White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1922-07-23
By
HBedfordJone
Illustrations by
Irwin Myers

hOn W ttuoh e Oh(
wrong word would give the man full
warning. He must say nothing.
Its not straight work. Fell. Re-
gardless Of your motives, | refuse to
join you"
joachim Fell sighed slightly, and laid
down his cigar with precision.
"Gramont," his voice came with the
softly purring menace of a. tigers
throat-tone, II shall now adjourn this
company meeting for two days. until
Saturday morning, In order to give you
a little time to reconsider. To-day Is
Thursday. BY Saturday." Ha5za'
AZ need no time" said Gramont.
But you will need 1t. | suppose
you know that Bob Maillard has been
arrested for parrleide? You are aware
OF the evidence against him-all cir
c~umstantialf" 1
Gramont frowned. what has that
got to do with our present b~usiness?'
quite a bit. / fancy" A thin smile
curved the lips OF Jaehin Fell. Mall
lard is not guilty of the murder-but
you are"
Tiarl7" Gramont started from his
chair as those three words burned into
him. Liar. Why, You know that l
went home"
All, wait Fell'lifted his hand for
peace. His voice was calm. "Ansley
and both saw you depart, certainly.
We have since learned that you did
not reach home until some time after
midnight. You have positively no
abb. Gramont. You may allege. OF
course, that you were wandering the
streets"
AS I wase' cried Gramont, heat
eddy.
",rhen prove It,, my dear fellow :
prove tiff you can Now, we shall
keep Lucie out of all this. What re-
malnsf l know that you were the
Midnight Masquer. My man. Ben Cha
cherre, car prove by another man who
accompanied him that the Masquer's
loot was taken from your car. A die
tograph In the private Office. yonder.
has a record of the talk between us
of the other morning, In which you
made patent confession to being the
MIasquer.
Once let me hand this array of
evidence over to the district attorney,
and you will most certainly stand
trial. And, IL you do stand trial. !
can promise you faithfully that you
will meet conviction. | have friends,
you see. and many of them are infiu-
entail In such small matters
1t was not a nice smile that curved
the lips of Fell.
Gramont choked back any response,
holding himself to silence with n firm
will. He dared say nothing, lest he
say too much. He saw that Fell
could indeed make trouble for him
and that he must strike his own blow
at Fell without great delay. II was "A
battle, now; u fight to the end.
Fell regarded Gramont cheerfnlly.
seeming to take this crushed silence
as, evidence of his own triumph sIrs
Further he added. "yonr man
Hammond Is now IN jail al Houma, ~
you know. for the murder of the sher-
If. Now. my influence IS not con
fined to this city. Gramont; | may be
able TO clear Hammond of this charge
Ii you decide to vote With lne.
may Keep what l know about the Mid
night Masquer from the press and
from the district attorney-is you de-
eide to Sete with me. Y.N comfre-
|nfGfaiibbS " . ssaa.sdy IL III III VI,
Fell wanted to get something on
Hpmmpnd. Fell had rightly reasoned
that Gramont would DO more to save
~iiaahpipfsi tiah TO save himself.
I"Y6n think r. murdered Maillard.
them he asked.
~rGralloni don't know what TO
think. and that's the honest truth y
ints,n cred kFell. with a steady regard.
A-imt I am absolutely determined TO