HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1915-8-26, Page 2reen Seal
By CHARLES I DMONDS WALK
Author of "The Silver Illade," "The Paternoster Ruby,"
ices
stst toes:
"The Time Loci.," etc. kflO
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CHAPTER I. i.
To begin with, my curiosity in the
ring was aroused, at first only mildly,
by the gingerly way in which the pub-
lic administrator handled it. It • was
an unsightly object, to be sure; but ;
this did 'not account for the extreme
caution with which he laid it up the
desk bets -eon us. Indeed, to tell no
more than the -simple truth, if human
expressions mean anything at all, I"
now know that he looked at it with
mingled suspicion and fear.
I smiled and asked lightly: "Afraid
it will bite you?" -
Ile did not respond to my humor.
"Something of the kind, yes;" was
the Saber reply.
Quite as a matter of course, then, I
expressed a polite interest, sufficient ,
to inquire what the thing might be.-
"A
e.-"A ring,' the public administrator
told me, eying me with a sort of fur-
tive intentness- "a finger ring."
"Doesn't look like it," I commented
disparagingly, "Looke to me more
like a broken off section of some
thug's br a, s -knocks only ` it ctoe n't
seem to be brass."
"No," Mr. Unruh agreed, 9t is not
braes. •Doe Hagan scratched off a
bit of that black crust; underneath
silver. But, Brice—my dear boy"
--his glance grew peculiarly keen -
9t k a thing of the devil!"
My interest mounted a degree,
thoe h my mind remained more t or
less occupied with the melancholy ob-
ject c,f my errand. Dr, Iaagan was
the coroner, and even though brought
into the talk only casually, suggest-
ed tragedy.
"What do you mean by that?" I
asked.
Without replying directly, he went
any. Perhaps poor Charley °licked it
all off. Anyway—afterwards—before'
anybody thought of poison—a dozen
people must have handled the ring,
and not a blessed one of them sustain-
ed any ill effect." His next words
again drew my attention to it.
"If you'll observe the way the
thing's made—how the metal comes
up all round the edges of the set—
you may see how anybody could fool
with the ring—even carry it in his
closed hand—without the jade set
touching the flesh. Then again it
might. And there you are."
Taking chances with such a dreadful
lethal instrument seemed very much
Like playing with a cobra.
Air. Unruh was not yet through,
however.
"That brings me to the strangest
part of the whole affair," said he. t
'On the ball of one of Charley Yen's'
thumbs --the one he licked ---was a '
print of the character carved on the
pet; green, too, it was, like the jade.
Looked mare like a bruise than a
stain, though."
I shuddered. The very mysterious-
ness of the sudden fatality made it
all the more shocking and awful.
Yet, for some unaccountable reas-
on, the. ring was beginning to have an
uncanny sort of f u'eination for me.,
Where had the governor ever come
by such an object? And had he been
aware of its secret, but none the less'
deadly, potency?
With considerable pains not to let
nny fingers touch the set, as you may
very well believe, I dropped the ring
into the little carved box and snap-
ped down the lid. It was stowed away
with most of my other belongings, and
in a day or two I was on qty way
back to New York to resume my in-
terrupted studies.
The conversation just recorded oc-
curred shortly after my father's
death; and in order that you may fol-
low the story I have undertaken to
tell ---I am sure before I am through
you will call it an extraordinary one
—it is necessary that I set down some
facts about him and about myself.
You already know how I came to
have the ring. Although personally
I may be wholly unknown to you, as
no doubt I am, my father's name in-
stantly will be identified with a
rhyming :advertising; catch -line which
has stared America in the face, from
all sorts of unexpected places, for
more than a generation ---
"Ferris Teas Always Please."
He was none other, in short, than
the late Peter B. Ferris, whose chain
of tea stores at one time dotted the
country over.
Long before my father was mar-'
ried, he was "buyer" for a prominent
New York tea and spice importing
concern, and consequently spent most
of his time in China, Japan. Ceylon
and other tea -growing count. ies. His
was a profession that calls for a high -
17 trained knowledge, and his salary
was correspondingly large. But he
was too aggressive and possessed
business acumen of too high an order;
to remain content in another's em-
ploy, no matter how large the salary;
so by degrees he built up an'd control -1
led the vast business referred to.
