Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 13, 1916, Page 8

Vitagraph F vom Stars of This MISS VENA KEESE a V. The Jacobean House. In the pile of letters awaiting him on his table Christopher found a queer, telegram. It said: “Please come at once with your car and try solve mystery at old house now used as hotel patronized by mo- torists. Same rate pald per day for necessary ‘time as for automobile tour,—SIDNEY ~CHESTER, “Wood Tiouse, New Forest. References, Lon- don and Beottish Bank." And the message was dated two da) K. (y)'hé‘:opher did not see why he should be applied to as a solver of mysteries. However, the telegram sounded interesting, *“Just back from journey. Found telegram,” he wired. “Am 1 still wanted? If so. can com When an answer arrived he had Sea‘let Runner ready for .another stant. : \ “Yos, urgently wanted,” ran the re- ply, “Hope you can start this after- noon. But don’t come to Wood House. ~ Will meet youy at the Sandboy and Owl; within mile of the Popular Novel of the same name by C. N. and A. MR. EARLE WILLIAMS as CHRISTOPHER RACE Next Week Another Story and New Picture Copyright, 1916, by the Star Company. All Foreign Rights reserved. y car Company M. Williamson | Episode s SIDNEY CHESTER ver and copper—disappear mysteri- gested Christopher. having engaged new servants. of them may be an expert thie “0t course that was our first idea, said the girl. “But it would he tmpus- gible for the most expert thiet, cven a conjurer, to pull women's rings from their fingers, unfhsten clasps of pear] dog collars, take off brooches and bracelets or belts with gold buckles, and remove studs from shirt fronts or sleeve links from cuffs, without the knowledge of the persons wearing the things' “Yeg, that would be Christopher admitted. “Well, that i& what happens at Wood House every day, and has been hap- pening for the last fortnight, Peopie sit at the table and apparently every- thing goes on in the most orderly way, yet at the end of the meal their valu- @ables are gone. 1 want you to watch, to set your wits to work to find out the mystery, Of course, you must leave your valuables In care of the Jandlord hbre. You'll motor over this ng, won't you, and say you wish room?” . {rapossible,” in sight of the house, standing in the midst of a lawn cleared of trees, in a forest-like park. It was a long, low building of ir- reguljr shape, the many windows with tiny lozenge panes brightly lit behind their curtains. In the moon- light the projchng/uppar stories with gabled roofs and/ivy-draped chim- neys, the walls checkered in black and white, with wondrous diapering ot trefolls, and chevrons, were clearly defined against a wooded background. The house could have a few peers in picturesqueness if one searched all England. Hi§ name was announced as if he had Deen an Invited guest arriving at a country house, and from a group near the fireplace came forward to welcome him & young man with a de- lightful face. Glancing it him for af Instant as he advanced Christopher saw Sidney Chester, In evening dress; a dainty old lady whom he took to be her mother; a rather timid-looking little woman, whose pretty features seemed almost plain in contrast with Miss Chester's; a handsome, darkly sunburnt young man, with a soldierly, somewhat arrogant air; also seven .or elght strangers, divided into different parties scattered about the hall “How do you do? 1Is it possible we're to have the pleasure of enter- taining the famous Mr. Race?” said the young man who came to greet Christopher. “My name is Morley Chester, and 1 play host for my cous- Ins, Mrs, Chester and her daughter.” Then Mr. Chester introduced him to the two cousins, mother and daugh-~ ter (he meeting the girl as if for the first time), to the pretty quiet young woman who was, it appeared, Mrs. Morley Chester, and added an informal word or two which made Sir Walter Christopher that it was rather long between courses. Suddenly, as Chris- topher was beginning upon - biscults and cheese, Sir Henry Smithson sprang up in his chair, exclaiming, “By jove!” Then came a clatter of voices at his table, both ladies there crying out in consternation. “What has happened?” asked Mor- ley Chester, coming out from behind the screen, while Sir Walter Raven sat looking pale and concerned, and the mild-faced butler saved himself from dropping a bottle of port. “Everything has gone!" ,ejaculated Miss Reese, the American. "His watch and chain—his ring—his scarf pin— ane. " - “And my money,” Henry Smithson. “I'm dreadfully sorry,” stammered Mr. Chester. "I begged you to bej careful.” “Oh, I've gof myself to blame, 1 suppose,” broke in the brewer.. He gave a rough laugh, but it did not sound genuine. “Who on earth would have thought such things could be? Well, seeing’s belleving. This is the queerest house I was ever in. It's bewitched.” “S80 we are beginning to think,” said Chester, deeply mortified. "I can't begin to express my regret—-—"" “My own fault,” sald Sir Henry. “I'll say no