| OCR Text |
Show HEAR RIVER VALLEY LEADER The to Starr until Gordon came In and found yon there." "If you want to put it that way. RE D LAMP yes." "loo broke Into the boose and somebody there who had oo business there. But you didn't think of catling od the police." "What I felt we needed was not a policeman, but a medium." "I suppose you bave keys to the found . By MARY ROBERTS RINEHART WMJ (Continued.) 14 It was perhaps nine o'clock when returned, to find the rector and his wife calling, and to alt through an hour and a half of gently unctuous conversation, while my uneasiness con stantly Increased, and my sense of It we had guilt and responsibility. warned the old man be would have been at least prepared to take care of himself In an emergency, but we bad foolishly kept our knowledge to 1 ourselves, and even allowing for exaggeration on Annie Cochran's part there seemed no doubt that such an emergency might be at hand. At 10:30 our visitors took their departure, and leaving Jane prepared to retire and Edith to answer some of her letters, I wandered with apparent almlessness down to the boathouse. Elalllday was not there, and as the dory was missing I knew he was somewhere out on the water. After waiting until eleven, my restlessness was extreme and I walked up and around the main house, to And the garage doors open and the car still out. Had there been any indication of life In the building. I think I would have wakened Mr. Bethel and warned him; stayed with him, perhaps, until that murderous young devil was safely settled for the night. But his room was dark and his windows closed, so I thought better of It But I did aswindows certain that the were locked, and that If the boy effected an entrance at all, It would be by some less surreptitious method. Thus reassured. I went back to the boathouse, and soon after Halliday rowed quietly In and tied the dory. I told him my story, but he was less anxious than I bad expected. "It's not the game," he said. "If Gordon Is the killer, we've got to consider that he doesn't kill out of anger. That's different He's cool and deliberate; he plans his stuff ahead and goes through with it I don't even think he gets any thrill out of crime Itself; the real secret Joy is In baffling discovery. And he knows this: after the quarrel tonight. If old Bethel fell down the stairs and broke bis neck, he would be blamed for It." But he thrust his army automatic In his pocket nevertheless, and we started toward tlie house, with no particular plan In mind, but a fixed determination to protect Mr. Bethel "In case of any trouble," as Halliday put gun-roo- It guard, with a revolver. Suppose he saw a strange figure emerge from bis dining room and start op the staircase! It seemed to me that be would have every right to snoot me first and investigate me afterwards. It was while I hesitated there, near the sideboard, that I was first conscious of a cold uir blowing around me. So distinct was It that my first thought was that some stealthy movement had opened the door to the passage behind me. Almost Immediately on that there was a tremendous crash as though some heavy object had struck the dining-rootable, and following that, the door Into the hall burst open, slamming back against the wall outside. This was followed by complete silence. So 6haken were my nerves by all thi3 that my next consecutive thinking found me once more In the gun room, ready to beat a retreat But here I managed somehow to pull myself together, and to return to my original errand In the bouse. Convinced that the slamming of the door would have roused Mr. Bethel If, Indeed, anything were to rouse him again; and by this time", shaken as I was. I was prepared for the worst the main staircase waa not feasible. I made my way, therefore, Into the passage again to the servants' staircase and crept up It one stair at a time, wltb the revolver clutched In my hand. At the top of the kitchen staircase was a door, opening onto the main hall, and this I cautiously opened. Save for the ticking of the tall clock on the staircase landing, the house was entirely 6llent The silence and the closed door gave me back my ebbing courage, and I advanced a step or two along the hall. Here I was close to Gordon's room, and I felt for and tried the knob carefully. It was locked, and listening outside I could hear no movement from within. The relief I gathered from this was enormous, and although was still unpleasant my position enough, the fear of tragedy began to leave me. There rerauined, 1 figured, merely