.J INTERNATIONAL FALLS PRESS The Czar's Spy tion of calling, and that the last-named the public had no knowledge, for the was shown in just at the moment body was not discovered. Chater, as Northern Minnesota Hospital when the fugitive was on the point of soon as he recovered, left the hospital leaving." and went south—to London, I ascertained—lea Knowing all that I did, I was not surprised. ing the police utterly in Leithcourt had undoubtedly the dark ar filled with suspicion of The Mystery of a Silent Love taken him unawares, but knights of industry the fugitives from Rannoch. never betray each other. One day I called at the castle, the By Chevalier William Le Queux My next visit was to Mackenzie, for front entrance of which I found closed. whom I had to wait nearly an hour, Gilrae, the owner, had come up from Author of "THE CLOSED BOOK" Etc. as he was absent in another quarter of London and discharged all the lata the town. tenant's servants, keeping on only hifl ILLUSTRATIONS by C. D. RHODES "Ah, Mr. Gregg!" he cried gladly, as own. Ann Cameron, a housemaid, was h® came in to find me seated in a chair one of these, and it was she whom I patiently reading the newspaper. "You met when entering by the servants' Copyright by the Smart Set Publishing- Co. are the very person I wish to see. Have hall. After five minutes of breathless »nxi you heard of this strange affair at On questioning her, I found her most "Well, it's a very funny story, and Rannoch?" ety she rejoined me, and handing m« willing to describe how she was in there are a dozen different distorted the letter to read, said: "I have," was my answer. "Has the the corridor outside the young mistress' versions of it," he said. "But, from man in the hospital made any statement room when Mr. Leithcourt "It is not in her handwriting—I wonder what I can gather the true facts are yet?" why?" dashed along in breathless haste with these: About seven o'clock the night "None. He refuses point blank," answered The paper was of foreign make, with the telegram in his hand. She heard before last, as Leithcourt and his house the detective "But my own blue lines ruled in squares. Written him cry. "Look at this! Read it, Muriel. party were dressing for dinner, a telegram idea is that the affair has a very close We must Put on your things at in a hand that was evidently foreign, go. arrived. Mrs. Leithcourt opened connection with the two mysteries of for the mistakes in the orthography once, my dear. Never mind about luggage. it and at once went off into hysterics, the wood." Every minute lost is of consequence. were many, was the following curious while her husband, in a breathless "The first mystery—that of the maa communication: What!" he cried a moment hiftry, slipped off his evening clothes —proves to be a double mystery," I later. "You won't go? You'll stay again and got into an old blue serge R. H. Monohan, M. D. Elizabeth Monohan, M. D. My Dear Lydia: said. here—stay here and face them? Good suit, tossed a few things into a bag, and Perhaps you may never get this letter— "How? Explain it." heavens! girl, are you mad? Don't Mary Ghostley, M. D. the last I shall ever be able to send you. then went along to Muriel's room to la "Well, the waiter Olinto Santini you know what this means? It mr 4i3 Indeed, I run great risks in sending it. urge her to prepare for secret flight" Office oyer International State Bank. International Falls, Mm Ah! you do not know the awful disaster alive and well in London." that the secret is out—the secre' is "Flight!" I gasped. "What, have that has happened to me, all the terrors up. "What!" he gasped, starting out, you hear! We must fly!" they gone?" and the tortures I endure. But no one can "Then he is not the person you identified The woman told me that she distinctly assist me, and I am now looking forward "Listen, and I'll tell you. The servants him to be?" to the time when it will all be over. Do heard Miss Muriel sobbing, have described the whole affiir as you recollect our old peaceful days in the "No. But he was masquerading while her father walked up and down $ down in the village, so there's no doubt garden at Chichester? I think of them Santini—made up to resemble him, 1 the room speaking rapidly in a low about it. Leithcourt showed Muriel -J* f* always, always, and compare that sweet and Border Wholesale Meat & Grocery Go. mean, even to the moie upon his face." tone. Then he came out again peace of the past with my own terrible the telegram and urged her to fly. At "But you identified him positively?" sufferings of today. Ah, how I wish returned to his dressing room, while first she refused, but for her father's might see you once again how that "When a person is dead it is very Miss Muriel presumably changed from sake was induced to prepare to accompany might feel your hand upon my brow, and easy to mistake countenances. Death E. A. Yernberg, Manager 8 her evening gown into a dark traveling him. Of course, the guests were hear your words of hope and encouragement! alters