Evening star., 1922-09-15

Are you sure he did it," asked
Kennedy. more. felt. for its moral
effect on her than through any doubt
in his own mind
Not sure. But then the wall safe
shows no marks, and the replica is
gone"
Might see your jewel case" ne
asked
surely. I'll get it The wall safe
is in Lynn's room. | shall probably
hay" TO fuss a long time with the
omhinatioa'
In fact. she could not have been
very familiar with il. for it took sev
eral minutes before she returned.
Meanwhile. Kennedy. who had been
drumming ahsently on the arms Of
his chair suddenly rose and walked
quietly over to n scrap basket thar
stood beside an escritoire 1t had
evidently just been emptied. for the
rooms must have been cleaned sew
cral hours before. He peut over it
and picked up two scraps of paper
aGhcTin3 to the wicker work. The
rest had evidently been thrown away
| h.u; over to read them. One
rest Nettie--
dying To see
The other read:
--cherche tod
love and ma
--rman
What did it mean? Hastily I
could fill in dearest Nettic." and II
am dying to see YOU. Kennedy
added. The Recherche today" that
being the name Of the new apart
ment uptown: as well as love and
many kisses" But .-rman"--what I
did that mean" Could it be Herman n
Herman SchlOSS"
She was returning and we resumed
our seats quickly.
Kennedy took the jewel case from
her and examined it carefully. There
was not mark on il.
Mrs M"ulton. he said slowly
rising and handing il back to her.
have YOU told me alp
''Why-ycs." she answered
Kennedy shook his head graveIy
I'm afraid not You must tell me
everything
'No-no." she cried vehemently
there is nothing more"
We left and outside the Deluxe he
paused. looked about. caught sight
of taxicab and hailed it,
Where asked til" driver
Across the street" he said "and
wait. Put the window in back of
you down so I can talk. I'll tell you
where to so presently Now. Walter.
sit back as far as YOU can. This
may seem like an 'underhand thing
to DO. but we've sor 10 get wha'
that woman won't tell us or give up
the case.
Perhaps half an hour we waited
still puzzling over the scraps Of
paper. Suddenly felt a nudge from
kennedy. Antoinette Moulton was
standing III the doorway across the
street. Evidently she preferred not
to ride in her own car. for Il mo-
ment later she entered taxicab.
Follow that black cab" said Ken
nedy to our driver
Sure enough. it stopped in front of
the Recherche apartments and Mrs
Moulton stepped out and almost ran
We waited a moment then Kennedy
followed. The elevator that had
taken her up had just returned to
the ground floor.
THE same floor again. remarked
Kennedy. jauntily stepping in and
nodding famliarly to the elevator
boy.
Then he paused suddenly looked
at his watch. fixed his gaze thought
fully on me an instant. and eXclaim
ed. by George-no. ] cant go up
yai. | clean forgot that engagement
at the hotel. One moment. son. Let
us out. Wen be back again"
Considerably mystifed, l followed
him to the sidewalk.
You're entitled to an explanation
he laughed. catching my. bewildered
look as he opened the cab door. Il
didn't want to go up now while she
is there. but I wanted to be on good
terms with the boy. Well wait until
she comes down. then go up.
..Where?" ! asked.
That's what | am going through
all this elaborate preparation to find
out. I have no more idea than you
have
1t could not have been more than
twenty minutes later when Mrs.
Moulton emerged rather hurriedly
and drove away.
While we had been waiting had
observed man on the other side of
the street who seemed unduly in
terested in the Recherche. too. for he
had walked up and down the block
no less, than six times. Kennedy saw
MIN. and as he made no effort to fol-
low Mrs. Moulton. Kennedy did not
do SO either. In fact little quick
glance which she had given at our
cab had raised fear that she might
have discovered that she was being
followed
Kennedy and paid off our cab
man and sauntered into the Recherche
in the most debonair manner We could
assume.
Now. son. we'll go up he said
to the boy who, remembering us. and
now not AT all ciear In MS NINA tndt
he might not have seen us before
that. whisked us to the tenth floor.
Let me see" said Kennedy, its
number one hundred and-er-"
Three" prompted the boy.
He pressed the buzzer and a neatly
dressed colored maid responded.
II had an appointment here with
Mrs. Moulton this morning" remark
ed Kennedy.
"She, has just gone" replied the
maid off her guard.
And was to meet Mr.. Schloss here
in half an hour he added quickly.
1t was the maids turn to look sur
prised.
Il didn't think he was to be here"
she said Hes had some
Trouble at the Office supplied
Kennedy That's what it was
about Perhaps, he hasn't been able
to get away yet. But I had the ap-
pointment. All. ! see telephone in
the hall. May I"' s
He had stepped politely In. and
by dint of cleverly keeping his fn-
ger on the hook In the half light, he
carried on . one-sided opnvsrsation
with himself long enough ~ ut q