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Show THE STORY THUS FAR: Adam Bruce, FBI operator, Inspector Tope and Mrs. Tope met In the Maine woods. Tope found a man murdered at auto camp. The body was first identified as Mr. Ledforge, Led-forge, head of New England utilities. A car believed to have been used In the murder was raised from the quarries, with a woman's murdered body inside. Proof had been found that both the murdered mur-dered man and the woman had been administered ad-ministered dope prior to their murder. The case, with the suicide of Kell, seemed to have blown up In Tope's face and Joe Dane, assistant D.A., took over the case. Tope, however, still had plans and asked Bruce to help wlUiout saying what he had In mind. CHAPTER XIII "Stay and stay, as il you didn't know when to go. Stay till I come." He turned to Mr. Eberly. "I expect you've old clothes and fishing tackle up at the lodge?" he suggested. "Clothes, yes. Fishing things are at home. Why?" "I'll lend you mine," said Tope. "Wait here." He turned to Mrs. Tope. "You come along, ma'am " he suggested mildly, " case I can't find things." So they departed toward Cascade together; and Adam wondered what Instructions Tope was giving Mrs. Tope. Then the old man returned alone, rod In hand, pockets bulging. "I've got all you'll need, Mr. Eberly," he said. "Now I want to make a phone-call to Whitlock we may need him. Then I'll be with you." Upon the dot of half-past four, Mr. Eberly, alone, wearing shoe-pacs, riding breeches, a loose flannel shirt and a bulky hunting coat buttoned to his throat, came in his own car up the drive to the Ledforge place in the hills above Ridgcomb. Mr. Eberly was rather pale, but steady. The driveway forked, a little below be-low the house; one way led to the house itself, the other toward the garages and the service wing. Mr. Eberly turned In that direction, and as he came to the court upon which the garages faced, he pressed his horn. There were living quarters above the stalls for the cars. At one of the windows there a man appeared, called: "Right, Carl. I'll be down." Mr. Eberly stayed in the car, kept his engine running. A pulse was thumping faintly in his throat. Led-lorge, Led-lorge, his fishing gear in his hands, a moment later appeared. He came briskly toward the car, a gray-haired gray-haired little man with a long nose, deep lines framing his mouth, some-i some-i thing suggestive of the Oriental In the cant of his eyes. He glanced behind him toward the house, climbed Into the car, grasped Eberly Eber-ly by the hand. "How are you Carl?" "First rate," Eberly assured him. He added: "I phoned to make sure you had arrived. You so often have to change your plans." "Lucky you did," Ledforge agreed. "My sister has callers. Your Miss Dewaln, and an iron-Jawed iron-Jawed woman I don't know. Alice fusses about my wearing woods clothes in the house. That's why I told you to come here instead of the front door." And he said: "The trout should rise. Wind's westerly." wester-ly." Eberly made no comment. He was guiding the car up the winding road toward the trout pond, and a thick growth of hemlock and pine had already al-ready hidden from their view the house below them. Ledforge remarked: "I'm in a fishing mood, Carl. Sick of New York. I'd like to stay up here a month and do nothing but fish with you." "How are things In New York?" Ledforge said, moving his shoulders shoul-ders as though to shake off a burden: bur-den: "Well, I've had an unpleasant few days. Holdom has gone wrong, Carl. But let me forget business. Been doing any fishing?" "Got a new rod," Eberly replied. "And I've gone back to snelled flies." "The trout won't know the difference," differ-ence," Ledforge chuckled. "Well, here we are." Eberly pulled up beside the boat-house, boat-house, and they got out and began to set up their rods. "We're here Just at the right time," Ledforge decided. "Best fishing is from now till dark." Eberly nodded, and they turned toward the boathouse. Ledforge was ahead, Eberly behind; be-hind; and Eberly cleared his throat rather loudly, and he asked in a strained tone: "Rufus, you feel all right?" Ledforge whirled to look at him. "Certainlyl I'm tired, but I'm always al-ways tired. Why?" "I don't quite know," Eberly admitted. ad-mitted. "Something about you seems different. Your voice, and the way you handle that rod; and you look a little thinner." Ledforge