The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1923-09-07

l
felt very i'll and sick. was lying OF
q dirty bed. There was a screen roun,
IL, but l could hear two people talk
ing In the room. Mrs. vandemeyer wa.
one Of them l tried to listen, but a
first l couldn't take much In. Wher
at last l did begin to grasp what wa,
going OIL was just terrified / won
der | didn't scream right out there
and then.
They hadn't found the papers
They'd got the oilskin packet with the
blanks, and they were just mad They
didn't know whether I'd changed the
papers, or whether Danvers had beer
carrying a dummy message. while the
real one was sent another way. They
spoke of''-she closed her eyes-"tor
turing me to find outi
Il began thinking madly. What could
1 do? l knew l wouldn't be able to
stand up against torture very long.
Suddenly something put the thought Of
loss of memory Into my head. The sub
ject had always interested me, and I'd
| read an awful lot about 1t. I had the
whole thing at my finger-tips. II only
1 could succeed In carrying the bluff
through, Ii might save me. l said q
prayer, and drew q long breath Then
opened nay eyes and started babbiing
In French!
Mrs. Vandemeyer came round the
screen at once Her face was DO
wicked I nearly died, but smiled up
at her doubtfully, and asked her In
French where l was.
1T puzzled her. could see. She
called the man she had been talking
TO. He stood by the screen with his
face IN shadow. He spoke to me In
French. He asked me my name I
said I didn't know-that couldn't re-
member anything Mt all.
Suddenly he caught my wrist, and
began twisting 1t. The pain wns awful.
I screamed. He went on. I screamed
and screamed. but I managed to shrek
out things In French. I don't know
how long / could have gone on. but
luckily I tainted. The last thing I
heard was his voice saying: That's
not bluff Anyway. kid of her age
wouldn't know enough
when came to. Mrs. vandemeyer
was sweet as honey to me. She'd had
her orders, guess.
by and by she went out of the
room altogether. was suspicious
still, and lay quite quiet for some time.
In the end, however, I got up and
walked round the room, examining 1t.
/ thought that even If anyone was
me from somewhere, 1t would
seem natural enough under the circum-
stances. 1t was a squalid, dirty place. !
There were no windows, which seemed |
queer. I guessed the door would be
locked, but didn't try 1t. There were
some battered old pictures on the
walls, representing scenes from Faust"
James two listeners gave a stimuli
taneous "Ahl" The girl nodded.
"Yes-ft was the place In Soho
where Mr.. Beresford was Imprisoned.
Of course, at the time I didn't even
know If / was in London. One thing
vas worrying me dreadfully, but my
leart gave a great throb of relief
when I saw my ulster lying carelessly
,ver the back of the chair. And the
magazine was still rolled up In the
,ocketi
II lay down on the bed again, and
" and by Mrs. vandemeyer brought
ne some supper.
"That was an awful night. I'd made
ny plan whilst was waiting for her.
he papers were safe so far, but l
ouldn't take the risk of leaving them
here any longer. They might throw
hat magazine away any minute. I
~ awake waiting until / judged It
lust be about two o'clock In the
forming. Then I got up as softly as
could, and felt in the dark along the
.ft-hand wall Very gently. I'M
ooked one of the pictures from its
with her casket of
,wels. i crept over to my coat and
'ok out the magazine, and an odd
lyelope or two that l had showed in. 3
hen / went to the washstand and I
imped the brown paper at the back
the picture all round. Presently
was able to pull 1t away. / had '
ready torn out the two stuck 8
gether pages from the magazine. A
Id now / slipped them with their r
ecious Enclosure between the picture b
ID its brown paper backing. A little
IN from the envelopes helped me to
ck the latter up again. No one
,uld dream the picture had ever =
en- tempered with. I rehung II on y
e wall, put the magazine back In u
= coat pocket, and crept back to bed.
They watched me constantly for @
,eks. Sometimes they'd ask me "
estions by the hour-l guess there fe
IS nothing they didn't know about o,
2 third degree but somehow
mayed to hold my own. The strain
1t was awful, though felt Of
Il the horrors In store for me would OF
too awful once they knew I'd been
y shamming.
1T ended in my being sent to a
at Bournemouth.
Ildn't make up my mind at first VI
ether 1t was sham affair or genu-
/ think 1 almost hypnotized my wi