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Show BEAVER CITY PRESS m TVie ww jam. jp ffs am w.:T 2ri.VM'' J7.ts AMP TO) By MARY ROBERTS RINEHART WNU Chapter III --31 The steps by which Halliday solved the murder at the mala bouse, and with It the mystery which had pre ceded It, constitute en Interesting story In thempelvea. So certain was he that by the time we were ready for the third seance, his material was already In the hands of the district attorney And It was not the material he had given to Greenougb. For the solution of a portion of the mystery, then, one must go back to the main house, and consider tne oiuer part of It. tt Is well known that many bouses ol that period were provided with hidden passages, by which the owners hoped to escape the excise. Such an attempt, many years ago, had cost George fierce his life But the passage leading from the old kitchen, now the den, to a closet in the room above It, had been blinked op for many years. The builder was dead; by all the laws of chance rime might have gone on and the passage remained undiscovered. In 1809. however, Eugenia RIggs bought the property, and In muklng repairs the old passage was discovered. Although she denied using It for fraudulent purposes, neither Halll-danor I doubt that she did so. She points to the plastered wall as her defense, but Halliday ensures me that a portion of the baseboard, hinged to swing out, but locked from within, would have allowed easy access to the y cabinet But Ualllday bad at the beginning happened on the old passage to the room overhead, and he bad called Hor ace Porter's attention to It It seems to bave appealed to the poor old chap; tt belonged, somehow, to the room witb the antique stuff te was putting Into It He built In a sliding panel ; H was not a particularly skillful piece of work, but It answered. And he kept bis secret at least from me. I doubt If he ever used It, until pro hibition came in. Then, no drinker himself, he put there a small and choice supply of liquor, some of which we found later on. And one bottle of which placed Halliday Id peril of his life, a day or so after the night I bad fired the shot Into the hall. He hud borrowed Annie Cochran's key to the kitchen door, and after midnight entered the house and went to the den. Although he Is reticent about this portloD of tt. I gather tiiat the house was not all tt should be that night "You know the sort of thing," he says. But. pressed as to that, he admits that he was hearing small and Inex pllcable sounds from the library Chairs seemed to move, and once he was certain that the curtain In the doorway behind him blew out Into the room. When be looked back over his shoulder, however, tt was hanging as before. Ue had no trouble In finding the panel, and as carefully us he could he stepped Inside. But he bad touched one of the bottles and It fell over. "It didn't make much noise." he says, "but It was enough, Ue was awake, and paralysis or no paralysis. I hadn't time to move before he was In the closet overhead, and opening the trap in the floor." Ue had not had time to move, and even"lf he bad, there were the Infernal bottles alt around him. So be stood without breathing, waiting for be i knew not what "Things looked pretty poor," he says. ''I didn't know when he'd strike a match and see me. And It was goodnight If he did!" But Bethel had no match, evidently. Ue stood listening Intently, and In the darkness below Ualllday held bis breath and waited. Then Bethel moved. Ue left tlie trap door above open and went for a tight and Halliday crawled out and closed the pane) no knowledge of this passage, with Us ladder to the upper floor. He reached 1f by pure deduction. "It bad to be there," be says modestly. "And It was." . . . Up to the time young Gordon was attacked at the kitchen door, bisw ever, Ualllday was frankly at sea. That Is, be bad certain suspicions, but that was alL He had discovered, for Instance, that the cipher found In my garage was written on the same sort of bond paper as that used by Gordon, by the simple expedient of having Annie Cochran get hlra a sheet of Ir. on some excuse or other. But his actual case began, I belleve-wltthat attack on Gordon. At least he began at that time definitely to a socliite the criminal with the bouse. "There was something fishy about It," Is the way be puts It quletii. And with Bethel's story to me, forced Frou that time on, however, be was It by his fear that the boy knew knew Bethel was no more helpless he who had attacked him, the bullet than be was. Ue abandoned the Idea that If was "fishy" gained ground. of an accomplice, and concentrated on "Gordon was knocked out," he says. the man himself. . . . "And that ought to have been enough. Annie Cochran was working