Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1920-04-16

you're Wonderful Liar, you are,
Was His SurIy Greeting.
to the Granddeck and look over the
apartment, and we did. The minute
we got in he went to the wall safe and
opened 1t up and"
German stopped short and looked
at me. 1t seemed to me that there
were doubt and distrust In his express
sion.
go on" I cried, "what did you
find?"
1--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" / cried, aghast at this in
credible bit of news, "two jewel
casesl"
"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 thatT'
What could say1
knew as positively as knew that
/ was alive that on that Saturday
when / had opened the wall safe to
put away my money there had been
but one of the jewel boxes there. i
had taken ii out and had examined Its
contents again. With the aid Of
lighted match l had explored every
% Ctaal-unaH
The box containing the pearls and the
rest of the valuables In the CASTOR
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. l had found him In
all our dealings straightforward and
candid. If he said he had seen great
uncle Rufus find the pearls there II
must be so, but how could they have
dered, that subconsciously, burdened
with the responsibility of the custody
of such costly gems, might have risen
In my sleep and In somnolent state
removed the pearls to some other hid
ing place. No, decided, that the
DRY was too preposterous and absurd
for even a moments consideration.
If l had done that In my sleep
] must also 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 so well-known as the CASTOR
pearls and had restored them In the
same mysterious way that he had alb
stracted them. / suggested this theory
to Garman.
"NDthing doing" he sneered. ANY
crook Iaring enough to steal those
pearls, once he had got his hands on
them, never would return them
Pearls are too easily disposed Of
You've got to dig up better expla-
nation than that"
"What did Mr.. CASTOR think7 What
did he say when he found them
there?"
HE had nothing to say. He was
so tickled at finding them again that
he hustled with them right away to
the safe deposit vaults and did not
rest until he had them safely locked
up. He took both jewel cases with
him and made me 60 along with him
to protect them"
Didn't you look at all for the secret
passageway | told you about?"
"Still dreaming about that. are
your scoffed German. mo, we didn't
On the way up to the Granddeck the
old man spoke about It and / told
him that In my opinion there was
nothing to It. After he recovered the
pearls he was too excited to think
about anything else. Ii seemed to
break him all up. and I took him back
to his hotel and left him there. He
said he had some writing to do. and
that he would meet me at my Office
at noon today"
How do you account for the re-
turn Of the pearls" cried desperate
ly. "What's your theory about themT
II haven't any" he replied. ITS
up to you to explain II. Maybe by
the time I come to see you tomorrow
you'll have thought up new yarn
to spin"
"Please, please" called after him
as he turned away, do look tomor-
row and see II that secret passage IL
not where I said Il was"
He walked away without answering.
Back once more in my cell, stretched
myself despondently on my little iron
cot, and closing my eyes, tried to