The Argosy — page 119: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

104 Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. “Yes, indeed. I did not know whose it was,” curtly added Frank, as if he wished the subject to be dropped. ‘Of course it is at your own option to answer questions or not, sir,” returned Mr. Jones; ‘‘but if you want us really to serve you, you cannot give us too much confidence. ‘Things which may seem unimportant in your eyes may be most valuable clues in ours. By the way, you said, I think, that you had some inquiry to follow out in this gentleman’s house.” “Yes,” admitted Frank; adding with a great effort: “And that was how I saw this handwriting.” And then he narrated the verbal instructions he had received from the woman concerning the hidden packet, its finding, and its con- tents. ‘* There was a scrap of paper put in with the gold,” he con- cluded, ‘‘ bearing a word or two upon it.” But what those words were, he still did not say. Mr. Connell glanced at him anxiously, but hinted no reproach about this little detail having been withheld from him. The detective seemed to understand that Frank’s candour would end here. ‘These torn fragments confirm our theory,” he said cheerfully. “It is, that if you had not paid your visit, you would have received a letter in this directed envelope. The servant girl says that before you came this morning, Madame had been sitting in her bed-room, writing, for a long time. ‘The girl had gone in and out, hoping to disturb her, as she wanted to be about her usual domestic duties there. But Madame took no notice, and the girl thought what a long letter it must be. When she announced your coming, Madame was still at the desk, and she then crumpled up a lot of paper and thrust it into her pocket. While you were there, the girl took the opportunity of sweeping out the room and found these pleces on the floor; as if, in Madame’s hurry, they had just missed her pocket-hole. Seeing they were only torn scraps, she swept them into the dust-pan, which, fortunately, had not been emptied into the dust-bin when our man put in his appearance.” ‘Then you think she was writing a letter to my nephew,” observed Mr. Connell. ‘Probably she was, sir,” replied the detective, with the deferential manner he always used towards the minister. ‘ We believe it would have contained whatever she has told him, and given instructions about this packet ; and possibly some other feat of jugglery would have been performed over the ring. I confess that the large sum of money in the packet puzzles me more than any amount of mystery. From the little evidence we can as yet gather, she seems to have been, in a general way, but an ordinary swindling fortune-teller. In fact it 1s this shabby conclusion about her, and our suspicion that she must have come unlawfully into possession of the ring, which enables us to take up the inquiry at all. You, Mr. Raven, may know of better grounds, but we cannot act upon them officially until they become COPMICLIOO KS, (EO)