the countenance so very much." dress. But happiness is now debarred in ignorance of all this. The brougham "That's true," he said reflectively. from me, and I am only sinking to the "Did she say anything to you?" 1 was ordered to be ready in the stable grave under this slow torture of body and "But if the man we've buried is not inquired. Wholesale and Retail Meats, yard and not to go round, while Mrs. of soul. the Italian, then the mystery is considerably "Only that they were called away Leithcourt's maid tried to bring the Groceries, Fruits and Feed A "This will pass through many hands before increased. Why was the suddenly, sir. But," the domestic added, it reaches the post. If, however, it lady back to her senses. Leithcourt real man's wife here?" ever does get dispatc hed and you receive "the young lady was very pale and himself, it seemed, rushed hither and it, will you do me one last favor—a favor "And where has her body been concealed? agitated, and we all knew that something thither, seizing the jewel cases of his Home-Made Sausage and to an unfortunate girl who is friendless That's the question/' terrible had happened. Mrs. wife and daughter and whatever valuables and helpless, and who will no longer trouble Hamburger "Again a mystery. We have made a Leithcourt gave orders that nothing the world? It is this: Take this letter he could place his hand upon, to I.on """n Mr. Martin thorough search for four days, without 1 the guests, who dined us to be told to while the mother and daughter were Woodroffe at yS Cork sti.et, Piccadilly. discovering any trace of it. Quite confidentially. alone, believing that, their host and putting on their things. As he rushed Show him my letter, and tell him from I'm wondering if this man Give us a Trial and You Will hesiess had gone down to the village down the main staircase to the library me that through it all I have kept my Chater knows anything. It is curious, to s-ee an old man who was dying. promise, and that the secret is still safe. Stay With Us where his check book and some ready Me will understand—a!?d also know why I to say the least, that the Leithcourts That was the story we told them, cash were locked in the safe, he met a cannot write this with my own hand. If should have fled so hurriedly ou this stranger who had just been admitted he is abroad, keep it until he returns. Our Prices are Always Right and! Our Stock Always Fresh |j man's appearance. But have you actually "And in the meantime the Leiththe It is all I ask of you, Lydia, and I and shown into the room. Leithcourt to seen Olinto Santini?" know that if this rc-rti-iies you, you will were in express going courts closed the door and laced him. What not refuse me. You have been my only 'Yes, and have spoken with him." rii?!e?" Second Ave. and Fifth Street International Falls, Minn. afterward transpired, however, is friend and confidante, hut I now bid you 1 "I sent up to London asking that inquiries "Yes, sir. They say in Dumfries 8T farewell, for the unknown beckons me, mystery, for two hours later, after he and from the grave I cannot write. Again should be made at the restaurant that the police telegraphed after them, and the two women had escaped, leav farewell, and for ever. in Bayswater, but up to the but they had reachc- Carlisle and evidently ing the house party to their own diver Your loving and affectionate friend, present I have received no report." changed there, and so got ELMA. sions, the stranger was found lockec "I have chatted with Olinto. His away 0%• Vi.» W V"1'*.•^ »V in a large cupboard and insensible "A very strange letter, is it not?" remarked wife has mysteriously disappeared, By the administration of a judicious The sensation was a tremendous one the girl at my side. "I can't but he is in ignorance that she is tip 1 was allowed to go up to Miss Cowan, the doctor, was called, and de make it out. You see there is no address, dead." Muriel's room, an elegantly furnished clared that the stranger had beet but the postmark is Russian. "There is widespread conspiracy little chamber in the front of the fine DOWN DEEP IN YOUR POCKET 2 drugged and was suffering from some She is evidently in Russia." here, depend upon it, Mr. Gregg. It old place, with a deep old-fashioned narcotic. The servant who admitted "In Finland," I said, examining the will be an interesting case when we window commanding a magnificent him declared that the man had said stamp and making out the post town to view across the broad Nithsdale. he had an appointment with his mastei be Abo. "But have you been to London The room had been tidied by the The coins ache for freedom. .They exert an and that no card was necessary. He and executed this strange commission?" maids, but allowed to remain just aa however, gave the name of Chater." she had left it. I advanced to the influence over you to be put into circulation. .No "Chater!" I cried, starting up. "Are "No. We are going up next week. 1 window, in which was set the large you certain of that name?" intend to