| |jTf_7 | 1 J "I Am Not Through With You Even Yet, Puppy." in, TO* LASH <f l Jj CIRCUMSTANCE rfjWft Hapry Irving Greene Author <y~Yosonde of the Wilderness"' HKjst>-a.*rioris by Magnus O. Ketlner N COPYVIuHT WO W. Q. CMAHMA.N ',*.7LV *'/v *■?*''. o".'*!. SYNOPSIS. Ahner Halllday. a miserly millionaire, l« found gagged. bound and Insensible In his room, his safe rifled and $40,000 mlns- Ing. The thread of the story is taken up by his nephew Tom. Living in the same house are other relatives: reckless Bruce Ilalliday and pretty Clare Winton. Bruce, •p.i s n bond broker, lias been trying to TMiseV slf>.ooo to put through a deal and rave nilmself from financial ruin. lie has applies! to his miserly uncle and to others for the loan but has been infused. Tom eends for William LeDue, an old-time friend connected with a detective agency. In relating the story Tom reverts to his acquaintance with a Mrs. Dace, a wealthy widow, whose business agent Is Richard Mackay, a boodler and political boss. Tom Is jealous of Mackay and Is deeply In love with Mrs. Pace. Bruce Halliday warns him to shun her as an adventuress. Tom sees Mrs. Dace and Mackay togeth er He afterwards meets the woman at horse race, and, happening to mention that Bruce had a tip on the winner, she gives him $."00 to place on the race. The lip go. s wronjj and she loses her money. Later Torn invests in stocks. He makes #ome mom y. and returns the lost Jftoo to Mrs. Dace. Tt is at tills Juncture that the theft of the $40,000 from old Ahner Halll day occurs. Le One meets Clare and Bruce, lie learns that the key which Clare had to the house is missing. Mae k.iv's dealings with Mrs. Dace make Tom more .lealous. The detective Intimates a d"sp!clon against Bruce Halllday as the thief. This dare Wlnton indignantly re pudiates. Mrs. Dace accepts Tom as her nance, and encourages him to Invest In a cerinin stock. Tom has a row with Vackny and the latter threatens revenge. The detective announces that he has dis covered important clews as to the thief If looks as if Mackay had got hold of Tom's key to the Halllday home and might have been the burglar. CHAPTER XV.—(Continued.) At the first corner a shrieking news boy nearly ran between my legs, an:l Ibove the uproar of the street 1 heard him shout a sentence that caused me to gasp and clutch at a lamp post for support. Snatching a paper from liifn I threw him a coin and began to read, the paper shaking 1n my hands like a wind-thrummed reed. Two paragraphs told me the hideous truth. Upon information that had been given him by Richard Mackay, who had been frozen out of the combination by his co-conspira tors, the state's attorney had filed a quo warranto proceeding in which he attacked the very life of the fran chise of the underground system. Should that official be able to sub stantiate the attack and prove that the grant had been obtained by fraud and trickery, as Mackay stated, the ■courts might deprive the corporation of all its rights and privileges, take away its power to act and render it hopelessly impotent. Under such a frightful condition of affairs the stock would become absolutely worthless, and beneath this stab at its heart it had already fallen with a crash that had carried half of those who had rid den upon it to ruin. My meager mar gins had been wiped out as quickly as a guilty schoolboy scours his slate, and 1 had been made a bankrupt in the time which It takes to tell it. I dropped the paper and staggered into a doorway, my hands pressing my temples. The world swam drunkenly before me in a hideous gray mist, through which men with faces lined and hard ened by hopes long deferred, passed ghostlike as they plodded silently along with strained eyes in search of the sordid necessities which bind the noul and the body together. The roar cf the street came to my deadened ears like the sullen grumble of thun der. From cut of the gloom weary shop sirls and racged newsboys stared mriously up >wt my drawn face, none Marw tin* L. M*>« h&tf so wretched. For they had abided in the depths and had not seen the star of hope shining close above them, whereas I had been hurled from the battlements of heav en in the twinkling of an eye. Dead ened of senses and seeing but vague ly, I went stumbling towards my broker's office, my only hope being that I would awake and find that I had dreamed a nightmare. His doors were locked. Already a rabble stood before them vainly clam oring for admittance, and realizing the uselessness of remaining here. 1 rushed down the stairs and towards the floor of the exchange. The shriek ing uproar of the pit was unintelligible to me, but in the midst of it with his collar torn from his neck and his coat split down the back was my agent, still dancing about insanely with wild thrusts of his fingers into the air. The frenzy upon his face left me no vestige of hope, and I turned away with my brain spinning. Four steps further and I almost ran into the arms of Richard Mackay. His teeth showed beneath h's heavy mustaches; his eyes burned and Ills face was stamped with the vin dictiveness that had brought this in ferno about. He saw me at once and a brutal laugh of satisfaction burst from between