with But It was not, lie was tied, too, tied that Is, she did what be asked htm: while he was still unconscious. Someshe seems not to have ber, although body wasn't taking a chance that he'd known at time the direction In any get back Into the house very soon." which be was working. Uer own mind It was that "play for time," as be was already made up; she believed terms It, that made him suspicious. Gordon to be guilty. She made no All this time, of course, he was Igprotest however, when be asked ber norant of any isnderlying motive; be to break Mr. Bethel's spectacles one makes It clear that be simply began, early morning, and give him the first to associate the crimes with the fragments. But she did tt. pretending house, and then with Bethel, fie kept afterward that she bad thrown the jtolng back to bis copy of the unfinplecea Into the stove. ished letter, but: Bethel was watchful and suspicions "It didn't help much," be says quiet that time, and she bad a bad time by ly. "Only, there was murder Indiof It bnt what. Is Important here Is cated In IU And we were having that Halliday took the fragments Into murder." city, and established beyond a had Be three clews, two of them the doubt that they and the piece of a certain, one doubtful. The certain ones tens found near the culvert were made were the linen from the oarlock of the from the same prescription. boat, torn from a sheet belonging to And be had oo more than made bis the main house, end the small .portion when Gordon, attempting at discovery, of the cipher. The one h(- was not blackmail which be had been certain about was the lens from an last the threatening, was put out of the way eyeglass, outside the. culvert. as quickly and ruthlessly as bad been He began to watch the bouse; he "didn't get" Gordon (n the situation poor Peter Carroway. "Twenty-fou- r hours," Halliday says at all; there was no situation there, "and we would bave saved bitterly, Is. that he could that really; nothing, lay his hund on. But on the night I him." But twenty-fou- r hours later Bethel called him and he started toward Itob made good his escupe, and every bud logon's point, as be came back toward thing was apparently over. the house he saw the figure of a man But from that time Bethel as Bethel cot Gordon, enter the house certainly When he got ceased to exist for Halliday. . by the gunroom window He was not working alutie, however there the window was closed and ' Very early, he bud realized that lie locked. Ue was puzzled. He looked around needed assistance, real assistance. for me. but I was not In sight. Still Annie Cochran's nwp was always of below-stair- s order. And he found searching for me, he made a round of the the wanted be after the night help was so on and bouse, the the terrace when I fired the shot. From that time Gordon was attackd. In liny ward. Ax on he saw Bethel somehow connected a matter of fact It was llayward who with the mystery, but only as the went t. htm. "He was worried about you. Skip brains. "There was some devil's work afoot,' per." Halliday says, with u zrln. "tie be said. "But always I came up considered It quite possible that the against that paralysis of his. lie hud attempt to wningl-- j English literature Into too many bniin corrals might to have outside help." On the night In question then, he have driven you slightly mati," On the night, then, when Gordon was certain that this accomplice whs was hurt, the doctor was Impulsively still In the house through all that fol lowed; through HaywurJ's arrival and in bis way to Halltrtay and the Nat He was so ertalo by thai house. Starr's. "He came within an Inch of having time of (Gordon's Innocwic that tie you locked up tha olght" says Ualvery nearly look him Into his coiiH dence the next d;iy. But he wan llday. Later on, he did go to llalllduy. and afraid of the boy; he was not depend able; Hulllday had an Idea hat "he Hullldiiy then nnd there enlisted him In his service. a playing his own game." He was not shrewd, But If thl iiuin whs In the house but be was willing nnd earnest, and from Hint time on he was useful. Ue ttiut night, where wus tier He grew suspicious of the den Mftei had st lined, presumably, on bis rata tlnn but actually on a very different Unit, and he found nut Jliro'iglt Start the nmiie of the hulldei wh hud pill errand when the tnurder at the main In the nVn for Uncle .In Hit-- pinii-iiiihouse occurred, nod Hulllday recalled If wait a hum Horiice. but In hi to by wire. try. ihe 'inl lit- - nitint'il rtuiui'lhliiit But wli-- u he returned. It was, at nil hiM"Miuril rlor to llullidny's request to hide In the retiring It was from ttiere house. putting. up tin- iniHvt. Hie hull. lei uud ( f. - Gufjviglu l7 at night, to bsflst Hat that a good medium