The lady who afterwards became
his wife and my mother he met at
Hongkong, the daughter of an Eng-;
lish officer at the time stationed in;
the Anglo -Chinese city. I
That I happened to be barn int
California instead of the Orient was
little more than an .accident. My mo-
ther, on a sudden impulse, accom-d
panied my father during one of his
rare visits home, and the journey was
broken at San Francisco by my inop-
portune arrival and my mother's
death. This period fell something
like twenty-eight years ago, from the
date of this writing.
The collapse of my father's busi-
ness and his sudden death, the second
event following the first in a sequence
of immediate cause and effect, is a
subject I need not enter into at
length. Like many another man of
excellent business judgment before
him, in his later days he was led away
by the glamor and lure of unwise
I speculations—gold mines, copper
mines, Wall Street, and what -not. It
is a form of obsession difficult if not
impossible to account for.
I It is sufficient to record that when
the company's affairs were readjust-
ed my patrimony consisted of means
just ample enough toenable me to
complete my post -graduate course at
Columbia, to provide me with an ade-
iquate law library and a suite of of
Aces in a desirable building, and to
comfortably the em t
tide me overempty
' period of waiting providing that
[period should not prove too long —
' that is more or less every young law-
yer's s Iot.
There was also a quantity of bizarre
bric-a-brac, which represented my fa-
ther's tastes as a collector of Eastern.
curiosities—and the queer ring.
So while Ferris teas still continue
to please—the name has too great a
commercial value to be abandoned —
they please and interest me only re-
motely, since I haven't the slightest
monetary, concern in the huge enter-
prise that' stands as a monument to
the memory of Peter D. Ferris.
I chose Los Angeles as the most
promising field in which to carve out
my career. To save my life I couldn't
now tell why, unless it was that fa-
ther had regarded it as his home
Own—though Heaven knows he saw
little enough of it. Anyway, for
some such hazy reason 1 had, special-
ized'in the exceedingly intricate and
complex Californian Irrigation Laws.
Also, at one time and another,
Peter B. Ferris had owned consider-
able property in and about Les An-
geles. Very littleof this property, it
may be added, descended to me.- When
you consider his exact business meth-
ods, as they had been in the season
or.:
"1 theft know what associations it
may have had for your father, but it
nest have held some very special
value for hien; some unusual septi
meat that none of hisapers that I
have been able to find explains. I
thought perhaps you might throw
some Tight --give me some clue—"
"I'm sure I don't know," I broke
into his groping utterance. "What
mares you thing so?"
"Because he not only kept it in that
little carved ivory box, but also lock-
ed in ane et' his safe-deposit boxes—
the ane containing the most import-.
ant and private of his papers."
Mr. Unruh had my undivided at -1
tentwn new. Investing as they did
the insignificant looking trinket with
an importance far beyond anything
it seemed to warrant, his concluding e
words certainly were strange. I sato
staring at it, puzzled and wondering,
and bv-and-by glanced at the odd'
ivory Lox, which I had not noticed be-
fore. Then I reached forward to pick I
up the .ring, •
Quick as a flash, Mr. Unruh's hand
shot across the desk and caught my
wrist before I could touch the thing.
"Don't!" he cried in a tone so start -1
ling that I submitted out of sheer as-
tonishment. "For God's sake, don't
touch it! Wait till you have heard
the rest!"
Satisfied, after a moment's alarmed ;
scrutiny, that I was fully awakened
to the ring's latent possibilities of
danger, he released my hand, saying '
with a sigh of relief: '
"What a start you gave me! You
haven't heard the worst—not by a
jugful!
"This very morning, while I was ,
sorting these papers of your father's,
quite unexpectedly I came across the
small box. Just as I opened it to see'
what might be inside, in came Charley,
Yen, one of our regular Chinese court
interpreters. Poor devil!" e
The speaker's serious air was hav-
ing its proper effect on me: I was fast
growing impatient. I
"Go on, for Heaven's sake!" I urg-
ed. "You make me feel like an ac-
cornplice in something criminal; as
if something terrible were about to
happen."
He solemnly nodded his head at I
me.
"Terrible is right," he said. He
pointed at the ring. "Notice the set? •
No, No, don't touch it. It's jade—
Chinese green jade. It looks clean
and bright enough now; it was half
hidden by a layer of dirt.
