The Jasper news., 1919-11-27

M
Is Is Esl Is IS Is Is sl lssI
marched straight to the kitchen door
and back to me ia flash.
"You open the front door and get
ready to yell bloody murder II any
thing happens" he commanded.
mo, Billy" returned, coming to
my senses and pulling out my. hatpin,
that had already once done duty that
day. 'Tll get ready to do bloody mur-
der"
He flung open the kitchen door and
we went in together.
Our mysterious burglar had van.
ished.
"Flew the COOP" said Billy sadly.
"And 1 might have caught him II I'd
been a minute sooner. Just my luck"
He pointed to the open window as he
spoke.
To me that open window meant l
had missed death because of Billy.
swayed. He grabbed my arm and
steered me to the dining room and
berthed me in the chair I'd Just left.
"Get me a glass of water, Billy"
"Say, this is NEWSl" he chuckled.
while drank. Mysterious robbery Of
well-known authoress-oh, I say, this
is NEWS!"
came back with notebook in his
hand. l stumbled to my feet and got
him by the shoulders.
"Billy Rivers, this is not newsl It's
life and death. Not living soul must
know Of this till tell it. Do you un-
derstand?"
"Well, but" he began, "a robbery
like this-and Of you"
"It wasn't robbery.
wasn't robbery?" He cast
glance over the wreckage strewn all
over. "What was 1t, thenT
"a search"
"Gee whiz! l believe you're right"
he cried, looking about again, with a
new light in his eyes.
81 say-the plot thickensl This is q
real mystery!"
"Don't you see why 1t mustn't be
known?"
"And do you know who searched
and what he searched forT
81 think So"
before he brought out, II believe you
know more about this than you're tell
ing me. You're conceallng something.
Well-tell me this-did he get IT."
81 don't know"
Billy whlstled and stared. "Suy-
this begins to be romantic"
'Romanticl' p I snorted. "You don't
know what romantic isl"
managed to stop there. However
much 1 respected Billy In general, i
hadn't much confidence In his discre-
tion.
BILLY, do you remember the time
your mother put on your brand-new
Fauntleroy suit and told you not to
go to the swimming hole and you
went?" asked desperately, trying to
get at him somehow and bind him to
a promise to keep this to himself
"And you went-and the boys threw
you in, sash and curls and all? And
l found you and took you home and
ironed you and curled you up fresh
and saved you from"
"a lickin'-and good one," he I'm
ished fer me. "Those were the ma
ter's llckin' days-before she lost the
girls. And 1t wasn't the only lickin
you saved me FROM" he added, In the
grateful way I'd always loved him for
even when l just couldn't love him
he was so bad.
BILLY, dear" ! said, pressing m,
hands on his shoulders, "lt's your turI
now. Do you understand?-and you've
got to forget that you're a reporte
and remember only that you're m.
friend and that need one; for In
in a lot of trouble and l simply cam
8 explain"
"Don't say any more,' said Bill,
= with a fine air, taking up his hat
y remembered then that he had com
|. for papers-George would be LOOKING
r for some evidence of my truthfulnes
: and l snatched up the first sizabl
8 book / saw--my German dictionary
though l didn't notice what II was
and a bunch Of odd papers and thrus
r them into Billy's hand and got him oil
and George up In spite of protests tina
q / ought not to stay alone after that.
a closed the door and put up tn
chain-bolt, and seeing my clothes all 4
. heap. went In and hung them up an