The Ordway new era., 1920-02-20

your You? Madame,
of what are you sinklng2"
"I-yes, certainly" L replied firmly,
following up my advantage; for he
had given 1t away to me that he didn't
wish the customs house to know about
this little smuggling of Claire's. "Since
you have seen fit to accuse me of n
robbery know nothing about, l shall
I must-do all / can to help Claire
get her Jewels back in order to prove
my own innocence. 1 will go to the
customs house and report the whole
matter tomorrow morning."
You will do Messing of re sort !" IIe
fairly hissed the words at me. "You
will tell nobody zat re Jewels have
been stolen-nobody. And you will
give me your promise before you leave
zis room"
He turned scarlet. md then deathly
white. but he got control Of himself
Immediately.
So that was the way the wind blew
My shot had carried home-I felt
had him. n good deal worse than he
had me. gave him another dose of
the same ammunItion-'T certainly
shall-there's nothing else to do. Now,
then, what were the Jewels Claire was
smuggling in?"
He kept back a retort by biting his
lip and glared at me.
"What were the jewels?" I repeated.
"You must ut least tell me that-since
you accuse me of taking them. What
were they? I know absolutely nothing
about them. You may believe me or
not as you choose, but It's your own
loss If you don't"
My words seemed to shake his con-
victiOn for moment-but only for a
moment; what he said next left me no
doubt as to the gravity of my situation
In the matter.
"And now, madame, we lay all SUBJ
terfuges and evasions to re side. Zere
are but two persons who could have re
jewels of my daughter-yourself and
Madame Delario. / have already ques-
toned her. fully-tO be quite frank-I
have search re house-wis her permis-
sion l have also search her person by
means of a woman detective-and she
has convinced me zat she has not re
jewels OF my daughter
"Neither have l." snapped
He went on us II l hadn't spoken.
MY evidence Is positive. and wis
Madame Delario's denial of all knowl-
edge-her wish zat send for you and
give you re opportunity to explain"
"Where is Mrs. Delnrio-let me see
her Immediately" broke in. 'Do
you mean to say she accuses me of
robbing your child?"
Il do not say she precisely accuses
but she has seen you-and Claire
has seen you-wls ze package contain
ing re Jewels in your hand"
burst out hotly. "That's lie
every word of It'll never touched her
Jewelry-Or the package containing
her jewelry. Never"
He flushed n deep red at the insult,
but he was making every effort to con-
troll hlmself-seeing how enraged I
was. he probably thought I'd use my
hatpin on him next-nnd 1 whipped
him on. feeling that I had the upper
| hand.
"Yes monsieur-I shall make You
take this case to court" I went on
rapidly. after that I shall sue you
for false arrest-and Imprisonment, II
I'm imprisoned. But meanwhile, I
shall Immediately set the customs
house officials on the hunt for your
daughters jewels and find out wheth-
er they were actually brought into
America or not. If the Jewels are In
the least vnluable-as you seem to be
trying to make out-there1l be quite
a neat little duty to pay. provided
they're not confiscated outright
which Is more than likely. Monsieur,
you have overlooked the fact that /
asked Claire-and I heard Mrs. De-
lario ask her-if she had anything to
declare and she told me she had not.
So shall be witness in the govern
| ment's case against you."