call upon this person named dressing table with its big swing mirw temptation to spend needlessly when the money is "I only know what Cowan told me,' Woodroffe." ror and silver-topped bottles, and on was my uncle's reply. "But do you I made no remark He was, I knew, gaiing out saw, to my surprise, it was in the bank on interest. Start an account now with know him?" abroad, but I was glad at having obtained the only window which gave a view of "Not at all. Only I've heard thai two very important clues: first, that corner of ^Rannoch wood where whatever surplus you have—even a dollar will open name before," I said. "I knew a mar the address of the mysterious yachtsman, the double tragedy had taken placet out in Italy of the same name. But Woodroffe, alias Hornby, and. Indeed, any person standing at thai an account. Don't allow your money to work you where is the visitor now?" secondly, ascertaining that the young spot would have a clear view of that "In the hospital at Dumfries. They girl I sought was somewhere in the one distant window while out of sight make it work for you, this is the way others get ahead. took him there in preference to leav vicinity of the town of Abo, the Finnish of all the rest. A light might be placed ing him alone at Rannoch." port on the Baltic. there at night as a signal, for instance "Alone?" "Poor Elma, you see, speaks in her or by day a towel might be hung from "Of course. Everyone has left, now letter of some secret, Mr. Gregg," my the window as though to dry and yet FIRST NATIONAL BANK the host and hostess have slipped off companion said. "She says she wishes could be plainly seen at that distance^ without saying good-by. Scandalous this Mr. Woodroffe. whoever he is, ta Another object in the room also at affair, isn't it? But. my boy, you'll remember know that she has kept her promise International Falls, Minn. tracted my attention—a pair of long that I always said I didn't and has not divulged it. This only field glasses. Had she used these to like those people. There's something bears out what I have all along suspected." keep watch upon that spot? mysterious about them, I feel certain. I took them up and focused then That telegram gave them warning oi "What are your suspicions?" upon the boundary of the woodl finding the visit of the man Chater, depend "Well, from her deep, thoughtful that I could distinguish everything upon it, and for some reason they're manner, and from certain remarks she quite plainly. afraid of him. It would be interesting at times made to me, 1 believe Elma "That's where they found the mag to know what transpired between the is in possession of home great and terrible who was murdered," explained the two men in the library. And these are secret—a secret which her uncle, DON'T ORDER YOUR AUTO Until you have seen the servant, who still stood in the doorway. J* people who've been taken up by everybody—mere Baron Oberg, is desirous of learning, adventurers, I should call & I know she holds him in deadly fearshe "I know," I replied. "I was just trying them!" And old Sir George sniffed is in terror that she may inadver the glasses." Then I put them 66 & again at thought of such scandal happening METZ" 25 tently betray to him the truth!" 3own, and on turning saw upon the in the neighborhood. "If Gilrae W, mantel shelf a small, bright red canlie V, must let Rannoch, then why in the CHAPTER IX. shade, which I took in my band. name of Fortune doesn't he let it to It was made, I found, to fit upon the respectable folk and not to the first Strange Disclosures Are Made. jlectric table lamp fellow who answers his advertisement The strange lettor cf Elma Heath "Miss Muriel was very fond of a red FULLY EQUIPPED WITH in the Field? It's simply disgraceful!" Leithcourt Closed the Door, and Faced combined with what Lydia Moreton ight," explained the young woman "Certainly it is a most extraordinary Him. had told me, aroused within me a de ind as I held it I wondered if that W, GRAY & DAVIS ELECTRIC story," I declared. "Leithcourt evidently termination to investigate the mystery ight had ever been placed upon the get to the bottom of it all. I only wish wished to escape from his visitor, w, From the moment I had landed from .oilet table and the blind drawn up— LIGHT AND STARTER- and that's why he drugged him." this fellow Chater would tell us the a the Lola on that hot, breathless night whether it had ever been used as reason he called upon Leithcourt." "Why he poisoned him, you mean. •#, at Leghorn,.mystery had crowded upon earning of danger? FULL STREAMLINE BODY "What does he say?" Cowan says the fellow is poisoned, but mystery until it was all bewildering. As I expressed a desire to see the "Merely that he has no wish to that he'll probably recover. He is already Had it not been for the mystery of it roung lady's boudoir, the maid Cameron J* 32 BY 3^2 TIRES, FOR ONLY prosecute, and that he has no statement conscious, I hear all—and mystery ever arouses the human took me down to the luxurious to make." I resolved to