The Pulaskian., 1920-04-29

| the marriage annulled. Dad kept moth CT abroad until after it was all oyer and to this day she never has heard a word about it."
 "Your father must be a wonderful man" said enthusiastically.
 He was,'' she said simply. "ETe has been dead two years"
 "Oh, I'm so sorry" I 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 a good match for Claire. l wanted to do something, to go out and earn a living for myself, but she never would con sent. She insisted I'd be damaging CIaire's prospects if I went into trade, as she calls it, and I promised her I'd do nothing until after Claire is safely married"
 And is she to be married?' asked.
 A troubled expression came into her face.
 "She was to be, but now don't know. She is engaged to marry young Harry D. Thayer, who is worth a lot of money, but someone has found out about her secret"
 "How did they find out?' I asked eagerly I understood now the myste- rious meeting in the park that had brought me first into touch with Bar bara Bradford Some band of, rascaIs was trying to blaekmail 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 Glaire'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 them?" asked.
 Tn the wall safe in my sitting room"
 Tn the wall safe! I cried think ing in bewilderment of the coinci- dence that these papers should have had similar hiding place to the Cas- ton jewels which had vanished so strangely.
 "Yes," she answered, plainly puzzled at my bewilderment. "It was an ex- cellent hiding place. No one but my self had the combination. I don't see now who could have taken them. found the safe locked as it always was"
 When did you first discover the pa pers were missing?"
 Let me see" she pondered "Claire's engagement was announced at a dinner three weeks ago last Thursday. The newspapers on Sun day carried a 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 folded slip of paper.
 q brought it with me to show you; here, this is the first one"
 Like the mysterious note myself had received only the preceding night, this one was not inclosed in an en- velope. It was just a 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?" asked
 q found it on the floor of my bed room one morning when I got up late. I gave it to my sister without having read 1t, thinking she had dropped it there. She read it and screamed and fainted. Fortunately Mother was out of the house at the time. Naturally I read the note then I went to the safe and found the documents gone 1 Claire has been nearly crazy ever since. She insists that it is all my fault. She says I ought to have de- stroyed the papers, but I couldn't, could IF"
 "of corrse not" I replied warmly. You did quite right in keeping them, It was not your fault they were stolen"
 T couldn't destroy them. Dad had told me to keep them" she said simply.
 What did you do then? Did you 1 tell your motherY l Il Il