the half-sealed lips which my fist had split. "I did it partly for your benefit, if that is any satisfaction to you. Hut I am not through with you even yet, puppy," he said in my ears, as he passed. Too broken of spirit to resent the insult other than by a look I passed hiin in silence. How I got through that terrible af ternoon 1 am still uncertain, except in a vague way. I dared not keep my luncheon engagement with Mrs. Dace and tell her all; but instead kept mumbling to myself that I would call her up that evening when I had a chance to think over what I should say. There is always a chance, though it be only one in a million, that some thing will be saved out of a wreck: antf come what might matters could not possibly be more hopeless at nightfall than they were now. And perhaps by then T could think of some thing to retrieve myself temporarily; something which would eventually start me' once more along the prim rose way. Scarcely conscious of what I was doing I wandered to Bruce's of fice. He was not there, but his clerk told me that my cousin for some rea son had closed out ajl his holdings the day before at a handsome profit and had announced himself as through with speculation. The bitterness of the contrast between him and myself brought the tears to my eyes. Should he carry out this resolve and stick to his commissions, as I had little doubt that he would under Clare's persua sions and the weight of his promise, his happiness was in his own keeping. He had undoubtedly again gained a modest competence, had a good busi ness and the love of a sweetly beauti ful and contented wotnan. Verily the richest gifts of the gods reposed in thte hollow of his hand. I went home and threw myself heav ily upon the bed. At the summons to the evening meal I failed to re spond: burying my face in the pillow instead, as for the hundredth time I rehearsed what I was to say to Mrs. Dace. I could only tell her that I had received a b«r«rt> •etback but wan ; planning * new mmrn'ri, ant «*f her a few dnys' Indulgence until I could go over 11 stttra t;lie had te'd me that *be to he at hems fhit evenlt g, and It had bun urne : *too | brtttpa u* that Iv a* 10 be with her therefore, at oitbt o'clock 1 aro*«« 1 trl called for her number. The vole • of Janet answer d me, telling me that her mHtre s wa* not nt home. Wi:h an overwhelming pre-entmcnt of more mini ry to come, I vainly im plored some Information a<« to where , *he hnd gon • and at wl 'l hour she was expectod to return The anawer that I received wa* a click that told tue of the hanging up of the earpiece and my further volt Itig* brought only the ringing silence of an unsnswerlng wire. I sank Into my chair ;:galti. In the midst of my stupor I hea'd the ringing of the door hell and a mo ment later the *ounil of light footsteps asc« ndlng the stairs. There was a tap at my door, and at my Mat less re sponse I,eDuc quietly entered. I saw him run his eyes quickly over me as lie tossed his hat upon the bed and drew a chair close beside mine, lie said nothing, did not even smile us was his habit, and in my misery ! did not nlTi r hitn any greeting For perhaps a minute he sit without spiaklng and then addressed me with unwonted gravity: "Tom, I have the proofs." 1 started sllg'-t'y and raised my eyes to his. I fancied they were full of regret, even sorrow, but his mouth was (irmly set. My head was hot and my throat dry, and I cleared the lat ter before I spoke. Then I asked ; him hoarsely where they were, lie laid thetn on the tabl» before j me. They consisted of a silver card case, a bookmaker's ticket, a bit of i steel, a soiled piece of paper and a small lump of some grayish substance. Stupidly I stared at them. CHAPTER XVI. In the silence that followed the slow ticking of the tall clock sounded like the tolling of a bell. I shut my eyes. | "Gp on," I commanded as he sat facing me with no signs of any ir.cll ' nation to proceed. "What does this | junk signify to you?" lie got up and crossing the room silently bolted the door that led to my uncle's apart ments; then resumed his seat and ad dressed me in the low tones of one who adds caution to precaution. "When I began this Investigation, Tom, as 1 then told you I was about 1 to do, I commenced to shift the chaff from the wheat in order to decrease j the number of objects which 1 would in the last analysis be compelled to examine with great minuteness. My inquiries made upon the morning I first came, together with my inspec tion of the house upon that occasion, satisfied me of several things, among which were that Mrs. Tebbets had possessed no knowledge of the money being in the safe, and because of thai and divers other reasons she should be eliminated; that your uncle had in 110 wise spread the information of his having the currency to anyone ex cept yourself and Hruce, and there fore that he, as a distributor of the news to outside parties, was to be eliminated; that the house must have been entered by the front door, and therefore that the idea that all par ! ties were telling me without reserva tion all they knew about the matter was to be eliminated; and last, that on account of the unusual drilling of the safe