Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-05-05

gross him, and then absorbing nIm-
self In the next.
On the top of chest Of high draw
ers in a corner near the dressing
table were some papers. Alan went
over to look at them; they were invi-
tations, notices Of concerts and OF
plays twenty years old-the mail,
probably, of the morning when Corvet's
wife had gone away, left where her
maid or she herself had laid them
and only picked up and put back there
at the times since when the room was
busted AS Alan touched them, he
saw that his fingers left marks in the
dust on the smooth top Of the chest;
he noticed that some one else had
touched the things and made marks
Of the same sort as he had made. The
freshness Of these. other marks star
tied him; they had been made within
a day or so. They could not have
been made by Sheriff., for Alan had
noticed that Sherrill's hands were
slender and delicately formed; Cor
vet, too, was not a large man; Alan's
own hand was Of good size and pow
erful, but when he put his fingers over
the marks the other man had made. he
found that the other hand must have
been larger and more powerful than
his own. Had it been Corvet's serv-
ant? 1t might have been, though the
marks seemed too fresh for that; for
the servant, Sheriff. had said, had left
the day Corvet's disappearance was
discovered.
This proof that some one had been
prying about in the house before him
self and since Corvet had gone, star
tied Alan and angered him. Who had
been searching in Benjamin Corvet's
in Alan's house? He pushed the
drawers shut hastily and hurried
across the hall to the room opposite.
In this room-plainly Benjamin Cor
vets bedroOm-Were no signs OF in
trusion. He went to the door of the
room connecting with it, turned on
the light, and looked in. 1t was
smaller room than the others and
contained a roll-top desk and cabi-
net. The cover Of the desk was closed,
and the drawers of the cabinet were
shut and apparently undisturbed. He
tried the cover Of the desk, but 1t ap-
peared to be locked; after looking
around vainly for key, he tried
again, exciting little more force.
and this time the top went up easily,
tearing away the metal plate into
which the claws of the lock clasped
and the two long screws which had
held 1t. He examined the lock, sur
prised, and saw that the screws must
have been merely set into the holes;
scars showed where q chisel or some
metal implement had been thrust In
under the top to force 1t up. The
pigeonholes and little drawers In the
upper part Of the desk, as he swiftly
opened them,~ he found entirely empty.
He hurried to the cabinet; the draw
ers Of the cabinet too had been forced.
and very recently; for the scars and
the splinters Of wood were clean and
fresh. These drawers and the draw
ers In the lower part of the desk
elCner were empty, OT the pdpclS III
them had been disarranged and tum
bled in confusion, as though some one
had examined them hastily and tossed
them back. To Alan, the marks OF
violence and roughness were unmls-
takably the work of the man with the
big hands who had left marks upon
the top Of the chest Of drawers; and
the feeling that he had been in the
house very recently was stronger than
ever
Alan ran out into the hall and lis-
tened he heard no sound but he went
back to the little room more excited
than before. For what had the other
man been searching? For the same
things which Alan was looking for7
And had the other man got them?
Who might the other be, and what
might be his connection with Benja-
min COrvet? Alan had no doubt that
everything Of Importance must have