an ck ur ch OO 25 eh OO ch $l 50 in ich "e ong to che ns > Te fora he ee TRIKE > Ss a 4 AS KK YEE IE IEE SER EEK OI IOI SEK Diamond Coterie By LAWRENCE M. LYNCH (E. M. Van Deventer) Author of “A Woman’s Crime,” “John Arthur’s Ward,” “The Lost Witness,” “A Slender Clue,” “Dangerous Ground,” “ Against Odds,” Ete., Etc. ve YE MEME Mc Me MRK K IR KKK Me Me Ye yw yc ~ OK AN ZAIN AIN AN OAINOAN KS mi IN AN IN M tN AN Yes oN in Yi mo r\h- fm \i- t- i~ \i- i r be he be 2 Me Me Ye Ye Me Ye Me Men TR ATR KER K KK Ke Me iw OK “ir IN a SRR AN CIN AN EM MMM YES IEE IERIE IE SE ORK KK f K 7 | (Continued) ejthe handkerchief was precisety fxe the mutiliated one used with the chloro- i gm. This might be a colucidence— plain white handkerchief with wide bor- ders Were NOD uncommon, but this hand- gerchief was marked! “] could scarcely wait until Sir Clifford gould show me to my room, so anxivus gas 1 to compare the two pieces of linen. “The whole one bore the tnitials F. oe op the raw, torn edge of the half square gas a bdlack dot that was undoubtedly the fragment of a letter, or name, that had 'seen torn hastily off. It corresponded exactly with the lower end of the letter L. upon the whole handkerchief given me by Sir Clifford. “This might be a coincidence, but it ig ge of my rules to smspect two coinci- dences coming close together; and I had already discovered three remarkable ones in this case. “Sitting alone in my room, I reflected thus :— “Take it for granted that this” robbery was perpetrated by the Diamond Caterie, what are the facts? “The robbers knew where to enter, and where to look for plunder; ergo, must have known the premises. form with nicest calculation; ergo, they | should leave must have known Miss Wardour. “One of them was something of a dandy—witness the superfine bit of cam- tric, and the print of jaunty boots where he leaped the garden fence. “The next morning I took unceremon- jous Ieave of my host, and set out on my explorations. As I approached Wardour Place Imet a man, who immediately drew my interest to himself. “This mans was Jerry Belknap. He wore a disguise quite familiar to me, and Irecognized him easily. He entered at the Wardour gate, and I sauntered on, having found new food for thought. “Now, a word concerning this man Beiknap. “Atone time he was an honorable member of the best detective force in the city; but he had too much cupidity. and not enough moral firmness. Twice he allowed himself to be bribed into letting & case fall through, and finally I caught him in secret conclave with a gang of bank burglars, who were eunspiring to raise a fortune for each, and escape with their hooty through the connivance of our false detective. “I exploded this little scheme, and compelled Belknap to withdraw from the force, Imagine my surprise wher, a little later, Miss Wardour told me that Mr. Belknap was the detective sent down from the city by Mr. Lamotte! “Well, Mr. Belknap went to work upon the case, and Miss Wardour concealed me fear her dining rocm so that I might aayve the pleasure of listening to his first report. “That was a for:unate ambush for me. Mr. Belknap’s deductions were as dia- metrically opposite to mine as if he had purposely studied out the contrast; and I Was shaking my sides with the thought of how all this plausibility must be puz- zling Miss Wardour and her aunt, when anew element was introduced into the programme. ““Mr. Frank Lamotte, fresh from an amateur robber hunt, came into the room. It had been arranged that Mrs. Aliston should break to this young man the news that sister had that day eloped with john Burrill; but first, he was to relate his adventures, and this he did. “If Ican beara voice, before seeing the face, I can usually measure its truth or falsity. Now, I had not seen Mr. Frank Lamotte, but his voice told me that he was rehearsing a well studied part; and, furthermore, I was assured that Belknap knew this, and purposely helped him on. “By and by Miss Wardour withdrew, and Mrs. Aliston fulfilled her mission. Then I was more than ever convinced of the fellow’s insincerity. I heard how he received the news of his sister’s flight; and when Mrs. Aliston went, in a panic, to call her niece, I heard him, when he fancied himself