The evening world. Newspaper, April 1, 1911, Page 9

of Detective Story ofan Entirely New ~ Sort, Where a Mysterious Mental Power Forces the Trath From Sealed Lips. ‘“THE CHALCHIHUITL STONE” ts the fourth of @ series of LUTHER TRANT stories printed com- plete in THE EVENING WORLD each Saturday. Beon the lookout for next week's. You must not missit. - IT Upper hedl to leten to them, started, impulsively, for the tenth time that morning toward her eon's door; but, recognizing once more her utter inability to counsel or to comfort, ehe wiped her tear-filied eyelids and limped painfully back to her own room. The aget negress, again passing the door, pressed convuisively together her bony hands, and sobbed pityingly; she hed deen the ohidhood nurse of this man whose footsteps had #0 echoed for oura, Ghe shuffled swiftty down the stairs to the big, luxurious morning room on @e floor below, where a derk-eyed girl crouched on the couch listening to his footsteps beating overhead. “ain' yo’ sorry for him, Mixs Iria? the negress said. “Why, Ulame, I-I—" the girl seemed struggling to call up an emotion she @44 not feel. “I know I ought to feel sorry for him.” ‘ “An’ the papers? Ain’ yo’ sorry, honey, dem papers ts gone—uhned ema papers he thought #0 much of—all buhned by somebody? An’ he tol’ 100, this mo'nin, now you won't marry him next Thursday lak’ you’ promi since—aince yo" (oun’ dat little green stone! Why is dat—eince vo’ foun’ Nettle green stone?’ The sincere bew!ldarment deepened tn (Copyright, 1910, by Gmail, Meguaré & Company.) RAMP—tram>—tramp—tramp—tramp! For three nights and two days the footsteps had echoed through the great house almost ceaselessly, ‘The white-hetred woman leaning on @ cane, pausing again in the up; dat twetve different expediions to Central America tn search of more hieroglyphs ; the girl's face, but in that whole time he did not pub- “f don't ; lsh more than a hulf dozen abort ar- pie Fr + Bnew why, Ulament toll 700 | tisieg regarding his discoveries, resery: |tng all for a book which to he @ monument to his labors, I1is passion for perfection prevented him | from ever completing that book, and, on hia deathbed, he intrusted its and publication to me. Two years ago }1 began preparing it for the s rapher, and last weok Tt But I netiber tole Marse tion of fecling that my work was nearly foo late. But hits s0!! finished. ‘The material consisted of a |huge mass of papers, They contained chapters written by my fat ht ain {noapable of rewriting; tracings and otoxrapis of the ingeriptions which ¢ dupileated only by years of labor ; al documents which are trreplace- 4 of which T have no other coptes. ‘Thoy represented, as you yourself have just said, almost sixty years of con- tinuous labor, Last Wednesday after- |noon, while I was absent, mass of these papers was’ ta [the cabinet where T kept them, burned—or if not burned, they completely vantshed."" senders. “Have you any tdea who did it?" mind Unme! He Yes; a woman! They all heard hor!" “Who were in the house?” A Mysterious Visitation. Donged w@Gly. “Tre a'caze yo" 1s voo- ‘Ant dee To’ is voodoo! ite alo my She rocked. ‘ yo'se hed the ma’k ever since yoras been @ chfie; lew! the ma’k of the from and have ami held her hand eq instant. “Or think My mother, who has hip trouble and cannot go Up or downstairs without help; my ward, Iris Plerce, who had gone to her room to take a nap and was 80 sound asleep upon her bed that when they she w went for her twenty minutes la 8 aroused with difficulty; my Ulame, have seen pass through here a moment the convention under tlese circum! % ywasin the back Mencest” He oarght his breath, "7 ‘Dart Of the house. ‘The two maide were er haa thn son oe out, ‘The gantener, who was the only Bae ta ng ane" Dell ® moment | ciiier person anywhere about the place, met" |nad been busy in the conservatory, but | about a quarter of three went to sweep a ight snowfall from the walks. Fifteen minutes later my mother in her bedroom in the north wing heard ,the door bell; but no one went to the door.” not ring agat ia selved—will look up erushed the ca 4 hand,| "The bell dic touched tenderly with hie finger time, “No: tt rang only once. Yet almost Iris'e pale check, and with the same !Mmediately after the ringing the wom- Tegular step crossed the hall to the am Was In the house; for my mother Mbrary, A compart figure rogp ener- | her voice distinetly and"*— “Now the voice your mother heard— [it was a strange voice?” | "Yea; a very shrill, excited votoe of @ getloaily at his eomir “Mr, Trant?”’ asked Plerea, carefully @losing the door behind him and m € ft mpllestadnan vis, | child or a woman.” ) you for my note \Yolee of a stranger?” heed not apologize to you for my note ieeey teaal aceeatin he intendes | mpletion | whole | whom you must | king you to come oy es. Two or with you ft fs a ma inks. at intervals during all But I thank you fo mop tness. There was nolee of I have heard of you from a num of nding, which I betleve @ources as a psychologist who has ap- heya natn nalaned An: gpening the Neg laboratory methods to the solution ®t%ty doo: nen, after a brief tn Bre inysterioe net crinton na tS vai, enmo the noise of breaking elaan, polige detectwe, Mr. Trant, but as a the peychologist suz- | “Texpectet to see an older man. When | I jeived your note last evening, Dr. I, of course, made 4 in- qui in regard to you. I found you epotien of ae one of the greatest living eu on Central American an- eepeotally the hleroglypiik writing on the Maya ruins tn Yu and as the expedi connected your name seemed to cover a period meanly sixty yea: I expe A to fi you @ man of at St elgh " | The Girl and Black Magic. | “Zou have confused me with my | Gather, who died {n Tvabal, Guatemala, | én 106. Our names and our line of work | being the same, ov vations are As he never but | %, that for me to do.” “The events of Wednesday had with this trust left you by your fa 0 do | ave | "The events of last Wednemlay had euch an effect upon my ware to whom I wax to be ma Thureday, that sic is no longer able to think of marrying mo.” Fle paused in painful agitatt ask your pardon on o gised, “Before you « . "T must | * he apolo- bow ft] nd nated James C1 whe in 148 took part in an expedition to Ohtapas. On this expedition Clarke became separ: failed to rejo! heard from again “dt was tn search faeher {a 1850 first America; an! fil who wi with @ Maye bteroz aa fnolted bis inicrest. Between 1951 apd dala death my father made no less thas lana at the end of another short inter- , & amell of burning.” “The screams continued" Ulame came to my mother, me ran to the rear window and called the gardener, and the cook, crossing the hati to the second floor of | the south wing, aroused Iris, whom, as T said, she found @o soundly asleap that awakened with difficulty, They ind the museum filled with an acrid haze of smoke, and the door of the ptudy closed. ‘They could stil hear through the closed door the foots! movemonts of the woman In study. Then the ganineer 5 the door, the hed open The glass front of the cab- et in which my papers were kapt had en. broken, and a charred mags, stti! aking, in the centre of the compos!- n floor of the study was all that we tt could find of the papers which, rapre- father's and my own life The woman whore a Mr, Trant footsteps only the instant ‘efore had heon hand in the study by Iria and the gardener besides the others, had com- pletely disappenred, in spite of the fact that ¢here Was no possible place for @ woman, or even a child. to conceal her self in the study, or to leave tt except by the door which the other entered.” “And they found no erm ‘ or Indications of the person's presence?” | “At that time—absolutely none," Pleree replied, slowly, ‘But when I returned that night and myself waa end @ny | able to go over the room carefully with | Iris, I found—this, Mr. Trant,” he thrust a hand into his pocket and tended it with a solitary little shaped stone gleaming upon his palm-—— “this, Mr. Trant,” he repeated, staring at the little blazing crystal egg as though fascinated, @ mere sight of i vant such an exlracrdinary upon my ward, Irie." this Is the Httle green atone: 6; that is the Little green aton ol, ehalehihult) stone; n turquolse of Mexico, The ght of Mt wtrack Irs dumb and yed before mo and atarted th! ange, thix baffling, inexplicable uthy toward me!” “Zou would bargiy have esiled even THE EVENING WORLD A Genius’s Discovery of a Strange Scientific Method of Detecting Crime he Achievements of Luther Trant Balmer and William I presume,” Trant questioned me in, quietly, “if you thought {t possible that this of he handed it back, “told her who wae in the room and that it was « woman who could come between you your ward?" loarcely, Mr, Tram Pierce flushed. “You can d‘emiss that absolutely. 1 have no enemy—deast of “ail a woman enemy. Nor hav I @ single woman in- timate, even @ friend, whom Iris could Possibly think «f in that way. This is the way the woman must have come,” Pierce in@toated as he pointed Trant into the hall an4 let him see the ar. rangement of the house before he led him on. The wta@entrance hall, running nalf- wey through the house, divided at the centre into the hallways of the two wings. At the entrance to the north wing, the main stairs aprang upward in the graceful sweep of Southern Colonial arohitecture; while, opposite, the hall of the south wing was blocked part way down by a heavy wall with but one flat- topped opdaing, “A fire wall, Mr. Trant, and auto- matic is fire doors,” Pierce ex- Plained, as they passed through them. “This portton of the south wing, which ‘we call the museum wing, te a late addl- tion, absolutely freprovt. “Tt was from the top of the main steirs, if I have understood you correct. ly.” Trant glanced back ae he passed through the doorway, ‘that the women heard the screwing, But this stair," he pointed ¢o a narrow fight of steps which “Oh, speak not again,” he Shrieked, “I will tell all! Only let me go!” wound upwant fram @ Ittle anteroom | beyond the flat-topped opening, “this 1s certainly not what you calied the back Stairs, Where does this lead?" “To the second floor of tha museum | wing.”