rrrrwrTF~~ t'"" —■■i.ni .... ■-■!.. _» 1 "■* u '■it'.t irw tw1 ■njMJiiJifi.iggr’'r THE , TEETH OF THE TIGER ^ C ' BX ) MAURICE LEBLANC ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DB MATTOS I CHAPTER THIRTEEN. (Continued.) , “There is a very simple way of thanking me, Monsieur le Prefet,” paid Don Luis, “and that is to «llow me to carry out my task to the end.” "Your taskf’’ “Yes, Monsieur le Prefet. My gction of last night is only the be ginning. The conclusion is the re lease of Marie Fauville and Gaston Bauverand.” M. Desmalions smiled. “Oh!” “Am I asking too much, Mon pieur le Prefet t” “One can always ask, but the request should be reasonable. Ajid the innocence of those people does not depend on me.” “f£o; but it depctids on you, Monsieur lc Prefet, to let them know if 1 prove their innocence to you.” “Yes, T agree, if you prove it beyond dispute.” “Jnst so.” Don Luis’ calm assurance im pressed M. Desmalions in spite of everything and even more than on the former occasions; and he sng genteel: “The results of the hasty in spection which we have made will perhaps help you. For instance, we are certain that the bomb was placed by the entrance of the pass age and probably under the boards of the floor.” “Please do not trouble, Mon sieur le Prefet. These are only secondary details. The great thing paw is that you should know the Whole truth, and that not only through words.” The prefect had come closer. The magistrate and detectives, were standing round Don Luis, watching his lips and movements with feverish impatience. Was it possible that that truth, as yet so, rehiote and vague, in spite of all the importance which they at tached to the arrests already af fected, was known at last? It was a solemn moment. Every one was on tenterhooks. The manner in which Don Lnis had foretold the explosion lent the value of an accomplished fact to bis predictions; and the men whom he had saved from the ter rible catastrophe were almost ready to accept as certainties the piost improbable statements which a man of his stamp might make. “Monsieur le Prefet,” he said, “you waited in vain last night for the fourth letter to make its ap pearance. We shall now be able, by an unexpected mircle of chance, to be present at the de livery of the letter. You will then know that it was the same hand that committed all the crimes— and you will know whose hand that was.” And, turning to Mazeroux: “Sergeant, will you please make the room as dark as you can? The shutters are gone; but you might draw the curtains across the win dows and close the doors. Mon sieur le Prefct, is it by accident that the electric light is on?” “Yes, by accident. We will have it turned out.” “One moment. Have any of you gentlemen a pocket lantern about you? Or, no, it doesn’t matter. This will do.” There was a candle in a sconce. He took it and lit it. Then he switched off the elec tric light. There was a half darkness, amid which the flame of the candle flickered in the draught from the windows. Don Luis protected the flame with his hand and moved to. the table. “I do not think that wc shall be kept waiting long,” lie said. “As I foresee it, there will be only a few seconds before the facts speak for themselves and better than I could do.” Those few seconds, during which no one broke the silence, were unforgettable. M. Desma tions has since declared, in an in terview in which he ridicules him *elf very cleverly, that his brain, over stimulated by the fatigues of the night and by the whole -scene before him, imagined the most un like! v events, such as an invasion of the house by armed assailants, or the apparition of ghosts and spirits. He had the curiosity, however, be said, to watch Don Luis. Sit ting on the edge of the table, with his head thrown a little back aa*d his eyes roaming oyer the edflrftg, Don Luis wus eating a pt^rfc of bread and nibbling At 4 eftkfe of chocolate. He seemed velry ton* gry, but quite at his ewse. The others maintained th*t tense attitude which we pat «gi at moments of great physical effort. Their faces were distorted with a sort of gimaee. They were beanfted by the memory of the expiosRln as well as obsessed by what wh$ go ing to happen. The flame at the candle cast shadows on Che wSfl. More seconds elapsed tlun Dsn Luis Perenna had said, 3D of 40 seconds, perhaps, that sewnqjfceijid less. Then Perenna lilted the candle a little and said: “There you are.” They had aH seen what they now saw almost as Soon as h» spoke. A letter was dasmwling from the ceiling. It affcin stand slowly, like, a leaf falling hm a tree without being driven by the wind. It