The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-10-20


III health from her physician, to be
granted permanent leave of absence.
Then, after my visit interrupted the
discussion, she returned to the hotel
and donned her woman's clothes and
wig. She met Myra Prentiss at four
o'clock, in the ladies' room at the
Pennsylvania station; and for two
hours obtained from her the evidences
of her voyage east and memoriZed its
details and events. At about seven.
she presented herself to me at head
quarters and finally registered over
again at the Quaker hotel, as Laura
Jordan"
Il see; that makes 1t quite clear"
The supervisor sat back and folded
his arms. "In fact, think under
stand every point now but how you
penetrated her disguise, after knowing
her only as Randall She took you in
completely at your first meeting, didn't
sheT"
Except for vague sensation Of
familiarity had on her arrival. She
was a clever actress, Mr.. Warwick,
and well disguised, especially by that
blond wig. That puzzled me when
Miss Prentiss mentioned she had
changed the color of her hair. Orig
fnally, Laura Dumont was brunette.
like the show-girl, herself; when she
cut it to act as Randall, naturally, his
hair was also brown. But there was
danger that If she became Mrs. Jor.
dan again with the same hair the re-
semblance might be noticeable. Ac-
cordingly. she adopted blond wig and
Miss Prentiss also had to wear one, to
pass for her."
Yes, but that doesn't explain" MIR.
Warwick began, what clue gave you
the connection In the conspiracy be-
tween Randall here and Doctor Prince
in st. Louis"
I'm coming to that now" the de-
tective interrupted. 1T was Randall's
certificate from his physician about
his tubercular condition that told me
the. truth. That was the first one 1
actually saw-among his papers on
this desk, Friday afternoon. Those he
presented previously, to be excused
from college in October and on his
return in February. had been filed
among his records in his department.
the business school. They all came
from Doctor Prince, whenever Randall
or Mrs. Jordan-required them. OF
course, he did not fill them out as
Doctor Prince or I'd have recognized
enough to keep his name out of it. He
wrote them out ON printed forms he
secured of a nonresident doctor In
Chicago. Randall's home town, choos-
Ing name resembling an actual ply
stefan there. DR.. Harold Lincoln, be.
lieve 1t was. The university was ac-
customed to accepting such reports
without much investigation.
"But when happened to notice Doc.
tor Princes written prescriptions, in
his office in st. Louis, realized his
connection with Randall. The hand
writings were identicall At the same
time, it hardly seemed likely that she
would leave that evidence among the
university files. It not alone implicated
him in the conspiracy and linked him
with the Randall disguise, but It was
absolutely conclusive. And she would
not dare go before Monday, as she
said, If only because 1t was wise to
allow several days to elapse between
her appearance as Stuart's wife and
her departure as the student. I fully
suspect she intended to purloin the
one certificate by some sleight- of-hand
on Friday afternoon: unfortunately,
my interruption spoiled her opportun.
ity and compelled her to postpone the
theft. The only question then, was
when she would call at the business
school office, ostensibly to study her
records, and steal all of them to-
gether.
II made this discovery in st. Louis,
proving the doctors guilt, shortly after
midnight. Sunday night. If Laura had
already got hold of the doctors ex-
cuses on Saturday, it was, of course,
too late to save them. However, the
Office is open only half of that day. If
she waited until Monday to abstract
them. just before she dropped out of
the scene as Randall, might yet pre-
vent their destruction. Provided l
could be back in Philadelphia early
on Monday morning. It was chance
I had to take to clinch my case; and
the only way could accomplish the
trip in the short period left me was by
air, on a fast plane"
AS though to terminate his exposi.
ton, Rankin became silent with a ges-
ture of finality, and a slow smile
spread over his face.
Luckily for me-" he said, after a
moment, "all my deductions happened
to be correct, and the gods were kind
to me. Mrs. Jordan delayed until
noon on Monday, before discarding her
impersonation of Randall altogether;
and I arrived before she had time tn
rid herself of the certificates. She had
only obtained them from her depart.
ment under the very eyes of the clerks
a short while before. AS matters have
turned out, there won't be the slight
oct dificulty in cOnvi,tin0 hoth ha,