far as the servants were con
cerned.' That meant-?
Gle had a conversation with hi
wife on going to bed. But for that
the servant, Martin by name
last saw him in this room. l hal
his story last night, and very gla'
he was to tell it. An affair like thi
is meat and drink to the servants o
the house.
Trent considered for some mo
ments, gazing through the opel