The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1927-08-19
By YORKE DAVIS Z
WNU Service.
Copyright. 1925

1t over her arm. But the address
well, I admitted to myself, that re-
duced the whole thing to farce.
For a moment all my belief in Doc
tor McAlister's theory. in the validity
or the test we had performed upon
Harvey, in every scientific law l had
felt surest of ten minutes ago, tot
tered on its foundation. Some one,
somewhere, in placid security from our
suspicious, and from the possibility
OF our detection was directing this
CHASTITY farce and was permitting him.
self to laugh at us. That girl in the
hospital had been shamming; Harvey
had been shamming; Jane Perkins,
who had identified the cloak, was, per.
haps, myth altogether. could mag
Inc whoever played the part laughing.
as she walked away with that cloak
over her arm, and picturing the effect
upon all of us when we should learn
the address she had given.
But to the district attorney the stu
alton had a very different look. He
Aiou AO hOdOl at uti-ttiiu VII SCCOhu
thought l could not blame him-that
we ourselves were the center of plot
to make him look ridiculous.
l got the shock of another surprise
when turned to look at Doctor Me-
Alister. Instead of the indignant re-
Duke which expected him to mete out
to the young man who had just ac-
cused him, he spoke very quietly and
with hooking twinkle in his eye.
"You can't expect me to pass my
hear it," he said.
"You know altogether too much
about it already" said the attorney
holly. 'This precious Jane Perkins of
yours answers my advertisement for
the cloak which you turned over to
me. She Identifies it, beyond any
doubt, as anyone whom you had in
structed in advance would be able to
dO-identities 1t down to missing
button and patch in the lining. How
far back does the joke go? Did you
find the cloak as you pretended you
did, In Oak Ridge. near the Morgan
house, or was the finding of it part
of the gamer
A little gesture of rebuke and pro-
test from the doctor checked him very
abruptly
"NO, withdraw that" he said.
THAT was an unwarranted thing to
say. l believe that up to this MORN
ing, when you declared war upon me,
you thought that by instructing the
woman to give my own detective my
own address as hers you were giving
me fair chance to detect the fraud.
1t would be, I suppose, if this were
game of chess. But this is serious
business"
"We realize that as well as you
do" l started to say, but my chief
interrupted me.
"Can't you penetrate our fraud a
little further?" he asked, and his
tone now was openly derisiye. "Does
it occur to you that Phelps here, with
the addition of a skirt and a shawl,
might not be a sufficiently plausible
Jane Perkins to deceive the astute
gentleman you left in charger"
There was little pause there, for
Ashton was too angry to answer
The doctors manner changed as he
went on. what Phelps says is true.
We realize better than you do, l think,
what is at stake here. We're not try
ing to thwart justice in the long run.
We are attacking this problem in our
own way. after giving you fair warn
ing. We refused to guarantee that
our way would not conflict with yours,
and we told you, in so many words,
that you'd do well to keep an eye on
us. You've the law on your side.
You've all the power of the state at
torney's office, whereas we have no
standing at all. If you think we've
got the cloak, search us; search the
laboratory. Where will you begin? ~
Still too angry to make any reply,
Ashton strobe out of the room, not ac-
tually slamming the door after him,
but shutting it decisively enough to
suggest that he felt like slamming it,
and the next moment we heard his
motor chugging away down the avenue.
The doctor hurried to the window
and looked out after him. Presently
he turned toward me with long
breath of relief
"We're all right so far" he said.