Washington telegraph., 1920-04-09

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the marriage annulled. Dad kept moth.
er abroad until after It was all over,
and to this day she never has heard
"a word about IT,"
"Your father must be wonderful
man." l said enthusiastically.
"He was" she said simply. "He has
been dead two years"
"Oh, I'm so sorry" l 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. 1 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 II l went into trade,
as she calls it, and promised her I'd
do nothing until after Claire is safely
married"
"And is she to be married7" 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 out2" 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 rascnls
was trying to blaclzmail 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 themf" I
asked.
'In the wall safe in my sitting
ROOM"
"In the wall safe ~ l cried. think
ing in bewilderment Of the eoinci-
dence that these papers should have
had a similar hiding place to the Gas
ton jewels which had vanished so
strangely.
"Yes," she answered, plainly puzzled
at my bewiderment. "It was an eK-
cellent hiding place. No one but ny
self had the combination. l don't see
now who could have taken them. I
found the safe locked as 1t always
was"
"When did you first discover the pa
pers were missingF'
LET me see" she pondered.
"Claire's engagement was announced
at a 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 a folded
slip Of paper.
'I brought it with me to show you I;
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. It was just folded slip, ad-
dressed in typewriting to Miss Claire
Bradford" On the other side was this
message:
"What If Thayer knew about your
being married before? How much
will you give to get those papers
back"
"Where did you get this" l asked.
"I found 1t on the floor Of my bed
room one morning when | got up late.
I gave It to my sister without having
read It, thinking she had dropped II
there. She read II and screamed and
tainted. Fortunately Mother was out
of the house at the time. Naturally !
read the note then. | went to the
safe and found the documents gone.
Claire has been nearly crazy ever
since. She insists that It is all my
fault She says l ought TO have de-
stroyed the papers, but couldn't,
could Il'
"Of course not" 1 replied warmly.
"You did quite right in keeping them.
1t was not your fault they were
stolen"
81 couldn't destroy them. Dad had
told me to keep them" she said simply.
"What did you do then? Did you
tell your mOtherT"