The Pulaskian., 1920-05-20

IFauIOTQ rOOmI NEViuentty the writer was the same as In my case.)
 6. Was there anything in the past relations of Mir. Bradford and my great-uncle that would cause my great-uncle to plot against the Brad ford family?
 '. How were the mysterious sounds heard both by my great-uncle, by Bar bara Bradford, and by myself to be accounted for7
 8. How were the mysterious foot steps heard by Mrs. Burke to be ex- plained? Were they merely the i'm aginings of a superstltious old woman?
 The relations between Mir. Bradford and Rufus Gaston puzzled me. Miss Bradford's recollection of her fathers remark about my great-uncle certainly indicated that he held no high opinion Of him. My great-uncIe's actions throughout had been peculiar, His suddenly sending for me and insisting on my coming here to live, his insist ence on leaving his wife's jewels In my care, and on entrusting me with the combination of the safe, all now took on a sinister aspect It certainly was peculiar that he had gone off without leaving me any address where he could be reached.
 Then, too, there was my own unex- pected and unwarranted discharge at my place of business. I was positive in some way it was connected with my having come to this place to live. Had my great-uncle himself brought 1t about for the purpose of dlscrediting me? Was it the work of the black mailers to get square with me for hav- ing accidentally butted in on the meeting they had arranged with Miss Bradford?
 The scar-faced manl Who was he? I was certain that he was in some way involved It might have been he who had caused me to lose my job. Ger tainly the malevolent glance he had given me in the restaurant that night showed that he would have wrought me harm if he could. The next time I laid eyes on him I was determined to trail him with bulldog tenacity un- til I ascertained his identity and where he lived. I felt sure that the trail of the mystery would lead to his door.
 I decided not to leave the apartment all day. had laid in plentiful SUD- ply of food the day before so there was no necessity for my going out. There was plenty of work for me to do I must try to devise some way of examining the safe door and the jewel box that remained for evidence oe f1ngerprints, and I must inspect the building both from within and without to see if I could learn how the notes were delivered.
 From one of the toilet tables T ob- tained some fine powder and opening the wall safe again I took out the jewel box and carefully dusted it over with the powder. l hoped that the powder would reveal markings of hands on the box, but either I was too inexperienced or my method was wrong, for I succeeded in obtaining no sort of result, beyond finding out what my own fingerprints looked like on sheet of paper prepared with some homemade lampblack. After an hour or two of experimentation I gave it up as a bad job, and turned to the study of methods by which the notes might have been delivered.
 The Gaston apartment was on the sixth floor of the building, which was surrounded by ordinary three and four-story dwelling houses. It must have been someone in the building if not in the apartment itself. It would be quite possible for someone on the floor above to have projected the notes through my window and that of Miss Bradford by attaching them to the end of a long stick. I made up my mind to ascertain who occupied the apartments above.
 The mystery of the whispers did not seem to be of such easy solution. While I had been inclined at first to regard my own experience as a dream. the coincidence of Miss Bradford and my great-uncle having had the same Illusion convinced me that it was some claptrap devised by the plotters for preying on the fears of their intended victims.
 Eagerly I waited for the coming of evening and from half-past seven on I sat by my window waiting for Bar bara's signal. It was nearly nine o'clock before heard the three taps that had so startled me the evening before. Quickly thrust my head out of the window and was rewarded by seeing hers appear at the same mo ment.
 We must not talk long" she warned me. Someone might see us Have you learned anything newT "Yes," whispered. "In my uncle's diary found several entries about the whispers"
 "IIovv Stranrei I" she exeIainnad