Charlevoix county herald., 1920-03-19


nothing I'd like better than to put II
they've got down i'm Center street. This
hotel work don't suit me, anyhow. I've
been thinking of opening up an office
of my own. The recovery Of the Gas
ton pearls would be a nice feather In
my cap 10 start with"
81 see," replied. "but youll need
money for expenses and that sort Of
thing, won't you? have"
Leave that part Of 1t to me-" he
retorted with quizzical smile.
"After all the years I was on the po-
lice force l amt exactly broke by
long shot All you've got to do is to
keep your eyes open and let me know
all that goes on in the apartment
house. III attend to the rest. Don't
do anything, though. without consult
ing me first"
"Tll gladly promise that"
GOOD enough. We'd better arrange
then to meet here every day at three
sharp It's as good place as any"
"Pll be here"
"And look out you're not trailed.
They may try shadowing you again."
'Who do you mean by theyT ]
asked eagerly.
"Them that trailed you yesterday"
replied German with grin. IF you
don't know, / don't know either--yet."
From his manner I was confident
that he already had a shrewd suspi-
| o;o 60 ha of Of fha
miscreants. The maze In the center
Of which he had placed Miss Bradford
and myself meant far more to him,
undoubtedly, than 1t did to me. More
than likely his vast knowledge Of the
methods of criminals and his acquaint-
anceship with others like Lefty Moore
had given him clues enough as to
where to look for the plotters. | real
lied that II would be useless to ques-
ton him further. He would admit
suspecting no one until he was sure
of their guilt, a quality I admired
greatly.
"You can count on me-" repeated.
"I'll be here at three tomorrow"
Yet how foolish 1t was for any Of
us to predict what we will be doing or
where we will be twenty-four hours
from now. Seldom do things happen
in the routine Of our lives as we had
anticipated l was not there the next
day at the time appointed. BY no pos
sibiity could | have been there, how
ever much | might have wished. to.
Many things had happened in quick
succession.
How 1t came about that my promise
to meet German went unfulfilled can
best be explained by narrating the
events of the evening after | returned
to the Granddeck. 1t was nearly five
when left the detective. strolled
leisurely down town and had dinner in
the cafe where on one occasion ! had
seen the scar-faced man. | fingered
there for long time over my coffee
hoping in vain that he might appear
the waiter and head waiter, describing
the man as best | could, but both Of
them insisted that they never had seen
any such person. AS walked home
| kept a wary eye out to make sure
| was not being followed, but appar-
emily no one was now shadowing me.
1t was nine-thirty when l reached
home. 1t had been arranged that Bar
bara about ten would signal me that
we might have a chat from our re-
spective windows. AS / sat In my
room waiting for the time to come. l
was reviewing the case In all its as
poets. Indeed there was hardly wax
ing moment that was not thinking Of
the many mysteries about us. was
wondering IL, when the case was
cleared up the mysterious whispers
that we all had heard would also be
explained. I recalled Claire Brad
ford's unexpected visit to my apart
ment the evening before and her con-
fusion when I had captured her. I
wondered If the explanations she had
offered had been the truth. Was she
really trying to locate the source Of
the whispers? l looked interestedly
up at the section of the wall that
had found her inspecting. What had
she hoped to discover there1
l decided to make close inspec-
ton of both sides Of the wall. AS
I lighted up the sitting room and hall
for this purpose, something unusual
came to my notice that had hitherto
escaped me entirely. =
THE INNER WALL OF MY ROOM
the one running along the hall Of
the apartment-HAD THE APPEAR
ANCE OF BEING AT LEAST -FOUR
FEET THICK.
1t seemed so absurd that I refused
to believe the evidence my eyes had
given me.f In these modern days of
steel construction there was no reason
for wall being Of medieval proper
tons. I sprang to my great-aunt's
work basket and began rummaging to
see II could find a tape measure,
and luckily my search was quickly re-
warded.
sketched a rough diagram Of the
rear rooms. and began measuring
them off. carefully checking my figures
| II oil