* “Ah! Where Miss Plerce, and," he Paused refletiveis, have their bedrooms’ “Exactly.” They crossed the anteroom and en- tered the museum. A ceiling higher in the museum than in any other part of the house gave space for high, leaded, clear-glass windows. | The quick glance of the peycholoriar centred ftself upon an object in middle of the room. On a low pedes' stood one of the familiar Central Ame can stones of sacrifice, with grooved channela to carry away the: blood, and | rounded top designed to bend backward the body of the human victim while the priest, with one quick out, slew him; | and before it, staring at this stone, as | though no continuance of familiar | could make her unaffected by It, stood the slender, graceful, dark-haired, dark skinned girl of who: the psychologist had just caught a glimpse through the door of the morning room when he en- tered, “My ward, Miss Plerwe, Mr. Trant,"* | Pierce introduced them ag she turned “Come, Trant,” Plerce passed his hand across his forehead as he gazed @t the girl's passioniess face, ‘the jatudy is at the other end of the mu- |seum," But the psychologist, with his ray eyes narrowing with intere red hair rumpled by an ener ture, stood instant observing he: and she flushed deeply. ‘I know why {t te you look at me in that way, Mr, Trant,” ale sald almply, “I know, of course, that a woman has burned Richard's papers, for | #aw the ashes; besides I myself looked for the Papers afterwerds and could not find them, You are thinking that I belleve there ts something between Richard and the woman who took this revenge because we were going to be married, but tt fe not #0, I know Richurd has never cared for any o' r woman than myself, There th sometiing 1 do na! | understand, Why, loving Richard ag [ aid, did I not care at all about the papers? Why, since 1 saw t green stone, am I indifferent w he loves me tn that way or not? do I feel him? ie COlOEd HULwe other Why now that I cannot marry Has th od him? | 1f I @aid #0 no one would believe me!" “On the contrary, Misw Wlerce, you will find that [ will be the firat, not the last, to recognize that the stona could exerelae upon You procisaly the intuence you have described! | "What {# that? What Pierce exclaimed in eurpr "I would rather oeo the study, If you Ploase, Dr. Pierce,” Trant bowed kind- ly to the girl aw he turned to his client, “hetore boing more explicit," “Very well," Vierse pushed open the Goor and entered, clearly more pussled by Trent's reply than before, The etudy wae tong and narrow, running across the whole end of the south wing: and, ike the museum, had plain burlap- covered wale without curve or recess of any wort; and, Ike the museum, also, St wae lighted Vy high, leaded windows fe thatt’ whove the cases and shelves, The single door was the one through whien t had entered; and the Cirniture eor ted only of m desk and tabla, (wo chetra, and—along tie walls cabinets and cases of drawers and piseon-tivies moces tegnin ensriod (adele denciag the) By Edwin > ATURDAY, APBIT 1, 1911.° McHa thelr content, ‘To furnish protection, to him. “Tt presents a problem with In the past matters whieh they have had from dust, the cabinets all were pro-|which modern eclentifio peychology— no natural means of knowing, I do not vided with aliding giaws doors, locking | and that alone-could possibly be comm believe in clairvoyance. But if you or I with @ ki The floor of the study was of the - ireproof composition aa that of the wuseum, and a bdiack amudge near ite contre estiN showed where the papers had been burned. The room had neither fire-place nor closet. “There is surely no hiding place for any one here, and we must put that out of the question,” the young psychologist commented when his eye had taken in these details. ‘Then he stepped directly to the cabi- Net against the end wall, whose broken elase showed that {t was the one in which the papers hed been kept, and aid his hand upon the sliding door, It slipped backward and forward in its grooves easily, “The door is unlocked,” he paid, with slight surpr: “It certainly was not unlocked the