"I handed it to Charley, asking him
what he could make of it. Twice he
wet the ball of his thumb with his
tongue and rubbed the set so he might
examine it better. The second move-
ment was the last he will ever make
in this world. He saw the set all
right and what's carved on it. I'll
never forget the look on his face if I
live to be a hundred!
"All at once the ring clattered on
the desk. Charley '
rl y cru milled up on
the floor=right where you're sitting
now. He didn't make a sound."
I confess that I shot my chair back
in a jiffy.
J Y
"Dead ?" I cried in horror.
"Dead," replied Mr. Unruh, simply.
"Why—what—how did the thing
happen?" I stammered.
Mr. Unruh's gesture was as elo-
quent as his spoken reply,
"You can search me, Poison?
Ha-
gan couldn't find the least trace of
1 CLOTHES FOR THE
YOUNG GIRL,
The plaited skirt for the young;
girl is proving a great success, if we
may take the great number seen at
the summer resorts as a criterion.
When the whole dress, shirtwaist and
skirt, is made in plaited effect, the re-
sult is very pleasing indeed. This
dress, Ladies' home Journal Pattern
No. 8988, has a raised waistline,
and consists of a waist opening in
front with yoke finished with a turn-
down collar, full-length sleeves with
open cuffs, and a fitted lining, a seven
gore skirt, perforated for deep hem
facing. The pattern cuts in size 14,
10, 18 and 20 years, requiring in size
16, 11% yards 36 -inch material.
Ladies' Home Journal Pattern No.
8980 is a Ladies' and Misses' Peplum
Waist, opening in front with roll col-
lar or Quaker collar and full-length or
shorter sleeves, and a circular peplum.
The pattern cuts in size 32 to 44 inch-
es bust measure. Size 36 requires
ase yards 36 -inch material,
Pattern No. 8981 is a Misses'. Ones
Piece Skirt, gathered to a three-piece
yoke, with slightly raised waistline.
Suitable for flouncing. The
pattern
cuts in sizes 14, 16, 18 and 20 years.
Size 16 requires 3% yards 36 -inch
material.
Patterns, 15 cents each, can be pure
chased at your local Ladies' Horne
' Journal Pattern dealer, or from The
Ilame Pattern Company, 183-A George
Street, Toronto,
of his prosperity, it is strange that
he should have died intestate; but
suchichld.was the case, and I was the only
Under certain provisions of the
Californian law, his affairs were tak-
en charge of by the public adminis-
trator, who at some time years before,
jt appeared, had been a very good
friend of my father's. When the
estate was finally wound up, and he.
had been discharged by the Probate
Court from further obligation to me,
it was this gentleman, Mr. Unruh,
Who gave me the ring, as I have al-
ready described.
Mr. Unruh was sorry for me and
tried to cheer me up. I was alone,
without a living relative, that I knew
of, and instead of being rich and in-
dependent, as I had securely expected
to be, I was brought face to face with
the stern realization that I would
have to grub for my bread and but-
ter. But I was not altogether dis-
mayed, I even found heart after a
moment to grin at him; thus forestal-
ling, I suspect, a homily of advice and
encouragement, which no doubt he
felt it his duty to offer me.
My talk with Mr. Unruh—Charley
Yen's death—my acquirement of the
fatal ring—this all happened six
years ago. And much can happen
within the space of six years! For
one thing, I had built up a desirable
and lucrative practice in my special
branch of the law. But all the cir-
cumstances that fell so soon after
father's death had slipped far into
the background of memory, there to
remain until the morning of which I
am now about to write.
This was the way of it. It was a
day in April; to be precise, the four-
teenth—calendar day in Court. In
the morning I had occasion to go to
my own safe-deposit box, 'and there
quite unexpectedly I happened upon
the carved box, where it had lain ac-
cumulating dust. The ring's mysteri-
ous potency, the tragic morning six
years before, came back with a rush.
"Well!" I voiced my surprise. "What
the dickens are you doing here?"
I carried it with me back to my of-
fices.
