New Britain Herald Newspaper, December 5, 1922, Page 10

. Qtiumphs of . M-Jonquelle by MerviLLe DavigsoN PosT © 1992 NEA Service, THE FORTUNE TELLER | It was an ancient diary in a fader | leather cover, The writing was fine ' and delicate and the ink yellow with { .08 Monsieur Jonquelle turned the pages slowly and with care, for the| paper was fragile, We had dined carly and come in later to his house on the Faubourg 8t. Germain in Paris. He wished to show me this old dlary that had come down® to him,| from a branch of his mother's family | in Virginia—a branch that had gone out with a King's Grant when Vir- ginla was a crown colony. The col- Jateral ancestor Pendleton had been a | Justice of the Peace in Virginia, and & spinster daughter had written down | some of the strange cases with which her father had been concerned. Mon- gleur Jonquelle believed that these cases in their tragic detalls, and their | inspirational deductive handling | equaled any of modern times, The ! great library overlooking the Iau- bourg St. Germuin was curtained off from Paris. Monsicur Jonquelle read by the fire; and I listened, returned “as by some recession of time to the Virginia of a vanished decade. The narrative of the diary follows: It was a big sunny room. The long windows looked out on a formal garden, great beech trees and the bow of the river, Within it was a sort of library. There were bookcases built into the wall, to the height of a man's head, and at intervals between them, rising from the floor to the cor- nice of the shelves, were rows of ma- | hogany drawers with glass knobs. | There was also a flat writing table. It was the room of a travelgr, a ‘man of letters, a dreamer. n the table were an inkpot of carved jade, a| paperknife of ivory with gold but-| terflies set in; three bronze storks, with their backs together, held an ex- quisite Japanese crystal. The room was in, disorder—the drawers pulled out and the contents ransacked. My father stood leaning against the Jcasement of the window, looking out. "The lawyer, Mr. Lewis, sat in a chair ‘peside the table, hisv eyes on the violatgd room. 7 “pendleton,” he said, “¥ don't like this Englishman Gosford.” . The words seemed to arouse my! father out of the depths of some re- /flection, and heturned to the lawyer, Mn Lewis. “Gosford!” he echoed. ¢ “He is behind this business, Pen-]| ‘dleton,” the lawyer, Mr, Lewis, went ‘on. “Mark my word! He comes ‘here when Marshall is dying; he “forces his way to the man's bed; he iputs' the servants out: he locks the door. Now, what business had this “Englishman_ with Marshall on his deathbed? What business of a se- ‘¢recy so close that Marshall’s son is Sparred out by a locked door'” He paused and twisted the seal ring on his. finger. % "“When you and I came to visit the s sick man, Gosford was always here, as thoukh he kept a watch upon us, and when we left, he went always to this room to write his letters, as he i d. "4 “And more than this, Pendleton; Marshall is hardly in his grave be- fore Gosford writes me to inquire by ! what legal process the dead man’s ‘papers may be examined for a will. sAnd:it is Gosford who sends a negro riding, as if the devil were on the _erupper, to symmon me in the name ‘of the Commonwealth of Virginia, to appear and examine into the circum- stances of this burglary. “I' mistrust the man. He usecd to hang about Marshall in his life, upon some ‘enterprise of secrecy; and now he takes possession and leadership in his affairs, and sets the man's son aside. In what right, Pendleton, does this adventurous Englishman feel himself secure?” My father did not reply to Lewis' discourse. His comment was in an- other quarfer. “Here Is young ‘Gaekl,” he said, The lawyer rose and came over to {the window. | | 'Two persons were advancing from the direction of the stables—a tall, delicate boy, and a strange old man. The old man walked with a quick, jerky stride. It was the old country? doctor Gaeki, And, unlike any other man of his profession, he would work ‘a8 long and as carefully on the body 'of a horse as he would on the body of a man, snapping out his quaint oaths tand in a stress of effort, as though he struggled with some invisible crea- ‘ture for its prey. The negroes used | to say that the devil was afraid of Gaeki, and he might have been, if to \disable 4 man or his horse were the ‘devil's will. Bt 1 think, rather, 'the negroes imagined the devil to fear what they feared themselves, “Now what could bring here?” said Lewis. “It was the horse Gosford overheated in his race to you," re- plied my father “1 saw him stop in| the rond where the negro hoy was | Jeading the horse about, and then call hall.” | s mo fault of young Marshall, | said the lawyer. “But, also, he is no match for Gosford. He i8 a dilettante. -~ He paints little pic- | tures after the fashion he learned in Parig, and he has no force or vigor in him His father was a dreamer, a wanderer, one who loved the world | “and its frivolitics, and the son takes| that temperament, softened by his| mother. He ought to have a guar- | dian.’ “He h Marshall and Gacki | that | father, | Lewis, guars replied my “A guardian!” repeated “What court has appointed a d for young Marshall?" “A court,” replied my father, “that does not sit under the authority of *Virginia. The helpless, Lewis, in their youth and inexperience, are not wholly given over to the spoiler.” The boy they talked about was very young—under twenty, one would say. He was blue-eyed and fair-haired, with thin, delicate features, which showed good blond long inbred to the loss of vigor. He had the fine, open, generous face of one who tak world as in a fairy story. But now there was care and anxiety in it, and | a furtive shadow, as though the lad's dream of life had got some rude nwakening. s one,” el i NEW BRITAIN DAILY HERALD, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1922, 2 In¢ At this moment the door behind: my father and Lewis was thrown violent- Iy open, and a man entered. He was a person with the manner of a bar- rister, precise and dapper; he had a long, pink face, pale eyes, and a close-cropped beard that brought out the hard lines of his mouth, He bustled to the table, put down a sort of portfolio that held an inkpot, a writing pad and pens, and drew up a ehalr like one about to take the minutes of a meeting. And all the |8 THE ROOM WAS IN DISORDER— DRAWERS PULLED OUT AND CONTENTS RANSACKED. while he apologized for his delay. He had important letters to get off in the post, and to make sure, had carried them to the ttavern himself. “And now, sirs, let us get about this business,” he finished, like one who calls his assistants to a labor. My father turned abcut and looked a tthe man. “Is your name Gosford?"” he said in tis cold, level voice. - “It is sir,” replied the man, ‘—Anthony Gosford!"” “Well, Mr. Anthony Gosford,” re- plied my father, “kindly close that door that you have opened.” Lewls plucked out his snuff box and trumpeted in his many-colored hand- kerchief to hide his laughter. The Englishman, thrown off his pa- tronizing manner, hesitated, closed the door as he was bidden—and could not regain his fine air. “Now, - Mr. Gosford,” my father went on, “why was this room violated as we see it?" “It was searched for Peyton Mar- shall’'s will, sir,” replied the man, “How did you know that Marshall had a will?” said my father. “I saw him write it,” returned the Englishman, “here in this very room, on the cighteenth day of October, 1854." “That was two years ago,” said my father. = “Was the will here at Mar- shall's death?” “It was, He told me on his death- bed.” “And it is gone now “It is,"" replied the Englishman. “And now, Mr. Gosford,” said my tather, “how do you know this will is gone unless you also know preoise- ly where it was?" “I do-know precisely where it was, sir,” returnedy thé man.. “It was in a row of drawers on the right of the window where you stand—the second drawer from the top. Mr. Marshall put it there when he wrote it, and he told me on his deathbed that it re- mained there. You can see, sir, that the drawer has been rified.” My father looked casually at the row of mahogany drawers rising along | the end of the bookcase. The second | one and the oneabove were open; the‘ others below were closed. | “Mr. Gosford,” he said, Englush- P ‘you would have some interest in this will, to know about it so precisly," “And so | have,” replied the man, “it left me a sy of money." “A large sum “A very largd sum, sir, *Mr, Anthony Gosford,” said my father, ‘for what purpose did Peyton Marshall bequeath you a large sum of money? You are no kinj nor was he in your debt." The Englishman sat down and put his fingers together with a judiclal nir, “8ir,” he began, "I am not advised that the purpose of a hequest s reles vant, wha the bequest Is direct and unencum®red by the testator with any indicatory words of trust or uses, This will bequeathes me a sum of money, 1 am not required by any provision of the law to show the rea- sons moving the testator. Doubtless, Mr. Payton Marshall had reasons which he deemed excellent for this course, but