and the quantity and quality of the explosive used, that all thought of its being the work of a profession al cracksman must be eliminated. You see that brought nie down to a pretty narrow field." He ceased speaking, and with my eyes still closed and my head resting heavily against the back of the chair 1 nodded slightly. "1 understand. Having eliminated the possibility of its having been done by a professional, you have brought il down to Bruce, who possessed a key, or to Richard Mackay or one of his friends who might have obtained a I duplicate from the key 1 left at Mrs. Dace's. However, go ahead." "You seem to be following me to a certain extent. Having decided that it was the work of an amateur, 1 was obliged to start out with those thoughts in my mind as I attempted to still further construct the circle. Your key was in the possession of your uncle at the time of the crime, ! and I did not believe that you had I ever had another. Mrs. Tebbets and your uncle had theirs; Miss Winton's was missing and you had assured me that Bruce had been in the possession of one which he failed to account for; that he had made rash statements about getting money; had become angry at your uncle; had been in a generally unnatural and desperate frame of mind the day before, and therefore I started into investigate him. This seemed to me the most logical way of going at it, for loom ing as big as he did among the sur roundings, I must either concentrate upon him as the probable thief, or greatly simplify matters by getting rid of him altogether. You had told me of his entering a cab the evening before the crime, and so I went to a friend of mine who is an official in the cab drivers' union. They are prac tically all union men in tills city, and he sent out a circular to every mem ber of his association calling upon the driver who had conveyed the person described to come forward and receive reward. Within two days I was talk ing to the man who had driven Bruce, and in that way found out where he spent the night. The cabman drove him to a resort ten mile3 from this j place and Bruce spent the night of ! the robbery there asleep." I unclosed I my eyelids with an expression of sur prise. "I did not. know that Bruce went to such places," I muttered. LeDuc went on. "Nor does he voluntarily. Ha liven drt'Hurd Hut 1 w ill com# to 't| it In a moment Hiving secured « till* Information, which of course o|':nlnated him a* the actlv» burglar, I w rtit to him pnd told him uphill and liown ti nt ht wn* making « blank fool of himself. \Vh"n lie learned thai I had uneuv" r»d hla whereabout* •»# the night in question be made a clean breast of It While he had been 1 lung d in tie pair by the ora-h, yet he had taken hut two drinks that day, one being a 00.Mail with you In a rife. Boon after the Inst drink ha had become stupefied. which fact he attributed to the reaction fr-jm hla highly nenoua State, but i came to a totally different conclusion, although I said nothing to him about it at the I time. With your assistance he <-n i tered a cab and roniomberod nvmh llng a direction to the driver to take , him to his room*; yet when he awoke In the morning he found himself at a place where lie had no desire to he. IVar of Miss Winton's disph asure bail made him n . olve to remain silent lather than hurt her by the cotu'. si on thai lie had got drunk,'as he imagined he had. and (rone to such a pine" 1 could not understand why the cabman j had taken It upon himself to convey ! him to this resort against Bruco's di • reotlons. so I came back at the driver I hard. By the dint, of more question*, j aided b.v a few Judicious threats, I . dr"w out the information that the 1 change In address had bo» 11 given by a certain party whom the drlv< r knew i to In- a friend of his passenger from 1 the fact of having seen them tog tlior, j and who had stopped him and Riven ; new Instructions as to where to con j vey the sleeping one Inside. That ox ; plained the driver's peculiar actions, and things were becoming decidedly interesting. Although practically sat isfied now that Hruce had had nothing "vi 11 indirectly to do with the matter, I neverthless went a little further in my investigations. 1 was very much interested to find out where ho had secured the money which had enabled i hint to resume his operations on 'change. When I had convinced him that I would keep the information ab solutely secret, he told me that it was furnished him by a woman client who did not care to have her name men | tioned in connection with speculative ! matters. I traced the story to it3 j foundation and learned that it was ab- I solutely true. That left only one mat -1 tor to be explained so far as Bruce ' was concerned." I suppose you mean his possession i of the key and his denial that he had j it, coupled with the possibility that i some one else had somehow come Into possession of it,"l said, breaking the moment's lull. LeDuc nodded. "Exactly. 