alone. “It seems he had heen the bearer of a note from his sister to Miss Wardour, and he was now intent upon learning if that note had contained any thing damaging to himself. This much I learned from his Solitary mutterings, and then Miss War- dour re-entered the room. He was half Wild, until she had assured him that the Hote contained nothing that could injure nis him; and then he became calmer, and Went out into the air to recover his bre: ith. ‘*Miss Wardour made me, and I came congratulati lucky. “4nd now I found myself compelled to leave W— just as things were growing Very interesting; I had made my flying Visit in a moment of leisure, but my va- cation had run out; duty, honor and in- terest alike impelled me in another direction. “I left my address with Miss Wardour, and I promised myself that at the first haste to release my concealment ng myself that I had been so out of Opy inity I would return to W-—~ and tako =p my abode here for a time. ik sar, it _ Yor +} a een in hot qwvite three Gays. I had not seen Jasper Lamotte, I had barely son Frank, and I had added to my deductions made on the night of J “ttival, until the ease stood like this M my mind :-— toe Wa ae : __ st. The robbers were familiar with Wardour. outside and in. they | “a, RNY KNOW MISS Wardour “ara her sensitiveness to the effects of chloro- form. “3rd. One of them, was a man of gen- tlemanly propensities, and probably young. “4th. They or a part of their number approached by the river, using a boat with muffled oars. “Se much for :yny deductions. Now for some coincidences, “It was a coincidence that the hand- kerchief I got from Sir Clifford should bear Frank Lamotte’s initials, and should be precisely like the one lett be- hind by the robbers. “It was a coincidence that Frank La- motte should be a student of medicine. who might have been quite as capable of administering chloroform as was the burglar himself. “It was a coincidence that Miss Sybil Lamotte should have eloptd on the very day when her best friend was robbed, and that father, mother and »rother were all absent in behalf of the robbed friend, thus leaving the way open to the fugi- tives, and giving them plenty of time to escape. ‘“‘Now for that some facts looked | |} strange. “They administered the deadly chloro- | See EN, gsteeeneaeeeeteeneeenennnenenn “It was strange that Sybil Lamotte her home to raarry a man like John Burrill, when she was known to have bestowed her heart elsewhere. “It was strange that Jasper Lamotte, going to the city toemploy a detective, should so soon have stumbled upon Jerry Belknap, who was identified with no agency,and could only be reached through private means. “It was strange that Frank Lamotte should set himself up as an amateur de- tective, and should bring back a report that tallied so perfectly with the deduc- | tions of Jerry Belknap. “It was strange that Miss Wardour, baving just been robbed of jewels to the ammount of fifty thousand dollars, should be so little distressed, so little agitated by her loss. “From deductions, strange facts, 1 evolved the foltewin theory, which certainly looked well from my standpoint, but might not hold water. You will see, that trom the first I connected the Wardour robbery and the Lamotte elopement. ‘“‘Now, Sybil Lamotte’s strange flight gave proof that there was a skeleton in the Lamotte closet. I said:— “If this unseen Mr. Lamotte had planned this robbery, and if for some rea- son it seemed good that his daughter should elope, how well all was arranged. ‘““His son assisting him, they could drop down from Mapleton in their row boat; come up from the river, and, with their plans all laid, and knowing their ground, cvuld make quick headway. Frank Lamotte’s boot heel would leave just such a print as one of the robbers left in the loose dirt beside the garnien fence. Frank Lamotte would know just how to administer the chloroform. Then, Mr. Lamotte, in going to the city, osten- sibly to procure the services of a deteo- tive, could easily take the spoils along; and his wife also, that she might be well out of his daughter’s way. Such a man would naturally select a fellow like Jerry Lelknap, who would keep up a farce of investigation, and keep eway all who