Show acks bmw no 0 r adew t SYNOPSIS MISS ml lanes innes spinster and guardian of 0 gertrude anil and Ila ll aliey isey established summer headquarters at Sunny sunnyside side arnold armstrong armil trong was as found hot to death in the tha hall all gertrude and her it blanc a nc J jack a ek ualle dalley had un verd in n th the billiard room rooi I 1 shortly before t aliu in murder adar detective jamieson Jam leaon accused alai innes of holding back evidence lahler cashier balley of paul armstrongs bank defunct was wai arrea arrested ted lor for embezzlement paul armstrongs death ans ns anno announced halseys Hal tian coo louise armstrong told that while she he still loved him hg she was to marry anther another it developed that dr walker was t the he mar man I boutte out was f mounil 0 und unconscious at t the bottom of 0 the ci circular staircase she bald something lne had brushed by he be in the dark on the stairway and SI alie I 1 fainted ballay is suspected of ar arrn M tr ongle a murder thomas the loddeke er was found dead with ith a note in eel hl pocket fa 0 c kt 1 bearing the name nama luceen wallace c e A A ladder found out of place deep elis ns the mystery the stables were turned burned and in it ali dark ass innes shot an n intruder hairy mysteriously disappeared ilia hla auto was wa found wrecked by a freight train it developed halsey had an n argument in the tha library with a woman before his disappearance new rook cook disappears miss innes learned lla hicy w va alive allie dr Wal wallers liers face ace b becomes e coma avid A at 1 mention nilon of 0 the tha name of nina carrington evidence was secured cured from a tramp that a man supposedly ll li alsey had been bu bound d and egged and thrown into an aptt box car gertrude was missing hunting for her miss innes ran into ft a man inan and I 1 fainted A confederate of dr walk walker e r bonfe condensed con tensed ed his part in the hie mystery ler Y iia he stated state th that t the carr agton woman had been killed that tha t wa walker er feared her and t that hat he believed liell eved that paul arm trona had been killed hilled by a hand guided by walker halsey was found in a distant hospital paul armstrong was vas not lead CHAPTER continued the slip had said chir chimney riney it was the only clue and a house as large as aa Sunny sunnyside side was full of 0 them there them was an open fireplace tn in m my Y dressing room but mono in the bedroom and as I 1 lay there looking around I 1 thought of something that made me sit up suddenly the trunk room just over my head had bad an open fireplace ace and a brick chimney and yet there was waa nothing of 0 the kind in my room I 1 got out ot of bed and examined the opposite wall closely there was apparently no flue arid and I 1 knew there was none in tile the hall ball just beneath Tie neath the house houge was heated by steam as I 1 have said before in the living room was a huge open fireplace kut but it was on the other side why did the trun kroom have b both 0 th a 41 radiator and an open fireplace replace fl architects were not usually erratic it was not 15 minutes before I 1 was upstairs armed with a tape measure in lieu ot of a foot rule eager to justify mr Jami esons opinion of my int intelligence ellige nce ind and firmly resolved not to tell him of my suspicion until I 1 had more than theory to go on the hols hole tn in the trun kroom wall still yawned dawned there between the chimney and the ou outer wall I 1 examined it again with no now new result the space between the brick bri ck wall wait and the plaster and lath one however had a new significance the hole showed only one side of the chimney and I 1 determined to investigate what lay in the space on oa the other aide ide of the mantel I 1 had a blister on my palm when at t last the hatchet went through and fell with what sounded ke the report of a gun to my overstrained over strained nerves I 1 sat on a trunk waiting to hear liddy fly up the stairs stain with the household behind her like the tall of a comet but nothing happened and with a growing feeling of I 1 set to work enlarging the opening the result was absolutely nil when I 1 could hold a lighted candle in the opening I 1 saw precisely what I 1 had seen on the other side or of the chimney a space between the true wall and the false one possibly seven feet long and about three feet wide it was in no sense of the word a secret chamber and it was evident it had not been disturbed since the house was built it was a supreme disappoint it had bad been mr Jami esons idea that the hidden bidden room it if there was one would be found somewhere near the circular staircase in fact I 1 knew that he had once investigated the entire length ot of the clothes chute banging to a rope with this in view I 1 was r reluctantly luct antly about to concede that wash he be haj ad been right when my eyes tell fell on the mantel and fireplace the lat ted had evidently never been used it was closed with a metal fire front and only when the front refused to move and investigation showed that it was not intended to be moved did ray my spirits revive I 1 hurried into the next room yes mure aure enough there was waa a similar man t tel el and fireplace there similarly closed in both rooms the chimney flue extended well out from the