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H
J 'iPil. H&k e'Pul Example Set by Mrs. Fahnestock s H
J p tilIJ Brave Resistance of the Villainous H
W fl Valet Who Threatened to Besmirch
I 3B& ' ;lllf? iflB er ame and Unsuccess- I
ojn to pay or 1 'J'JW
no??' nc snarled"
"j r rs Ginsox
PAH N E -
STOCK, Jr ,
elated nt the dress- )
ing table in her bou-
rfoir, heard the door
open abruptly behind her and an unex
pected footfall, half muffled by a soft
rue;.
She stiffened. In the well-ordered
Chateau de Montaligne, one of the show
places of Nice, none of the household was
accustomed to qui h uncei emonio ta pro-
1 cedure. Even a personal maid must
needs knock and request permission be
fore entering the boudoir of Madame
J Nothing had heralded this intruder's
4 aoproach, as sudden as it was stealthy.
$ Madame waited for an explanation.
None came. Instead, there was an omi
nous click as the door was closed The
footfalls sounded again as the unknown
presence drew nearer.
The offended feeling of the distin-
guished-looking matron at the dressing
table was succeeded by one of alarm.
She clutched her filmy negligee about
,c her, but the paralysis of fear was upon
her and she felt powerless to turn her
head.
I:1
3. Across the length of the dainty hou-
J! doir. Past the foot of the canopied French
befi- sounded the footsteps. Relentlessly
r tnP presence came nearer and nearer.
One more step and the mirror on
Madame's dressing table would reveal
b all.
J A. smothered sen-am e caped Mrs.
t Fahnestock'a jips, for the reflection in
her mirror showed her the menacing
muzzln of a revolver. '
At last she regained power over her
JS muscles and whirled around, shrinking
(, ba?k against the table. And then she
0 recognized the threatening figure her
husband's valet.
Jj The dark, saturnine features of the
?d man were gathered m a scowl. "Well,
& are you going to pay or not?" he snarled.
h'e The womai . white tin- lip-, gasped,
b but could no speak. The valet low red
y his weapon.
"I could k:li you easily," he said, "but
(r-' " at would not suit my purpose. 1 have,
jjjjy a far he tie- method thni robber?, 2e
fcD Mre here alone in your I oudi ir. It waa
fj simple. Huw many other tim I might
) have slipped in here to see you! How
df ( often might we hav met in the evenings
in the gardens? As your husband's valet I
I have had unlimited opportunities for i
secret intimacies with you." I
"How dare you say such things!" the I
matron cried. She rose as if to run to
the door and summon aid.
The man drew aside. "'Jail any ono
arid every one you like. You and I will
be found alone in your boudoir. And
then what will people think7" he sneered.
Mrs. Fahnestock shrank back, aghast.
The strength of the valet's vile intima
tions was irrefutable What would be
the attitude of the world, ever ready to
put the worst construction upon mat
ters? Would her mere word stand, even
against the accusations of a rogue?
Would there not always be those to
doubt, in spite of her utmost sincerity
and her mo.t vehement protestations? It
was indeed a desperate situation. Black
mail always is.
When his victim had subsided into
shocked silence the blackmailer elabo
rated his scheme. He would declare to
Mr. Fahnestock, her huaband, that he,
the valet Cuira, and Mrs. Fahenstock
had been involved in a guilty love affair
unless a payment of 500,000 francs was
forthcoming at once. Failure to pay, he
assured her, meant a ruined reputation
and a ruined home.
People will say that where there is
smoke thero is fire, Cuira hinted, with
that diabolical knowledge of the perver
sities of human nature which is the stock
in trade of the blackmailer
Small wonder that poor Mrs. Fahnf
Btock temporized and asked for time to
obtain the money asked. Flourishing his
revolver, the man left the room
.Mrs. Fahnestock, living abroad with
her husband in the luxury of their cha
teau at Nice, had become the target of a
crime which thousands of her fellow
Americans cannot escape, though sup
posedly safe and secure among their
friends at heme.
The valet, Ralph Cuira, had been en
gaged by the Fahneetbcks on high rec
ommendations. A few u-i!iiLa later they
noticed that his hair was changing color.
He was led to explain that he had con
cealed hh identity and that he in reality
wn- the Bfarquis de Castao, Spanish
grandee and member of Maltese nubility.
i : - , i
n l 111 . , I '
' ''' ' - ' J 'rtz. 1 tarric Fohnestock
- . ' M-jl i- I' " o h i ' u ci j 1 e
$Bm American rociety woman
m -.'';p- hr h?d the courage to
X&j, ' v )',,. send a blackmailiriK scrv-
ant to prison
7
T n.: ntinuing hi? education. trous marrinc
Lady Elsie
Mackay, the
English beauty
who is said to
have tipped a would
be blackmailer into v,
the river 3
He then was promoted to secretarial
work and began to pay attentions to Mrs.