might, perhaps, stumble upon the truth. Frank’s eagerness to be «absent on this Ccey of his sister’s flight, and to assist/in the search for the robbers, would be thus explained; and his anxiety concerning the contents of his sister’s letter might be easily traced to a guilty corscience. ‘‘But my theories were doomed to be laid aside for a time... Other coincidences and ee cuties | claimed me and it was four weeks before | I could turn so much as a thought to- ward W—. ‘*Before leating the city, however, I had placed my wax cast of the chloroform bottle in the hands of one of my _ best men, and had also given him aclue upon which to work. ‘“*My agent was wonderfully successful He found the counterparts to the chloro- form bottle, and then he began shadow- ing the owner of said vials. It proved to be a@ young woman who had formerly lived in W—, as a factory hand, but who had been transplanted to the city by Frank Lamotte. ‘Tt is not necessary to enlarge: upon the story of this girl as connected with Lamotte; but this must be borne in mind. During the &me that my agent had this girl under surveillance Frank Lamotte visited her, and, it is supposed that he removed the remaining bottles of the set, for one was afterward exhumed, in fragments, from Docter Heath’s ash heap, by the industrious Jerry Belknap, and the others have disapveared.”’ CHAPTER XLVI ‘*From the moment when I appeared among you as Brooks, my work was double. I was bent upon posting myself ; thoroughly in regard to Jasper Lamotte, | and day by day I became more interested in the career of this remarkable man. ‘*Step by step, I trod backward path of his history, since his adven: in ¥—, gathering my information from many sources. ‘*It would be tedious to enter into de- tails; suflice is to say that while I work- ed here, two others, trained to such re- search, were beating up the past I was so anxious to become familiar with. And « third, scross the water, was gathering the — A A A TS tN ete eet tt neg ee ‘Trade Mark NOR SNARL € ALL, DEALERS SELL IT. e sry Ul Jonn BUTI, Anounes object of interest to me at that time. ‘‘And now I will reverse the order in which we made our search, and, begin- ning where my men left off, give you, in brief, the history of « remarkable man. “The man we kaow as Jasper Lamotte figured in various cities, twenty-five years ago, and still earlier, as Lucky Jin, a handsome, well educated, sharp witted, confidence man. “He seldom gambled, and made his swindling operations of various sorts reap him a rich harvest; and, by his unvary- ing good luck in escaping the dragons of the law, as well as because of his lucky ventures, he became known to his intimates as Lucky Jim. “In these days, Miss Sybil Schuyler, the daughter of a wealthy ol@ Maryland aristocrat, came to the city to reside with an aunt, while she completed her musical education. Lucky Jim saw her, and fell in love with her beautiful, haughty face. ‘He contrived to make her acquaint- ance, and the rest was easy; it was a repetition of the old story; he was hand- some and fascinating, she young and un- sophisticated, with plenty of headstrong Southern blood and self will ‘After a brief courtship, Lucky Jim married the Maryland heiress. Her father, as aay be supposed, repudiated the mar- riage, but she clung to her scamp, and so the old Maryland aristocrat sent her a smal forturie, which was her's, inheri- ted from her moth mother, «nd be- youd his control; and bade her consider herself nd more a Schuyler, of the Schuylers- ‘bor a time, Lucky Jim rode smoothly on the top wave of prosperity; his wife easily duped, a Wail street born, and then Sybil, ani the Ma-yland beauty rfueened it in an elegant afid secluded littls home. ‘But tae crisis came. The silver cloud turned ita durk site. ‘Lucky Jim piayed a losing game one day, ana his wife suddenly found herself face to fiice with the truth. “They lived thtough stormy times, but Jim had, in hi palmy days, left his wifv’s fortune intact, and new it proved an anchor toa witdward. ‘“They absentel themselves from this country for more than two years; then they cme back, and Lacky Jim brought his family, which now included Evan, to W—. The Maryland fortune enabled them to set up as aristocrats, and