laughed, not mirthfully. "If you'd been working as hard as I and I've a slight cold." Eberly nodded. "So have I. That's why I bundled up against this wind." He -dded insistently: "I don't know what it is. The way you walk, maybe. You look taller " "Nonsense," Ledforge curtly Insisted. In-sisted. "Come. Get in!" He slid the canoe into the water. "I feci a lot more secure in the rov'boat," Eberly suggested. "And so do the trout," Ledforge retorted with a laugh. "They hear the rowlocks as soon as we leave the dock. Time you got over being be-ing afraid of a canoe, old man." Eberly grinned. "Oh, all right. My life is in your hands," he said, and took the front seat. He held to , the edge of the dock while Ledforge got in, then took his paddle, and they moved away, out of the little cove, around the wooded point, across the pond. Once Eberly turned half around In his seat to look back. The boat-house boat-house was completely hidden by the wooded point betwepn. The wind was behind them, toward the mouth of the gorge where the dam held back these waters. Ledforge, when they were a hundred yards offshore, said: "Stop paddling, Carl, and let's try them here. We'll drift with the wind, fish the shoals here first, and the deep water afterward." "Good enough," Eberly agreed. He laid down his paddle and began to cast, turning a little sidewise so that his back cast would not interfere inter-fere with Ledforge. Thus he was Sri iSfl "Now, Miss Ledforge, I'm sorry, but you mustn't try to deceive us." able to see the other man out of the corner of his eye; and this somehow was consoling. The back of his neck no longer crawled; his spine was no longer cold. Yet he cast badly, his line a tangle on the water. But Ledforge, he saw, did no better. The other's line splashed and slatted against the side of the canoe. Ledforge may have felt Eberly's sidelong glance, for he said: "This line's sticky. Need a new one, I guess." And then he said: "Hullo, you're perspiring, Carl! Better Bet-ter unbutton that coat." Eberly hesitated. "I am a little hot," he agreed, and his back toward to-ward the other man he loosed the upper buttons. He said: "You've forgotten how to cast, Rufus." . There was a momentary pause. They had drifted, Eberly perceived, out into the deep water where the old brook-channel ran. And then Ledforge said: "I'll try it standing up. Always could do better so." He got uncertainly to his feet, and seemed to totter. And suddenly they were both in the water. The canoe, as Ledforge in failing clung to it, dipped one gunwale and thus overturned, over-turned, the other gunwale coming down hard across Eberly's hips as, belatedly, he scrambled clear. The point that hid the boathouse was well over a hundred yards away; the dam and the near shoulder shoul-der of the gorge perhaps fifty yards. Ledforge, without a word, began to swim toward the rocky shore beside be-side the dam. Eberly did not call out as he watched Ledforge swim so quietly away. Joe Dane, in the hour of Tope's humiliation, was quick with a theory of his own. "The whole thing's plain enough," he declared. "Ledforge was having an affair with Mrs. Kell, brought her to Dewain's Mill that night; and Kell trailed them there and killed both of them." They stood in Will Banion's chapel. chap-el. Quill was gone, Doctor Medford busy somewhere In the small rooms behind. Mat Cumberland scratched his head. So Joe remembered Earl Priddy and Isaac Murrell, and took Cumberland Cum-berland to hear their stories. Cumberland Cum-berland questioned Ike at length, and was half convinced at last that Rufus Ledforge had been on Friday night in Little Bear. Afterward they dropped Earl and Ike at Dewain's Mill, and Mat Cumberland himself thanked them for great services to the commonwealth, while Mr. Murrell Mur-rell and Mrs. Priddy stood by In excited pride. Then Joe and Cumberland Cum-berland drove on. It was Just past five when they came up the. drive to the Ledforge mansion. Joe recognized Bee Dewain's De-wain's car at the steps. "What's she doing here?" he wondered; but the district attorney had no answer to propose. Joe rang the bell and asked to see Miss Ledforge. She came to them in the small reception room, and Joe said grimly: "Miss Ledforge, I've an unpleasant unpleas-ant duty. This is District Attorney Cumberland. I'm Mr. Dane, his assistant. as-sistant. We've found a man dead; and some people think it is your brother, Mr. Ledforge. Will