Show TAWA IVY j 1 04 TJ jamwant 0 BY rry av all 0 macia T SYNOPSIS bliss innes spi niter and guardian eu ardlan of 0 cerrudo and il li alacy alsey established summer nummer headquarter a at t wayside nay side arnold Ss armstrong Armit rons was mou round n d ahot hotto to death deat in lh h hall oertrude gertrude and her nance fiance bia jack calley balley had conversed converged in the billiard alard room shortly before the murder detec detective jamieson accused ilni innes of hold ins ing back evidence cashier of 0 paul baul armstrongs bank defunct was wan arrested arrea ted tor for paw armstrongs a death was announced lial fl fiancee lan ancee cee louisa armstrong told alsey that while bhe he still loved him slie mile was to marry anther another it developed that lr dr walker wag a the man louise was found unconscious at the he bo bottom t torn of 0 the circular staircase sh she e sa said 1 I gor had brushed by hor her in the dark on the stairway and she he tainted fainted balley I 1 Is suspected of armstrongs strongs murder thomaa rho the lie er wa was found dead with a note in 1111 pocket ket bearing thenamae the th name lucien n 1 lace ac A ladder found out of piece cirp P ens ne the mystery the stables wt arre re burned and in the dark miss innes shot allot an intruder mysteriously kmap ica ills auto was found wrecked by a freig freight tit train it developed halsey had an argument in the library with a woman before hla him disappearance new rook cook disappears p arm alra innes learned halsey was ar alavo va dr walkers Wal kerB face ace becomes livid at me mention ution of the name of nina cit r ring ton for r evidence V idenie was secured from a tram tramp P eat a man supposedly li halsey alsey had been bound boun dand and gagged and anil thrown into an empty ampt box car was miming mim ing g for her alias inn inars ran into dia a mm min and tainted A confederate ot of ur walker confessed his part in the mystery CHAPTER continued alle sh e struck me as being an ugly ou customer stomer and when she aho left about 11 and went across to the armstrong place I 1 was not far behind her she walked all around the house first looking up at the windows then she ahe tang the bell and the minute the door was as opened she was through it and into the hall ball itow how long did she stay the tha queer part of it riggs said en eagerly gerly she come out that night at all I 1 went to bod bed at daylight and that was the last I 1 heard of 0 her until the next day when I 1 saw BOW her on ft a truck at tho the station covered with a sheet shed been struck by the express and you would hardly have known her dead of course I 1 think she stayed all night in the armstrong house and the agent said she was waa crossl crossling ng the track to take the up train frain to town when the express truck struck her another cir circle clel I 1 exclaimed T then ien behre wehre we are just where wo we started I 1 not so bad as that aliss innes riggs said eagerly nina carrington came frol the town in california where mr armstrong died why was waa tho doctor so afraid of her the carrington woman know knew something I 1 lived with dr walker seven years and I 1 know him welt well there are fe few things he Is afraid of I 1 think lie he killed hilled mr armstrong out in the west somewhere what I 1 think what else he did I 1 dont know but he dismissed roe me and pretty nearly throttled me for telling mr air jamieson Jam leson here about mr innes having been at his ofeleo the right night he disappeared and about my hearing them quarreling what was it warner overheard the woman say to mr innes in the library the detective asked me she said 1 I know there was something wrong from the start A man well one day and dead tho the nex without some reason how perfectly it au all seemed to fitl CHAPTER when churchyards yawn etwas it was on wednesday riggs told us the story of his connect connection ibn with some incidents that had bad been previously unexplained had been gone since the friday night before and with the passage of 0 each day I 1 felt that he might be carried thousands ot of miles in the boxcar box car locked in perhaps without water or food I 1 had read of cases where bodies bodi eshad bad been found locked in cars on isolated sidings in the west and my spirits went down with every hour ills his recovery was destined to be almost as sudden as ills his disappearance and was due directly to the tramp alex had brought to Sunny alde it seems the man was grateful for hla his release and when he learned something of Hal balsys whereabouts from another member of his fraternity for it la Is a fraternity he was prompt in letting us know on wednesday evening mr air jamie son eon who had been down at the armstrong house trying to bee aee louise and falling failing wai wag met near the gate at Sunny sunnyside side by