Lucky Jim seerns to have aspired to becgme a power in the community. ‘I don’t think he often attemp‘¢d any of his old confidence and swindling games; but, during his absenses from home, which were frequent, drring his earlier residence here, he made a study of fine burglary. ‘‘I can fancy how carefully he put his new schemes in practice, and. how he passed himself off upon W— as a rising speculator, **He probably spent years in gathering together that select society, known as the Diamond Ceteria vip bu rs believed him operater, Frank was (So be Continued. ) OO ee a ae me —_-_ Nee eet ett et Net cal SSOoD A AO am me RL LO MOON, atm at ee eat te reed © 6 O ' Soap IS NOT, as most soaps, made from “soap fat,” the refuse of the kitch- en or the abattoir, VEGETABLE OILS supply the necessary in- gredients — one of the reasons why it should be used in nurseries and for delicate skins. soees The Albert Toilet Soap Co., Mfrs. Montreal. Co < o o BSCOSSsosSosceasaoeas ~ | Ladies! You will save time and patience Giapperton’s Thread It is STRONG, EVEN, 4 ° é 0 ; if you USE ? * RELIABLE =] @ 2] 28 220222272345 2223222828 WILL NOT BREAK Hy AWFUL. Unholy Mysteries of the Article Called Ladled Butter. In the wholesale butter trade there is an odorous product quoted in the market reports as “‘ladles.’’ In all parts of this fair land there are women who own two or three cows and make butter as their grandmothers did, if not more so. They take their little rolls, two and three pounds apiece, to the country store and trade them for goods. The country store- keeper dare not refuse the stuff or the fair trader would go to his hated rival across the way. The chances are ten to oue that he cannot sell the grease. No- body with a nose or tongue would want to touch it. What does he do with it to get his money back? The followirg extract from United States dairy bulletin No. 16, by Mr. J. Ii. Monrad, will perhaps open the eyes of certain ladies who make butter as their grandmothers did, only worse: Tho local storekeepers take butter in exchange for goods. The price allowed all producers at any one stere is the same, quite regardless of the quality of the butter. It is necessary to treat all the farmers alike. As a rule merchants sell what they can of the best received without any profit or at an advance of 1 or 2 cents. The remainder, which in most cases constitutes much the greater part of the receipts, is dumped into re- ceptacles of all kinds, and periodically sent off to the centers for ladling. Flour barrels, starch boxes, shoe boxes and soap boxes have been indiscriminately utilized for this purpose. Much of this 60 calied butter is of such character that it makes little difference how it is neg- lected. The carelessness and indiffer- ence shown in some places is shocking. The receptacles are left open, no atten- tion is paid to the mixed contents, and they are not sent away until full, or until the mixture becomes so offensive that it must be gct rid of. The one re- quirement of the package has been that it should not leak and waste too much if the contents melted to oil in transit. Economical motives alone seem to have led to a reform in this regard. The la- alers now send out what are called but- ter stands to their regular sources of supply. These are large oak tubs or bar- rels, generally somewhat conical, with large bottoms to prevent overturning, tight covers and strong handles. These are shipped to the factory when filled at the store. The contents of some of these tubs upon arriving at the ladling establishment is simply indescribable. The many small lots of butter—as the material was probably at one time en- titled to this name—differ in color, salt, texture, age and other respects, and sometimes the tubs contain arti- cles quite foreign to the dairy, like ba- con rind and mutton chop bones. In cold weather it is possible to measurably separate and sort the different lots. In hot weather it is simply a mass of grease, not sufficiently melted to be homogeneous, but so far advanced as to yoake if impossible to vouch for all be- ing originally butter fat. The profit of the ladlers lies in intel- ligent grading and inerease in weight by salting, washing and reworking, also mcre or less