more about it—for the present. But I wouldn't be sorry to see that repeater of mine again. If you don’t mind I'll send a detective down on this business.” Presently after the dining hall had been searched in vain for trace of the lost treasures, Sir Henry Smithson went off in his motor, a sadder and a wiser man. Race had almost abandoned his sus- picions of Sir Walter Raven, whom he liked more and more,’ when, on his finished Sir THE BEE: OMAHA, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1916. rlel Runne ney, with tears in her eyes. ‘The strain is wearing mother out; and, you know, if neither of us continues liv- ing in the house it will go, as I told you, to the man who would have been the heir had the entail not been broken.” “You'll both come out with me to Colorado and forget your troubles, Let the chap have the place; and be thank- ful it's off your hands,” said Raven. He spoke with the sincerity of a lover, mot like a schemer 'who would force a woman to his will by foul means if fair ones proved not strong enough. “1 feel a beast spying on him and working against him,” thought Chris- topher, “Suppose he knows nothing about the secret place next his room? Suppose the noises are made by rats? And what if, after all, the people who think they have been robbed never have been robbed? I'll give Raven the benefit of the doubt until I've tried one more ‘experiment.” Tea was going on In the hall wh Scarlet Runner , arrived at Wuz House. There were letters for Chris- topher, and he announced in the hear- ing of everyone, intluding the serv- ants, that unless he should get a tele- gram advising him to the contrary he must leave Wood House, where he had spent such an enjoyable fornight, im- mediately after breakfast the next morning. d Christopher took longer over dress- ing for dinner that night than usual. He hesjtated whether to wear the studs and sleeve links he liked best, or others which he did not care about. Also he was half minded to lock his watch up in his suitcase. Finally, however, he resolved to make his ex- periment bravely. “I'm not hysterical,” he said to ‘himself, “though I might don, = Please let me v ,m-o\;nhle h’uz of arrival—! R, " Christopher wired again: “Hope to “reach you about 7." And his hope was n\tro Rinehurst as you oo " ‘With pleasure,” sald Christopher. ‘And I'll do my best to help.” “Thanks for taking Interest. Then T'll go now. 1 shall just he able to ride home in time for dinner.” y ‘But there are questions st which Justi sually was when he 1'a better ask you," said Christopher; tled. it to 'M;-'nd' :mn Searlet Runner, i “"as we're not to have any privats com- e landlord opened a door at the munication at Wood House, Hew many-indoor servants have you?" a dim corridor, and sald re- "‘m b ‘out of sight: “Threé housemalds, one dear old thing who has been with us lor years, 1 ed out of the ph ed over KO na m‘?mo motor has i rise up a and two young girls lately got in—one from London, one from our own ighborhood; a butler we've had ince I can remember, two new fuots men from Londofi, and an /ol couk- | housekeeper, who has had two ussist- ce we opened B8 an hotgl, :‘:‘:t “:ll except a stray cranture or 's all, two about the"kmmen. 1 muat tall vou, too, that with the ncw servants re was | we had tho best of references.” “And the thefts alwayy oceur at nieals?” asked Christopher. i, i ‘Always at mea)s, and. therefore, ! {£ eculd happen only in thres reoms,’ wofd Sidney Chuster; “the blg dinng hafl and two amall rooms wrich we! set \apart as peivate sitting rooms. es- those who' stay with us oy oMo in P ‘but the dining cautiful royn in the “{Charles 1I had when an ancestor of : | night.” fe admiry it &0 mich prefer It o any other ‘will have to be done,” her—pugzled, but anx- encouraging. “Have you ho has been with you sev- ~iv! - returned, half re- ‘as If she guessed his reason this question. “It's—a rofiu man?” “Yes, 4 young man." “How long has he been in the house?” ; . “Several weeks. He's painting a picture, using the King's room, as we call it, for a blackground—the room ours was hiding him and would dart down into a secret nmtund:'u th dangerous or al i I 0N, ap artist?", ' “Net a professtonal, ¢ 't you remember how long he n with you?" and a fort- n three weeks The girl blushed, her white lovely in its sudden flush of color, “I'LL NOT LET YOU GO,” SAID CHRISTOPHER. “THIS GAME IS UP” Raven and Mr. Christopher Race known to each other. “I gee t's in your mind. But “gu thing in that, 1 assure you. r merest coincidence. You don't Sidney Chester's flance was, after all, very pleasant and frank In manner, 55 H H : i = £ F3 S o8 3 g53 o 1s bein od | FO! look ‘as it you were ready to believe me, buwu will when I tell you that it's Bir Walter Raven, the man I'm en- to marry. s \ ?n'e been able to throw any he problem?" though he's tried in every way, Does he know you'vesent for me? haven't told him, because it would seem as if I couldn't trust him to get to the bottom of the mystery. You see, though