The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1920-07-02
CHAPTER XII.

ding-that In the morning much ear
Her than customary, German came to
the prison to see me.
met him jubilantly. My uncle's IN
expected return to the city and his
generous and convincing offers Of aid
had filled me with new hopes. /
trusted, too, that old Rufus keen eyes
quickly would discover the secret pas
sageway now that had indicated to
him where to look for 1t. was conf
IDENTIFY expecting that the resulting de-
Velopments quickly would free me
from even the suspicion Of being a
murderer. The minute, however, that
/ laid eyes on German / knew that
something had gone wrong.
what Is it?' cried. whats the
matter nowT' .
You're a wonderful liar, you are"
was his surly greeting, with your pipe
dreams ABOUT secret passageways and
stolen pearls"
what do you meanP' l replied.
had not the least idea what he was
getting at.
you almost had me believing you"
he said savagely. 'rIf 1t wasn't that
knew that Wick and that girl up there
were crooks ! would wash my hands
of the whole affair"
81 don't understand" answered In
dignantly. every statement I have
made to you has been the absolute
| truth"
Eyes, it nasp he sneered.
Ordinarily l would have resented
anyone talking to me in this manner,
but felt that under no circumstances
He was the only friend had In the
whole city that I could rely on, ex-
cepting Of course my great-uncle.
contented myself with merely reassert.
| ing:
II tell you 1t is all true-eyery word
of it."
'The old mans home-oId Rufus"
he responded irrelevantly.
II know" l replied. II saw him for
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 I am
confident that he had nothing what.
ever to do with any part of the plot.
Have you seen him?"
YES" said German, significantly,
I've seen him. He looked me up yes.
| terday and we went over the case to.
gether. He suggested that we 20 I'D
to the Granddeck and look over the
apartment, and we did. The minute
we got in he went to the wall safe and
opened it up and"
German stopped short and looked
at me.
go on" cried, what did you
find2"
eve found" he said, speaking SLOW
IL and putting special emphasis on his
third word, two jewel boxes there,
the one with the pearls and the other
one"
what" l cried, aghast at this In
credible bit of news, "two Jewel
cases -
Sure we did," he announced tri-
umphantly. "And the pearls were
there as safe as when the old man
went away. Now what have you got
to say to thatP'
What could I say2
l knew as positively as knew that
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
living to me now. i 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 there? Could 1t be possible, Won
dered, that subconsciously, burdened
with the responsibility Of the custody
of such costly gems, might have risen
In my sleep and In somnolent state
removed the pearls to some other hid
ing place. No, l decided, that the
ory was too preposterous and absurd
for even moments consideration.
If / had done that In my sleep
/ must also have restored them to the
safe again In my sleep. 1t was far
more likely that the thief, becoming
alarmed over the publicity brought to
the Granddeck by the murder, had
been afraid to attempt to dispose of
gems so well-known as the CASTOR
pearls and had restored them in the
same mysterious way that he had abb
stracted them. suggested this theory
ITO Garman.
gro BE coNTINuEDJ