to ascertain that Mr. Bethel's door was could beat closed and locked, and a retreat which I felt was by no means Ignominious. I made my way, therefore, to his door and tried It It was fastened also, and 1 heard him move within; the heavy creak of his no doubt as he lay uneasily awake, waiting for the boy's return. I hesitated there, wondering whether to call to hira and tell him he was not alone and helpless, or to retire, satisfied that he was awake and prepared for any trouble that might come. But there were no further sounds from beyond the door, and I turned away and prepared to retrace my steps. It was then that 1 became conscious of a light somewhere below Not a light, rather, but where before had been absolute darkness there was now something else; a faint Illumination which outlined the staircase well, and which was reddish In color. And 1 will swear that a figure was standing at the foot of the stairs, apparently facing toward me and looking up. Or, rather, not a figure, but a face; the light was so faint that no portions of the body were visible. I will swear that It moved, not toward the dining room and a possible exit by the window of the gun room, as Halliday suggests, but still upturned, toward the library, and that within a foot or two of that door It disappeared. 1 will swear that the red glow persisted for a moment or so after that disappeared and then slowly faded away. And I will also swear thut I had no more Intention of firing my revolver at that figure than I had of leaping down- - the staircase nfter It The first knowledge that I hud pulled the trigger came with the sound of the shot itself. I was certainly not If Mr. Green-ougaiming at the figure. examines the mark left by the bullet, he will find, as ilnlllday and 1 did, that my bullet went almost directly down, nod Is embedded in the baseboard of the hall, near the den door. . . . As a niiittei of fact, the whole sequence of events, eudiug with the shot, had si untied me. Almost immediately there was a crash of breaking glass lu the library, as llillldny smashed a window with a porch chair, and the next moment was In the house and fumbling for the lishi switch In side the library door. When tie ran into the hull I told him what had happened, und he ImAs mediately set about his search Mr. Bethel was demanding, beyond his door, to know what was wrong. I went buck to reassure him. but It re quired some tlnw to Induce him to un Thus It was Halliday lock the door. who made the first Investigation down talrs. He Is confident no one escaped from the librury, unless In that brief time white he was feeling for light. But that the floor It I? to be remembered near the window was covered wltb broken glass; no escape by that methAt the od could hove been noiseless. wme time, any theory of departure right "There was a light over there." he said. "In the woods. Walt a minute: maybe It will show again." It did show, above the head of Bob inson's point apparently, lr that lonely strip of woodland which leads to the hiding place of the boat. watched It, and then Halliday passed, his revolver to me, first taking off the safety catch. fall over anything,'" he "Don't warned me. "And don't shoot until you see the whites of his eyes I I'm going over there, Skipper." He set off on a steady lope, heading for the light but obliged to make a long detour around the marsh. I myself, holding the revolver gingerly, started on to the house. I was feeling, comparatively speaking, relaxed. I felt, as did Halliday, that Gordon was near Robinson's point; my duty, as I saw It was simply to stand guard until Halliday returned and we could make some plan ; In case of trouble later to get Into the house, If possible. This thought, that we might want to get Into the house, bothered me. My keys were at the Lodge, and I could hardly hope to secure them without disturbing Jane. I made, as a result, another round of the windows, and was brought up short by the fact that one of the gun-roowindows, certainly closed and locked before, now stood open. It was the more startling, because 1 had but that moment ascertained that the garage doors still stood wide, and that the car was still missing. I daresay every man has occasioual doubts of his physical courage; but I daresay, too, that every man has a sort of spare reservoir of courage, on which he van draw In the emergency, when It comes. Yet I shall not pretend, even to myself, that 1 pulled up my shoulders, examined my weapon, and then boldly entered that window. I crawled In, with