he’s tremendously ‘clever, he isn't that sort of man. Now, have you asked me everything?" “Not yet,” answered Christopher, seltishly less sorry to detain her than he -would have n had middle-aged and plain. “] want to she been | EO8sl his haughty air being the effect, per- haps, of & kind of proud reserve. Christopher could not help feeling that Mr. Morley Chester was an agree- able person. He was not fine-looking, referring to him as her dear cousin, know what servants are in the rooms where these robberles oceur?" “The butler, Nelson, In the dining hall, is one of the footmen If the meal g served in a private sitting “Only those, except the guests?" “Since the mystery began I've some- "‘: times been there to watch and super- tend, and such a, contingency. It < mo%w 1 for y, and I heard 1] _houses in these a) g on:ou who are an- ikhone up sonr- o mother that we entertain motorists nny we could -un.‘ln: we spept ol ,“" “-’m JRJM | o We .fl«d lh; prn §du to the gateway and lodge of L] i o of my cousins, either Morley or his wife. And in the dining hall Sir Walter Raven is kin ough to keep an eye on what goes on, while to 'be engaged with his “Yet the robberies take place just the same ,under your very eyes?" hat is the mysterlous pafl‘ are—can steal.” She gave him her hand, and he shook it reassuringly; thel understood that, as it was™late, he would dine at the inn and arrive at Wéod: House after Five minutes later,” standing window, he saw her ride off on a“fine hunter. 7 4 “ As he ate and drank a glass 0 Christopher considered what he nad heard of the mystery, and did not know what to think of it ! The road from the boy and Owl, through Ringhurst and on to ‘ood House, was beautiful. Christo- er had passed over it before, and, place he sought, he remembered ng remarked both, though he had not then known the name of the es- 30 g steered Scarlet Runner between stone gateposts top with stone g sl 8, acknowl- trom /an clderly of the law black and ‘e up & winding ug ouks. .| when I finish my lunc! ances. you sit down for the last tor car. Smithson,, valiantly. in this nonsense. I ing hall." ‘With this he displayed a goreous repeater, with his monogram and crest in brilllants; indicated a black pearl scarf pin, turned a sapphire ana dla- mond ring set in platinum on a fat finger, ‘and jingled a store of coins In his pocket, which he announced to be gold amounting to 50 pouhds. “I've a few notes, too,”" sald he, “and ust the same as when 1 I expect. to have them go in." lean girl. Christopher had a table to himself at the end of the long room, and Sir Henry Smithson sat at a larger one He had fuvited the not far away. farewell meal and much chl.mpl(n: of talk and laughter at that and other tubles, ‘and two footmen in ceremo- nlous style, Mr. Morley Chester uns ostentatiously superintending behind & sl which hid the door used by the servants. Not one of the three ladies of the Chester family was in flowed. There was a good deal the room. manner, and the food was well as nicely served, though 4 o | bor was; but during the day, as he slightly drawn to the young man, as he usually was to handsome people} but there was no doubi in his mind ivent mistake he propped a book but his way of speaking was so indi- vidual and engaging that Christopher did not wonder at Miss Chester for Before Mr. Chester and Sir Walter Raven no one mentioned the trouble in the house; but next morning, sit- ting {n the hall, which was the favorite gathéring place, he caught scraps of p. No one present-had yet been robbed, but everyone had heard some- eighth night'at Wood House, a sound startled him from a dream of linen fold patterned panelling. Tsually when he waked thus it was to find all silent and he would turn over and fall ‘asleep once more, telling himself that the noise had been part of his dream, But this time it continued. There was! a queer creaking behind the wainscot. | In the morxing Christopher asked the servant who brought' his morning tea who occupied the adjoining room. “Sir Walter Raven,” was the answer, Race was angry with himself for not ving learned earlier who his neigh- , and saw the door’ of the next ‘room ajar, he glanced in. It seemed to him that there was an inexplicable distance between this door and his. The rooms were supposed to adjoin ufl other. His own door was n the dividing wall, and so was Sir Walter's, yet there was a wide space between. Through the open door ‘of Sir Wal- ter Raven's room he could see a low window, with a cushioned seat in the embrasure. In his room there was one of the same size and shape- To pre- against the lozenge- es of his own window and went out to walk around the rambling house and recon- noiter. Yes, there was the book, and there was Sir Walter's window farther on toward the Jeft. But there was some- thing between which did’ not puzzle| Christopher as much as it would had he not noticed the distance separating the doors of the two adjoining rooms, 'way between the two low win- dows was a tiny