im the success of the vari- ous processes used in eliminating ran- cidity and restoring the semblance of grain and flavor tothe mass. The article resulting is called butter and goes into the butter market, but it may well be doubted whether, as a food product, it is as good as average butterine. Asa rule “‘ladles’’ are quoted in the Chica- go market at about two-thirds the price of creamery butter and about four-fifths the price of dairy butter of like grade, extras, firsts or seconds. What is known as ‘‘imitation creamery’’ is as a rule nothing but selections of the best ladled goods. Alfalfa Is the Best. Here are some tables showing the value of corn for ensilage, of oats and peas, and particularly of alfalfa, of which four crops may be cut in a sea- son, besides ancther small crop in Oc- tober. There is no food better relished by animals, The following table shows the value of alfalfa and the comparative yield of digestible dry matter in several crops used as cattle food: Yield green per acre. Tons. BEM, bicmicsctesiic dbatcel din a o'« da cues 40 . ay ne BUR dc cade + seers aden cbacdiecdiesaae oa oan 200 1896 cc eeeee weer theese eee eeeeere eter aeeeeeere 17.5 UEVOEORS ox cncccdcssscus bcis eeadgeee naan cia 17.6 This contains about 25 percent of dry matter. 17.60, 25=4.4 toms dry matter per acre, or 8,800 pounds. 8,800x90.58=5,104 pounds digestible matter per acre, The first cutting was May 12 to 15 during the three years. The last cutting was in October. Comparative yield of digestible dry mutter in different crops: Pounds. POW anaes fui c cc saee bescu c¥endb bivteyeumaee Wire, TOW BOS as ic icc. 6s cance cal 4,352 Corn, South Carolina, average 8 years.... 3,251 Corn, Flint, average 3 years..........+. -- 8,076 Hungarian, averago 3 years............ ica ee Rutabagas, averuge 8 years.............0. - 2,078 Oats and peas, eut green, average 3 years.. 1,762 Oats and peas, matured, average 3 years.. 2,521 ~ Hi ONLY True Bivud Purifer prominently in the public eye to- day is Hood’s Sarsaparilla. Therefore get Hood’s and ONLY HOOD’S. Count Nicholas Ksterhazy, who died recently at Tctis. in Hungary, waa well kno vn on the turf in England, France and Au-tra. Ee gaveordere that he should be buried in a red hunting coat with all the honors of .be chase. Sold ia That is, Tea leaves, scientifically prepared, from lead early pickings, off well cultivated plants—is a — wholesome, invigorating drink. come Few people, however nervous, are otherwise than fragrance. pleasantly affected by drinking properly prepared 0 gr “FROM ANCIENT INDIA ano SWEET CEVLON."® Vien’s Straw Hats WE SHOW A NICE STOCK LONDON HOUSE 1. J. HARRIS. Dont Ask for Credit AT THE—— CITY HARDWARE STORE But buy cheap for cash, Doing business all for cash with small expenes we can do with a small protit; consequently you can buy cheap for cash. i 8. NORTON & 60,, J. F. NORTON, PROPRIETOR <9 tapes ais i. a rena eet . blic Good Will grows slowly ; when secured, it is a treasure without price, to be care fully guarded and judiciously fostered; therefore we keep constant guard on goods and prices, and sce to it that our ads are always in accordance with facts. ASE TO SEE our high back cane seat and brace armhaire for 75ec. JOHN NEWSON ordre ordre oxbye srbys exdye oxy ordre ordye os ee D> 2 coe aos oo USISTSISISTS ISIS ISIS ISAS —— caLS ay - . —_— —— PARMERS | ATTENTION! Have you heard the news? We have the goods that lead the list. Use them and you will laugh and be happy, and not swear and be mad. Provincial Cemical Fertilizers Give full sanisfaction, the largest «rops at the smallest cost for fertilizers. Use the high grade complete Fertilizers. We do not keep the “‘cheopest” good «, but the hest, and give tha most yalue for the money. The Dominion Cheuist on hss Fertilizer Bulletinfsbows this. Teese goods can be ordered of our agents in all parts of the Province they are soluble, active, sure, Give them a trial. WE STILL have a small siock of Seel Wheat. Barley, Buckwheat, Ensilage Corn, Peas, Vetches, Sorse Beans, Timothy Seed, Ciover Seed, Mangel Seed,’ Carrot Seed, Turnip Seed, Calf Meal, Oil Cake, etc., which we are clearing out very cheap, ARE HE*E--WHAT? 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