The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, April 28, 1920, Image 9
VOLU E xxxv. LAURENS, SOUTH CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1920. NUMBER 41
John,
(Continued from Last Week.)
. CHAPTER III.-Next day Nelson finds
the pearls havo disappeared from the
wall saf9. His first idea of informing tho
police is not acted upon because qf pe
culiar circumstances. Ho has boon dis
charged from his position without ado.
Cluato explanation or reason, and feels
binself involved in something of a mys
tery. Ho decides to conduct an investi
gation himself. That night Darbara sig
male from the window of her apartment.
Which is opposite his, and they arrango
a meeting for next day. In the morning
he finds a note in his room, asking him
why he had not informed the police of
the loss of thle jewels.
CHAPTER IV.
I had twice traversed the cross lane
near McGowan's Pass tavern waiting
for Barbara Bradford. Although it
had been my Intention to ride thither
I was amazed to learn on applying at
two of the stables near the park en
trance to hire a horse thnt the few
they had there either were owned pri
vately or had been already engaged.
There was nothing for me to do but
to go to my rendezvous on foot. I had
almost despaired of Miss Bradford's
coming when I spied her cantering
slowly along the littne, followed at a
decorous distance by a groom. She
was lo.king right and left and when
she saw ie her fagie brightened but
sie rode a few steps past me with no
sign of recognition. I was wondering
what to make of this lew slight When
sio suddenly reined in and allowed
the groom to come tip with her.
"James," I heard her say to the
groom, "my head aches, and the rid
ing is lMking it worse. -- Take the
horses back to the stable, and I will
walk the rest of the way home."
"Very well, Miss Bradford," he said,
touching his cap, as lie assisted her
to alight.
She waited until he had vanished
and then hastened to thn bench where
I was stdated, one I had purposely so
lected because it was half hidden by
a turn in the road and the branches
of a wide-spreading tree.
She colored vividly as I rose to
greet lir with outstretched hand.
"Oh, Mr. Nelson," she crled, "I don't
know what you will think of me, ask
Ing you to meet ime here. I am in
trouble. I must tell someone. I don't
know what to dot"
"The only thing to do," I suggested,
"Is to begiln at the beginning and tell
me the whole story. I've sisters of my
own. Just pretend you are one of my
sisters and let me help you."
She looked at me thoughtfully,
studyling me as if questioning wheth
er or not I was to be trusted, and ap
parently deciding in the affirmative,
told me an amazing story.
"It's nil about my sister, Claire," she
began. "She's five year' older than
I. She's a lovely girl, but she's-that
IS, she usedl to be--mpulsive, roman
tic, and headstrong. She and my
mother never got along well together,
and she was Rent away to boarding
school. One winter, it was six years
ago, mother was In IEurope and only
Dad andl I were at home . . .
She sighed sadly. IEvidently her
words were bringing back to her mo
nments of heartache.
"To make a long story short, Claire
ran away fromt the school and mar
riedl--married a French chauffeur em
pilod by a family in the neighbor
hood. She took me into her confi
dence a week later, and I-well, I told
da~d. There was a terrible time about
it all. Dad found out that her hus
band was already married, had a wife
andl child right hero in this city, Hie
had the marriage annullledl and man
aged to keep everything out of the pa
pers. He threatened Claire's husband
with prison and made him go back to
France. Dad was simply wvonderfnl.
No one knew anything about Claire's
escapade except ourselves, the prin
cipal of the school, and the judge
down in Nassau county, who ordered
the ma rrlage annullerl. Dad kept moth
er abroad until after it was. all over,
and to this day she never has heard
a wvord about it."
"Your father must he a wvonderful
man,"'I saidl enthusiastically.
"He was," she salid simply. "lie has
boen dead two years."
"Oh,'I'm so sorry," I cried, " I did
not know."
"If Dad weore alive he would know
what to do. You see, when lie (lied,
there was not much money left. We're
really little hotter than paupers.
We've been living from day to day on
our tiny capital, and Mother has boon
woking overy wira in nrnnen&AI a on
nitt ~for l'ire I wantili to lo
something. to go out and earnt a Iivng
for m hyself, but sh never would con
Claire's priospects if I went inito traile'
d o no hing unti aftr Cl i e is s f l
tarried." .
A robld xpesIncrnintoMher
"elwS to ie. bIt no I (on't
know. hel t:< ngogeul to ma'rry yoiung
I!n'ry 1). Thaiyer*, whlo is wyorth a lot
of m~oney, butt somelonet has f'ounid out
:ihont he I ''Secret."'
