Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1920-04-16

tempt to solve this new mystery.
which / could plainly see had all but
destroyed Germans faith In my hon.
esty. / must solve II II I was to re-
tain him in aiding me to get free, yet
the whole thing seemed inexplicable.
could hardly blame him for doubling
me. The great value Of the pearls
had been motive enough for their
theft, but what possible motive could
there have been for the thief return
ing them?
With a shock 1t came to me, too,
that the restoration of the pearls
practically upset the whole theory OF
my defense. II / could have estab-
lished the fact Of this theft, jury
might be persuaded to believe my tale
Of anonymous notes, mysterious whis-
pers, and a secret passageway by
which the thief had gained access to
the apartment, but without the motive
of theft. my story. unsupported by
witnesses and uncorroborated by 9TH
er evidence, surely would be incred-
ible of belief.
had just one hope left. Old Rufus
must find that secret passageway and
see whittier II led. That, with our
knowledge of the identity Of the tele-
phone girl and the possibility Of prov
ing Germans belief that Wick was
an ex-convict, seemed likely to be my
only salvation. Old Rufus must find
that passageway. He must He must
For hours lay there racking my
brains over the unsolvable problems.
NV luncheon was brought In, but /
waved It away untouched. YEARLY
I wondered whether the recovery Of
the pearls had destroyed my aged rel
ative's faith In me, as II seemed to
have destroyed Germans. could
hardly blame him If he doubted me
after finding that my story of the dis
appearance Of the pearls was appar-
emily untrue. In my brief experience
as a prisoner I had learned all too
well the bitter fact that once man
Is discredited, henceforth no one
trusts him. II Rufus Castor failed
me at this juncture ! did not see how
I could possibly extricate myself IN
scathed from the web that unseen
hands had so skillfully and mali
ciously woven around me. The only
ray Of comfort that l could find any,
where in the whole situation was in
my firm belief that though old Rufus
and German and the whole world
doubted me, Barbara Bradford-my
Barbara, ventured to call her in my
innermost heart-would continue to
believe in me. She would be sure, no
matter how much appearances went
against me, that I was telling the
truth. Barbara and I knew. Even II
she had not known that I could not
possibly have fred the shot that killed
Miss Lutan, was certain that she
still would have trusted me.
Thinking about Barbara l recalled
that It was the day Of her sisters we'd
ding. / had one of the prison attend
ants get me the evening papers to see
what they had to say about 1t. for
/ was fearful lest some breath Of
scandal at the last moment involving
the Bradfords might bring about
postponement. Eagerly l was hoping
that nothing had happened to prevent
the marriage taking place. With the
fortunes Of her sister assured and
her mothers future safe, realized
that the course Of my relations with
Barbara would be likely to be much
smoother sailing, provided Of course
that / was acquitted. In the few
chats l had had with her, had real
lied that wealth and luxury and social
position meant nothing to Barbara's
happiness. She was the sort Of girl
who for man she loved gladly would
brave poverty, hardship, everything
sincere. true-hearted woman with
clear vision Of the real values of ex-
istence.
My messenger returned with the
newspapers, and as l picked them up,
everything went black. millionaire
CASTOR Found Murdered" was the