knees that shook under me and a definite nausea In the pit of my stomach. And to make matters worse there was a slow footstep somewhere near, which I was a second or so In Identifying os a drip from the old shower next door. I bad no doubt whatever that Gordon had returned, v,d the very fact that he had come without the car made that return sinister. I groped for the door Into the passage and stood there listening, but there was no round, whatever, save the leak of the tap. I reached the dining Incident, and there a truck me. room without new thought Annie Cochran had repre- sented the old gentleman as distinctly alarmed, and I myself had seen him soma time be for, mora or tea oa the windows of the den la Impos- sible, since we found all these windows closed and locked on the inside. 1 am convinced that the Intruder was not the secretary. As a matter of fact, be drove In a half-hou- r later, saw the lights In the bouse and hammered for admission, and surveyed our group In the ball with an amazement which, under any other clrcum stances, would be humorous. And 1 am also convinced that It was not the doctor. Mr. Bethel showing signs ot . collapse. Ualllday telephoned to He replied at once. Had he been at the bouse that night be could not have made it . . . I have no explanation whatever ot the fact that Halliday and Uuyward window later on found the closed and locked, save that the In truder may bave entered by It while I was working my way Into the din ing room; and that the cold air, the crash at the table, and the bursting open of the .door in the ball, which so alarmed me. may bave marked his passage through the room. The disappearance of the figure and the blank darkness which followed Uay-ward- gun-roo- that disappearance are difficult to for, under any natural law if count ac- at 1 bed-sprin- reached the end of the walk over the marsh when he halted suddenly and stared to the We had almost by h bouse!" I have." "But yon entered by this window T "Great heavens, mani" 1 said imps tlently. "I don't carry those keys wltb me. I wasn't trying to get Into the bouse. I went In because the window-waopen. And If yon think I liked doing it I'm here to tell you I didn't." "You can't account for the window being locked, later!" "I cannot Why shoula I have locked It, if that's what you are trying to intimate! I had to get out again." s He abundoned that for the time. "The point Is this. Mr. I'orter." he said "You and Halliday have luid considerable emphasis on that knife. It was because Gordon had It that you were In the house, I understand." "Had It and might nse It" I amended. "It was. In your opinion, either on him or in the room upstairs. But as it turned out, it was neither on tit in nor in his room. He denies ever owning such a knife." "Halliday saw It lie's lying." He asked me abruptly how lung I bad known Halliday, and his relationship to the family. Then he attacked Halliday's statement that be thought he had seen the lights of a car by Robinson's point and had started for that "Mr. Halliday," be said, "says that be believed that this car was Mr. Bethel's and started toward It, giving you bis revolver and leaving you alone; that he found no car there, and turned back. To support this state ment, he says that a boat, lying In the creek there, had excited his suswere picions because the oar-locare not on wrapped. Muffled common things." "The position of the boat was suspicious." "Perhaps," he said. "But that was a matter for me to determine, not Mr. Halliday. As to the strips he main tains were wrapped around the oarlocks, 1 am not saying they were not there; but I am saying that they were gone when I went over the next morn ing to examine the boat" What he had hoped to gain by that I do not know. He shifted rapidly, perhaps In the hope of somehow trapping me. Looking back over the in terview, he seemed to be anxious to break down my story, rather than to be following any Idea of his own. Halliday stated IT fairly well when I reported the examination to him. "He's got nothing," he said. "Nothing but you. And that's where bis system breaks down ; it might work. If you were guilty, but It Isn't worth a tinker's dam. since you're not" oar-lock- s 1 have learned today that he la I Ing Mr. Bethel, and has on to taw city to look for another position. The boy puzzles me. Here 1 am, more or less a specialist In boys; for more years than I care to remember I bare known them, collectively and Individually, but here la a new type. lie is weak ; compared to that prognathous portion of