call on the doctor, who $600. curiosity—I should have given up ittle room where, the first moment I rt "Can't you compel him to say something?" happened to be well known to me, and trying to get at the truth. Yet as a mtered, one fact struck me as peculiar. I asked. obtain further particulars. Therefore was man with some leisure, and knowing The picture of Elma Heath- "No, I can't. That's the infernal at eleven o'clock I drove into Dumfries by that letter of Elma Heath's that she & 10 longer there. The photog-aph had difficulty of it. If he don't choose to and entered his consulting room. its was in sore distress. I redoubled my seen taken from its frame and in speak, then we must still remain in & He was a spare, short, fair man, a International Machine Co. efforts to ascertain the reason of it all. place was the portrait of a broadorowed, ignorance, although I feel confident trifle bald, and when I was. shown in On leaving Leghorn I had given up full-bearded man in a foreign that he knows something of the a he welcomed me warmly, speaking all hope of tracing the mysterious military uniform—a picture that, be:ng strange affair up in the wood." with his pronounced Galloway accent. yachtsman and had left the matter in soiled and faded, had evidently And although I was silent, I shared "Well, it is a very mysterious case, the hands of the Italian police. But, t»een placed there to fill the empty the Scotch detective's belief. Mr. Gregg." he said, after I had told without any effort on my own part, 1 :rame. The afternoon was chill and wet as him the object of my visit. "The gentleman seemed to have been drawn into a veritable I climbed the hill to Greenlaw. is still at the hospital, and I have (To be continued next week.) network of strange incidents, all The sudden disappearance of the to keep him very quiet. He was poisoned International Falls Abstract Co, $ of which combined to form the most tenants of Rannoch was, I found, on without a doubt and has had a complete and remarkable enigma evei everyone's tongue in Dumfries. In the very narrow escape of his life. The presented in life. smoke room of the railway hotel three police got wind of the affair and Mackenzie BURDICK, KREMER & KING, Proprietors. Those September days were full oi men were discussing it with many Hastings.—The hearing of John Cot called to question him. But he anxiety for me. Alone and unaided 1 grimaces and sinister hints, and the ter for alleged assault with- a rifle upon Abstracts, Real Estate and Insurance refused to make any statement whatever, was trying to solve one of the greatest talkative young woman behind the bar Mrs. E. S. Thomas of Empire, was had apparently treating the affair of problems, plunged as I was in a asked me my opinion of the strange before Police Justce A. E. Johnson, Collections, Conveying and very lightly. The police, however, are veritable sea of mystery. I wanted to goings-on up at the castle. I decided yesterday, resulting in his discharge mystified as to the reason of Mr. Leithcourt's see Muriel Leithcourt, and to question that the man who had smoked and for lack of evidence. He was subse. sudden flight, and are very anxious J. E. BURDICK, Manager her further regarding Elma Heath, chatted with me so affably on that hot, quently arraigned upon a charge of assault to get at the bottom of the curious Therefore again I left Euston and, breathless night in the Mediterranean International Fafl* Minoesct* with a pitchfork on F. O. Wetterlin, affair." traveling through the night, took my must remain in ignorance of my presence, and was sentenced to 60 days iq "Naturally. And more especially seat at the breakfast table at Greenlaw or of my knowledge. Therefore jail. sfeoo«s-a«-a»»s-8»ae-ist:-»ts4s»»t»s«t.:s:«e.is.»i:.»s:.a8.»e.ae8s:.8s:.asas»aj:j after the tragedy up in Rannoch wood next morning. I stayed for a week at Greenlaw with a short tims ago," I said. Sir George, who was sitting alone— eyes and ears open, yet exercising care Stumbles and Fractures Skull. "That's just it," said the doctor, removing it not being my aunt's habit to appeal that the patient in the hospital should Staples.—Vincent Gienello, an Italian his pince-nez and rubbing early—welcomed me, and then in hia be unaware of my presence. Subscribe For The Press working on a railway gang near them. "Mackenzie seems to suspect bluff manner sniffed and exclaimed: The inquiry into the death of the Staples, was fatally mjured while at some connection between Leithcourt's unidentified man in Rannoch wood had "Nice goings on up at Rannoch! work. He stumbled and struck his| sudden disappearance and that mysterious been resumed and a verdict returned Have you heard of them?" head on a rail, fracturing the skulli affair. It seems very evident of willful murder against some person "*4o. What?" I cried breathlessly, Aid was called from Staples but hq that the telegFam was a warning to unknown, while of the second crime staring at him. died in a short time. Leithcourt of the man Chafer's inten- Silkies ... .J