Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-19

Use
excavating its barrow Lots of other
nice barrows"
DO you think there's something
special in this one?''
mo. think there's something
special in Joseph and Isabel found
In the house a secondhand booksell-
ers catalogue. Some letters in it were
underlined-S K U r H A 1. Prob
ably more. I hadn't time to go on.
Joseph came in, and afterward the
catalogue vanished" I"
yes. But not so that the marks
make a word
"Word?"
Tomas, my dear old thing, 1
thought you had a classical education
Skuthai is Greek for Scythians, and
in Athens the policemen were Scythi-
ans"
"Oh. this is fantastic"'
well. today I found a diapers cat
alogue in a waste-paper basket. Let.
ters marked as before IT A
P H o n o. G. E n. Probably
more. again. But that's two words
Taphon oigein, to open the tomb.
very secret communications with
somebody about excavating that bar
row. Why"
You do run on" Tomas protested.
But what are you starting from?
These people have been doing their
best to get the police to look into
their affairs. If either of them was
up to anything shady, that's the last
thing they'd want"
There's about a dozen answers to
that" said Reggie fwearily. Have
some? Suppose something suspicious
happens later. Mr.. Tomas will say,
oh, nothing in it; these people must
be all right. They came and asked us
to look into their affairs Why
you're saying that already. In the
second place, both of them may not
be in it; perhaps one of them knew
the other was going to the police and
played for safety by going too. Third
ly, they were both ratified; one of
them may have thought somebody
knew more than was convenient and
wanted to make sure. Fourthly, what
ever the job is, it has something to
do with opening this barrow. They're
both dead keen on that. They wanted
to make sure they could do it with
out bother"
Very ingenious, Reginald. And
partially t c tn,,, ts1 mo what t1 thsy
can get by excavating barrow, l
might begin to believe you"
Nothing" said Reggie, nothing.
That's why it's interesting"
my dear fellow! You have too
much imagination"
"Oh, no. None"
well, well. Time will show
Tomas rose. IF any corpses lie out
on the shining sand, Ill let you
know
"That'll be all right" said Reggie
cheerfully. He did not move. Il left
Underwood down there"
THE deuce you did, Tomas stared
and sat down again. and what's he
doing?"
He's catching butterflies. He's
also finding out whether Joseph or
Isabel posts any catalogues and where
they go to-
"Confound you, he mustn't do that
on his own. If you want postal cor
respondence examined we must apply
to the postmaster general. You ought
| to know that, Fortune"
"My dear old thing, I do. also
know country post offices. Don't be
so beastly official
Eyes. Yes. that's what I've been
trying to Indicate" Mr.. Fortune
smiled. Look here. These beauties
go down to a place off the map for no
decent reason but that it's off the
map. Joseph could write his silly
books anywhere. Did Isabel take
Joseph or Joseph take Isabel? Their
stories don't agree. Joseph is affec-
tionate and Isabel coy. Joseph
watches her jealousy and Isabel is
meek. When they've been there some
up a barrow. Lots of barrows in lots
of places, but they must have the
lonely one at Stoke Abbas. Then we
find them dealing in messages too
secret for a letter in plain English.
One message something about police,
another about opening the barrow.
WE'LL there's going to be dirty work
at the cross roads. old thing.
But it's all fanciful, Fortune. Why
the deuce shouldn't they write letters?
What's the use of putting a message
in Greek?"
They're all alone. Each of 'em
can see all the letters the other gets,
perhaps all the letters the other posts.
But a catalogue wouldn't be noticed
If one of 'em don't know Greek the
marked letters would be absolutely
secret. Skuthai didn't suggest any.
thing to the chief of the criminal in
vestigation department.
But what do you suppose the game
is?"
NO, dear'-Mr. Fortune smiled
II have no Imagination. You've got
all the facts. Oh. not quite. l did
a little distant snapshot of Joseph
and Isabel" He laid roll of film
on the table. Get the faces enlarged
big. Some of your fellows might
know EN-"
4 FTER which nothing happened for
4 - a couple of weeks. Then Joseph
Larkin wrote to Mr.. Fortune that the
excavation was nearly complete, urg