Evening star., 1929-12-14

to be. so to speak, an heiress, became
grotesuue as soon as I looked up what
he smoke of on the way home as his
references and learned that he had an
independent fortune of his own"
She turned bewildered look on Mar
tin. He had been glancing through a
sheaf of yellow papers which he'd been
holding ever since he'd got up to let
Uncle William in. He forgot them now,
however, long enough to come over to
her and put an arm around her.
Its nothing to bother about, dar-
ling" he said 81 wasn't keeping any
thing dark. I'd have told you If there'd
been time. But there's always been
something more important to talk
about. AS a matter OF fact, there is now.
Forster will be getting here any minute.
fathers death? Do you remember ex-
actly?"
She did. and she told him.
He looked down at the papers again
with an intensity of concentration that
held them both silent.
Look here, darling" he said. Look
at the date on these sheets. They're
carbons, you see, of the last notes he
ever made. See what he's written on
page OF all. Try this tomorrow Think
it's right at last Well, it was right.
Those few hours he begged the doctor
for were all he needed. but the doctor
couldn't give them to him."
Down at the foot of the long flight
Of stairs they heard the street door
OPEN Martin turned to Uncle William.
Have you got that contract with you,
sir? Right here in your pocket, I
going to need it,"
Uncle William felt in his pocket and
nodded.
Martin ment out into the entry and
looked down the stairs. ITS Forster" J."
he said as he came back. "Conley's
carrying him up
The wait while Conley struggled with
his burden up those long, straight flights
of stairs seemed endless.
Forster, by the time he'd been de-
posted in big chair, was as breathless
and as nearly exhausted-with terror
that he'd be dropped, most likely-as
the man who carried him.
Well" he painted, I've come-on
some fools errand, expect. 1 can't
think of anything among the professors
papers that I'd be especially interested
in, now" But his look, darting rat-like
about the studio, belied his words, and,
when it lighted upon the little trunk
surrounded by the heaps of yellow
SneeCS, IL remained IlXeu, FASCINATED.
II thought" Martin observed, that
you'd be interested in these notes. You
must have seen something very like
them before-in the laboratory just
after Prof. Mcfarland died"
Possibly" Forster admitted. I'D
been financing him while he was trying
to discover an oil process. He died
without getting anywhere with it. 1
hired another man and he discovered
the thing almost at once. 1t was very
valuable discovery. and I've made a
great deal of money on it. The profess
sor didn't make it. He tried to and he
failed. don't believe that these papers
you've got here are worth anything.
But. if they are worth anything, and the
professor held them out, they're my
property. He was working under con-
tract with me, and he had no right to
hold anything out"
He didn't hold anything out" Mar
tin said. There was nothing in the
trunk that you didn't find the exact
duplicate of when you took possession
of the laboratory. And, to put it the
other way around, there was nothing
among the notes in the laboratory that
there wasn't an exact duplicate Of in
the trunk"