During the idle hour after luncheon,
with infinite precautions I took the
ring from the box. Excepting the
green set with its enigmatic symbol,
where Charley Yen had licked it clean,
it was tarnish d—. adl tarnished—
incrusted
incrusted all over with a sort of black
scale, as if it had been through fire,
or had lain a long, long time at the
bottom of the sea.
or the first time I examined the
set at leisure. The single character,
tvhich I took to be a Chinese or Jap-
anese ideograph, naturally enough
was quite meaningless to me. A de-
tail to be remembered is! that is was
,
carved jade, into the ' not in relief. But
as I was destined to encounter its fac-
simile before many days had elapsed,
under circumstances peculiarly tragic
and mysterious, it may be well to
have a look at it.
By and by I proceeded to rub the
metal part with a chamois: pen -wiper,
but the exercise produced no appre-
ciable effect. Emery -paper, manifest-
ly, was indicated for• this job. I rub-
bed harder. Then I was interrupted
by the outer door opening.
The postman entered. He tossed
some pieces of mail upon the table in
the reception room. He uttered a
pleasant salutation, indicative ..of a
sprightly mood, as became a good
genie, and then he went his way: A
this was a' familiar four -times -a -day
occurrence to me. But through th
doorway between the two rooms my
attention was attracted and held by
a parcel among the letters and pa-
pers. In size and shape it was sug-
gestive of the ring -box.
Stub, my office -boy, had not yet
returned from his noontide outing,
and moved by an odd, incomprehen-
sible curiosity, I went myself and
fetched theparcel back to my deck.
I quickly ad the wrapping off. Im-
agine my amazement when the coun-
terpart of the ivory box stood reveal-
ed before mel
For several minutes I painstaking-
Iy compared the two, slowly scrutiniz-
ing with the aid of a reading -glass
every minute line of the finely engrav-
ed pattern. My untrained eye could
not detect a shade of difference to dis-
tinguish the one from the other.
Then it occurred to me to look in-
side the second box. Did it also con-
tain a strange, outlandish instrument
of death, a duplicate of the first?
I lifted the lid and caught my
breath sharply.
In a blaze of multi -colored corusca-
tions, there rolled out upon my blot-
ting -pad a diamond as big as a hick-
ory-nutl
(To be continued.)
THE GERMANNLLIAR AGAIN.
Untraths Told About Britain to De-
ceive German People.
The most amazing untruths con=
cerning Great Britain are daily circu-
lated in Berlin for the purpose of de-
ceiving the German publie into the
belief that Great Britain is in a state
of panic. Here are a few of these
gems which make up in humor what
they lack in veracity:
"Sir John Jellicoe is to be tried for
incapacity."
"The organ of the Labor Party de-
mands that the whole Cabinet shall
be impeached for participation in The
war."
"The Indian troops in France were
told before leaving India that they
were being taken to Europe for exhi-
bition purposes:"
"Half of London is burnt down, and
Zeppelins are always hovering over
it. Plymouth has also been destroyed
by fire, caused by bombs from the
air"
"Mr. Asquith has fled- from Eng-
land,"
and.is hidingin Ireland.
"The citizens of London now hurry
hither and thither like k scared mice
because their battalions of football
kickinglouts are meltingaway before
the fire of the German artillery."
"Instead of blowing their victims
from the mouths of their guns as they
did. in the; Indian Mutiny, the British
employ the :t truly now p y r y humane and
gentle actingdum-dum d bullets, with
thb approval of Lord Kitchener."
"The French. Government pays for
the 'support of Britislaa*troops, so that
each man draws on a day on' which
there is no fighting four francs, while
on each fighting day he is entitled to
eight francs. The British are also
completely: clothed and fed by the
French."
"Tile deeds of the German fteet are
already causing the Lords of the Ad-
miralty sleepless nights while on
board the British ships fearful appre-
hension lurks in every corner."
I "Come into the army,' says the
Al
youths.
o British xeYouing shall havesergeant
a villa the
in
eIhome, a bengal() on the •Mediterran-
ean, and m two months you shall be
King of the Belgians,' "
"As you like it"
TSA
B 20
SEALED PACKETS! BLACK,' MIXED
ONLY. OR GREEN..
Cow Testing .Associations. G
The cow testing associations is a fl
plan of co-operation among dairymen
for the purpose of regularly and
economically testing their cows for,
production of milk and butter fat. A'
usual estimate places the average
production of cows at 175 pounds of
butter per cow per year: In these
days people who are familiar with
dairying think in terms of butter fat,
and if the above average be translat-
ed to fat it makes about 150 pounds.
