The Pulaskian., 1920-07-15

1 expected return to the CIty ana HIS | generous and convincing offers of aid had filled me with new hopes. 1 trusted. too, that old Rufus keen eyeH quickly would discover the secret pas sageway now that I had indicated to him where to look for it. < was confi- dently expecting that the resulting de. -velopments quickly would free me from even the suspicion of being q murderer. The minute, however, that I laid eyes on German I knew that something had gone wrong.
 What is it?' I cried. Whats the matter now?"
 You're wonderful liar, you are,s was his surly greeting, with your pipe dreams about secret passageways and stolen pearls"
 What do you mean?" I replied. had not the least idea what he wal getting at.
 You almost had me believing you" he said sayagely. "If it wasn't that I knew that Wick and that girl up there were crooks I would wash my hands of the whole affair.""
 q don't understand, answered ips dignantly. Every statement I have made to you has been the absolute truth"
 ''Yes, it has!" he sneered. I Ordinarily I would have resented anyone talking to me in this manner, l but 1 felt that under no circumstances gould ] afford to quarrel with German. He vas the only friend I had in the whole city that I could rely on, ex- cepting of course my great-uncle. eontented myself with merely reassert- l ing:
 l T tell you it is all true-every word of it."
 ''The old mans home-old Rufus" he responded irrelevantly. ''I know" I replied. "I saw him for a few minutes day before yesterday. He promised to do everything in his power to free me as speedily as pos sible. After talking with him I am confident that he had nothing what ever to do with any part of the plot. I Have you seen him?"
 ''Yes," said German, significantly, five seen him. He looked me up yes 1 terday and we went over the case to- gether. He suggested that we go up l to the Granddeck and look over the l apartment, and we did. The minute we got in he went to the wall safe and opened it up and"
 German stopped short and looked 1 at me. It seemed to me that there were doubt and dlstrust in his expres. sion.
 Go on," I cried, "what did you ind?"
 "We found" he said, speaking slow. ly and putting special emphasis on his third word, two jewel boxes there the one with the pearls and the other one."
 "What," I cried, aghast at this in credible bit of news, 1.-two jewe casesf"
 Sure we did," he announced tri, umphantly. And the. pearls were there as safe as when the old man went away. Now what have you got to say to that?"
 What could I say?
 I knew as positively as I knew that I was alive that on that Saturday when I had opened the wall safe to put away my money there had been but one of the jewel boxes there. had taken it out and had examined it's | contents again. With the aid of a l lighted match 1 had explored every corner of the steel-lined receptacle. The box containing the pearls and the rest of the valuables in the Gaston collection was gone, Now the pearls were safely back there again. How could that be explained? The mystery was too much for me.
 There was not the slightest reason for me to believe that German was lying to me now. I had found him in all our dealings straightforward and 1 candid If he said he had seen great l uncle Rufus find the pearls there it 1 must be so, but how could they have got there? Could it be possible. | won dered, that suhconsciously, burdened with the responsibility of the custody of such costly gems, might have nisen in my sleep and in a somnolent state removed the pearls to some other MG. ing place. No, I decided. that the. ory was too preposterouS and absurd for even a moments consideration If I had done that Tn my sleep ! must aiso have restored them to the safe again in my sleep. 1t was far more likely that the thief. becoming alarmed over the publicity brought to the Granddeck by the murder. had been afraid to attempt to dispose of gems Sn well-known us the GaSton pearls and had restored them in the same mysterious way tha he had ab- stracted them, l suggested this theory to Garman.
 (TO BE CONTINuED.)