1 was almost certain from the time that Miss Winton announced I the loss of her key that it had some | how got into the possession of her (sweetheart; for Its disappearance from her keeping convinced me that ! you had not been mistaken when ynu said Bruce had exhibited it or its ; duplicate. I had several talks with 1 "Tom Halliday, You Stole Your Uncle's Money." him and her on the subject, and they still insisted with a posltiveness that I could not ignore that their original statements were absolutely correct; namely, she denied that she had ever loaned him the key, and he asserted that he liaa no knowledge of ever having it in his possession. I made them rehearse all their actions when together for some days previous to the robbery, and filially a thought came to her. She remembered that a short time previous while she and Bruce had been strolling together that she had slipped her poekotbook con taining the key into his side coat pocket for a few moments while she was putting on her gloves And that in turn suggested an idea to me. Had the poekotbook been partially un clasped, the key might easily enough have fallen from it into his pocket, and not having any occasion to use it tor the next few days she uaturally | wiough b*d not nil*»i <1 It 80 we Rot th» rout he had worn on that occasion and want through It. We found a email rip In the bottom of th« outside pocket, and going further dta rn vc rod the k<')' In tlx- bottom lining That solved tin' mystery \.< lor hla having pounded on the table with It and afterwards denied It, that was < 'nelly accounted tor b.v tin 1 fact that I' In hH worrlmrnt 1«» had unconsciously drawn it Ironi hla pocket and need It ns von described and then icpla«-«d It mech(inlcall> without noticing what | he had hold or i< tin inhering the in -1 oldont. I accepted tliia as tho correct solution of tlii' key Incident, and then and there dlamlaaed Itruoa from all connection with the matter. For had ho entered Into col!ut>lnn with any one else and loaned him the key for the night, the other per Hon moat cer tainty would have been a professional who owned his own toola and knew how to use them, and that Idea as you know, I had already abandoned. Do you get mo?" "1 think so. And having eliminated Bruce, whom 1 all along told you was j innoci nt. you turned your attention ! to Richard Mackay as the next pos sibility." My companion smiled faint ly, thrusting his hands Into hla pock ets and leaning forward in his chair. "Yes, for about ton minutes. At the end of that time I had reasoned him ! out of the case. The' man who strangled your*uncle was described by him as a large, strong man who coughi d peculiarly. Thpt description fitted Mackay to a dot, and further more there was a possibility of his having been informed, through his more or less familiar connection with Mrs Dace's establishment. of the j money being in the safe at this partic ular time. Then, too. the Incident of | your having left your keys there for | some days furnished a possible way by which he could have secured a duplicate through a conspiracy with I one of the household. Hut that he did it personally was absurd. He is | far and away above it. lie Is not | a burglar; he Is a boodler. lie has a 1 million dollars of his own, and would ! no more risk himself in an act like this than you would for a handful of silver. And having previously strlck j en out the professional cracksmen be ! cause of the erudeness of the job, I | was now compelled to eliminate 1 Mackay and his friends because of the same reasoning that I had applied jin Bruce's case. Had he turned the i Job over to some needy friend of his I from the underworld, that person ' certainly would not have been a bttn -1 gler. You see what that brought me to." 1 arose in my chair with a mingled sensation of heat and cold climbing my spine and stiffening my hair. "Do ! you mean to say as the last remaining ] possibility you fastened your suspi j cions upon me?" 1 gasped. One of 1 his hands fastened upon my wrist | with the snapping grip«of a steel trap; 1 his fingers biting like teeth into my [ flesh. As in our school days 1 felt the piano wire strength of his tendons and clinched my teeth between the fierceness of the clasp. "Tom Halliday," he returned stern ly, "you stole your uncle's money," Glaring at him, quivering under an im pulse to tear myself from him and strike him down, T first swelled my muscles for the effort, then letting them subside sank back with an ex clamation of supreme disgust. "So that was your ultimate analy sis!" I said, with bitterest scorn. "Of all the absurd, asinine idiots it was ever my misfortune to come in con tact with, you are the most complete —you, an alleged detective. But you might as well finish your dream. I will compel myself to listen " 1 turned my head from him contemptuously; became aware that something cold and metallic was snapped around the wrist which he held and leaped to my feet only uj Ood luuidcuflsd to arm of On- b-ary oaken chair FYetuttcd with rage I made an awk 'iird dive behind lay bark with mf loft hand fnr my right-hand hip pocket a* he looked hi* arm* around me. With !!•• qulckrn s« of thought he hud twlMed ii revolver from my Angora, and FiirltntliiK hii<k luld It on thft dresser beyond my rrnch, an shackl" <i to tin hi iiv.v jtlo< • • of furniture J oouiA onlv nil,ml quivering In holploa* pa* clou !