wall I 1 measured with the tapeline tape line m my hands trembling so that I 1 could scarcely hold it they extended two feet and a halt into each room which with the three feet of space between the two partitions made eight feet to ie be accounted for eight feet in onu one direction and almost seven in the other what a chimney it wasl was but I 1 had only located the hidden room I 1 was not in it and no amount of pressing on the carving of the wooden mantels no search of the floors coors for loose boards none of the customary imp methods availed at all that there was a means of 0 entrance and probably A dimple one I 1 could be b certain but bat what what would I 1 ond it if I 1 did get in lne was the detective right and bete the bonds and money from the traders bank there or was wan our whole theory wrong 4 I 1 alt ole 1 I heard a bad and pitiful narrative would not paul armstrong have taken his booty with him if I 1 he had not and if dr walker was ag in the secret lie would have known how bow to enter the chimney room then who had bad dug the other hole in the false parti tion CHAPTER anne watsons Wat sont story liddy laddy discovered the fresh break in the trun kroom wall while we were at t luncheon and ran shrieking down the stairs she mantal ned that as she entered unseen hands had been digging at the plaster that they them bad stopped when she went in and she had felt a gust of cold damp air in support of her story she carried lr in my wet and muddy boots that I 1 had unluckily forgotten to hide and held thorn them out to the detective and myself iny self what did I 1 tell you she said dramatically look at em e thare V yours miss and co covered cloverell m verell chwe watt a mud and soaked to the tops I 1 tell you you can scoff all yu you like something has been wearing your shoes As sure as you sit there theres there a the smell of the graveyard on them ilow how do we know they tramping through the casanova Ca churchyard last night and sitting on the gra graves veal mr jamieson Jam leson almost choked to death 1 I be at all surprised if they were doing that very thing liddy he said when he got his breath they certainly look like iv it I 1 think the detective had a plan on n which he was working but which was meant to be a coup but things went so fast there was no time to carry it into effect the first thing that occurred was a message from the charity hospital that mrs watson was dying and had asked for me I 1 did not care much about going there Is IB a sort of melancholy plea sure to be had out of a funeral with its pomp and ceremony but I 1 shrank from a deathbed death bed Ilo however wever liddy got gotaut out the black things and the crepe yell veil I 1 keep for such occasions and I 1 went I 1 left mr air jamieson Jam leson and tile the 1 day detective going over every inch of the circular staircase pounding probing and measuring I 1 was inward ly elated to think of tile the surprise I 1 was going to give them that night as it turned out I 1 did surprise them al most into spasms I 1 drove from the train to the chart ty hospital and was at once taken to a ward there in a gray walled room in a high iron bed lay mrs wat son she was very weak and sh she e only opened her eyes and looked at me when I 1 sat down beside her I 1 was wag conscience stricken we had been so engrossed that I 1 had left this poor creature to die without even a word of sympathy the nurse gave her a stimulant and in s little while she was able to talk so broken and half coherent however was her story that I 1 shall tell it in my own way in an hour from the time I 1 entered the charity hospital I 1 had bad heard beard a sad and pitiful narrative and had seen a woman slip into the unconsciousness that Is only a 0 step from death briefly lefly then the housekeepers story was this she was almost 40 0 years old and had been tho the sister slator mother of a large family of children one by one they had died and been burled buried beside their parents in a little town in the tha middle west there was only one sister left the baby lucy on her the older girl had lavished all the love of an sive and emotional nature when anne the elder was 32 and lucy 19 a young man had come to the town ile he was going east after spending the summer at a celebrated ranch in wy omi ngone one of those places where wealthy men send worthless and dla dis sons for a season of temper ance fresh air and hunting the sisters of course knew nothing of this and the young mans ardor rather carried them away in a word seven years before lucy haswell had married a young roan man whose name was given as aubrey wallace anno anne If haswell aswell had married a carpenter in her native town and was a widow for three months everything went fairly well aubrey took his bride to chicago where they lived at a hotel perhaps the very cation that had charmed him in valley mill jarred on him in the city lie ile had been far from a model husband even for the three months and when he disappeared anne was almost thankful it was different with the young wife however she drooped and fretted and on the birth of her baby boy she had died anne took the child and named him jullen J fanne anne had had no children of her K 0 and on lucien she had lavished all her aborted maternal instinct on one thing she was determined