HallHdtty'a face, for Instance, be bas oo lower jaw He completely lacks personality: be could, according to somebody's description of a similar type, be stood op against whitewashed wall and erased wltb good rubber. He la, one would say. almost too weak to be vicious. But nature apparently gives to there otherwise defenseless creatures of bers a sort' of low cunning with which to protect themselves. He has that cunning. . Other things go on much as before. Greeuongh after three days of no further discoveries has gone again. The situation at the main house the other night has. thank God, not reached the press. The boat, with the muffling still lies in gone from the the creek beyond Robinson's point, and the sole proof of such muffling. If the point Is even brought up again, lies In the boathouse along with the broken lens, the bit of Gordon's cipher and the small screw cap of an ether can. Our lovers move about their ordinary duties with an eye out as one may say. each for the other. Vague as the future Is. they have each other. They cannot turn the clock on. But there are times when there is a sort of despair in Halliday's face, and sometimes I see Edith sitting alone, her hands folded, looking three or four years ahead with a sort of tragic patience. So much, she seems to think, may happen In three or four - oar-lock- , years. And the reward, on which she had so blithely counted, seems as far away as ever. As far away as her dreams of earning a fortune with her pen. She has had another rejection or two, and the heart has gone out of her. But she has had her moment. Mall still continues to come In. Which reminds me that she received a curious letter yesterday. Becanse It may he construed to have a bearing on our situation I record It here, hut as a matter of fact one must make certain allowances; Edith's articles used my name In full, and a small amount of c Investigation by the professional underground would supply some of the remainder. The Jane, fcr example, Is quite easily accounted for. But the remainder leaves me considerably puzzled. The boat, for Instance. And that strange condition of Mr. at the end. a heart which Is nor mal apparently falling him. so that he would have fallen had he not been caught For all the world as though but 1 must pull myself together. The letter from Salem was not authentic; why should I believe this! raedl-umlstl- I Newo Notes I It m Privihg to Lis in X Utah fffrVI COALVILLE North Summit high school, by Its 13 to 0 victory over Wasatch county high recently, won the right to contest the winners of the western half of the division for the state tournament berth. BOISE Idaho shipped to Los Angeles last year 894.750 pounds of dress--. ed poultry. Utah sent the southern California city 326,815 pounds. The two states together provide Los Angeles with 20 per cent of the dressed poultry consumed. SALT LAKE Utah shipped to Los Angeles last year 326,845 pounds of dressed poultry. Idaho sent the southern California city 894,750 pounds. The two states together provide Los Angeles with 20 per cent of the dressed poultry consumed . VERNAL About 250,000 sheep are being moved from the summer ranges In Colorado to the winter ranges In Utah, it was announced recently by Thomas Redmond, chief state sheep Inspector, who bas Just returned from the border. PROVO "If we had one more pheasant we would have our limit." remarked Bob Bullock to Wit Hoover as they were hunting in the vicinity of Spanish Fork recently. They had already shot three and were returning to the marshes ot Utah lake, near Provo. PAYSON The annual stockholders' meeting of tho Strawberry Water Users' asociatlon was held recently at the Nebo stake tabernacle, with President Lee R. Taylor In charge. A levy was made of 80 cents per 10 cents for operation and maintenance and 20 cents for a reserve acre-foo- t, fund. BRIGHAM CITY K. C. Wright chief engineer of the state road commission, who returned from the Curlew valley during the week, said recently that the eight and one-hal- f miles of federal aid highway, derunning signated as project 109-E- , from the Utah-Idahline to the Curlew valley Junction, is now completed. WASHINGTON Mrs. Reed Smoot, wife of the Utah senator, died Tuesday at 7 a. m., after a long illness. She was 65 years old. Mrs. Smoot was the daughter of Horace F. Eldredge, Salt Lake pioneer, and Chloe A. Red-fiel- d Eldredge. She was born in Salt Lake sixty-twyears ago and was reared here, receiving her education o o at the University of Deseret MANTI A total of 170 deer have "Evanston. III., Aug. 12, 1022. been killed by hunters In the Mantl "Dear Madam: "I have rend with great Interest forest this year, according to word It Required Some Time to Induce Him received by the state fish and game account of the strange occuryour to Open the Ooor. August 16. This Is an increase of rence at Robinson's at the department. lighthouse t As 1 bad expected, Mr. Bethel Inpresent known. I am not a spiritist, tends to give up the bouse. He has point, and would like to tell you of about 35 per cent over the same peribut It Is to be remembered that only eo something which occurred here that od last year. Forest rangers in the notified Thomas and Annie Cocha second or so elapsed between Mr. same and, allowing for the difregion anticipate that at least 225 ran, and has sent me a note asking' ferencenight In time, at about the same deer will be killed before the season Halliday's etvtrmnee by the broken me to see him tonight hour. window and His turning on of the is over, The note was left by Gordon, and "I am not a spiritualist, but follow lights. 1 In It was cool he to as SALT LAKE the hall, Moderately happened Neither he nor heard In that InIng a small dinner here, tt was sug1 who received of showers and the last week weather it terval any movement; yet an escape gested that we try table levitatlon, He stiffened when he saw me, It behave the grain outlook la over the broken glass of the window and against my hushand's protests, Utah improved othfirst encounter the our since of most sowand ing germination would certainly have made some this was arranged for. er night now expected, accordfall is this ings ' I windows the As have sound. said, My husband, I may say, Is not "Mr. Bethel sent this," he said ing to the weekly crop report of J. In the den were found to be closed In any way, and was psychic greatly Cecil Alter, government meteorologist verOn the to and started go. briefly, Inside. on the and locked bored with the proceeding. We were b wever, he stopped and turned not surprised, therefore, when after Winter range forage has improved and (End of memorandum for Mr. anda, around. "Pretty dirty work the other large numbers of sheep have been Greenough.) sitting In darkness for ten minutes moved to winter range. night," he said, watching me. "And or so, be fell August 15. and began to asleep I'm not It" forgetting come and has gone. breathe heavily. Greenough RICHFIELD R. Scott Zimmermann Then he smiled, his curious sneer"1 tried to rouse blra but was unWhat he thinks of things now 1 canIn charge of rodent control in Utah, not say. hut at least am, as I have ing smile. "I'm not afraid, you know," able to, when the opinion was given Is vlsting Sevier county in a campaign he said. "1 can take care of myself. had occasion more than once to record that he was In a trance state. As fur control of porcupines in national I'm not worrying." The that fact none ol us were familiar with that forest areas. It Is claimed that this here, still at liberty. He thrust his bands Into his pockthe revolver I used was Halliday's, condition, and as he begun to groan rodent Is very destructive of tree life and Halliday's supporting statement, ets and turned, not toward the other heavily, I was greatly alarmed. There and forage, once it becomes numer house, but toward the road. Near the was a doctor In the no doubt are In my favor. however, party, ous. Reports from forest rangers inAt the same time, It Is clear that, gates he began to whistle, and thus and on his snylng that his pulse was that the poicuplne family has dicate was me be that all right, we sat quiet and waited although he listened carefully to my theatrically assuring increased this year In the materially Oakvllle. toward his at started ease, our BE (TO CONTINUED.) perliminary statement relative to forest. lake Fish suspicions against Gordon, he was not CEDAR CITY Final arrangemenis greatly Impressed by It have been made for the program for "How did you and Mr. Halliday Branch Agricultural college Founders' reconcile that theory with the Genius he asked, when I had fin day, November 16. The two outstandished. "He wasn't here, then, was ing features of the program will be It would appear that the man of ge- by a storm, took refuge in a hotel near the addres3 be?" by Charles R. Mabey and Paris. Twenty-fouturkeys were hang has puzzled us, of nius usually requires a large supptj the dedicatory ceremonies by Dean "No, that of substantial food. Intellectual work ing upon the spit course." Milton Bennion. Mr.Mabey and