Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1920-05-07
CHAPTER vi.

Left alone for a moment by my COM
panion, / sat there at the table in
the crowded restaurant, idly watching
the beautifully costumed women all
about me, listening dreamily to the
music of the orchestra, observing with
interest the graceful gyrations of the
occasional couple who sought the
dancing floor in the center, when sud-
denly I was brought to myself by
hearing a gruff voice saying:
"What'd you bring that crook in
here for?"
"What do you mean?" 1 gasped in
astonishment, looking up at q square
shouldered man with neatly trimmed
black mustache who was standing be-
side my table.
"It's you I mean," he announced.
"Don't you know you can't bring that
kind of people in here?"
AS explanation for my presence
there in the White room of the IA
nous Hundredth hotel, let me say
that my Investigations into the per-
picking chain of mysterious circum-
stances in which Barbara Bradford
and seemed to be each day becom-
ing more firmly involved, had finally
led me to deduce three different the
cries, each more or less plausible,
and each involving an entirely differ
ent set of persons.
There were certain happenings and
circumstances that made me some
times wonder if the whole thing were
not a base plot on the part of my
great-uncle Rufus, perhaps influenced
| by a desire for revenge or perhaps
led on by an insane greed for still
greater wealth.
Yet, on the other hand, there were
those entries in his diary about the
mysterious voices. Apparently, too
his wife and Mrs. Burke had hearC
them.
Did it not seem more likely that thC
arch plotter was Claire Bradford's ex
husband?
This theory seemed far more ten
able. While the Bradfords had hearC
nothing from him for several years
the publication of Claire Bradford
engagement might have attracted hi
notice and inspired him to an attemp
at blackmail. Yet how could he gail
access to the wall safe where the di
vorce papers were kept, or how coul
he be dropping notes on the floor Q
Barbara Bradford's bedroom? HOY
could he have stolen the Caste
pearls? 1t seemed incredible but sti
my thoughts kept returning to tn
possibility of his directing Clair
Bradford's actions through hypnoti
control. Once he had had infiuenc
over her sufficient to make her Civ
up family, friends, home, everything
to marry him. Had he, in some wa
unknown to Barbara Bradford, r
gained his control over her sister an
was he using her as the unconscior
tool for his villainies? She coul
, have gained access to my room /
, walking along the ledge when all IL
, house was still. Yet this theory e
planned neither the theft of the pearl
\ | dCllOUS.
! own discharge, nor the mysterio1
noises in the apartment. I had ST
a third theory.
a Suppose q band of criminals W,
: located in the apartment house on II
floor above the Bradfords and me?
Access to either apartment wou
not be difficult. By short rope la
3 ders they could easily reach either S
: of rooms. They would be so Iocat
4 that there would be little difficulty f
t them to devise mysterious sounds f
!, terrifying the people in the apal
e ments below. I recalled that in G
cry case the voices and the footste
I seemed to come from somewhere
: near the ceiling. OF course it seem
n preposterous that a criminal ba,
e would find lodging in a luxurio
l. apartment house like this, yet, W
not? Tenants in these buildings kn,
little about each other and cared le
There was no exchange of neighbol
II visits. Once having gained access
y such a building by forged referenc
T. so long as they paid their rent prom
T. ly, no one in the building would bo
70 er his head about the character of a
- Of the other tenants.
This last theory seemed the m,
plausible. Besides it was the easi
to work on. 1t ought not to be di
!, cult to ascertain who lived in the t
apartments above. Undoubtedly
= best source of information would
Nellie Kelly, the telephone operat
Perhaps. too, she might be able to