one, so over-grown ' thing queer from others who had left the place, and as a rich brewer, lately knighted, intended to go away in his motor after luncheon that day, he was being chaffed by his acquaint- “I suppose you'll give your watch ! his and money to your chauffeur before meal?" laughed an American girl, who had arrived some days before in her mo-~ o, 1 shan't,” replied Sir Heary “I don't belleve 1 show you what I have got on me, and as 1 am now 80 shall T be when 1 go into the din- ““Well, we shall all lunch at the same time apd watch,” remarked the Amer- All went on in the most otdd'.fl: as § struck with lvy that it was all but invisible; even to an observant eye. “Sir Walter Raven must have a cupboard in his wall lit by that-little window,” Christopher decided, “‘or else there's a secret ‘hidie hole’' between room and mine." \ To begin with, he tapped the wain- scoting in his own room, and was interested to discover that his knock gave out a hollow sound. He be- lieved that there’ was but the one thickness of oak between him and the secret, whatever it might be, which lay beyond. The paneling here was simple, with- out any elaboration of carving. The wainscot, which reached from the floor to the ceiling, was divided into large squares framed in a kind of fluting. - Having examined each of these squares on the wall hearest Sir Walter Raven's, he gave up the hope that there was any hidden door or sliding panel. *1 could saw out a square, though,” he thought, “and look at what's on the other side; or 1 could squeeze through it it seemed worth while, A panel behind the curtain of my bed ‘would do; and I could stick it in again, so that if anybody suspected there was something up they would hardly be able to see what I'd be doing.” Apparently no one ever sntered the hiding place except in the night, about 2 '0'clock. The noises behind the wain- gcoting continued for a few minutes only aud after that all was silence, In the efternoon Christopher mo- tored into Ringhurst to buy a small saw and a bull's-eye lantern, such as policemen use. On the way back he overtovk Sir Walter with Sideey and they accepted his offer to give them a lift back to Wood House. They talked about the robberies as Christopher drove the car home, Sid- get to be it I stopped here much long- er. I shan't steal my own things and hide them, if that's what other peo- ple do,” Througout his stay at 'Wood House he had taken his meals at the same small table, except once op twice when he had been asked to join new-made acquaintances for dinner. But tonight he invited Sir Walter Raven to dine with him, “as it was his last evening.” he young man accepted, and they lked of Colorado. Sir Walter was inviting him to come out to his ranch some da{‘ when suddenly the expres- sion pf the once healthy, sunburnt, now slightly haggard, face changed. “By Jove!" exclaimed Raven, the blood mounting to his forehead. “What's the matter?’ asked Chris- topher. “I'm not a particularly observant chap, but I suppose I would have no- ticed if you'd come in without your shirt studs. You didn’'t by any chance forget to put them in, did you?" “No; I had them in, right enough,” said Race. Looking down he saw that the white expanse of his evening shirt lacked the finish of the two pear] studs he had worn when he came into the room. His cuffs hung loose, empty of his favorite pair of links. Hastily touching his watch pocket, he found it limp and flat. “Well, yes, it is ‘By jove,’"” he re- marked, grimly. “Shall we call Morley Chester and tell him what's happened?” asked Raven. “No,”. said Christopher, who sat with his back turned toward the other occupants of the room, his table be- ing at the end by a window, and he having given his usual seat to his guest: “I'd rather not make a fuss. 1 shall eit till the others have gone, and no one will be the wiser. I'm sick of sensations and don't want to pose as the hero of one if I can help g It was a relief when .the rest of the diners left the room, and he was free to slip away without making state- ments or answering questions. He went to his room, locked the door and, having listened with his ear t the wainscoting, presently began as noiselessly as possible to saw out a selected square from the oak panel- ing behind his curtained four-poster bed. The saw was sharp, and he worked as energetically as if he had an injury to avenge. In an hour he had the panel out of its frame. It was difficuit to wriggle through the square, hole in the walnscoting, but he d:f it, after\ ridding hjmself of coat ind walistcoat. Now he’stood in a long, narrow space between the walls of his own room and Sir Wal: ter Raven's. He had slipped off his pumps ‘and in stockinged feet began cautious explorations, the lantern mak- ing a pathway of light, "The thing he had seen at the ‘far end was not a beam. It was a bex—two boxes— three boxes—of common wood, such as come into every household from the stores. They had lids, but the lids were not nailed down. Chris- topher