you view the body, Identify it?" The frail old woman turned white as snow. "My brother?" she whispered. whis-pered. "Yes. Rufus Ledforge." "But Rufus is here!" Miss Ledforge Led-forge protested, her weak voice somehow desperate. "Here?" It was Joe's turn to be shaken. Then he smiled. "Now, Miss Ledforge, I'm sorry, but you mustn't try to deceive us." "But he is," she Insisted, urgently. urgent-ly. "He's up at the trout pond Ashing Ash-ing with Mr. Eberly." Joe Dane looked at Mat, and he demanded angrily: "Where is this trout pond?" "Why, you take the road past the garage," Miss Ledforge told him. "You can't miss it." Her voice was tremulous, her white hand pressed to her bosom. Dane turned. "Come on, Mat," he said harshly. "We'll soon seel" But Mat said: "Look out, Joel" Miss Ledforge, swaying like a reed, had slipped softly to the floor. They were alone in the reception room, but the door into the hall was open. At Mat's ejaculation, Bee De-wain De-wain appeared there in the doorway, door-way, Mrs. Tope behind her. Joa had tried, too late, to catch the fainting faint-ing woman; he was on his knees now, beside her; he looked up stupidly stu-pidly at Bee, and the girl with a gesture swept him aside. "Get out of here, both of you!" she cried. "You heartless idiotsl We'll take care of her!" Adam carried a rifle; Whitlock, the last to emerge, carried a small outboard motor, awkwardly. "All right. Adam," Tope said briskly. "You and Beal get out on the point where you can see. Whitlock, Whit-lock, put the motor on the rowboat, and don't make any noise. Adam, we won't start till you shoot. Miss him once; but hit him if you have to." Adam nodded, moved quickly away. Behind him. Tope and Whitlock Whit-lock were busy for a while. Then they waited, silent, ready. Adam lay prone In the underbrush on the point, the rifle trained. The canoe was well offshore; he saw the men In it stop paddling and begin to fish. His pulse was shaking him. Later, Ledforge stood up in the canoe; and then he lurched overside and fell. The canoe overturned floated with Its bottom Just awash. Adam, his eyes peering through the sights, saw Eberly floating with his head well out of water, saw Ledforge Led-forge swimming toward the shore. Ten yards of open water lay between be-tween the two men. Ledforge turned to look back. And then he began to swim back toward the other man. Eberly threw up one arm! Adam pressed the trigger; he saw the water leap upward where the bullet hit, midway between the two men. Ledforge looked toward the sound of the report; and at the same Instant the outboard motor on the rowboat In the cove started with a staccato roar. Adam threw in another shell; but then the boat, racing toward the two men in the water, came between him and Ledforge. He leaped to hi feet as the boat came to where the two men were. Whitlock handled the boat; Tope was In the bow. Whitlock cut off the engine, and they coasted to a stop. Ledforge had reached Mr. Eberly, was supporting the other man in the water. "It's all right, Carl!" he said reassuringly, re-assuringly, In the sudden silence ai the engine died. "Take It easy. You're all right now." And then Tope and Whitlock were helping them both into the boat Without a word, when this was done, Whitlock started the engine, preventing pre-venting conversation; and he swung the boat back toward the cove. Whitlock Whit-lock sat in the stern. Tope in the bow, Ledforge and Eberly side by side on the midships thwart Ledforge, facing forward, saw men appear on the wharf, as they approached. Two came leaping from a car; two came running along the shore. One of these two held a rifle In his hands. But the buzzing roar of the engine made it Impossible for the moment for Ledforge to ask questions which the sight of these strangers provoked;, and when, the engine cut, they slid alongside the whnrf, Joe Dane had the first word. "What In blazes!" he demanded. "Tope, what are you doing here?" Tope said gently: "Call It meddling, med-dling, Joe." Then Ledforge cut In, his face white with anger. "Just a minute!" he exclaimed. "I've a few questions to ask, myself," my-self," he added. "Of course, Mr. Eberly and I are grateful for your rescue; but after all, you're trespassers." tres-passers." He glanced at the gun in Adam's hand. "Ponchcrs too, apparently. Out of season, and on private land. May I have an explanation?" ex-planation?" (TO BE CONTINUED) |