The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1920-06-30

|
the time | come to see you tomorrow
| you'll have thought up new yarn
to spin"
please, please" l called after him
! as he turned away, edo look tomor-
row and see If that secret passage is
not where said 1t was"
He walked away without answering
| Back once more in my cell, stretched
| myself despondrntly on my little iron
cot. and closing my eyes. tried to
| concentrate my thoughts on an at
tempt to solve this new mystery.
which l could plainly sec had all but
| destroyed Gormnn's faith in my hon
| esty. l must solve 1t If I was to re-
tain him In aiding me to get free, yet
| the whole thing seemed inexplicable.
l could hardly blame him for doubling
mo. The great value Of the pearls
had been motive enough for their
theft, but what possible motive could
there have been for the thief return
ing them?
With shock it came to me, too,
that the restoration Of the pearls
practically upset the whole theory of
my defense. l.. I coiLl have cstah-
lished the fact of this theft, jury
might be persuaded to believe my talo
of anonymous notes. mysterious whis-
perS, and secret paSsageway by
which the thief had gained access to
the apartment, but without the motive
OF theft my story, unsupported by
witnesses and uncorlpborated by 9th
cr evidence, surely would be incred-
iblc Of belief.
had just one hope left. Old Rufus
! must find that secret paSsagcway and
see whittier II led That, with our
knowledge Of tho identity OF the tclc.
, phone girl and the possibility OF prov
ing Gorman's belief that Wick was
an eX-convict, seemed likely to be my
only salvation. Old Rufus must find
that paSSugcway. He must! He must F!
For hours l lay there racking my
brains over the unsolvablc problems
My luncheon was brought in, but
waved 1t away untouched. Wcnrily
wondered whether the recovery cf
( the pearls had destroyed my aged rel
ntiye's faith in me, as 1t seemed to
have destroyed Gorman's. could
hardly blame him If he doubted me
after finding that my story OF tie dis
appearance OF the pearls was nppar-
emily untrue. In my brief experience
as prisoner had learned all too
well the bitter fact that once u man
Is discreditad, hcnceforth 10 one
trusts him. If Rufus Castor failed
me at this junctur;: I did not see row
I could possibly eXtricate myself un-
scathed from the web that unseen
hands had so skilfully and mali
ciously woven around me. The only
ray Of comfort that could find any
where In the whole situation was In
my firm belief that though old Rufus
and German and the whole world
dddhted me, Barbara BradfOrd--my
Barbara, I ventured to call her in my
innermost henrt-would continue to
/, believe In me. She would be sure. no
matter how much appearances went
against me, that was telling the
truth. Barbara and I knew. Even II
she had not known that could not
possibly have fired the shot that killed
Miss Lutan, I was certain that she
still would have trusted me.
Thinking about Barbara recalled
that 1t war the day of her sisters we'd.
| ding. ! nad one OF the prison attend
ants got me the evening papers to see
what they had to say about IT. for
was fearful lest some breath OF
scandal ut the last moment involvlnc
the Bradfords might bring about a
postponement. Eagerly was hoping
that nothing had happened to prevent
the marriage taking place. With the
fortunes OF her sister assured and
her mothers future safe. realized
that the course Of my relations with
barbara would be likely to be much
smoother sailing, provided OF course
that | was acquitted In the few
chats had had with her had real
i%ed that wealth and luxury ana social
position meant nothing to narharas
happiness. She was the sort OF girl
who for a man she loved gladly would
brave poverty, hardship, everything
sincere ue-henrted woman with
clear vision OF the real values OF ex-
istcncc
My messenger returned with the
newspapers, and as picked them up
everything went black "hIillionnire
Castor Found Murdered" was tho
p btI.k4,tkaistIbfd,<L II ~ Am, n tugjhlbn,I mr..