just touched Don Late and alighted on the floor l*tarft&i two legs of ths table. Picking up the paper and hand ing it to M. Desmafions, Data Luis said: “There you are, MymmtIcui le Prefet. This is the foirtth lft^er, due iast night.” CHAPTER XIV. The “Hater.” M. Desmalions looked at him without understanding, and looked from him to the eefltng. Perenna said: “Ohj there’s no witchcraft about it; and, though no one has thrown that letter from above, though there is not the smallest hole in the ceiling, the explanation is quite simple I” “Quite simple, is iff” said M. Desmalions. “Yes, Monsieur le Prefet. It looks like an extremely compli cated conjuring trick, done almost for fun. Well, I say that it is quite simple—and, at the same time, terribly tragic. Sergeant Mazeroux, would you mind draw ing baok the curtains and giving us as much light as possible!” While Mazeroux was executing his orders and M. Desmalions glancing at the fourth letter, the contents of which were unimport ant and merely confirmed the pre vious ones, Don Luis took a pair of steps which the workmen had left in the corner, set it up in the mid dle of the room and climbed to the top, where, seated astride, he was able to reach the electric chande lier. It consisted of a broad, circular band in brass, beneath which whs a festoon of crystal pendants. In side were three lamps placed at the corners of a brass triangle concealing the wires. .He uncovered the wires and cut them. Then he began to take the whole fitting to pieces. To hasten matters, he asked for a hammer and broke np the plaster all round the clamps that held the chande lier in position. “Lend me a hand, please,” he said to Mazeroux. Mazeroux went up the steps; and between them they took hold of tho chandelier and let it slide down the uprights. The detectives caught it and placed it on the table with some difficulty, for it was much heavier than it looked. On inspection, it proved to be surmounted by a cubical metal box, measuring about eight inches square, which box, being fastened inside the ceiling between the iron clamps, had obliged Don Lpis to knock away the plaster fhat con cealed it. ‘‘What the devil’s this?” ex claimed M. Desmalious. ‘‘Open it for yourself, Monsieur le Prefet; there’s a lid to it,” said Perenna. M. Desmalions raised the lid. The box was filled with springs and wheel, a whole complicated and detailed mechanism resem bling a piece of-dockwork. ‘‘By your leave, Monsieur le Prefet,” said Don Luis. lie took out one piece of ma ! chinery and discovered another \ beneath it, joined to the first by tthe gearing of two wheels; and the second was more like one 1 of those automatic apparatuses which turn out printed slips. Right at the bottom of the box, just where the box touched the ceiling, was a semicircle groove, and at the edge of it was a letter ready for delivery. “The last of the five letters;” said Don Luis,1* doubtless continu ing the series of denunciations. I You will notice, Monsier le Prefet, that the chandelier originally had a fourth damp in the center. It was obviously removed when the chandelieT was altered, so as to make room fbr the lettens to pass. ” He continued his debited-expla-‘ nations: ‘ ‘ So the whole set of letters was placed here, at the bottom. A clever piece of machinery, eon trolled by clockwork, took them one by one at the appointed time, pushed them to the edge of th# groove concealed between the lamps and the pendants, and pro jected them into space.” None of those standing around Don Luis spoke, and all of them seemed perhaps a little disap pointed. The whole thing was certainly very clever; but they had expeeted something better than a trick of springs and»wheels, however surprising. ‘ ‘ Have patience, gentlemen, ’ ’ said Don Luis. “I promised you something ghastly; and you shall have it.” “Well, I agree,” said the pre fect of police, “that this is where the letters started from. But a good many points remain obscure; and, apart from this, there is one fact in particular which it seems impossible to understand. How were the criminals able to adapt the chandelier in this way! And, in a house guarded by the police, in a room watched night and day, how were they able to carry out. such a piece of work without being seen or heard!” The answer is quite easy, Mo» sieur le Prefet: the work was done before the house was guarded by the police.” “Before the murder was com mitted, therefore?” “Before the murder was com mitted. ” “And what is to prove to me that that is so ? ” “You have said so yourself, Monsieur le Prefet; because it could not have been