The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1927-08-12

with the word sign? 1t was Wood
land.'"
"Yes," said 1. ut struck me as
curious"
ut struck me as rather more than
that" said the doctor, because had
an echo OF the same association my
self, and spent ten solid minutes
trying to place 1t. / suppose my diff
Guilty came from the fact that it took
me so close to home"
woodland avenue you mean?" !
questioned. That was the street The
Meredith was on.
"Closer than that" he said. do
you remember our own corner and the
street sign that marks it? 1t was
pulled around diagonally and bent into
a most disreputable angle as a Hal
loween prank two weeks ago. So the
association was a perfectly natural
one to anyone who, during the past
two weeks, has been in the habit OF
frequenting our part of the town."
"But,' said I, show did you infer the
existence of Jane Perkins from that?'
"Of course, that was only the start
ing point" he answered. "His whole
train of associations made it evident
that he had been going around as he
said, with somebody. The place in the
social scale occupied by that some
body was pretty well determined by
the neighborhoOd of the street sign.
It's quite the smartest part of town
for blocks and blocks all around there,
and it would be preposterOus to as
sime that Will Harvey calls at the
front door Of any house Whereabouts.
The young ladies who use the front
doors of the imposing residences in
our neighborhood don't go to the sort
of dances that would call up the as
sociation policeman in any young
mans mind. At any rate, it seemed
a reasonable inference to me that our
young friend had been carrying on
harmless filtration with some house
maid. The scene Of this affair was so
far away from his own home, Jane
Perkins was so utterly disassociated
in his own mind from anything per-
tanning to the Oak Ridge mystery, that
his naive description Of the black hair
and the green cloak Of the woman
whose silhouette he saw upon the
shade becomes possible"
SWELL" said 1 thoughtfully, after a
little silence, '1t's perfectly evident
that we've done Harvey service, al
though he isn't grateful for it just
now. We've cleared him, to our own
satisfaction at least. We've found an
English housemaid named Jane Per-
kins. She is, no doubt, the girl Of
whom the profile on the shade remind
ed him. The next thing to do is to
look her up, discover, if possible,
whether she happens to possess a
green cloak, with that particular kind
of collar. It's likely enough, / sup
pose. There are probably hundreds Of
garments like that being worn in the
city this season. In the department
stores they make what they call ,'spe-
Gals of those things, and sell them
in hundred lots, all exactly alike"
The more I thought over the situa-
ton, the deeper my perplexity grew.
The test upon Harvey had utterly de-
strOyed my hope that we could get
from him any clew to the identity of
the strange. wild creature we had seen
in the hospital. Instead, it had led
US to trig, snug, undoubtedly re-
spectacle English housemaid named
Jane Perkins; and leading us to her,
it left us face to face with a coinci-
dence. or, rather, series of coinci-
dences almost incredible.
"Weil," / resumed with q sigh,
"there are lots of young women with
black hair, and I suppose a good
many Of them wear green cloaks. But
that girl should have a profile like
that of the extraordinary creature we
saw in the hospital and later in Nor
CAMS study-a profile like that and the
same colored hair and the same sort
of cloak, and still obviously a differ.
ent person altogether, is rather dis
concerning. Ashton at least would
laugh at us if we told him we believed
it."
"Yes," said the doctor, "Ashton
would laugh. He laughs rather too
easily, that young man."
Then, for the first time looked long
and searchingly into my old chiefs
face. His eyes were bright with ex-
element, his cheeks flushed and his
big, restless hands beating out tri-
umphant tattoo upon the table top. He
did not look like man whose plans
and theories had gone awry.
'There's something" said curious
ly, shat I don't see yet"
"You will soon," he assured me, "be-
fore another day is out, unless I'm
mistaken. Have little patience"
There came a sharp knock at the
door just then, and as it swung open,
we saw Ashton standing there.
(TO BE CoNTINUED.)
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.