Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 218, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1911 — FOUR BITES OF A CHERRY. [ARTICLE]

FOUR BITES OF A CHERRY.

Continued from Page Two. ; / BITE THREE. With Little Difficulty. On the secorid day after Mr. Cossett’s interview with lawyer Fenton, the latter received the following: My Dear Mr. Fenton: 1 - Have yon anything to tell me? 1 am beginning to be alarmed because of the Uon-appearance of the newspaper second chapter. Yours sincerely, H. L. To which the lawyer replied: Dear Mr. Linden: With regard to the matter which alarms you, I can give no information. As for the call you know of—the details of which, I have no doubt, you are naturally curious to learn—l am, as always in such cases, under a pledge of secrecy. But in this particular instance I can say that you need have no fear of new complications. Sincerely yours, JOHN FENTON.

That is as much as I dare tell him,” mutttered the lawyer, as he addressed and stamped the envelope. The next day, at his home, Mr. Simon Cossett received the following: Dear Sir: I have asked your cousin, Miss Nellie Cossett, to become my wife. She has accepted me with the full approval of her uncle and aunt, who are, as you are perhaps aware, distantly related to myself. On account of the esteem in which Miss Cossett has always held you—an esteem which has not apparently been affected by the unfortunate break between yourself and the Malden Cossetts —she has asked me to send you formal notice of our intended marriage, which will occur in October of this year. Yours very sincerely, HENRY LINDEN.

.“So it has gone as far as a betrothal after all,” said Mr. Cossett. “What Is—” but here he stopped. Some peculiarity in the writing caught his eye. He plunged his hand Into the inside pocket of his coat and drew out the card on which was writ 1 ten the name of Mr. Louis Delaine. He compared the two writings. Though one was written with a pencil and the other with a pen, they were, in all essentials, the same. “The infernal scoundrel!.the thief!” he cried, leaping to his feet. “I have him now. While I thought there wa3 a chance that you were innocent,” he went on, fiercely, addressing the letter as though it were the guilty man under his hand, “I was willing to defend you against what might be the mistaken zeal of a police who had decided that my thief was a member of my own family. But now I will not try to save you. “You shall not marry my little Nellie, the girl who has been my pet from her earliest childhood. You, a trickster, a common thief! You marry my little girl! Not if the police are onehalf as clever as I think them. And i will aid them this time. This little card will be your undoing, my distant cousin, my skillful confidence man.!” Worn out by thi3 outburst, Mr. Cossett sank in his chair and buried his face in his trembling hands. Here was the end of Nellie’s romance, for Justice demanded a victim, and Nellie must be saved from a self-confessed thief. For, in writing to him in the same hand he had used on the torn postal, Linden Rad practically accused himself. And Tt was even possible, too, that he was defying the cousin of his betrothed. Assuredly this young villian did not merit the slightest consideration, and Mr, Cossett, determined to act at once on this latest impulse, wrote to Mr. Fenton as follows. Dear Sir: I wish to cancel the contract I made with you thjee days ago. A new development has changed my plans. 1 no longer desire to help the person I spoke of, for I am convinced that such a course would not be for the best interests of Mißs Cossett. Yours very truly, SIMON COSSEJT.

"A man from police headquarters, sir,” said the servant, after knocking at the door. Mr. Cossett folded Linden’s letter, and put it In his pocket. “Not this," he whispered, “I cannot have Nellie's name banded about headquarters. “If I am right they won’t need this. Ask the gentleman in, Jones,” he said, raising his voice. “Good morning, Mr. Dempster,” be said with a smile when the visitor appeared. “Take a seat. Wbat is the newest development?” Mr. Dempster, the detective who had been assigned to the Cossett case, smiled in his turn when he heard this inquiry. He had called on Mr. Cossett several times and heretofore had received more rebuffs than smiles. "Well. Mr. Cossett.” answered the detective, guardedly, “we haven't discovered anything positive, but we are following up a very promising clue.