might be very useful under the circumstances. guarding tne main house. "Ton have one of the best tn the One perceives, of course, that the reLivingstones had been brought into the country tn your vicinity. She has another now under is and living tired, Halll Is the way case. Dragged In, name somewhere Id thet vicinity of day puts tt But after the first con Oakvllle. him doctor and ference between the "When I knew her she was known self they were In It willy nllly. as Eugenia RIggs, but this was her "Who," Halliday asked Hayward, re maiden name, which she uud retained. ferring to bis copy of my Uncle Hor ace's letter, "were likely to have ac Her husband's name Is Livingstone; I do not know bis initials. cess to Horace Porter at nlghtT "She has abandoned the profession The "No one, so far as I know. In which she made so great a success, Livingstones, possibly." Inter"Then the man who came In while but I understand Is still keenly ested." he was writing this letter might have The letter Is not signed. been Livingstone?" 111 Halfiday did not require that knowl1 was witb that night "He was edge; he had suspected It before. But him." it gave him a lever. One attempt hud "Then Livingstone's out." said Halalready been made by Bethel to get liday, and turned In a new direction. back Into the bouse Time was getsome was "Some theory, wickedness, before long we would have put up to htm. And It horrified and ting short; alarmed him. A man doesn't present to go back to the city, and although such a theory without leading np to he knew by that time who and what Bethel was, be could prove nothing. To go was to abandon the case. He could not secure the arrest of a man because his lens prescription was the same as the murderer's. Or on the strength of an unsigned book manuscript left behind the wall of the den He could not prove that Maggie Morrison had died In the process of the Gordon had puzzled over, because the mud od the truck wheels corresponded with the red iron-claof the lane tnto the main house. Ue could not prove his own Interpretation of the abbreviations S. and G. T. so liberally scattered through the diary. And be could not prove that It was Bethel who, looking for the broken lens In or near the culvert had found my fountain pen there. A fact which Gordon had noted In the Journal as follows: "I bave them now, sure. W P. was here last night and left his fountain pen." But be could, through the Livingstones, take a chance on proving all these things. And, against Livingstone's protests and fears, prove It he did. "As a matter of fact," he says, "they were In a bad posltlob themselves, and they knew tt They had to come over 1" . . . again "They'd Denied Any Knowledge of the Things were, Indeed, rather parlous Passage Before That" for the Livingstones "As a mutter of It Let's try this: what subject was fact," Halliday says cheerfully, "1 most Interesting Horace Porter during gave the police a very pretty case the last years, or months, of bis life?" against them. It was all there, accord "Spiritism, I Imagine. I know be tng to Greenougb. Even to the band was working on tt." print!" A man doesn't work that Alone? But he held them off. He had done sort of thing alone, as a rule." what be wanted, turned the police "I'll ask Mrs. Livingstone, If you along a false trail and was free once like. She may know." more to travel along the true one. And ask the Livingstones be did, And In this he says, and I believe, with the result that Ualllday got his that his purpose was not mercenary. first real clew, and elaborated the dar"The situation was peculiar," he ing theory which culminated In that says. i he slightest slip, the faint fatal fall from the ladder. In the se est suspicion, and be was oCT." cret passage on the tragic night of the And be goes back again to the sub tOtb of September. tlety and wariuess of the criminal All this time, of course. It remulned himself; so watchful, so wary, that only a theory. Uayward scouted tt at throughout It bud even been neces first, but came to it later on ; the Liv sary to keep me to Ignorance. more difficult ingstones offered "Ton bad to carry on. Skipper," be problem. says. "In a way, the whole thing "They didn't want to be Involved," bung on you. Even then, you nearly Ualllday says. "But afttr Edith's let wrecked us once." ter came I more or less tad them Which was, be tells me the night And of course after he'd tried to get of the second seance, when the crltn into the bouse, and left the print of tnal actually fell Into the trap and bis hand on the window board, they entered the bouse. Livingstone was bad to come In. They'd denied any on guard upstairs that night and knowledge of the passage before that everything would have ended then But he knew It as well