however that was that aubrey wallace should educate his boy it was a part of her devotion to the child tb that at she should be ambitious for him he must have every opportunity and so BO she came east she drifted around doing plain sewing and keeping a home somewhere always for the boy finally however she realized that her only training had been domestic land and she put the boy in an episco home and secured the position of housekeeper to the armstrongs gs there she found lucians Luc Luci lens ens father this time under hta his own name it was arnold armstrong I 1 gathered that there was no particular enmity at that time in annes mind she told him of the boy and threatened exposure it if he did not provide for him indeed for a time he be did so then he be realized that luceen was the ruling passion in this lonely womans comans life ile he found out where the child was hidden and threatened to take him away anne anna was frantic the positions became reversed where arnold arna had bad given money for lucians Luc Luci lens ens sop support port as the years went on ho he forced money from anne watson instead until she was always penniless the lower arnold sank in the ecale sea le the heavier his demands became with the rupture between him and his family things were worse anne took the child from the home and hid him in a farmhouse near casanova on the Clays claysburg burg road chere she went sometimes to see the boy and there thera he had ad taken fever the people were germans and he called the farmers wife grossi groa nutter ile he had grown into it beautiful boy and he was all anne had to live for the armstrongs left for california and arnolds persecutions began anew ile he was furious over the childs disappearance and she was afraid he would do her some hurt she sha left the big house and went down to the lodge when I 1 had rented however she had thought the persecutions would stop she had applied for the position of housekeeper and secured it that had been on saturday that night louise arrived unexpectedly thomas sent for sirs mrs watson and then went for arnold armstrong at the greenwood club anne had been fond of louise she reminded her of lucy she did not know what the trouble was but louise had been in a state of terrible excitement mrs wat watson r on tried to hide from arnold but he was ugly lie he left the lodge and went up to the house about was wa admitted at the east cast entrance and came out again very soon something had occurred shot know what but very soon boon mr innes and another gentleman lefts left using the car thomas and sho she had bad got louise quiet und and a little before three mrs watson started up to tho house bouse A thomas had a key hey to the east enar entry and gave I 1 it to her on the way across the lawn she waa by arnold who for some som 0 reason was determined to get into the he house ile ho had a golf stick in his hand that ho be had picked up so somewhere me where and on her refusal tie lie had struck lur her with it one hand had been badly cut and it was that poisoning having set in which was waa killing her she brolie broke may away in a frenzy of rags rage and fear and got into the house while gertrude and jack bailey were wera at the front door she went upstairs hardly knowing what she was doing gertrudes door was wag open and hal seya revolver lay there on the bed she picked it up and turning ran part way down the circular staircase she sh could hear arnold fumbling at the tha lock outside she slipped down quietly and opened tho the door he was inside before she had got back to th ON stairs it was quite dark but she sh could see sea his white shirt bosom from tho the fourth step she fired As he tell fell somebody in the billiard room screamed reamed Bc and ran when the alarm ads raised she had had bad no time to get upstairs she hid bid in the west wing until every one was down on the lower floor then she slipped upstairs and the thew the revolver out of nf an up per window going down again in time to admit the men from the greenwood club it thomas had suspected lie had never told when she found the hand arnold had injured was growing worse she aha gave the address of lucien at to the old man and almost the money was for Lu luculent clent board until she recovered she had sent for me to ask me it if I 1 would try to interest the armstrongs in the th child when she rho found herself growing worse she had written to mrs armstrong telling her nothing but that arnolds legitimate child was at and imploring her to lecog nize him she was dying the boy bo was an armstrong and entitled to hit hii fathers share of tho the estate the pit pa pers pera were in her trunk at Sunny sunnyside side with letters from the dead man that would prove what she elie said bald it wi was sho she who had crept down the birc circular ula staircase drawn by a magnet that thai night mr air jamieson Jam leson had heard some one there pursued she had fled madly anywhere through the first door she came to she had fallen down the clothes chute and been saved by the basket beneath I 1 could have cried with relief then it had n nut 0 been gertrude after all that teat was the story sad and an tragic kragl though it was the very telling of it ic seemed to relieve to dying woman she did not know thomas was dead and I 1 did not tell |