lifted one. The box was filled with jewelry, heaped :up in neat piles, according to its kind, on some dark garment folded underneath. There were a pile of bracelets, a pile of brooches, a pile of rings and a collec- tion of watches like glittering gold eggs in a nest. The second box had the same description of contents, articles——gold or jeweled belt bugkles, ney sitting beside him, Sir Walter leaning forward in the tbnneat. “After all, it will end in our going away from the dear old place,” sighed Sid- o T S B hatpins, a diamond dog collar or two, and several strings of pearls. third box, much smaller than 1 ten you the whole story?” though there were more miscellaneous In the the e R R R/ er, some of gold or silver netting; cigarette cases with jeweled mono- grams; and, weighed down by a lump of gold chains, lay a quantity of bank notes. Behind the row of wooden boxes was | a square hole, black as the heart of night. Christopher’s lantern showed him that from the top of this open- ing descended & narrow - staircase, winding /round upon itself like a corkscrew. He set his foot on the first step, apd it squeaked. Then he knew what it was that had waked him every night—a foot treading upon that stair—perhaps other stairs below. “T'll see what's at the bottom,” thought Christopher; and was in the act of stepping over the low barrier of boxes when he heard a distant sound. 1t was faint, yet it made Christopher pause. He drew his foot from the top step of the stairway, and, covéring the light, lay on his side behind the boxes, which would until a person ad- vancing had risen to a level higher than the wooden lids, form a screen to hide him. y The sound continued, growing grad- ually more distinct. Someone was tip- toeing toward the stairs. Someone was on the stairs. Someone was com- ing up. There was a wavering glimmer of light, a little light, like that of a candle. Christopher lay very still. He hardly even breathed. The light was moving up the dark hall, and throwing a strange black shadow, which might be the shadow of a head. A stair creaked. Another stair. That clock must have been glow, or else the ghost was before time, Now there was a long-drawn, tired breath, like a sigh, and in the advancing light gleammed something white and small. For a moment it hung ‘in ‘the midst of shadow, then it descended on the lid of the middle box. - It was a woman'’s hand. /Quick as thought Christopher seized and held it tightly, at the same instant rising up and flashing his lantern. There was a stifled gasp; the hand struggled vainly; he pulled it toward him, -though its owner stumbled and nearly fell, and Christopher found himself face to face with Mrs. Morley Chester. “Let mé go!” she panted. . “Oh, I implore you!"” \ “I'll not let you go,” sald Christo- pher, in a_voice as low as hers, but mercilessly determined«"This game is up. ' You shall tell me everything or I swear I'll alarm the house, send for the police, and have you arrested, you, and your husband!" “If you wish to save him you know what to do,” the young mgn sald. “You won't send us to prison if I “T'll do my best for you, if you make a clean breast of it; but the con~ tents of these boxes must be restored to their owners, for your cousin’s sake it nothing else. I promise to shut my eyes to your escaping with your hus-| band, before any public revelation is made, provided I'm satisfied that you tell me the whole truth now.” “I will, oh, I will; You know, Mor- ley would have had _this place if com- mon justice had been done—it the en- tail hadn’t been broken,” 4 “Ah, he .is the heir of whom Miss Chester spoke!” “Of course,-wha else could he, He's the only one left in the male line. And think what it was for him to find out through an expert, whose word he couldn’'t doubt, that thqre's coal enough under the park to make him an immensely rich man, if only he hadn't been robbed of his rights.” “He didn’t tell Miss Chester of this discovery?” “Naturally not. If she or her mother gave up living here the es- tate would come to him after all. He hoped for that. And when he heard of her plan to open;a kind of hotel e helped her to gét a licensé and offered to manage the business. That was because he had an idea, which he hoped he could work. His father, who died when Morley was a boy, was a professor of chemistry, and made some clever inventions and discoveries, | but they never brought him in money. There was one thing he found after spending a year in Persia for his health. He. discovered that out of a plant there—a plant no one had ever thought of importance before—an ex- tract could be produced which would make people unconscious, at the same time causing their muscles to remain so rigid that if they were standing they would remain on their feet, or would not drop what they might be holding in their hands. When they eame to themselves again they would not feel ill, would not even know they had lost consciousness for a moment. “Moreley's father was much excited about this