time the glass was broken to get at the papers?” “No,” Pierce answered, “for before Waving for Chicago that Wednesday, I carefully locked all the cabinets and put the key in the drawer of my desk where is always kept. When Iris and the servants entered the room, the cabinet had been unlocked and the key lay on the floor in front of it. I can account for it only by the supposition that the woman, having first broken the glass in omer to get at the papers, afterwards happened upon the key and unlocked the cabinet in order to avoid repeatedly reaching through the jagged edges of “And did she also break off this brass knob which was used in eliding the door back and forth, or Mad that been done previously inquired the | psychologist “It was done at the same time in mpting to open door before the 498 Was broken, I suppose.” Trant picked up the brass knob whtch d been laid on the top of the cabinet examined 4t attentively his 18 most pecul he nd nteresting.”” ommented y his eyes flashed comprehenaton. or, Perce, 1 jam your explanation does not account for the conditlo 6 cabinet You p certain) in pay! It pid woman could escap tr fF yoonin ther way than \ the door Bue yuld not @ Mana | man more tall and lithe and active than \elther you or I—make his escape through [one of those windows and drop ¢o the waik below without “A man, Trane? Yes, of course, that jis possible,” Pierce agreed impatiently. "The screams oame from a woman,” Trant replied. “But not necessarily the footsteps that re heard from the other aide of the door, No, Dr, Pierce; the condition of this room indicates without any question or doubt that not Jone, but two persons were present here When these events oocurred—one ao fa- millar With these promises as to know Whore the key to the caldnets wax to be found in your desi; the other #9 un familar with them ax not even to know at the doors of the oavinets were Jing, not @winging doors, since Itywas in attempting to pull the door outward like @ winging door thut the knob was broken off, as t# shown by the condition of the bolt, which would otherwise hia. Sent, And the person whose foot | Steps Were heard Was 4 man, for only a man could have esowped through the window, as that porson unquestionably must have done,” “Now, Dr, Pierce, when you first spoke to me of the loas of these papers, you said they had been ‘urned or vaniwhed.' Why did you say vanished? Had you any reaso oy supposing they had not been burned?” "Mo real reason,” Plenwe angwered afier a moments hesitation, Th papera, which I had divided by suhjecta into tentative chapters, wera put to- gether with wiw clips, eaoh chapter separatoly, and P found no wire clips among the ashes, Hut tt wae likely the papera would not turn readily without tating the olips off, Afte taking off the alips, #he--theg,” he cor- rected himaelf--‘nay very wall hav ‘carried them away, It le too improbable to belleve that thay brought with them other papers, with the plan of Gurning them and giving the appearance of have Ving dee ‘ | Pha Atle am again became ‘A remarkable, a sturiiingly’ interest dng cupe|" he reboot hls eyes to his! e's, Dus DErdly so Chong epeEing toe imme: agreed, and jeeply th believed that any widespread popular conception such as witcheraft once wae and oja{rvoyance is to-day, oan ex! without having somewhere a baste fact, we should be holding a beMef even more ridiculous than the negro's cred~ potent to deal. What do you know about the chalchthuit! stone?” “I know ft as the marriage stone of the ancient Asteca and some etill exist ing tribes of Central Ameriua, By them {t is, I know, frequently used fn religious rites, bearing @ particularly important part, for instance, im the wedding ceremony, Though ite exact aignificance and association je not known, I am safe in assuring you thet {t ts & stone with which many savage Lach pad and spelle are to be com | nected.” “Thank you! Can you tell me, then, whether any peoullarity in your ward has been noted previous to this, which could not be accounted for?” “No; none—ever!" Plerce affirmed com fidently, “though her experience in Cen. tral America previous to her coming Under our care must certainly have been most unusual and would account fot | | what happened Wednesday and vince can be formed except by recognizing in it one of those comparatively rare authentic cases from which the popular belief in witeh- craft and clairvoyance has 6) T would rest the solution of this cage on the ability of your ward, under the proper circumstances, to tell us who ‘was in thie room last Wednesday, and what the influence {a that has been so strangely exercised over ber by the chalchihult! stone!" "Irie tell! Iris!" Plerce excitedly ex- claimed, when the door opened behind him end bie ward