an individual precisely as repulsive and unkempt as the ono alex had bad captured the roan man know the detective detect detec lva tiva and lie he aavo him i a piece of dirty paper on which was scrawled the words lies hes at city hospital Johns johnsville ville the tramp who baroug broucht lit the paper pretended to know nothing except this the paper had been passed along front from a hobo in ili Joh nAvIlle who seemed to know tho information would be valuable to us again the long distance telephone came into requisition mr air jamieson Jam leson called the hospital while we crowded around him and when there was no longer any doubt that it was If ilsey and that he would pro probably babij recover we ve all laughed and aled cried together I 1 am su t 0 I 1 kissed liddy and I 1 have had bad tor terrible morn eitts since when I 1 seem to remember kissing mr air jamieson too in the excitement anyhow by 11 that gertrude wab wa on her way to johns ajl P VA away accompanied by the domestic force was now down to mary anne anna a and nd liddy with the iho under gardeners wife coming ever every day to help out fortunately warner warn c r and the detectives were keeping bachelor hall in the lodge out of of ference deference e to liddy they washed their dishes once a day and they concocted queer mosses messes according to their several abilities they had one triumph that they ate regularly for breakfast and that clung to their clothes and their hair the rest of the day it was bacon hardtack and onions tried fried together they were almost pathetically grateful however I 1 noticed tor for an occasional broiled tenderloin der loin it was not until gertrude and boale had bad gone and Sunny sunnyside side had bad settled down for the night with winters at the foot of the staircase that mr jamieson Jam leson broached a subject he had evidently planned before lie he came miss atlas innee he said stopping me as 03 I 1 was about to go to my room upstairs low how aro are your nerves tonight 1 I havo have none I 1 said happily with halsey found my troubles have gone eone 1 I mean he persisted do you feet feel as though you could go through with som something ething rather unusual the most unusual thing I 1 can think ot of would be a peaceful night but it if anything la is going to occur dont dare to let mo me miss it something Is going to occur he said and youre tho the only woman I 1 can think of that I 1 can take along lie ile looked at his watch dont ask me any questions miss atlas innes put on it Q J Z L D 7 4 she walked allaround aivaro md the house first looking up at the windows heavy shoes and some old dark clothes and make up your mind not to be ba surprised at anything liddy was sleeping the sleep ot of the just when I 1 went upstairs and I 1 hunted out my things cautiously the detective was waiting in the hall ball and I 1 was astonished to see dr stewart with him they wore were talking confidentially fidentia lly together but when I 1 came down they ceased there were a few preparations to be made tho the locks to be ba gone over winters to bo be instructed as to renewed vigilance and then after extinguishing the hall light we crept in the darkness through the front door and into the night I 1 asked no questions I 1 felt that they were doag me honor in making me one of the party and I 1 would show them I 1 could be as silent as they we went across the fields passing through the woods that reached almost to the ruins of the stable going over stiles attles now and then and sometimes stepping over low fences once only somebody soine body spoke and then it was an emphatic bit of profanity from dr stewart when athen he ran into a wire fence wo we were joined at ane end of five minutes by another man who fell into step with the lie doctor silently lie ile carried something over his shoulder which I 1 could not make out in this arty wp wo walked for perhaps ti doctor was pulling puffing somewhat when we finally came to a halt I 1 confess that just lit at that minute even Sunn vIde seemed a cheerful spot we had find paused at the edge of a level cleared place bordered all around with prim primly trimmed evergreen trees between them in I 1 caught a glimpse ot of starlight shining down on rows of white headstones and au an occasional more imposing monument monti ment or towering shaft in spite of myself I 1 drew my breath in ili sharply we were on the edgo ot of the tha castanova casanova churchyard 1 I saw now both the in man an who had joined the party and tho implements he curried carried it was alex armed with two long handled handled spades after the first shock of surprise I 1 flatter myself I I 1 was both cool and quiet we went tn in single ills between the rows of 0 headstones and although when I 1 to found u nd myself last I 1 hadan had jan ansti instinctive active desire to keep looking