Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1920-01-28

pered hoarsely, whats that? The
villain trying to get in?"
! l said, Mrs. Thing downstairs be-
lieves it's music, lucky for us-We can
now breathe out loud without fear of
the villain. He may be listening at
the front door-but he'll hear nothing
while she operates"
| Billy forked a lot Of chicken onto
my plate and commanded me to go to
it, and grabbed a roll out of his box
and said:
"Billy, he tried to murder me-"
"He?"
"That mamie was waiting for me
with dagger that night-look here
I jumped up and got the dagger from
my penholder tray-"he dropped it on
| the floor"
Gee whiz ~ he cried, taking the dag
ger from me; and then he demanded
"Who?"
"That man-De Ravenol."
"De Ravenol?-you mean that man
in Paris who wanted you to bring the
pretty daughter over with you and
you wouldn't?"
"Yes-that's the one. He was dia-
blew off. "He was in the act of steal
ing a million dollars worth of dia-
monds. And I foiled him!'
"Wow! You did,"
81 should say I didI And what's
more, I've got the diamonds here
there-behind you in those hyacinths."
"Wow" he whooped, and before /
knew what he was doing he was out
of his chair, his hand on the glass.
"Don't touch them! !" l shrieked.
"Wow!" he cried, dropping his hand
and jumping back. do they bite?"
Motley sting. They pizen your
very soul. But, Billy-stop wowing-
I'm watched"
He sat down with the command,
/ "Divulge the dread secret" and be-
tween bites told him the whole story
up to Eureka, and brought in the slip
per to prove it.
He was still staring when I got
through and asked him, "And now how
am I going to get those beastly things
out of the house and where am / go
ing to get them to? She doesn't dare
to have them at her house"
sob, I can take them away and
hide 'em, if that's all you want" he
answered carelessly.
sit isn't ALL" retorted, bit indig-
nant. Its only the beginning of a
new chapter of misery for the whole
of us-it's throwing the responsibility
on you without getting me out of the
nett won't save me from being kid
mapped and searched and maybe MUIR
dered to keep my mouth shut
Billy nodded at that and said,
you're right"
He took a cigarette out of his case
and with a short, "May II" lighted up
and began to blow rings, gazing at
them abstractedly. ] nibbled crumbs.
After I'd stood his silence for half a
cigarette, I repeated my question and
told him, "We've got to do something
right ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS"
| "Of course" He smoked another
quarter and threw the cigarette with
energy into the empty chicken tin,
bouncing up as he spoke.
"What are we going to do?" he gave
forth masterfully. Were going to
trap that bold man all by our little
own selves-you and /. And Wen give
him one nice lesson on stealing dia-
monds from defenseless women--and
threatening you."
"But we've got to hurry" urged.
II can't live this way much longer
it's simply killing mel"
"Sure," Billy agreed. suppressing a
smile at me. "Tm hurrying all / can.
T calculate to have your 'mossoo' in
| handouts tomorrow night" And he
| unfolded his plot and l entered into it
| with fervor. The truth is Billy and
were having the fun of our lives.
The scheme was to decoy monsieur
to the fiat by letter from Mrs. Della
rio indicating where the diamonds
were hidden: we banked on his re-
membering the one place he hadn't
/ searched-the hyacinths; and If he got
! the tip we believed he'd return the mo-
ment went out.
After some discussion Billy and /
| decided not to take Mrs. Delario into
our confidence, not knowing how she'd
act in the crisis, which necessitated
our initiating her writing. The only
sample of her writing we had was her
| address in my notebook and some
titles of books on spiritualism she'd
wished me to read. But the sample
did us, and the joint literary efforts of
myself and Billy produced the follow
ing-this purporting to be from me to
| her:
| My Dear Mrs. Delario: Since he searched
| everything but the bunch of hyacinths as
4 told you over the telephone Tuesday-lthis
struck me as an exqdisitely neat, convincing
| touch, for his detective must have reported
both that I telephoned and the number of
| the call)-I thought the same place would
| continue safe in case OF a second invasion.
got a fresh bunch, you viii know where
| if anything happens to me. If so, come and
get them at once; break in the fat if you
1 have to.
I am going to try to you Saturday
night for final arrangements If I slip