The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1923-03-29

Suddenly laid down the. magnifying
| glass and leant back in MY chair, roar
ing with laughter. The other two
thought, no doubt, that | had gone mad.
That's bit too much !" exclaimed.
THE person who has got up this pho
tograph must have been audacity or ig
norance personihed; just imagine that
such a thing as this hasn't been found
out before! Look at Venus de Milo
ha, ha, ha, 5. hal Do you know the
Venus de Milo, Monk?"
DO you mean the little copy in ivory
which stands in Tricks museum, and
which has come out in the photograph
you have there?" Monks voice was
gentle enough; but | saw by his face
that he was full of excitement and ex-
pectation
LET me seep Clara rushed forward
and snatched the photograph and the
, magnifying glass out of my hand.
what is the matter, then, with this
Venus? As far as / can see by. the
photograph the little ivory copy must
be quite work Of art, but l can't see
anything remarkable about it,
mo, because she has got no hat or
clothes on her. But look here /
turned round to Monk how many
arms has Venus de Milo?"
"Only half an arm on the right side,
and none on the left"
"But this one has half an arm on the
left side' and nothing on the right. /
can't understand it." remarked Clara.
She had kept hold of the picture, but
now passed it on to Monk, and looked
at me sceptically
There, you can seel" I said tri-
umphantly when woman has fixed
feather on the wrong side Of her hat,
you can detect it at once; but when
woman has her only arm placed on the
left side, instead of the right, then you
don't notice it. But what is the mat
ter with Monk?"
Z He had been looking at the picture
for moment through the -nagnifying
glass, when he suddenly let both fall
and jumped up from his seat. He placed
one hand over his eyes, and kept it
there for some time. Then he let it
fall and stared into space, muttering !:
what fool and an idiot | have beenl
| pretend to be detective I am blind
completely blind | tried to Judge
others, and yet have not been able to
see before my own nosel | am not
worth the dust | eat |"
Hold hardw I shouted, laughing,
you don't seem to eat much dust; you
live plainly, we may say, but well. I
suppose you mean the dust beneath your
feet"
To my establishment, Monk still re-
NAMED standing and staring into space,
while he repeated:
THE dust beneath my feet"
| often thins of that scene, and how
strangely we may act when the brain is
really at work Monk afterward told
me that he hadn't the faintest idea what
words he had uttered at the time, but
that during the few seconds which
elapsed the whole story of the affair
which had taken up SO many years of
his life again passed through his brain
not in its old guise, bur in quite a
new form; in new light, which helped
him to see clearly through the veil of
mystery which had hitherto enveloped
the thing.
But suffice it to say that Monk soon
became himself again, or, better still, an
improved edition of the depressed and
resigned man we had seen for the last
few days. His eyes sparkled and his
lips trenbled with joyous emotion, as
he stood before Clara and me, and alter
nately shook our hands,
"Al is clear now! I can prove that
I Sigrid is innocent 1t is as clear as the
day; and | can also prove who the
scoundrel is" here dark shsdow over
spread his who is the author Of
all this wretched treachery."
But how?"
st is soon explained answered
Monk. Tell me, why was it that Eve
lima was acquitted? Because it wa:
proved that she could not be the person
who appeared in the Photographic
you remember"
Yes, of course First of all, because
the person in the photograph has rims
on the third finger of the left hand
while 'Evelina, on account of an injur,
to her finger when child, could no
get a ring on this finger"
Eyes, quite right; and then7"
Then the photograph showed tn,
time to be twenty-one. minutes to six
and at the time, it was proved that Eve
lima was at her mothers"
Quite so; but in the photograph, a
you and your wife have shown me,
feather appears on the right side Of tn
hat, although 1t should appear on tn
left, and the Venus de Milo has al
arm on the side where there should b
nane-but no arm where there ought Il