Williams news., 1922-09-08

| Benny, that ms fatner was gOne-gOnt
 from his guilt and his fear and his
 disgrace? Or would he resent that
 death which thus left everything un
 explained to him? He would be look
 ing at the ring. That, at least, must
 bring more joy than grief to him. He
 would recognize that it must be his
 mothers wedding ring; if 1t told him
 that his mother must be dead, 1t would
 tell him that she had been married, or
 had believed that she was married! Suddenly she heard him calling her.
 Miss Sherrill i'' his voice had a sharp
 thrill of excitement.
 She hurried toward the sun room.
 She could see him through the door
 way, bending over the card table with
 the things spread out upon its top in | front of him.
 | "Yes."
 He strengthened; he was very pale
 Would coins that my father had in | his pocket all have been more than | twenty years old?'
 She ran and bent beside him over | the coins. Twenty yearsI" she re | peated. She was making out the dates | of the coins now herself; the markings were eroded, nearly gone in some in | stances, but in every case enough re- mained to make plain the date. 1SSt - 1905, Sn0 made them out. Her voice hushed queerly. "What does it mean?" she whispered.
 He turned over and re-examihed the articles with hands suddenly steady ing. ''There are two sets of things here," he concluded. "The muller and paper of directions be- longed to my father. The other things it isn't six months or less than six months that they've lain in sand and water to become worn like this; it's twenty years. My father can't have had these things; they were some where else, or some one else had them. He wrote his directions to that per son-after June twelfth, he said, so 1t was before June twelfth he wrote it; but we can't tell how long before It might have been in February, when he disappeared; it might have been any time after that. But if the directions were written so long ago, why weren't the things sent to you before this? Didn't the person have the things then? Did we have to wait to get them? Or-was 1t the instructions to send them that he didn't have? Or, if he had the instructions, was he wait ing to receive word when they were to be sent? You thought these things
  they prove he is alfveI Oh, we must think this outP
 He paced up and down the room she | sank into a chair, watching him. "The | first thing that we must do," he said | suddenly, "iS to find out about the | watch. What is the phone number 1 of the telegraph officer"
 She told him, and he went out to the | telephone; she sprang up to follow him, but checked herself and merely | waited until he came back.
 i've wired to Buffalo," he an- ''The Merchants exchange, record of the presentation of the watch"
 ''Then you'll stay here with us until an answer comes?"
 eff we get reply by tomorrow morn ing; I'll wait till then. If not, I'll ask you to forward it to me. I must see about the trains and get back to Frank fort. I can cross by boat from there to Manitowoc-that will be quickest. We must begin there, by trying to find out who sent the package"
 She helped him put the muffler and the other articles into the box; she no- ticed that the wedding ring was no longer with them. He had taken that, then it had meant to him all that she had known 1t must mean. ..
 In the morning she was up very early; but Alan, the servants told her, had risen before she had and had gone put. The morning, after the cool north l srn night, was chill. She slipped a sweater on and went out on the veran- la, looking about for him. An rides l ,ent haze shrouded the hills and the pay in 1t she heard a ships bell strike vice then another struck twice-then lnother-and another-and another. l The haze thinned as the sun grew l warmer, showing the placid water of ] he bay on which the ships stood dou- ,Ie. She saw Alan returning, and from the direction from which | { le came that he must have been to the office, she ran to meet him. ' "Was there an answer?" she inquired ( 'agerly.
 He took a yellow telegraph sheet { rom his pocket and held 1t for her to | cad. Watch presented Captain Caleb Stafford, master of propeller freighter v 1arvfn Halch for rescue of crew and g ,assengers of sinking steamer Winne- s ago off Long point, Lake Erie.'' | She was breathing quickly in her ex- c itement. "Caleb Stafford I'' she ex- t 1aimed. "Why, that was Captain Staf- k ord of Stafford and RamSdellI They | s wned the MiwakaI I' P ssYeSo Alan said l a