entered. A Postponed Marriage. the form you asked me for, @he waid, handing her guar dian @ paper, and, without showing the least curiosity as to whet was going on between the two men, she went out 19 the notice of the indefinite ponement of our wedding, Trant, “E munt send it to thie afternoon, un- some peculiarity—if she had any.” “dn Central America, Dr. Plerce** "Yes," Plerce hesitated, dublously, “On the last expedition which my father | “Unless the ‘spell’ on Mise Pierce can jbe broken by the means I have jurt spoken off Trant . ulled slightly as he finished the sentence for Mm, "If I ain not greatly mistaken, Dr. Pleroa | your wedding wil! #tMi take place, But as to this notice of its postponement, tell me, how long before last Wednes. | day, when this thing happened, waa the jeariiest a uncement of the wedding | made in the papers?” | “I should say two weeks, | plied tn surprise, |" “Do you happen to know, Dr. Pleroe— you are, of course, well known tn Cen- | tral America—whether the announce- jment was copled In , pers circulating there?” “Yes; 1 © heard from several friends in Central America who had seen tho news tn Spanish papers. “Excellent! ‘Then tt is most essential that the notice of thin postponement be Pleree re- made at once, If you will allow me, [ will take it with Chleago this afternoon; and if {t meets the eye of the person 1 hope, be able to Introd Weinesday’n visite prising news of the sudden nite postponement” of the wed- made tn the last editions the Chicago evening papers, and it was repeated in both the morning and af- on papers of the next day. But to # increasing anxiety he heard nothing from Trant until the eecond morning, and then tt was merely a tele- phone r asking him to be at hot at 3 o'clock that afternoon and to that Misy Perce wae at home also, but to prevent her from seeing or hearing any visitors who might call at that hour. At ten minutos to three Perce himeelt, watching nervously at. ‘the window, eaw the young psychologist approaching the house in company with two strangers, and himself admitted them. “Dr then 1 trust soon to ice to you your last pea Plerce, let me introduce Inspec: tor Walker of the Chioago police," |Trant, when they had been admitted |to the Mbrary, tloned to the larger of his compantons, “This other gen- tleman,” he turned to the very tall, slender, long-nored man, with an ab- normally narrow head and face, coal black hair and sallow skin, whom Trant and the officer had half held be- tween them, “calla himeelf Don Canon- ‘go Penol, though T do not know whether that is his real name, He speaks English, and [ believe he knows |more than any one else about ,what -|went on in your study last Wédn day, But as Penol, from the moment of his arrival, has flatly refured to ompanted him as a yc hteen, an Indian near turas, told us of a wonder whom he had seen 1! vunta re, lated Indian tribe in the mm We|make any statement regarding the loss went out of our way to visit the tribe [of your papers or the chalehthultl atone We found there, exactly ax he had de | which has so strangely influenced your scribed, @ little white girl about #ix|ward, we have been obliged to bring years old as near as we could guess, She|him here in hope of getting at t! spoke the dialect of the Indiana, but{truth through the means [ mentioned two or three Engil#h words which the sight of us brought from her made ue believe that she was of English birth My father wanted to take her with us, | to you day before yeatentay.”” “T saw Mr. Trant pick the murderer in the Bronson case,’ Inspector Walker intervened confidently, “In a way no | tempt of olairvoyal aght fl, | but the Indians angrily refused to allow | police officer had ever heard of; and I've t | followed nim since. And if he save he “Tho Uttle girl, however, had taken a|can get an explanation here by elatrvoy- y to me, and when we were ready | ance, I believe | im to leave whe announced her intention | of going along. lor some reason whton| The Trance and I was wi je to fathom, the Indians te a Revelation. “Inspector Walker and Penol wit re- main here,” eald Trant, “The Inspector ady knows what I require of him, I noticed a clook Saturday over the desk in the study and heard ft strike the hour; you have no objection to my turn- ing ft back ten or fiftenn minutes, Pierce? And before you go, !ot me have the ahatoh!hult! atone!” corded her with @ superstitious venera- tion, and though plainly unwilling to let her @0, they were afraid to interfere with her wishes. My father intended to adopt her, but he died before the expetit- tion returned. I brought the child home with me, and uncer my mother's care she has been educated, The name Irie Pierce was given her hy my mother, “You say) the Indians roaniel her with