Mr. "And all for a single traveler," the "Then again," he went on, eyeing demands full nutrition to repair was Bennion served as members of the the host. waste ot brain tissue. Scott mo, "he himself was knocked down Branch Agricultural college faculty in is "It my father I" exclaimed Alexwont to attribute his extraordinary and tied. I don't suppose ynu acthe days when the school was a branch capacity for continuous work to his andre, Junior. And be was right cuse him of that, too?" of the University of Utah. re good digestion and the wholesome "I've told you," I said impatiently, his In LOGAN his Proclamation restoring to of youth. appetite An Obvious Need "that we haven't a case; It's a theory. stralnts an appetite now as keen as "1 waters of the Logan river the have entry That's all. Take for Instance that Israel Zungwlll used to be fond ot was issued man," he said, "but I know when any recently by George M. '' rope telling a tale about his little sou Bacon, state to Waters of this stop." engineer, Oliver now grown up to Illustrate "Oh, come now, Mr. I'orter. I've Btream were withdrawn from filling on au to been said Is have Mirabeau over room at out of my night the debt he v.ed to his wife for tak November slipped 24, 1923, to protect them enormous feeder, eating as much at a a woodshed; so have you, probably." ing such good care of him. Seeing n suffice possible three would aganist appropriations which as ordinarj meal to of the the down night Coming snail in the middle of the road, neat men. Talleyrand was also a noted 11th, he listened to my written stateKar End (their home at East Preston. might Interfere with the proposed Cache valley reclamation projects. ment without comment, save that he eater. Goethe and Napoleon ate lurge Sussex). Mr. Znugwill removed It huThe proclamation restoring the stream smiled somewhat over what he called quantities of food, but tared little foi manely to the hedge. to entry becomes effective as soon as He also the quality. Bismarck was noted for my "ingenious conclusion." "What's tfcat for?" asked Oliver, of it has been published three notice expassed lightly over my picture of what his appetite, which was Insatiable, but then a mere baby. Ills father weeks. successive the was of Ids food of simplest. of followed; Halliday's etitrance. plained that If the foolish snail conMuny stories are told of the gros Bethel brought down and silting hud fined to wander about the middle of LAYTON As set forth in the weekdied in h chair 13 the library, somedelight In food shown by the two I)n the road it would certainly be run ly vegetable review published by the of one son. which muses, father and what dazed Hnd showing signs of colover. Kansas City office of the United States lapse. And of Gordon's return and Is that the younger, being overtaken "Then why doesn t be get a wife to bureau unique situation prevails In our sudden realization of my predicalook after him?" asked the little boy, the onion market this year. Domesment. drawing upon his dally experience of tic production of late "Jurt what predicament!" Pigeon Cot Through woman's sphere In married life. Exonions is about lighter than A Homing pigeon wus liberated with "I was In the house because I knew change. last season, with esstern crops par Gordon had a rope and h knife In his un Important message at Grand I re, tlcularly short Shipments were quite room. If we let him up there, and during the World wur, at 2:." p. m. Disillusioned heavy earlier In the fill, but have now he did away with them. It left me In during luteuse machine gun and arbegun to slacken. Prices are redon't womthink much delivered This bird of Its "Well, action. pretty poor shnpp." tillery "So you kept him downstairs By message to ilia ioft at liatiipont, a dis en," said Joe, coming latively high two or three times those of last autumn and are at suca Sfl from In school. home 24.S4 he minutes of miles, force, says." lance """I wouldn't call It force. But we one leg had been shot off and the "Why, what's happened to you and a level ai to attract a large volume of onions from foreign countries. .v a machine were three to his one, of course.' Uatheryn!" querlaj his mother. iitcu-- i h;1'' Ih'cd liijureo "Well, she only got forty In arltJx "In other words, you telephoned to uiiti i.r Pel. hat evi-- under these con the doctor, but you didn't telephone i diuoiis the mid delivered the message. luetic today. That's Just too dumbf" 1 1 sheep-killing?- Men of Noted for Large Appetites r main-cro- p one-thir- I ! nine-year-ol- |