Fahnestock and later to threaten her
with blackmail, menacing her with a re
volver and threatening to shoot her and
hi i husband, burn the chateau and com
mit suicide.
I'rofoundiy startled, Mrs. Fahnestock
dared say nothing for u time. Then she
took steps toward the only way to savo
herself. She confided in two persons,
who advised her to take the story at
once to her husband. Trusting to his
faith in her, shu did so.
Still seeking to avoid notoriety, the
FahneK'ocks fled to Paris, but were fol
lowed there by Cuira, who continued to
make threats.
Then Mrs. Fahnestock resoU'ed upon
that courageous act which is the oily
way to beat blackmail to drive it oUt in
the open.
Calling iu the Paris police, thej hud
(
a" plot for the blackmailer. And into it
he fell.
Haled into court, Cuira admitted his
stories of his relations with Mrs. Fahne
stock were lies. He had blackmailed, he
pleaded tearfully, to get money to pay
numerous debts. Hia claims to nobility
were as false as his words, the polico
declared.
The story of the entire affair thus be
came public. Far from reflecting on
Mrs. Fahnestock, her brave action in un
masking the blackmailer has become a
source of groat credit to her.
"It is not true that. I ever offered to
pay anything after he started trying to
blnckmuil me," Mrs. Fahnestock ex
plained in telling of the affair. "The
only offer to help Cwira. who is only
twenty, was when he claimed to be a
marquis. Evidently of good family, I
wanted to help him while he was
Biff SM
'W "We ha-, e been the victim
jr of a dastardly scoundrel who
"r gained our confidence by
r j,, CSv.n ting recommendations. Time
and again I was tempted to pay
him what he asked in order to Wp m
name clear of sensational publicity, but
I decided to fight to the end, knowing
that the court would obtain a confession
from the rogue."
Such was the course of brave Mrs.
Fahnestock. Other victims of blackmail
ers, however, have not known so well the
best manner of dealing with them.
Walter S Ward, the bakery magnate,
was driven to such desperation that ho
shot and killed a man he said was black
mailing him. According to the million
aire's story, before he acted to end tho
torment to which he was being subject
ed, he already had paid out $30,000 to
close the hps f those who said they
stood ready to reveal scandalous stories
about him unless paid. Meeting on a
lonely road the men he said were goad
ing him beyond endurance, Ward drew
his revolver and shot one of them to
death.
In the course of the investigations dur
ing the resulting trial stories were told
Mrs. Walter S. Ward, fflk
whose husband claims T
to have ehot one of I
i:':e gang that was try- I
usg to blackmail him Jmt
which must have caused
suffering to Ward's
beautiful young wife, It
was charged that the
had main- "
tained an apartment in
New York City, where
other women had been
seen in his company. Ice .
These reports Ward's
pistol had not been able
A much wiser and
more able method of
dttling with a black- (
mailer was that prac
l'ed by the remarkable 'I
Lady Elsie Mackay, the
daughter of Lord Inch
ctPi millionaire Briton.
The girl, whose elope- il
meat with the dashin- 'i
'-?Uin Denis Wyndham
nad ended in a dia3- I 'I
trous marrtage, had become an actress E31
in the movies in a brave attempt to win I
her own W She had been abandoned
by her husband and her angry father M 7- '
In that condition tU w.c mm FF dH
u ! as KPProached 1
one day by a man of ROme d fHI' '
ng. who declared T 1
mation to her n I
hertogooutonthamesRiv I I
boat with him, that no J r ln d
hear. There he thre. ,Kht I: ..
girl with a ! ernicious hi!,? startied g :'
Lady Elsie did l pI'Jt ' F-
v. j 01 hesitate ir ? 7-' M
strong, young body une . Ja' Her , I
and the bout lurched suod V n" ",!e W;
With a gasp of mrprffj h W'th her- i'M
blackmailer went 0ver th Would-b8 'mfc-
boat and into the river. S'de of tho ' W
Lady Elsie bent to the IS
to tho nearest police atujrs anr(1 red T'
returned with con stably0", WllCn she Wi;
nowhere to bo found-n , niRn was ffr--
heard of since. r bas he been --f '
The girl, like Mrs Fah jK : "
such courage a. mefl of nflft.nestck, had I
nence luck, men who p atlonl promi. I ' Mfc;
mail trust everv year l a black. Jl?'
To unmask the threats
mail, to fight tho devil "V black. I
only sure defense, hre. t the WtV
