Evening star., 1922-03-16

ioss 20 KNOW whether It mad been cu,
uriiieu, uurneu, DioWh gu. o. what
not.
hsnnedy examined the edges Of the
nole carefully, anu just the trace Of
u siniie OF satisfaction tiitteu over
uis lace Az he uiu 50. Without say
Ing woro, ne TOOK me glass stopper
1puI OF tne larger bottle which he mad
WROUGHT and poured The contents OH
Tue .op vi the sale, near the mole.
There 1t lay. little mound OF reddish
powder. kennedy took u little pow
der OF another kind from the other
bottle and ngnted II with a match.
stand back-cIose to the wall" he
called AS he dropped the burning mass
On the red powder. In two or three
leaps he Joined us at the far end OF
the room.
almost instantly dazzling, in
tense tiame broke out and siZzled and
crachieu. WiCh bateu breath We
watched. 1t was almost Inci edible,
bu. tnat growing mass OIL powuer
seenei literary to be sinking, SINK
ing rishl DOWN INTO tine coiu s,eei.
III tense slIence we walled. On the
ceiilng we could still See the reflection
OF tnv molten mass Ill the cup which
II had burned tor itself IN the top oil
The safe.
Al iast it fell through into the safe
fell as tne burning roof of a frame
building would fall into the build
ing. No one spoke q word, but as we
cautiously peered over the top OF the
safe we instinctively turned to Ken
nedy for an explanation. The central
office man, with eyes ~ big as half
dollars, acted almost As II he would
have liked to clap the irons on Ken
nedy. For there In the top of the safe
was another hole. smaller but identi-
cal in nature with the hrst one.
'Thermir," was all Kennedy said.
shift
ing the cigar which he had allowed
to 60 out In the excitement.
Yes: An invention of chemist
named Goldschmidt. of Essen. Ger
many. 1t is compound of iron
oxide. such as comes of a black
mill. and powdered metallic alumni
mum. You could thrust a red-hot bar
into 1t without setting It OF. but when
you light 1t on ifhermit r combustion
and drop 1t on ermit combustion
IL started that quickly reaches fifty-
has the peculiar property of concen-
trating its heat to the immediate spot
on which 1t 10 placed. 1t is one Of
the most powerful oxidizing agents
known. and it doesn't even melt the
rest of the steel surface: You see
how it ate its way through the steel.
Either black or red thermit will do
the trick equally we'll"
No one said anything. There was
nothing to say.
Some one uncommonly clever. or
must sa~s Done sha o1
added Craig. well. there Is nothing
more to be done here" he added. after
q cursory look about the once. MIR.
Andrews. may I have a word with
you? Come on. Jameson. Good day.
Mr.. Kahan. Good day. officer
Outside we stopped for moment
at the door Of Andrews car.
Il shall want to see Mr.. Moro
witch's papers at home" said Craig.
"and also to call on DR.. Thornton. Do
you % think shall have have any diiiieulty"
not at all. I will 60 with you my
self and see that you have none. Say.
Prof. Kennedy" he broke out. that
was marvellous. But don't you think
you could have learned something
more up there in the once by looking
''I did learn it," answered Kennedy.
The lock on the door was intact;
whoever did the JOB ut himself in by a
key. There Is no other way to get in"
Andrews gave 4 low whistle and
dow with the sign of Morowitch &
Co. in gold letters several floors
above.
Don't look up. I think that was
Kahan looking out at u.s. he said,
fixing his eyes on his cigar. II won
he has told. He was the company
you know. but his interest in the
business was only very slight. BY
Not too. fast. Mr.. Andrews" inter
Mrs. Morowitch and the doctor before
we form any theories"
"A very handsome woman, too,
said Andrews. rs we seated ourselves
in the car. "A good deal younger
than Morowitch. Say. Kahan isn't
bad-looking chap. either. is he? !
at his partners house. Well. which
first, Mrs M. or the doctor?'
"The house." answered Craig.
Mr.. Andrews introduced US to Mrs.
Morowiseh, H. %h9 w.s ssy.a IN very cd,'iG DEEP
not help noticing. rather to heighten
than lessen her beauty. BY contrast
it brought out the rich, deep color OF
her face and the graceful lines of
her figure. She was altogether very
attractive young widow.
She seemed to have 4 sort of fear
of Andrews, whether merely because
he represented the insurance company.
on which so much depended. or be-
cause there were other reasons for
fear I could not. Of course. make out.
lite, yet 1 caught myself asking If
1t was not a professional rather than
a personal politeness. Remembering
his stress on the fact that she was
alone with her husband when he died.
it suddenly flashed across my mind
tective who. as his net was being
woven about q victim. always grew
more and more ominously polite
toward the victim. I know that An
drews suspected her of q close con-
nection with the case. As for my.
self, I don't know what suspected
No objection was offered to our re-
quest to examine Mr.. Morowitch's
personal effects in the library. and
accordingly Craig ransacked the desk
nna aoshea iester to ns be
"Had Mr.. Morowitch ever received
any threats Of robberyr asked Craig.
as he stood before the desk.
Not that know Of" replied Mrs
Morowitch. "of course, every jeweier
moeds be arss s'osn sut don
think my husband had any special
reason to fear robbery. At least he
do you askf'
"oh. nothing. merely thought
motives Of the robbery" said Craig.
He was lingering one Of those desk
calendars which have separate leaves
for each day with blank spaces for
appointments.
. Close deal. Poissan','' he read
slowly from one Of the entries, as II
to himself. That's strange. It was
the correspondence under the letter
.P' that was destroyed at the ofice,
and there 10 nothing in the letter dle
here. either. Who was Poissan?"
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