Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 159, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1920 — "I AM IN TROUBLE." [ARTICLE]

"I AM IN TROUBLE."

Synopsis.—Circumstances having prevented Spalding Nelson, clerk, from joining the American forces going to FYance, he is in a despondent mood when he receives an invitation to dinner from his great-uncle, Rufus Gaston. On the way to the house he meets, under peculiar circumstances, a young girl, apparently in trouble, to whom he has an opportunity to be of slight service. She lives in the same apartment building as Rufus Gaston, and he accompanies her to the house. Gaston and his wife are going to Maine for a trip and want to leave Nelson in charge of the apartment. He accepts. Gaston and his wife tell their great-nephew of mysterious noises— “whispers''— which they have heard in the house. On his way to the Gaston apartment the next Sunday Nelson again meets his accidental ax'quaintance of a few days before. Barbara Bradford. She urges him not to allow the fact of their being acquainted to be known. At the apartment Nelson meets the superintendent, Wick and instinctively dislikes him. In a wall safe he finds a necklace of magnificent pearls, worth a small fortune. Meeting Barbara in the hallway she passes him without recognition. Dining In a restaurant he is conscious of the unpleasant scrutiny of a stranger but a man whom he had seen before. Next day Nelson finds the pearls have disappeared from the wall safe. Hts first idea of informing the police is not acted upon because of peculiar circumstances. He has been discharged from his position without adequate explanation or reason, and feels himself involved In something of a mystery. He decides to conduct an investigation himself.