At 30 cents a pound, which has been ;
the average price for the last three:
years, the annual income per cow is
$45.
If the above figures are taken as a
foundation, it is very apparent that
there are many cows which are not
paying the cost of their keeping. The,
use of the scales and the Babcock test
has discovered in almost every herd
tested some cows that do not pay the
cost of keeping. If dairying is to be
made as profitable a business as it
ought to be and as it has a right to
be under proper management, these
robber eows must be apprehended.
There is no means of knowing what
a cow is producing without weighing'
and testing her milk at regular inter-,'
vats. A dairyman selling niillc by col-
ume may not be concerned in thebut-
ter fat content farther than is neces-
sary to keep up to legal standard, but
one who is selling butter fat is vitally
concerned in the amount each cow pro- t
duces, Each dairyman may test his
own cows, but facing the condition
squarely it is known that very few do.
At a recent daityinen's meeting this .
paint was raised—that a testing assn+
dation was not necessary, because
each man could test his own cows. The
question was then asked: "flow many
present have Babcock's testers?"
Twelve out of a gathering of 60 an-
swered in the affirmative. In rely
to the .question, "How many of you
who have testers use .them ?" only
ene answered in the affirmative.
The object of cow testing essocia-
tions is to make the use of scales and
Babcock machine a community affair
—to unite dairymen into a partner-
ship for the purpose of employing a
trained man to visit each Herd at reg-
ular monthly intervals and 'weigh and
test the milk of each (ow. At the end
of the year, this man gives each dairys
man a record of the individuals in his
herd with little work or trouble to
him and at the cost of about $1 per
cow.
The tester weighs and samples the
milk of each cow at the evening and
morning milking and tests the com-
bined sample for butter fat. Before
leaving, he "makes calculations so that
he may leave with the dairyman the
record of each cow down to date.
In European countries and some of
the states in this country, one of tho
duties of a tester is to weigh and keep
a record of food consumed by the
cows, The cost to the dairyman for
complete testing varies from 80 cents
to $1.60 a year for each cow. This
variation is due to the number of
cows in the associations and to the
size of individual herds.
DEATH OFFENCES IN AR31Y.
Soldiers May Be Shot for Many Rea.
sons on Active Service.
There are more than a dozen dif-
ferent offences for which a British
soldier may be sentenced • to death
while on active service.
The first on the list of death of-
fences applies to a commanding offi-
cer and reads, "Shamefully delivering
up a garrison when in command of
troops, 'without due necessity—pun-
ishment, death."
A soldier can be shot for throwing
away his rifle in the presence of the
enemy, for cowardice, or for leaving
his commanding officer in order to
plunder. If he forces his way past a
sentry on 'active service he may be
sentenced to death, or for assaulting
any one bringing up provisions for the
troops.
Soldiers areas expressly forbidden
while on active service to commit any
offence against a resident of the coun-
try in which he is fighting under pain
of death, nor may he break into any
house in search of plunder, or dis-
charge his rifle intentionally to create
a false alarm on the march.
A soldier while acting as sentry
who is found sleeping at his post may
'
be shoe Any man causing or joining
a mutiny is liable to be shot. Deser-
tion or attempt at desertion while on
active service is naturally a death
sentence.
Letting Well Enough Alone.
"Madam," said a doctor one day
to the mother of a sweet, healthy
babe, "the ladies have deputed me
to inquire what you do to have such
a happy, uniform good child?"
The mother mused for a moment
over the strangeness of the' ques-
tion, and then replied, simply and
beautifully:
"Why, God has given me a healthy
child, and I let it alone."
Whatever It Is.
"I don't see how they can afford
to do it on his salary."
"Ho you know what his salary is
"No, but I don't see how they can
afford things, just the same."
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For sixty` years the
Refinery has led
modern equipment, up d ods,
and the.pursuit of one ideal—absolutely
pare sugar.
In the Packages
-the '2 and 5 lb, Cart
50 and- 100 Ib. Cloth 13get
Canada's favorite sugar, in perfect condition
"Let
CANADA SUGAR REFINING ,
♦%iOStaeseeetertte�?wre s tel!:•e~erj0 eestea iOessea •siege cess Ytereee a 44'4'