they are, sir, entombed In the grave with him." My father looked steadily at the man, but he did not seem ‘to consider his explanation, nor to go any further on that line, “Is there another who would know about this will?" he said. “This effeminate son would know," replied Gosford, a sneer in the epithet, “but no other. Marshall wrote the testament in his own hand, without witnesses, as he had the legal right to do under the laws of Virginia. The lawyer,” he added, “Mr. Lewis, will confirm me in the legality of that.” CHAPTER 1I. “And now, sir,” continued,the Eng- lishman, turning to my father, ‘“‘we will inquire into the theft of this tes- tament."” But my father did not appear to notice Mr. Gosford. He seemed per- plexed and in some concern. “Lewls,” he said, “what definition of a crime?" “It is a violation of the law,"” re- plied the lawyer. “I do not accept your definition,” sald my father, It is, rather, I think, a violation of justice—a viola- tion of something behind the law that fmakes an act a crime. = I think,” he went on, “that God must take a broader view than Mr, Blackstone and Lord Coke. I have seen a murder in the law that was, in fact, only a kind of awful accident; and I have 'seen your catalogue of crimes gone about by feeble men {with no intent except an adjustment of their rights. Their crimes, Lewis, were merely errors of their impractical ‘judgment.” Then he seemed to remember that the Englishman was present. “And now, Mr. Gosford,” he saidy ‘will you ‘kindly ask young Marshall to come in here?” Th eman would have refused, with some rejoinder, but my father was looking at him, and he could not find the courage to resist my father’s will. He got up and went out, and present- ly returnéd followed by the lad and Gaekl. The old country doctor sat down by the door, his leather case of bottles by the chair, his cloak still fastened under his chin. Gosford went back to the table and sat down is your | the |when he spoke, his voice was gentle, |érable events that precede and follow, with his writing' materials to keep notes, The boy stoad My father looked a long time lad, His face was grave, at but “My hoy," he sald;, I have had a Kood deal of experlence In the exami. nation of the devil's work" He paused and.. indicated the violated room, YTt is often excellently done, His disciples are extremely clever, One's ingenuity Is often taxed to trace out the evil design in it, and to stamp It as.a false plece set into the natural sequence of events,' He pansed again, and his big shoul- ders blotted out the window. ‘Every natural event,” he continued, “is Intimately connected with innum- It has g0 many serrated points of contact with other events that the Euman mind is not able to fit a false event so that no trace of the joinder will appear. The mast skilled work- men in the devil's shop are only able to give thelr false piece a blurred Joinder,” He stopped and turned to the row {of mahogany drawers beside him. “Now, my boy,” he said, “can you tell me why the ,one who ransacked the contents of all the drawers about, dld not cpen the two at the bottom of the row where I stand?" “Because there was nothing them of value,sir,” replied the lad. “What is in them?" said my father. ‘Only old letters, sir, written to my father, when I was in Paris—nothing else,” ‘And who ‘would know that?" sald my father, The boy went suddenly white, “Precisely!” said my father. ‘“You alone knew: it, and when you under- took to give this library the appear- ance of a pillage room, you uncon- sciously endowed your imaginary rob- ber with the thing you know your- self. Why search for loot in drawers that contained only old letters? = So your imaginary robber reasoned, knowing what you knew, But a real robber, having no such knowledge, :would have ransacked them lest he |miss the things of value that he searched for."” in voice deep and gentle. “Where is the will?” he said. The white in the hoy's face changed to scariet. He about him in a sort of terror; then he lifted his head and put back his shoulders. |it and brought out a sheet of folded foolscap. He stood up and faced my father and the men about the room. (The concluding instaliment = of “Phe Fortune Teller” will appear in our next issue.’ NEED WOMEN DETECTIV Tokio, Dec. 5.—The need of wom- en detectives has been felt by the Metropolitan board of police and the new inspector general of the police, in favor of the introduction of women to the police force, is organizing for the work. Mother used to make. 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