veneration? Waa the nurse, Ulame | Pierce led Iris into the study where mistaken in what I overheard her @ay*|the paychologiet was awaiting them ing, that Mias Pleroa haa on her shoul-/atone, Pierce's first glance was ut der the mark," hin votoe steadied sober- | she clock, which he anw had heen turned ly, “of the devil's claw Joack by Trant to mark five minutes ‘Hae che the ‘mark of the devil's! to thren claw’? Plorca frowned with vexations| “Good afternoon, Mies Plaroe,” ‘Trant “You mean, has she an anansthetio apot | set a chair for her, with ite tack to the on her shoulder through which at times | clock, as she acknowledged his salu- whe feels no wensation? Yes, ate has; | tation, then oontinued, conversationally: hut Tecarcely thouuht you cared to hear | about ‘devil's claws.’ Ulame ulso told me that the existence of this «pot de- notes tn the possess hot only a aus- | light, as Mt Kets near 8 o'clock, te even ntibtiity to ‘controle but | tore beautiful, One can hardly Imag- also oooutt powers of clairvoyance, Bha | ‘ne anything occurring here wilh would even suggested that my ward could {f| bo distasteful or unpleasant or whocks ehe would tell me who was in the room | ing" — and burned my papers, Do you follow | her bellefs so much further?’* “I follow not the negress, but modern uu apoke the other day of the morn- ing suniight tn these rooms, but I have dean thinking that the afternoon suns He took from his pooket the chalohl+ hultl stone whieh Merce had given him, and at wight of It toe girl drew back actentiia paychologiaia, Dr, Pler With eudden uneusinows and apprehens Trapt replied, bluntly, “In the belief, the | sion, knowledye, that the existence of tha an | "I knew yoo have sean this stone be- westhetic pot called the ‘devil's claw’ | fore, Mise Pierce,” ‘Trant aald slgntf- shows in tts possessor a condition which, | cantly, "for you and Dr, Pierce found it Under pecullar ote ances, may bes Hut had you never «een & before then? come what {# popularly called otair- | Think! Tt tw found in Central America voyant, An jnatant ago you spoke of) and M tho Aztecs Used tt in cole the exploded belle’ In witcheraft; ut pleuse do not forget that that betlef was at one time widespraad, almost unt- yersal, You speak now with equal oon. but @ half-hour's brating marriage—in Central Amertea, where there are Indians and @paniante, tall, ol nder, long-noved Spantarda, with ack hatr and satlow aking and (Me MUstErhaded antral Amar ridg down Madiaon or Valuted street, where all those woulptured oda and with wn eye open to the signa in the strange {nscriptiona are found, which \seoond-story windows, will show the papers were about that were de- how widespread t # the bellef in stroyed afternoon here in this elleve in witehorat and a sound the girl uttered will tei! you T do no’ asp oof uncontrollable terror, then! n any infernal powe 4 person poised herself, Mstening expectantly, ever uncther, and eo far ae any one's) Almost with the last stroke of the Detag able to read the future oF Fevens! eleck the deesbell yang, ald the girl ehrunk suddenly together. ‘White and tense, she wae Hetening to footsteps witch were approaching the study door along the floor of the Tuseum, The door opened suddenly, and Don Canonigo Penol, pushed from behind by the stern inepector of police, eared on the tnreshold. ‘he girl's head had fallen back, her | whole attitude one of stony rigidity. ‘Iriat Irte!" cried Pierce in agony. Tt fe mo use to call,” the paycholo- gas outstretched hand prevented jerce from throwing himself on hia! knees deside the girl, “she cannot hi you. @he oan hear no one unless they | speak of the chalchihuit! stone and | Central America, and, I hope, the nts which went forward in this house lest Wednesday, The chaichi-| huitl stone! ‘The chalchihuit! stone! Ghe hears that, doesn't she?’ A full half minute p i while the peychologist, anxiously bending over, the rigid body, waited for an answer. | Then, ae though by intense effort, the ba / lips parted and the answer came: "Yea!" “Who fe ® that ie speaking?” asked ‘Trant. “Teabdella Clarke,” the voice waa clear. | or, but high pitched and entirely differ. ent from Iris's. “How old ta Teabella?* “She ts young—a Iittle girl—a entid!” the voice was stronger still, “Does Isabella know of Iris Perce?’ “Ye “Can she eee Iria last Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock” t is she doing?’ “She ts in the Ubrary, @he went up- stairs to take @ nap. tnrt ahe could not sleep and came down to get a book.” A long cry from some distant part of the house—a shriek which set vibrating the tense nerves of all in the little etudy suddenly startled them. Painfully and excitedly descending the stairs was a white-haired woman feaning on a cane and on the other side mpported by the trembling negress. Richard, Richard!’ she ecreamed, “that woman is in the house-tn the atudy! I heard her voice—-the votce of the woman who burned your papers!” “Tt 1s my mother!" erled Pierce, The psychologist tmpatiently stopped the excited man with @ gesture. “You ris?” yea) he thas not deft the library? Tell us what she ia doing.” More “Magic"’ and Its Result. “She turns toward the clock, which te striking 2% The doorbell rings, Both the matds are out, eo Iris lays down her ‘ook and goes to the door. At the door 1s @ tall, dark man, all alone. Ile is @ Spaniard from the mountains in Hon- duras, and his name ts Canonigo Penol. Penol ts not known to Iris, but he = come to see her. She ts eurprised. She leads him to the iibrary. His manner maken her uneasy. He asks her if sho Temembers that she Mved among In- ‘Alans. Iris remembers that He asks If she remembers that before she live: with white men—an American and some Spaniards—who were near and dear to her, Iris cannot remember, He aske if she remembers him—-Penol, His e#peech frightens her. He says ‘Once an Amert- can went to Central America with an expedition, and got lost from his com- panions. He crossed rivers; he was in wooda, jungles, mountaina; he was near dying. A Spaniamt found him. The Spaniard was poor—poor, Hie had « daughter. he American, whose name wa James Clarke, loved the daughter and married her, They had a daughter. They had only one white servant and @ hundred Indians. Sickness killed the old Spaniard and the wife also, Now the American w: 1 alone with his baby daughter and one white servant and the Indians, Then sickness also took hold of him, “The American was dying, Ho pro- posed to the young Spaniard many things; finally he proposed that he marry the little girl, There was no priest, and the American was mad; mad about anctent timea and dead, vanished peoples, and more mad be- cause he was dying; and he married them after the olf custom of the Aa- teca, with the chalchthuit! stone and a bird feather, while they sat on a woven mat with the corners of their Garments tied towether—the young Spaniard and the little girl, who was four years ol, Afterward her father ied, and that night the Spaniard all alone buried him; and when toward| morning he came back he found only & few Indians, too old to travel, ‘Tho | others, frightened of the mad dead! man, had gone, taking the little gtrl with therm, “What dose Iria do when sho hears| that?” apked Trant, “It begins to revive memories in Irti the voice answered quickly; "but ahe says bravely, ‘What fs that to me? Why A COMPLETE STORY do you tell me about it? ‘Heoaune,’ says Canonigo Penol, ‘Tt have the chaichthult! atone which bears witness to this mar riage” And he holds it to her and {1 fashos im the sun, just as tt aid when they held {t before her when her clothes | were ted to his on the mat, ehe remem: hers and knows that {t ta go; and that sho is married to this man! Hy the tuo) the ehalehthut tn the sun she remembers and ahe knows thut the res ral | | “And then?’ Trant pressed, “Bhe te Mled with horror, Bhe ahrinks from Canonlgo, She pute her hi her faos, beowuKe she loved Dr, Viorce with her whole heart, she ertes out | that ft f# not #0, though she knows It ts | the truth, Bhe dashes the stone from his hand and pushea Canonigo froin her, He t# unable to find the stone; and soo tng the sculptured goda and the tnserip tlona about the room, he thinks it in these by which Dr, Plerce te able (o hold her against him, So now he says that he will destroy these pictures and he will have her, Iris seren rung from Canonigo to the stuay, she shuts the door upon him am ae follows, Bhe sete @ chair against tt, Cason. la pushing to wet in, But she Koco key to the cabinet fram the desk an ne the cabinet, “ihe takes Out the papers, but there je no pia to hide them hefore he en ters, Bo he opens the drawer, but it ta full of worthioss papers, She tak out enough of the old papers to make. room far the others, which she pute in a ef Uinierneatin he oll papers whe puta into ve, clowlng the cabinet; j but she had no time to lock {t, Canonigo j has pushed the door open, He has found the eton nd trie » whe it to her again; but again ehe dashes it from hia hand, He rushes eiraight to the cabinet, for he hag seen where the papers ara kept, ‘The oablnet ia une locked, but he tries ta the door to We pulls of the Chen he 1 | the oabinet DODDDDDDODODGOHHDHDOHHHGG the giaae wih his foots he uring the worthless papers. 60 Tris has 4 eall she can and rune him to her room. She Is ex fainting, @he faile upon the bed'a— The voloe stopped mudeniy, Peres had rprung to her with a ory. “What Is this you have done te het now? he cried. "And what is thig pou fa made her say?’ ‘So, Don Canonio Penol,” ‘Trant te marked, "that was the way of it? But man, you could scarcely have Geen enough In love with « girl four years old to take this long and expensive érig for her nineteen yours later, Was there Property, then, which belonged ¢o hes wanted to met?” emashes begins ak not—speak not again, shrieked Penol. ‘E will tell all! 3 led; the old Spaniard was not poor—he was rhe But she can have all! 2 abandon all ¢ here-let me | The Solution of a Mystery “First we will see exactly what dame age you have done,” Trant answered, Dr. Pleree,” he turned colievtedly to his client, ‘look in the drawer she indt+ cated and see if she was able, indeed, to save the papers ax ahe said.” “Th alm! Only let me go fren ve her!” e!"' he erted, astound ed. “They are inta But what—wheg © trick {9 this, Mr, ‘Trant?" “Wait! ‘Trant motioned him sharply to be wil ‘She ta about to awakel Inspector, ehe munt not find you here, or this other," and seizing Penol by one arm, while the inspector neized the other, he pushed him from the foom, and closed the study door upon them, Then he turned to the girl, whose more regular breathing and lessening rigidity had warned him that she was coming to herself. Gently, peacefully, as thoee of @ child wakening from sleep, her eyes opened; and with no knowledge of all that in the Inst half hour had so shaken thowe who listened in the Little #tudy, with no Tealization even tit an interval of time! had passed, she replied to the first re- mark that Trant had made to her when she entered the room: "Yes, indeed, Mr, Trant, the afternoon orn {s beautiful; hut T Like theae rooms better in the morning.” “You will not mind, Miss Pierce,” Tramt answered gently, “it Task you to leave us for a ittle white She rose, and with « bright smile left ! rant!" cried Pleree, will understand better, Dr. * sald the psychologist, “If T ex- plain this to you fom tts beginning with the fact of the ‘devil's claw,’ whtoh was where I myself began his Investi- gation. “You remember that I overheard Ulame, the negro nurse, speak of this characteristic of Mins Pierce. You, ke most etucated people to-day, regarded it simply as an anaesthetic. I, aa @ Deychologist, recognized it at once as an evidenoe, first pointed out by the Frenen sctentist, Charcot, of a somewhat un- Usual and peculiar nervous disposition in your ward, Miss Iria, Now, when you gave me your ac- count, Dr. Plerce, of what had happened _ here last Wednesday, it was evident to me at once that, if any of the persone in the house had admitted the visitor who rang the bell—and this seemed highly probable because the bell rang only once, and would have been rung again if the visitor had not been ad- mitted—the door could only have been opened by Miss Iris, ‘ollowing you into the study, then, T found plain evidence, ax I pointed owt to you at the tim that two persone had been there, one a man; one pear- fectly familiar ‘with the premises, the other wholly unfamiliar with them. had three important pleces of evidence. First, the statement of your mother that the voice #he heard was that of @ strange woman; second, the fact that Mies Iria had gone to her room to take nap and had heen found asleep th on the bed by Ulame; third, that yo.1 want herself denied with evident hon: esty and perfect frankness that bi had been present, or knew anything at all of what had gone on tn the study. “T was certain that the stone must’ have been connected with some intense tional experience undergone by uv Ward, the details of which she ne remambered longer “No longer remembered!" ‘With a mental disposition ke Mise ce ” 4 Tris's, an emotion #0 Intense aa that ahe suffered divides Itself off f n the rest of her consciousness. It free fi powertng that !t cannot connect Ite! er wert } and le, TL re t now here y hts and sounds ¢ last Wednesday : that pre cefed and attended her interview with Canon!go Penol.” The Lovers and Psychologist. "Tt seema imposslos {could help 1 would have ¢ 1 from newapas tended marriage, A® nost probable . + coming, considering the « tances, Was to prevent to “ut n and establiah his tdentit as t lsh at once the notices tha * wedding dd been post. poned, w tf h would make shed hie again, Draw the arma of Lake Forest rest egal, I not 5 nt f from hin ewtioning, as T was totally u " e of lars which oon. Mist Irla'e—or rat Taabella ‘ ‘ . xtled fa , wing " you \ al oons \ . nam: bul sr s—she 1d de t t tel! us all of the { " o had passed t! “Isnow 1 do, all part! pened, you have ony to hor, repeatin them t necesmary, Bat sho norn them and you have drawn th two arts sclounness ba ! wit then, ex er thow no more pee y in the resg of her life than had already shown t that part of tt she has p household, My wo ed in your k here, I think, ts