as 1 did, or probably. better, and that there was a chance "But you spilled the beans I" be old Bethel knew tt too, and bad accuses me. used It" From the first the seances were de This letter of Edith's, to which I vised for a purpose, and I gut her that have already refeired, runs as folsome of the phenomena were del I her lows : ately faked, In pursuit ot that pur Dear Madum: pose, on the other hand. Mrs. LIv "I have read your article with great Ingstone has always been firm, In hei Interest, and would like to suggest statement that "flings happened' that be came, In llday ... y . ... Youths Seem to Have Odd Ideas of History Examiners ot times cite witb a sigh some of the absurd answers they ivcelve. Under this heading Australian schoolboys take l no place to American youths Here are some samples taken from Mtiswers at an examination ot the graduating class of a Sydney high school: "The British admiral. Slf Kraticis Drake. Is famous for havlna llwovered the Invisible armada." and Id the Kun-peamonasteries of the I'hlrteenth tvntury the monks had tea ' This was their prlnclpa in common distraction. Seldom they visited th 'heater or the rlneinn." fine txty answered the qucstlor, Whtit was the chief event In the reign of (Jut-eElizabeth?' with the words: f uielapcht.ly set-om- n n Installment Plan Old The system of purchasing on the In stallmeiit plan can be traced back to antiquity. Crassus, a contemporary oi Julius Caesar. Is said to bave made a fortune by building bouses outside ol Uome and selling them on the Install nient plan. The present system U known to bave existed a century ago It was during the last decade that tre mentions expansion to sales and In dustrlcs tn Installment buying oc curred. "Under the reign ot Queen Elizabeth parliament often Implored the CJueet. to get married, something that par llatnent never asked ot her father Henry VIIL It Is true, ot course, that in the latter case the Intervention ol parliament was not absolutely neces sary." O' Dobbin O horse, you are a wonderful thing; no buttons to push, no horns to honk ; you start yourself, no clutch to slip; no spark to miss, no gears to strip; no license-buyinevery year, with plates to screw on front and rear; no gas bills climbing up each day, steal Ing the Joy of mot'rlog away; oo speed cops chugclng In your rear, yelling summons In your ear. Tour Inner tubes are all O. K. and. bless your heart, they stay that way; your spark plugs never mlsa and fuss, the way they do In some old bus. Tour frame Is good for many a mile; your body never changes style. Tour wants are fw and easy met; you've something on the auto yet American Forests und Forest Life. The early Spanish trails of New Mexico caa be still traced along the desert Ciihi H. Dana v7." j JIM SW Company which she cannot explain The sound the library, the lights and the arrival of the book on the table are among hem But trickery or "genuine psychic manifestations. In the eud tliey served their purpose. 1 called the third seance, and the mystery was solved. In It Is not surprising that my memory of those last few moments Is a clouded one; 1 was, ot all those present except the police, the only one tn complete Ignorance of the meaning of what was going on about me. Edith knew, and was bravely taking her risk with the others; even my dear Jane knew a little; no wonder she required her smelling salts. Actually, out of the confusion, only two pictures remain In my mind : One was of Greenougb staring at Livingstone, and then Jerking aside the curtains of the cabinet where Halliday end Hayward bad opened the panel and after turning on the red globe- hanging there, were stooping over a body at the bottom of the ladder. The other Is of that figure at the foot of the stairs. I know now that tt could not have been there; that It was tying, dead of a broken neck, at the foot of the ladder. I have heard all the theories, but I cannot reconcile them with the fact How could I have Imagined It? I did not know then who was Inside the wall. I am not a spiritist, but once In every man's life comes to him the one experience which he can explain by no law of nature as he understands them. To every man bis ghost and to me. mine. In the dim light ot the red lamp, dead though he was behind the panel, I will swear that I saw Cameron, alias Simon Bethel, standing at the foot of the stairs and looking up. ' - WHAT DR. CALDWELL LEARNED IN 47 YEARS PRACTICE i A physician watched the result 4 constipation for 47 years, and believe that no matter how careful people an their health, diet and exercise, constipt tion will occur from time to time, d next importance, then, is how to treat it when it comes. Dr. Caldwell alwavi was in favor of getting as close to natu'n as possible, hence