" il.i' I shey find out?" I naked
e ...:S't I nd irsto1 now the myste
iri s p r o' ein c t h e ta r k t h a t h a d
btramii t' lh--: Into touch wilth I ar
On ri: 1 ''j I. mei hand of rasuen I'd
do - ' n blackma l Claire Bred.
* 1't. e:I h r .4'ster was trying to save
' tr hee :n-et'sot mystery of all,"
<' i Miss Iradfonw. "defore
.now. iSIlhe tIred over to me all the
pn1per's abn the annulment or Claire's
ituarit:ge. Somtehow heow seemiiel to
rely ont tie ft r more than on either
Mother or Claire. ile explained to
mne the im prtance or always keeping
the), in case the last should ever
Cro1) up, but he charge me to see that
they alwvays were safely put away
where no one could find them."
"Where (lid you keep them?" I
asked.
"In the wall safe in my sitting
rooni."
"In the wall safe!" I cried, think,
ing in bewilderment of the coinci
dence that these papers should have
had a similar hiding place to the Gas
ton jewels which had vanished so
strangely.
"Yes," she answered, plainly puzzled
at my howildernent. "It was an ex
cellent hiding pilace. No one but my
self had the combination. I don't see
now who could have taken them. I
found the safe locked as it always
wis."
"When did you first discover the pa
pers were missing?"
"Let me see," she pondered.
"Claire's engagement was announced
at a dinner three weeks ago last
Thursday. The newspapers on Sun
day carried a brief notice of it. Two
days later the first note came."
"What note?"
She reached into the pocket of her
riding habit and drew forth a folded
slip of paper.
"I brought it with me to show youI
here, this is the first one."
Like the mysterious note I myself
had received only the preceding night,
this one was not naclosed in an en
velope. It wans just a folded slip, ad
dressed in typewriting to "Miss Claire
Bradford." On the other side was this
message:
"What if Thayer knew about your
being married before? Ilow much
will you give to get those papers
back?"
"Where did you get this?" I asked.
"I found1( it on the floor of my bed
room one morning when I got up late.
I gave it to my sister wvithout having'
read it, thinking she had dropped it
there. Sihe read it and screamed and
fainted. Fortutnatelyo Mother was out
of the house at the time. Naturally I
read the note then. I went to the
safe and found the documents gone.
Claire has been nearly crazy ever
since. She insists that it is all my
fault. She says I ought to have de
stroyed the papers, but I couldn't,
could I?"
"Of course not," I replied warmly.
"You did quite right in keeping them.
It was not your fault they were
stolen."
"I couldn't destroy them. Dad had
tok4 me to keep them," she said simply.
"What did you do then? Did you
tell your mother?"
"Oh, no, she must never know. Dad
did not want her ever told anything
about it. We talked it over, Claire
and I, and decidled to putt a personal
advertisement in the papers. It sima~
ply said, 'Liberal reward and no ques
tions asked for return of important
papers.'"
"Were there any answers?"
"Yes end no. One morning there
was a oecondl note."
"Delivered like the first?"
"Yes, I found it, too, on the floor
of my bedroom. IHero it is."
-..Mora nm~cond peirpleved .Ihan
ever' by the ~roiig raifnlcatiouof
the plPts of tho thieves that seemed
to involve us both, I took the paper
and rend:
"Ton thousand is our price for the
paperis. Pay it or you'll never marry
Thnyer."
"Did you go then to meet the man
in the park?"
"Not until after I got a third note,
more, threatening than the first and
second. Clairm ayd I talked it over
and over, trying to think who could
have taken the papers. We only keep
two servants now, Sarah and Mary,
and they both have been with us since
we were chil(iren. It could not have
been either of them. They think a
much of us as our own nother does."
"Do you suppose tho man that she
married may have learned of yotr
father's death and have returned from
France to try to blackmail her?"
"We thought of that. The notes did
not come from him. They do not read
as if a Frenchman wrote them."
"Who could it be?" I said more to
myself than to her.
"Then there was another note," she
went on. "It (leman(led that Clairo
wear a red cairiatiion and meet the
writer in the parki and bring ten thou
saiId dollars. That was the time I
first moet you. Your presence must
have frightened themi off, for we had
no more deimands until night before
last."
(To be continued.)
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