The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1920-04-23

er abroad until AFTER IL was all over
and to this day she never has heard
word about it"
"Your father must be wonderful
man." said enthusiastically.
"He was,r she said simply. He has
been dead two years"
"oh, I'm so sorry" | cried, :" did
not know"
"If Dad were alive he would know
what to do. You see, when he died,
there was not much money left. We're
really little better than paupers
We've been living from day to day on
our tiny capital, and Mother has been
working every wire to arrange good
match for Claire. / wanted to do
something to go out and earn living
for myself, but she never would con-
sent. She insisted I'd be damaging
Claire's prospects IL went into trade,
as she calls 1t, and promised her I'd
do nothing until after Claire is safely
married"
"And is she to be married?" I asked.
A troubled expression came into her
face.
"She was to be, but now I don't
know She is engaged to marry young
Harry D. Thayer who is worth lot
of money, but someone has found out
about her secret"
"How did they find out?" I asked
eagerly. / understood now the mystic
rious meeting In the park that had
brought me first into touch with Bar
bara Bradford. Some band of rascals
was trying to blackmail Claire Brad
ford, and her sister was trying to save
her.
That's the greatest mystery of ALL"
exclaimed Miss Bradford. Before
Dad died he turned over to me all the
papers about the annulment of Claire's
marriage. Somehow he seemed to
rely on me far more than on either
Mother or Claire, He explained to
me the Importance of always keeping
them, in case the past should ever
crop up, but he charged me to see that
they always were safely put away
where no one could find them"
"Where did you keep them?" I
asked.
I'm the wall safe in my sitting
room"
I'm the wall safel" I cried, think
ing in bewilderment of the coinci-
dence that these papers should have
had a similar hiding place to the Cas-
fnF1 tnxIrn lie .t.alx
strangely.
YES" she answered, plainly puzzled
at my bewilderment. SIT was an ex-
cellent hiding place. No one but my
self had the combination. l don't see
now who could have taken them.
found the safe locked as it always
| was"
when did you first discover the pa
pers were missing"
LET me see," she pondered.
"Claire's engagement was announced
at dinner three weeks ago last
Thursday. The newspapers on Sun
| day carried brief notice of it. Two
days later the first note came"
"What note?"
She reached into the pocket of her
riding habit and drew forth q folded
slip Of paper.
Il brought it with me to show you {;
here, this Is the first one"
Like the mysterious note I myself
had received only the preceding night,
this one was not inclosed in an en-
velope. 1t was just folded slip, ad-
dressed in typewriting to "Nfiss Claire
Bradford3 On the, ether side was this
message:
"What II Thayer knew about your
being married before? How much
will you give to get those papers
back?"
Where did you get thfs?" l asked.
Il found 1t on the floor of my bed
room one morning when got up late,
l gave 1t to my sister without having
read 1t, thinking she had dropped IL
there. She read 1t and screamed and
tainted. Fortunately Mother was out
of the house at the time. Naturally r
read the note then. l went to the
safe and found the documents gone
Claire has been nearly crazy ever
since She insists that 1t Is all my
fault She says l ought to have de-
stroyed the papers, but couldn't,
could II" -
OF course not" I replied warmly.
You did quite right in keeping them
1t was not your fault they were
stolen"
7 couldn't destroy them. Dad had
told me to keep them." she said simnly
What did you do thenf Did Won
tell your mother?" 80
III Barbara has heard the Il
IU whispers. ton