his remedy for consti. nation, known as Dr. Caldwell's Syrup fepsin, is a mild vegetable compound, It can not harm the system and is not habit forming. Syrup Pepsin ie pleasant tasting, and youngsters love it Dr. Caldwell did not approve oi drastic physics and purges. He did not believe they were (jood for anybody1! system. In a practice of 47 years tt never saw any reason for their use when Syrup Pepsin will empty the bowels jwt as promptly. Do not let a day go by without 1 bowel movement. Do not sit and hojn but go to the nearest druggist and get one of the generous bottles of Dr. Caldwell's Syrup Pepsin, or write "Syrup Pepsin," Dept BB, Monticello. Illinois, for free trial bottle. ' Extra. t Crawford How Is It you ask r high a rental for this aparone-roo- tment? i Realtor It Includes parking privileges In our private garage for te cars. The Muttonbead. He This lamb seems a little tonglr She Oh, don't let's talk ehop.-- LT Everybody's Weekly. jr HUSBAND : DISTRIBUTES Chapter IV I BOOKLETS Who are we to Judge hlra? If a man sincerely believes that there Is no of life to prove It death, Wife Tries Compound must seem a trivial thing. He may feel, and from his book Every year .the Pinkham Medicine manuscript hastily hidden behind the Company distributes about 30,000,000 wall of the den we gather he did feel, ' .. ... 1 booklets from that the security of the Individual house to house. counted as nothing against the proof Mr. Ted Hinzmaa of survival to the human race. does this work in But that he was entirely sane. In Lodi, California. His wife writest those last months, none of us can be"It was in these lieve. Cruelty is a symptom of the little books that borderland between sanity and mad I read about sa too. Is so. the weakening of ness; women bemany what we call the Herd Instinct It Is helped by the ing well known at the University that for medicine. I the year previous to his death he had thought I would been distinctly anti social. give it a trial and I can truly say that it has done Certainly, too. he fulfilled the axiom me good. My neighbor and friends that Insanity Is the exaggeration of ask me what I am doing to make me one particular mental activity. And look so much better. I tell them that that he combined tills single exaggerI am taking Lydia E. Pinkham's a ation with high grade of Intelligence Vegetable Compound.'' only proves the close relation between madness and genius: Kant, unKnow Hi Game. able to work unless gazing at a ruined "I played golf for eight solid honn tower; Hawthorne, cutting up his bits last Tuesday, and" of paper; Wagner's periodical vio"Uave a good rund?" lences. The very audacity of his disguise, Always Hi Leap. the consistency with which he lived "The frog would a wooini Hewitt the part ' he was playing, points to Jewett go." "Why not? It ts awhat I believe Is called dissociation; for the frog." year toward the last there seems to have lways leap been a genuine duality of personality: A strong-mindewoman Is one who during the day old Simon Bethel, frankly admits that her shoes are not dragging bis helpless foot and without too large. effort holding his withered hand to Its the-takin- U d spastic contraction; at night the active Cameron, making his exits on his nocturnal adventures by the gunroom window; wandering afoot Incredible distances; watching the door of Gordon's room and locking him In ; learning from me of Halllday's Interest In the case, and trying to hum htm out; very early realizing the embarrassment of my own presence at the tatlge. and warning me away by that letter from Salem. Ohio. tt seems clear that he had not expected me at the Lodge; Larkin apparently told Gordon, but Gordon neglected to Inform htm. Just what be felt, what terror and anger, when I greeted htm at the house on his arrival will never be known. I remem ber now how- he watched me, peering up at me through his disguising spectacles, with the beef cube tn his band, and waiting. Waiting. But the held. My own very slight acquaintance with him. my near slghtedness. my total lack of suspicion, all were tn his favor. And ot the perfection of the disguise. It Is enough to say that Gordon apparently never suspected It He did suspect the ' . paralysis. "He moved his arm today," be wrote ,once. In the diary. "He knowt 1 saw It and he has watched tne ever since." "It takes very little to change an ran re beyond casual recognition." Hnilldat telis me. "The Idea Is to take a few Important points and substitute their opposite. Take a nino with partial paralysis; tine side of hi Well he can't face drops, you see. Imitate that, but be can put a tig In the other cheek end rnlne It. Put h.iii on a bnld lieinled man and watch flu change. 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