otherwise.” “But do explain yourself, mon sieur 1” cried M. Desmalions, jrith a gesture of irritation. /‘If,you have important things to tell ns, why dela;^” “It is better, Monsieur le Pre fet, that you should arrive at the truth in the same way as I did. When you know the secret of the letters, the truth is much nearer than you think; and yon would have already named the criminal if the horror of his crime had not betn w) great as to divert all sus picions from him. ” M. Desmalions looked at him at tentively. He felt the importance of Perenna’s every word and he was really anxious. “Then, according to you,” he said, “those letters accusing Madame Pauville and Gaston Sauverand were placed there with the sole object of ruining both of them?” “Yes, Monsieur le Prefet.” “And, as they were placed there before the crime, the plot must have-been schemed before the murder t” “Yes, Monsieur le Prefet, before the murder. Prom the moment that we admit the innocence of Mme. Panville and Gaston Sauve rand, we are obliged to conclude that, as everything accuses them, this is due to a series of deliberate acts. Mme. Fauville was out ou the night of the murder: a plot! She was unable to say how she spent her time while the murder was being committed: a plot! Her inexplicable drive in the direction of La * Muette and her cousin Sauverand’s walk in the neighbor hood of the house; plots! The marks left in the apple by those teeth, by Mme. Fauville’s o\Vn teeth; a plot and the most infernal of all! “1 tell you, everything is plotted beforehand, everything is, so t ospeak, prepared, measured out, labelled, and numbered. Ev erything takes place at the ap pointed time. Nothing is left to ehanec. It is a work very nicely pieced together, worth}' of the most skilful artisan, so solidly constructed that outside happen ings have not been able to throw it out of gear; aud that the scheme works exactly, precisely, imper turbably, like the clockwork iu this box, which is a perfect sym bol of the whole business and, at the same time, gives a most accur ate explanation of it, because the letters denouncing the murderers were duly posted before the crime and delivered after the crime on the dates and at the hours fore seen.” a. * M. Desmalions remained think ing for a time and then objected: “Still, in the letters which he wrote, M. Fauville accuses his wife.” “He does.” “We must therefore admit either that he was right in accus ing her or that the letters are forged!” “They are not forged. All the ' experts have red&gnized M. Fan vflle’s handwriting.” “Then!” “ Then-” Don Luis did not finish his sen tence; and M. Desmalions*felt the breath of the truth fluttering still nefcrer round him. The others, one and all as anxious as himself, were silent. He muttered: “I do not understand-” “Yes, Monsieur le Prefet, you d*. You understand that, if the sending of those letters forms an integrant part of the plot hatched ►against Mme. Fauville and Gaston Sauverand, it is because their con tents were, prepared in suoh a way as to be the undoing of the vic tims.” “Whati What'l What are you saying 1” “I aid saying what I said be fore. Once they are innocent, ev erything that tells against them is part of the plot.” Again there was a long silence. The prefect of police did not con ceal his agitation. Speaking very slowly, with his eyes fixed on Don Luis ’ eyes, he said: “Whoever the culprit may be, I know nothing more terrible than this work at hatred.” “It is an even fflote improbable Ujprk than yon ettn imagine, Mon sieur le Prefet,” said Perenna, with growing animation, “and it is a hatred of which you, who do not know Sawvenmd’s confession, cannot yet estimate the violence. I understood it completely as I listened to the man; and, since then, all my thoughts have been overpowered by the dominant idea of that hatred. Who could hate like that ? To whose loathing had Mari§ Fauville and Sauverand been sacrificed 1 Who was the in conceivable person whose pervert ed genius had surrounded his two victims with chains so powerfully forged? “And another idea came to my mind, an earlier idea which had already struck me several times and to which I have already re ferred in Sergeant Mazeroux’s presence: I mean the really mathematical character of the ap pearance of the letters. I said to myself that such grave documents could not be introduced into the case at fixed dates unless ^ome primary reason demanded that those dates should absolutely be fixed. What reason ? If a human agency had bee* at work each t'-nc, there would surely have been some irregularity dependent on this especially after