We thought, maybe you might have something to help us. You may have found some little thing, you know, or remembered more about the night—” “That is going over the old ground again,” said Mr. Cossett wearily, “but I will give you a surprise. Three days ago I was robbed again, in my downtown office!” “And you didn’t—” ’ “And I didn’t call In the police,” answered Mr. Cossett, calmly. “I wanted to work a little for myself first. Your police did not find the first thief, and they might not have found the second. But I can help them now. Here,” handing him the torn postal card, “is the address given me by the second thief, who got just the amount the first one took. “I believe .that the two are the same. When you find the man who that card, you will have the man who robbed me of twenty thousand dollars. Now, Mr. Dempster, I think —mind you, I only think—that no professional did the work. That card was written under my eyes. Use it, work with it, and tike the thief.” Mr. Dempster was silent, and with good reason. Mr. Cossett, he was well aware, knew that the department’s suspicions had been directed toward Henry Linden. The financier had steadily refused to help the police. Now he was either giving up his relative to them or he had reason to know that this relative was not implicated. It was not Mr. Dempster’s policy to bring Linden’s name into the present interview. If Mr. Cossett chose to do so, that was his lookout. So Mr. Dempster said nothing, and waited. “That is all,” said Mr. Cossett. “I lunched with the thief, who, on this occasion, played a commonplace but clever confidence game. This goes no further than the department, you understand, until it is told in court. But —-Well, that is all, I leave the completion of the matter to you.” Mr. Cossett now described the gress and peculiarities'of the supposed Frenchman and Dempster realized that he was dismissed.

Mr. Cossett’s next duty was to write to Nellie. After many attempts he produced the following: Dear Nellie: Will yod come down to the city tomorrow and spend the afternoon at my house? In view of your approachin marriage, I have a proposition to make. I trust that our family troubles have not entirely killed the affection you once had for me. What I am going to say and do when you are here is for your best interests. I have, as you will understand from my reference to your marriage, heard from Mr. Henry Linden. Your affectionate cousin, SIMON.

Nellie received this letter early the next morning, and showed it to her unclje and aunt. Although their bitter feeling toward Mr. Cossett had not been allayed as time went on, the letter piqued their curiosity, and they did not attempt to oppose Nellie’s wish to see her cousin and hear what he had to say. So the young girl, arrayed in her very best, took the noon train for the city, and at two o’clock found herself greeting her cousin. “I am truly glad to see you after so many months, Nellie,” said the financier, “and I hope that you will be patient with me when I tell you why I have brought you here.” Nellie did not know what reply to make to this. Perhaps it had something to do with the old trouble, and she did not care to discuss that. “I hope, Cousin Simon,” she returned, “that you are not going to talk about that miserable lawsuit. It has made uncle and aunt very unhappy for months. I don’t understand the matter very well, but it seems to me that money should not create such deplorable dissensions.” “It ‘ creates more dissensions than any other known thing,” said Mr. Cossett slowly. “But I am not going to talk of that affair at all. I am going to speak of your personal affairs. And to begin,” he went on, “how long have you known Mr. Henry Linden?” “Three months,*' replied Nellie. “And you are going to marry him in two months?” said Mr. Cossett. “I don’t think that too short a courtship,” he continued hastily, for Nellie seemed about to make some protest, “but are you sure you know enough about him to risk your happiness for life?”

"I know that his people were distantly related to us. I know all about his early life, for uncle and aunt often visited his people when he was a boy. .1 don’t know of anything against him, and that ought to be enough, Cousin Simon.” “I don't understand you at all, cousin,” cried Nellie, with tears in her. eyes. “Your new interest in me will not be very consoling If you mean to try to turn me against Henry.” “But suppose,” persisted her cousin, “that he should prove unworthy of you—suppose. If you like, that I have reason to think him unworthy, and say that I know him to be unworthy of you—will you then go ahead In spite of my warning?*’ “You flo not know him!” cried Nel-