New Britain herald., 1922-11-27
THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE

l advanced to meet the man with sense of victory. The Service de lf Surette had searched the world fol him. Heshad been long concealed liut my sense of victory vanished when l saw him.
 He sat in a great chair on the long terrace that overlooked the sweep oi lawn and the dark, rapid river. He had been, all the time, under our very noses We had thought of every other place except an English coun- try house within a jump of London. And he had been sitting here In every comfort that money could assemble.
 He did not rise when I was brought to him.
 He leaned back in the chair, lifted his heavy face, and laughed!
 And so. Monsieur Jonquelle." he said, you finally wormed it out of her"
 could not keep my voice leve-- 50 effectively was the man escaping us after all this search.
 And I did not know what the huge creature meant. On the night be- fore, some one had called tip the Z ~ man was here. The long distance call from some shop in Regent street, London. could not be traced--so it had been a woman. I x replied as though I were fin his secret. <
 She knew you were safe"
 He laughed again. Sure, she knew it!" He pointed to chair few feet be- 2 yond him across table.
 .Sit down. he said. T want to talk about her-that's the reason I wanted you to come" He laughed again. You thought you'd sleuthed it out. eh? Not by jugful. l sent her word to put you wise. l wanted to clear some things up before I cashed in, But it was a clean elie. What I wanted was somebody to listen while I talked about her. Sit down."
 It was a strange introductory. But 1t was mystery that had puzzled everybody, and was willing to hear all that he had to say about it. took thes chair beyond him.
 He shot his head forward suddenly in tense gesture.
 She's a heavenly angel!' he said. II don't know what God Almighty meant by setting her in the game with the bunch of crooks that He's got running the world-unless He counted on me.'' The laugh became sort of chuckle in his sbig throat-"Ain't she a heavenly angel?"
 He whipped worn photograph out Of his pocket and reached it across the table to me.
 It was the photograph of Sgirl with the face cut out. It had been taken from a painting, one could tell from the fiat surface, and the strange background of beauty and an inde- scribable charm in the pose of the girl remained even in the mutilated pie ture.
 " II cut out the face" he added, ''so she wouldn't come into the case if you caught me: your little Westridge must have been slaughtered at the loss of her."
 Again he touched me at an unex- pected point
 Shortly after the thing, for which we were seeking the man before, me, had as the Americans say, 'been pulled off," Lord Westridge returned to England. He had gone to visit some rich Americans, and there was | rumor that some adventure had befallen him.
 Nothing definite ever same to me, and liked the man. too little to in quire: all the blood from the original Glasgow solicitor ,as the British say, would Bite shilling But again I replied as though I were in his secret.
 What happened to Westridge?" I said.
 The man twisted around in his chair.
 .Friend," he said, you've got head gull of brains or you wouldn't be Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Service de la Surete and the English would not