(• allying mv physical lai|>t> tonce I Mit down sullenly. "80 you fe*red I would murder you." I sneered. HP negatived. "No, 1 did not think you wou'd do that Hut I feared that you might murder yourself. IN> yon wlph mi' to prorocd quietly, or shall I summon your uncle to hear what ! have 10 say"" For n moment I hesitated as I calmed myself by a mighty effort There could lie no good n Retting hint excited. "If you have anything more to say to me you may cotitlnue or not, as you choose. Iran scarcely help hearing you, hut you will r< grot this outrase when I am set fre«." He did not seem to become either alarmed or nnery at the threat; on the con trary Ills voice was even smoother than In fore as he resumed his seat. "Tom," he continued, "I have al ways been your friend and I wish to always remain so. When ! have done telling you what 1 know about this crime we will talk about other mat ters, if you desire. Hut what 1 wish to tell you additionally Is this.l had been compelled to eliminate every body but you. and was therefore com pelled, most regretfully, to start along your trail. As my first step I went to the hotel where you told me you staid on the night of tiie crime; looked at the register and ascertained the room that you had occupied. I en gaged it, and went to it for the par pose of a thorough inspection. it was a back room overlooking an alley and the fire escape ran close by one of its windows. It at once occurred to me. therefore, that it would have been the simplest thing in the world for you, after having called up your uncle and after having left a request at the oflice for a morning summons in order to Impress it upon the minds of others that you were in your room at midnight, and thus establish an alibi in case of suspicion, to have passed down the escape in the dark ness, gone to any place you wished and returned before daybreak. I therefore went down the ladder, as I assumed you had done, and at its bot tom chanced upon what I consider to have been the only piece of pure good luck that came my way in the whole case. For, mind you, I insist that the rest of #ny discoveries were the result of experience In such mat ters, aided by close reasoning. Be that as it may, at the foot of the lad der I found your lost card case. I could only account for its presence there in one way; namely, that it had dropped from your pocket while you were either descending or ascxiding the ladder with your arms working above your head. That will perhaps remind you of the other night when you and I burglarized that office downtown. You will remember upon that occasion 1 handed you your match safe after we had come down, and told you that I had picked it up at the foot of the ladder we had just left; mentioning the fact that climb ing up and down under such condi tions was apt to work a smooth ar ticle out of one's vest pocket. There is nothing truer than that statement, and 1 have no doubt but that is ex actly what happened in the original case of your lo°>t card receptacle. Mow as a matter of fact. I extracted that match safe from your pocket in the darkness when you were occupied in pressing the putty against the window in order that I might try an interest ing experiment. The experiment suc ceeded. My calling your attention to the likelihood of losing such ar ticles under conditions similar to those you had just experienced, started a train of thought in your mind. I knew you were worried by the loss of your card case and were very desirous of regaining it. My stratagem of the re stored match box made it occur to you that it was possible that you had lost your card case Ingoing out of the window on the night of the crime, and that there was a bare possibility that it had not been picked up and that you would find it among the rub bish back of the hotel. Having as I hoped sowed this thought in your mind, I made an excuse and left you. You will recall that the pretext I made for departing was that I wished to make another experiment alone. I immediately made it, the experiment consisting of my going rapidly to the head of the alley passing the Pacific hotel and waiting there for you. True to my reasoning you went straight to the place where I had found the card case, and lighting a cigar made a brief search of the premises by the light of the match, of course unsuccessfully. Then as you came hurrying into the street you popped into my arms where I had stood to watch if you would fall into the trap. 1 remember your expression of surprise and dis pleasure at unexpectedly seeing me there. As an excuse I told you that the criminal was downtown then and moving around considerably himself. 1 imagine that remark rather got you to guessing." (TO BR CONTINUED.) Unnecessary Advice. A fioston school teacher, on attir ing after 49 years' service, had these suggestions to make to young women teachers: "A little harmless flirting x.ith nice people with whom you are acquainted will do much to rest the tired mind after the arduous dutiea of the schoolroom; be a live wire ev ery mliiute; do not eat too much" Advice is given to those who need it: it is easy to guess what voung Boston setool teacher* are UJe«.
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