Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-09-22
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b Louis
Joseph Vance

"n matters not, so we are in Cher
bourg by midnight"
Lenyard slipped like a shadow to
the floor below, and took shelter be-
hind a Jog in the wall.
The maid came down, carrying an
electric candle. Its rays illuminated
from below n Of those faces of
crude comeliness. She hesitated,
! looking up toward the room of her
mistress, as If lost in thought.
But some secret thought amused
the woman, a shadow deepened in
the visible corner of her full Tipped
mouth. One fancied something sar-
dcnic in that coyer smile.
She went on down. Lanyard came
out of his hiding with a fresh enter
prise abrew.
Lame would be at least another
half an hour busy with her Jewelry,
n the thought presented itself that
the library. Immediately beneath her
room, should be worthy an investi-
cation.
The library was furnished with
bulky old italian pieces of carved
oak, but suitable enough with n
exception, . ponderous buffet, COM
pletely out Of place in a room Of that
character.
But-this drew a frowning stare
there was a key in the lock Of the
middle door.
There's such a thing as too much
Iuck," Lanyard communed. First
the service gate and door. and now
this. ready to my hand"
He swung sharply round and
with the glare of the portable lamp.
Placing the lamp on the floor and
adjusting it's hood so that It focused
sQuarely upon the middle section of
the buffet, he turned the key and
discovered, behind the door a small
safe.
The combination dial was smug
with ill-grounded confidence in its
own inviolate integrity. Still (Lan-
yard told it, it could hardly be ex-
pected to know, it had yet to be
dealt with by the shade of the Lone
Wolf.
Amused by the conceit, Lanyard
laid hold Of the knob with steady.
delicate fingertips that had not yet,
in spite of years of honorable idle
ness, forgotten their cunning. The
dial whirled. paused. reversed,
turned all but imperceptibly. In
three minutes he sat back on his
heels, grasped the T-handle, turned
it, had the satisfaction Of hearing
the bolts slide back into their SOCK
cts, and opened the door wide.
But the racked pigeon holes held
nothing to interest him whose one
aim was the recovery of the Mon
talais jewels. The safe was, in fact.
dedicated simply to the storage of
documents.
Love ~letters!" Lanyard unused
with a grimace of WEAKNESS. And
each believed, no doubt, she cared
too much to compromise him. Good
Lord! what vanity Is man's!"
He selected a pigeonhole at hazard
and emptied it of several bundles of
letters. all neatly bound with ape
or faded ribbon and clearly docket
ed. His eye was caught by a great
name endorsed on the face of one
of the packages: and reading what
else was written there his brows
rose high while his lips shaped a
soundless whistle. Lame had kept
such documents as gave her power
over others. Lanyard wondered if 1t
were possible he held in his hand al
instrument to bend the oma to
his will.
Suddenly he put out a hand and
switched off the light, a gesture
quite involuntary. simple reaction to
the muffled thump of a chair over
turned on the floor above.
Sounds of scuffling followed, as IL
Lame were dancing to no music with
a heavy footed partner. Then a
groan.
His hands moved so rapidly and
deity that, although he seemed to
rise without a seconds delay. the
safe was closed and the combination
locked when he did so, the buffet
door was shut and its key in his
pocket.
This time Lanyard assembled the
stairs without needing what noise
he made. Nevertheless his actions
were never awkward or ili-timed;
his approach was not heard, his ar
rival on the upper landing was I'M
noticed.
In an instantaneous pause he
looked into the rose pink room and
saw Lame Delorme, in a negligee
like a cobweb v a nightdress even
more sheer. kneeling and clawing at
her throat, round which a heavy silk
handkerchief was slowly tightening;
her face already purple with stran-
gu!ation, her eyes bullying from their
sockets, her tongue protruding be-
tween swollen lips.
A thick knee vas planted between
her shoulder-blades. The ends OF
the handkerchief were in the sinewy
hands of Albert Dupont.
CONTINUED in Our Next lssue)