The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-20
CONFESSIONS OF A
 COCAINE PEND

(ConUnued from Page SeVen) rejected by the Academy; she was ready for anything, and the man with whom I was gave her a dose of cocaine. and. stood and smiled, just as I did while she took it.
 The end of that girl? A story which I couldn't tell here; it's too sad, too brutal, but the finishing act of it was the river.
 An, I could tell tales of Lifts agents by the column but l must hasten on to the end of my story.
 I tried to find out from Lady. A. who the man in c1ergyman's dress was, for I didn't at all like the idea of trying to follow him I was now so nervous that it was as much as I could do to attend to Lifts other or ders.
 Then Lady A. in strict confidence told me, and that strict confidence. of course I broke-l cocaine maniac does anything-ana told Lit
 The man was not a clergyman at all. His dress was merely a useful disguise. He was only the go-be- tween. The real culprit, the thief so to speak, was an official employed in q daren't be too explicit here) in, well, in a certain building where there was enough cocaine stored to last the requirements of the country for three years Cocaine is of inn mense value in the treatment of cer- tain disease which is very rare, but if it does break out is generally of extreme virulence, and cocaine in large quantities would be necessary to combat the epidemic. Several cases had been discovered in the East End during the past year, and to be on the safe side the authorities, the Government I suppose, had purchas- ed a huge stock of cocane at very ad- vantageous prices and stored it away in this certain building of which I had spoken.
 \ Trusted Official.
 And it was from here that large quantities were stolen by this trust ed official. No inspection was ever made. no count was ever taken; it was enough for those responsible for the public health that the drug was stored there, and there it should re- main in case of need. They never even dreamt of suspecting this off cial.
 The alleged clergyman was an opium fiend, and was really a very near relative of Lady As who had gone utterly to the bad, and had blackmailed Lady 4. into supporting him until, quite by chance, he hap Dened to come across the unworthy official.
 Now a curious thing about these drugs, both opium and cocaine, is that, in my experience at any rate, when under the influence of either of them there were no secrets be- tween the respective takers. So Lady A. became possessed of a secret and one which was very valuable to Lit, and she thought that by telling him where cocaine in plenty could be got. she could, without betraying the clergyman, recover her own secret documents which, as I have already stated, Lit had managed to get into his possession And she would also be benefting the thieves, who were only too glad, of course, to find a trusted customer from the West End.
 So Lady A. gave everything away, trusting me implicitly.
 And I? Well, of course, I told Lit. Yes, that is whRt I had be- come, the thief of my own honor.
 Then Lit made his great mistake. He took up the matter himself, saw the two men, the supposed clergyman and the official, and tried to black mail them into selling him the stuff at a cheaper rate. They refused. He threatened and threatened once too often, for the unworthy official was seized with O panic. He confessed in full to one of his superiors, who informed the police of what had happened. mentioning Lifts name, of course, though for some reason none of the men even mentioned my name, and I never figured. in the affair. Lits arrest followed immediately. This I learned a day or two later, when I received note from him bidding me call at the chemist $ shop.
 It's all up. everything's up," he said, still smiling. They arrested me the day before yesterday, but I simply laughed at them. They know everything, where I got the cocaine from and everything else. I told them I'd givo them a list of the names of those who bought from me. They might as we'll be in with me, l told them"
 He laughed again. 'I started with the name of a very prominent person. and followed with several other very we'll known people. I think it as- | tonished them little, for within a | few hours I was released, and there | will be no charge against me. An, knew I was on the safe side with