the police had become cognizant of the matter and were present at the delivery of the letters. “Well,” Perenna continued, “in spite of every obstacle, the letters continued to come, as i hough they could not heir) it. And thus the reason of their com mg gradually dawned upm me: they came mechanically, by some invisible process set going once and for all and working with the blind certainty of a physical law. This was a case not of a conscious intelligence and will, but just of material necessity. • * * It was the clash of these two idea—the idea of the hatred pursuing the in nocent and the idea of that ma chinery serving the schemes of the ‘hater’---it was their clash that gave birth to the little spark of light. When brought into con tad. the two ideas combined in my mind and suggested the recollec tion that Hippolyte Fa tvilk* was an engineer by profession!” The others listened to him with a sort of uneasy oppression. What was gradually being revealed of the tragedy, instead of relieving the anxiety, increased it until it became absolutely painful. M. Desmalions objected: ‘‘Granting that the letters ar rived on the dates named, you will nevertheless have noted that, the hour varied on each occasion.” ‘‘That is to say, it varied ac cording as we watched in the dark or not, and that is just the detail which supplied me with the key tc the riddle. If the letters—and this was an indispensable precaution, which we are now able to under stand—were delivered only under cover of the darkness, it must be I because a contrivance of some kind prevented them from appear ing when the electric light was on, and because that contrivance was controlled by switch inside the room. There is no other explana tion possible. (Continued Next Week.) Hawaii will breed goats t>n a largo Meal a. BOMBING WORK MOST DIFFICULT OF ALL Airmen of Allied Forces Resort to Many Tricks to Fool the Enemy. Behind British Lines hi Prance.—■ (by mail)—One of the most exciting tasks to which airmen are assigned is what ip known as "desultory bomb ing” over one spot for an hour or more* The object is to distract the at tention of the anti-aircraft defenders of a given district, and a machine carrying a doeen or more bomba is em ployed for the work. At first the afrmen, a pilot and an observer, appsoacn tneir target cau tiously. With engines throttled down, the craft glides nearer and nearer. Below, an is quiet..No German search lights are sweeping the sky. When the attackers are almost over their ob jective a roefcet rises toward them and bursts into a cluster of red stars. The machine has been discovered. At once six or seven searchlights throw their beams aloft'. The pilot looks at hisj watch; It is time to begin his desultory bombing. He flies stfeadily on, although a bar rage of bursting shells lies - now in front of him. The observer looks through the wires of his bomb sight to the ground below. At the proper in stant ha thrusts his lever forward and releases the bombs. A few second later he sees the flash of their explosions, and above the craekiing barrage he can hear two dull roars. He signals to the pilot and flie machine turns and sweeps away from, the fiery ring of shelts and searchlights. A few miles away the airplane flies to and fro at top sijped. The puzzled searchlights vainly feel the sky in all directions and then, one by one, are switched off. Then the pilot quickly moves again toward the target. An other bomb is dropped. As it explodes the searchlights reappear and the bar rage is renewed while through the thickly grouped shell bursts are threaded the chains of green flaming globes, ffo tJJyeh used by the Germans. Again the machine flies away and this time, to bewilder still more the soldiers below, the observer fires a white light whieh slowly drifts below and fades out. All the searchlights follow it until it dies. Repeatedly the airmen return to the attack. Bombs are dropped at intervals until the end of the hour, when the machine departs, flickering fires and clouds of smoke telling of the havoc wrought by the bombs. CAMP CODY SOLDIERS ARE WELL ENTERTAINED Camp Cody, N*sw Mexico—Soldiers In training here do not depend upon outside theatrical companies for their entertainment. The division exchange theater is the most popular place In camp, for there the entertainers of Camp Cody appear almost nightly. A number, of the men who took part in the Cody minstrels remain in camp, and, with the assistance of others re cruited from among the selective draft troops recently sent here, the soldiers are given high elass entertainments. A typical program at the