The Pulaskian., 1920-11-04
By CLIFFORD s. RAYMOND
 n R g IlIxSfrofed by IRWIN MYERS

l that if 1t were possible to have the | other maids regard her kindly so as not to make her feel obloquy, it would be only Christian.
 Mrs. Aldrich was a very stanch churchwoman and I could see in the l tightening of her lips that such soft treatment of a woman caught in crime did not satisfy her ideas of morality. She went out dissatisfied, but 1 knew she would do her best. Jed came in. still in his superservfceable mood.
 Would you like some coffee, sir?' he asked I was tired and did want q stimuant.
 ''Yes, Jed I would-thank you" I said as heartily as I could, determined to break down his triumph of imper. durability by commonplace handling of him. He brought the tray.
 "Sit down." I said Your schemes have come to a bad end in this house It will do you no good. and it may de stroy the family. Things are beyond your control or my control. The Span. iard has the manuscript he was after Your power is gone. It is transferred to him."
 "so you are familiar with this af- fairt"
 s''I am not. I only know what has happened since I came here. I do not want to know any more"
 You are wise There is nothing but unhappiness and danger in knowing It is not news to me that Dravada has Mir. Sidney's diary. They released me after they learned that the manuscript | had been found and that the. lawyer and Dravada had it."
 Jed then sat down and told what | had happened to him. l was very angry, remembering Isobel as she came hunning in that night with her sleeve torn from her waist I wondered that I could hear the man calmly, but he had extraordinary power, being moved 1 by extraordinary emotions.
 "In the first place" he said, may l say that I have been preposterous2 You think am a lunatic. Sometimes I am, almost. It is easy enough to be a cabbage if you are one. It is some l times hard to seem one if you are not | I've been a fool-but I've been hunting for something that I have not been able to find. want happiness and i'm portance. My egotism asks for it. but my common SenSe is going to have its way. That's preliminary
 Then he told his experiences. He had become violent with Isobel He wanted 1t understood that he had been desperate but respectful. He had no idea of taking hold of her or of tear l ing her sleeve. She had been magnif- cent. She had given him moral 1 shock. He felt like worm. He had been attacked suddenly by the men who had overpowered him. They had | come upon him from the brush. Ra had recognized Dravada at once He might have overcome the Spaniard, but the desperate little lawyer in a frenzy of activity, had been just bold and strong enough to interfere so that Jed l had been made helpless. Another man had come breathlessly to help. Jed had been bound and gagged. He had been hustled into the screeA of woods and beyond them to waiting auto mobile
 His captors, in the automobile, had headed for the city and catered it after midnight They had taken their pris- oner to a tenement on the East side, For several days the lawyer and Ora vada had tried to extort the secret 1 from Jed by threats. They had tried to buy it by promise of an equitable division of profits. The lawyer had been quite frantic part of the time Jed said, bounding about in an ecstasy of rage At other times he had been friendly and persuasive.
 Dravada had been savage and want ed to try torture, but the attorney, en- ragged as he frequently became in his 1 failure and disappointment, would not permit this and had got trustworthy rascal of hs acquaintance, named Sim with two other men, to keep con stant guard over Jed with view not only to prevent his escape but to keep Dravada from doing him harm or talk ing him away.
 The lawyer, both dismayed and en- ragged by Jed's obstinacy, had finally thought of corrupting someone in the house to find and steal the manuscript The best he had been able to do was to persuade maid to prove false enough to introduce the real thief. < .'Dravada and the lawyer never had any hesitancy at h1ving their quarrels in the room where they held me" Jed said. Brown was afraid Dravada would corrupt the fellow Sim, torture me and get the story. Dravada was afraid Brown would corrupt someone in Hartley house and get the manu- script. Each one feared that the other would succeed independently and get away without making divi- sion.
 "Dravada pretended to be satisfied when Brown told him that he must not appear near Hartley. When they thought they were going to succeed in