preparation, and hoped it would be as important as curare, it not chloroform. He named the stuff arenoform, as nearly as possible after the plant, and published his discovery to the medical profession. But then ‘came a dreadful blow. After many experiments to change and improve it, nothing could be done to prolong unconsciousness enough to make aren- oform really useful to doctors and surgeons. The effect wouldn't last jonger than five or six minutes, and the patients were terribly exhausted next day, so that the stuff would .not do even for dentists in extracting teeth; as it was more depressing than ghs, "One of t most wonderful things about it was that a lot of peo- ple could be made unconscious at onée, even in a big room, by a spray of arenoform floating in ‘the air. But though that was curious and interest- ing, it was not of practicdl use, so arenoform was a failure. | “The disappointment was so great that Morley's father was never the same again. He always hoped that | some experiment = would make the thing a success, and, instead of zain- ing the fortyne he expecte more money than he cc his family in import! the plant from Pers turing the extract in Then he died, re father not'to let them be destroyed. Everyone forgot the discovery of aren- oform, for you see Dr. Chester has been dead twenty years. Only Mor- ley didn't; and it was the existence of the guantity of arenoform in the house left him by his father which put-the idea of -coming here into his head. He experimented with the stuff on a dog, and found it was as power- ful as on the day it was made. Then he told me, and I promised to help in any way I could. “Next to the dining hall on one side, and separating it from the two rooms used as private sitting rooms for the guests, is a long, rather ugly room which Morley asked Sidnev to glve him as a private office, Night after night he worked there before the house was opened to the public, and afterward, too, perfecting his scheme. He perforated the walls, so that, by means of a little movable machine which I could work/ a spray s of arenoform could be showered through the oak wainscoting either into the dining room on one side or the two sitting rooms on the other. Then he had the tables arranged along the wall; and as one peculiarity of arenoform is that it smells like wood —wonderfully like old oak—no de- tective could have suspected anything by coming to sniff about the place afterward. Besides, the perforations in the wainscoting are so small that they seem no different from the worm- ho'l‘eu’whlch are slowly spoiling the old oak. “When Morley was in the dining hall or one of the sitting rooms—whichever place we planned to have something happen—I would be in the locked office, and at a signal which he would give me when most of the servants were out of the room waiting to bring in‘a new course,” would turn on the spray. He always kept at the very farthest end of the room, behind the screen, and put his face to an open window there. Then, when everybody in the room was under the influence, which they were in a minute or two, he would take whatever he wanted from some unconscious man or woman, or even several persons, be- fore anyone woke up. We've had no one to help us except an assistant of the cook, whom I bribed to make it as long between courses as possible. When I was ready to have the ser- vants go in with the next dish I would touch a little electric bell in the -office which Morley had arranged to communicate with the kitchen, The cook’s assistant knows nothing, though, except that for some reason it was convenient to me not to have the meals hurried and to be able to regulate exactly the moment when the different courses should go in. “Of course, the horrid stuff has af- fected our health—Morley's and mine —as well as that of everybody else who has, been near when the machine ‘was worked, or lived in the house for any lenghth of time. But we hoped that Sidney and her mother would soon give up. Then the place would be Morley’s, and we would be repaid for everything. While if they held on we should at least have the jewels. “When Morley was working at the walls he discovered the way into this secret place out ‘of.our office—not the only ‘hidie hole’ in the house—but neither Sidney nor her mother knows of its existence. We thought it would be useful to get things out of the way, for fear of detectives searching our boxes, and so it has been. Morley has always sent me up because I am 80 light and small. Now you have the whole story. And if you have any sense of justice you'll admit that Mor- ley isn't to blame when the place™ should have been his, and not Sidney's or her mother's.” Long before dawn Mr. and Mrs. Morley Chester left Wood House, Next day Christopher told Sidney and Sir ‘Walter Raven the tale as it had been told to him. Advertisemeénts were put in the papers informing the victims of the strange thefts where they could recover their property. 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