division ex change theater includes an eccentric musical act, during which the musician squeezes music from everything from a 'biscuit box to a row of5 pop bottles, Scotch dialect songs by the various “Scotties” in camp, vocal solos, instru mental numbers and concerts by the regimental bands. The theater is un der the direction of the division adju> tant. Pullman Wages and Tips. From the Indianapolis News. Simultaneously with the announcement that the government Is to continue to operate the Pullman company comes an order raisin* the wages of its employes on the same basts as the advance recently given railroad workers. The Industrial relations commission once found that the average salary of porters was from $27.60 to $36 a month and of conductors from $70 to $90 a month. Most of the porters will probably have their wages Increased by almost half. The question now arises whether t abled them to win elections. YANKEES MISS THE DOUGHNUT GIRLS BY FRANK J. TAYLOR. United Press Staff Correspondent. With the American Army in Francs (by mail)—There is gleom in a certain regiment of Yankees, and it is not be cause they haven't had opportunity to whip boches. The regiment is going to lose what the men consider their most valuable asset, the McIntyre sisters, also knowh as the Salvation Army girls. The Mc Intyre sisters—Gladys and Irene—who have made chocolate, doughnuts, pies and sandwiches for the boys of this regiment, sent letters for them, banked money, and who have been “good sis ters to every fellow in the regiment,” have been transferred to a new post. The troops holding this part of the line want to adopt the McIntyre sisters permanently—and who wouldn’t? “They’re good pals, not dolls,” is the way the doughboys compare the rugged, lively American sisters with French girls out near the front. When ths doughboy comes around, he usually Is eager to work, and he's happiest who is given a job dipping doughnuts, cut ting wood, or doing anything to help the McIntyre sisters. It is a happy American family, this, out here where the shells rain in all too regularly, in terrupting even pie making and dough nut dipping, for orders are that every one scoot for dugouts when the boches begin a bombardment. Practically every house !n town has been hit and partly demolished. These American soldier girls have a dugout handy to sleep in. While they vere absent at work one day a shrapnel came through the roof and punctured the bed full of holes. There is plenty of excitement in this work, but very little time to get excited. It is easy to see why there is gloom In a certain regiment at the front. Of course, there are some more girls just arrived In the little village to take over the already established canteen of the McIntyre sisters. But they are not the same as your own mvorite trird and- true, stick-through-shot-and-shell Bisters, the doughboys say. These brave pioneer girls are needed to begin another post. One thing is sure, some other regiment is going to be made awfully happy when the McIntyre sis* ters join it. NAVAL RECRUITING IN IRELAND IS BRISK —.. . ^ Dublin (by mall).—Lieutenant Percy, director of naval recruiting In Ireland, declares that recuitlng for the British navy was never more brisk in Ireland ;han It Is at present. There are Irish men in every department from the ad mirals down, and the recruiters in the owns and villages throughout Ireland ire always warmly welcomed. Dublin has Just given a cordial sendoff to a aumt-er of recruits of the trawler sec tion of the royal naval reserve. This branch appeals particularly to Irish (isher boys who have experienced In the past few months around the Irish coasts the cruelty with which the Ger man submarine campaign is conducted. The recruits paraded the streets of Dublin accompanied by bluejackets and marines and the band of the Berkshire regiment. Among the inscriptions on the banners in the procession were: “The Germans are sinking Irish ships and murdering Irishmen, join us and avenge these crimes." "We are Beatty’s boys, brother Irish-, men, come along.” Work. From the Boston Transcript. No longer will you be permitted to turn up your nose at work; you must turn up your sleeves at It. Golfers will naturally choose field work. Those who want light work can attend to the arc lamps. Writers will have work enough selling their work. Spongers will continue to work their ao c.uaintaces, and rakes will be given gar den work. Vessels lined with metal that will conduct electricity to heat heat liquids as they are poured from one to anoth er have been patented by an lnventoi In Pennsylvania. <■ A