Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1920-06-25
CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XII.
It was the second day after this
the day set for Claire Bradford's we'd
ding-that in the morning, much ear
lier than customary, German came to
the prison to see me.
met him jubiIantly My uncle's un-
expected return to the city and his
generous and convincing offers of aid
had filled me with new hopes. l
trusted, too, that old Rufus keen eyes
quickly would discover the secret pas
sageway now that / had indicated to
him where to look for it. was conf
IDENTIFY expecting that the resulting de-
velopments quickly would free me
from even the suspicion of being a
murderer. The minute, however, that
laid eyes on German / knew that
something had gone wrong.
".What is it?" 1 cried. whats the
matter now?"
you're a wonderful liar, you are, ~
was his surly greeting, with your pipe
dreams aDout secret passageways and
stolen pearls"
what do you mean?" 1 replied.
had not the least idea what he was
getting at.
"You almost had me believing you,'
he said savagely. IF it wasn't that
knew that Wick and that girl up there
were crooks 1 would wash my hands
of the whole affair.""
81 don't understand" 1 answered in
dignantly. EVERY statement l have
made to you has been the absolute
truth"
"Yes, it nas!' he sneered.
Ordinarily l would have resented
anyone talking to me In this manner
but felt that under no circumstance
could / afford to quarrel with German
He was the only friend had in tn,
whole city that l could rely on, ex
cepting of course my great-uncle.
contented myself with merely reassert
ing:
II tell you it is all true-every wor,
of it."
"The old mans home-old Rufus,
he responded irrelevantly.
Il know" 1 replied. Il saw him 70
a few minutes day before yesterday
He promised to do everything in hi
power to free me as speedily as pos
sible. After talking with him 1 ar
J confident that he had nothing what
ever to do with any part of the plo
; Have you seen him?"
} "Yes," said German, significant,
I've seen him. He looked me up We.
: terday and we went over the case t.
l gether. He suggested that we 90 u
to the GraEddeck and look over th
! apartment, and we did. The minut
t we got In he went to the wall safe an
opened it up and"
f German stopped short and locke
t at me.
: "Go on" 1 cried, what did 70
find?"
: "We found" he said, speaking sloy
ly and putting special emphasis on h
h third word, ''two jewel boxes ther
i the one with the pearls and the otht
: one"
o "What," l cried, aghast at this Il
e credible bit of news, ''two jew
f cases ~
"Sure we did," he announced tt
:. umphantly. "And the pearls we
there as safe as when the old ms
IL went away. Now what have you g
y to say to that?"
+ What could say?
I, l knew as positively as 1 knew tn
l was alive that on that Saturd;
when 1 had opened the wall safe
&c put away my money there had be,
=, but one of the jewel boxes there.
II had taken it out and had examined !
contents again. With the aid of
II lighted match l had explored eve
e corner of the steel7lined receptac
y The box containing the pearls and t
v rest of the valuables in the CAST
- collection was gone. Now the peal
= were safely back there again. HC
A. Could that be explained? The myste
% was too much for me.
~ There was not the slightest reas
, for me to believe that German W
lying to me now. / had found him
, all our dealings straightforward a
- candid. If he said he had seen grei
"A uncle Rufus find the pearls there
a. must be so, but how could they ha
40 got there? Could it be possible, We
dered, that subconsciously, burden
S+ with the responsibility of the custo
no of such costly gems, might have ris
at in my sleep and in a somnolent sti
NJ removed the pearls to some other h
no ing place. No, l decided, that Il
m ory was too prepOsterous and absu
for even a moments considerati
an If 1 had done that in my sic
ok l must also have restored them to
he safe again in my sleep. 1t was
LET more likely that the thief, becomi
Is alarmed over the publicity brought
ed the Granddeck by the murder, b
to been afraid to attempt to dispose
MT gems so well-known as the Cast
pearls and had restored them in
ay same mysterious way that he had
MT stracted them. 1 suggested this the
is to Garman.
ce CTo BE CONTINUED)