Washington telegraph., 1920-06-18

met MN Jubllantly. My uncle'S un-
expected return to the city and his
generous and convincing offers of aid
had hlled me with new hopes. 1
trusted, too, that old Rufus keen eyen
quickly would discover the secret pas
sageway now that l 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
murderer. The minute, however, that
laid eyes on German | knew that
something had gone wrong.
"What is itg" | cried. whats the
matter now?'
"roure a wonderful liar, you are"
was his surly greeting, with your pipe
dreams about secret passageways and
stolen pearls"
What do you mean?' | replied. !
had not the least idea what he was
getting at
You almost had me believing you"
he said sayagely. IF it wasn't that l
knew that Wick and that girl up there
were crooks | would wash my hands
of the whole affair.""
81 don't understand" l answered. in
dignantly. Every statement | have
made to you has been the absolute
truth"
'Yes, It hasw' he sneered.
Ordinarily l would have resented
anyone talking to me in this manner,
but | felt that under no circumstances
gould afford to quarrel with German.
He was the only friend l had in the
whole city that l could rely on, eX-,
eeptlng Of course my great-uncle.
contented myself with merely reassert-
ing:
81 tell you it is all true-every word
of it,"
"l'he old mans home-old Rufus"
he responded irrelevantly.
Il know ! replied. Il 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 l am
confident that he had nothing what
ever to do with any part of the plot.
Have you seen him?"
"Yes,' said German, significantly,
''l've seen him. He looked me up yes
terday and we went over the case to-
gether. He suggested that we go up
'fo-tN-- tirantusrk amt rock -cTer-ti,e
aparment. and we did. The minute
we got in he went TO the wal 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" l cried, "what did you
findY"
Eve 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, 1.-TWO jewel
caSes"
Sure we did" he announced trl.
,umThantly. "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 | say?
| knew. as positively as l knew that
l was alive that on that saturday
when l 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 its
contents again. With the aid of a
lighted match ! had explored every
corner of the steel-lined receptacle.
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 1t
must be so, but how could they have
got therel Gould IT be possible, | won
dered. that suhconsciously burdened
with the responsibility of the custody
of such costly gems, might have risen
in my sleep and in a sOmnolent state
removed the pearls to some other hiG.
ing place. No, | decided, that the
DRY was too preposterous and absurd
for even momelts consideration
II | had done that In my sleep
] must also have restored them To the
safe again in my sleep. It was far
more likely that the thief. becoming
alarmed over the publicity brought 10
the Granddeck by the murder, had
been afraid TO attempt to dispose of
gems So well-known as the Castor
pearls and had restored hem in the
same mysterious way tha he had alb
stracted theh' suggested this theory
to Garman.
GRO BE coNTINUED9
Lead and Steel.
Lead Is said to act. like steel at or.
dinaTy temperatures in liquid air. II