back over roy my shoulder I 1 found that the first uneasiness past a cenie cemetery tery at night Is much the same as any aar other country place filled with vague shadows and unexpected noises once indeed but mr air jamieson Jam leson said it was an owl ow and I 1 tried to bellevo believe him in the shadow ot of tho the armstrong granite shaft we stopped I 1 think the doctor wanted to send me back its no place for or a woman I 1 heard him protesting angrily dut the detective said something about witnesses and the doctor only came over and felt my pulse anyhow I 1 dont believe youre any worse oft off here than you would be in that nightmare of a house he spid finally and put his coat on the steps of 0 the shaft tor for me to sit on there is a sense of desecration ot of a reversal of the everlasting fitness of 0 things in resurrecting a body from its mother clay and yet that night in the casanova churchyard I 1 sat quietly by and watched alex and mr air jamieson Jainle soa steaming over their work without a single qualm except the fear of detection the doctor kept a keen lookout but no one appeared once in a while he came over to me and gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder 1 I never expected to come this he said once theres one thing sure ill not be suspected of complicity A doctor Is generally supposed to be handler handier at burying folks than at digging them up the uncanny moment came when alex and jamieson Jam leson tossed the spades on the grass and I 1 confess I 1 hid my face there was a period of stress I 1 think while the heavy coffin was being raised alsed I 1 felt that my composure Inger was wa going and jor for fear ear I 1 would shriek I 1 tried to think of something else what time gertrude would reach anything but the grisly reality that lay lust just beyond me on the grass and then I 1 heard a low exclamation from the detective detect lva and I 1 felt the pressure ot of the doctors fingers on my arm now alias lanes he be said gently at it you will come coma over I 1 held on to him frantically and somehow I 1 got there and looked down 1 0 it 4 IN 4 0 11 o h 1 11 1 1 22 ow 93 out but the face that showed in the light i the lid ot of the casket bad been raised and a silver plate on oa tt it proved we had made no mistake but tho the face ace that showed ah owed in the light of the lantern was as a face I 1 had bad never seen been before the man who lay ay detoro bufor 0 us 13 was not paul I 1 ill f CHAPTER between two fireplaces what with the excitement 0 of the dla dis covery the walk home under the stars in wet shoes and draggled dragg led skirts and getting upstairs and undressed without rousing liddy I 1 was completely used up what to do with my boots was the greatest puzzle of all there being no place in the house safe from lid dy until I 1 decided to slip upstairs the next morning and drop them into the hole the ghost bad made in the trun kroom wall I 1 went asleep as soon as I 1 reached this decision and in my dreams I 1 lived over again the events ot of the night again I 1 saw the group around the silent figure on the grass and again as had bad happened at the grave I 1 heard alexs voice tense and triumphant um then weve got them he said only in my dreams he be said it over and over until he seemed to shriek it in my ears I 1 wakened early in spite of 0 my fatigue and lay there thinking who was alex I 1 no longer believed that he was a gardener who was the man whose body we had resurrected and where vias was paul armstrong probably living safely in some extradition less country on the fortune lie be had bad stolen did louise and her mother know of the shameful and wicked deception cep tion what had thomas known and mrs airs watson watsons who was nina carrington this last question it seemed to me was answered in some acme way the woman had learned of the substitution and had tried to use her knowledge for blackmail nina own story died with her but however it happened it was clear that she had carried her knowledge know ledga to halsey the afternoon gertrude and I 1 were looking for clews to the man I 1 had shot on the east veranda halsey had been halt half crazed by what he be heard it was evident that louise was marrying dr walker to keep the shameful secret for her mothers sake halsey always reckless had gone at once to dr walker and denounced him there had been a scene and he left on hla his way to the station to meet and notify mr air jamieson Jam leson of what he had learned the doctor was active mentally and physically accompanied berh perhaps aps by riggs who had shown hi himself mae it not until he quarreled qua reeled with hta his employer he had gone across to the railroad road embankment and by railroad rall jumping in n front of the car had caused halsey to swerve the rest reat of the story we know knew that was my reconstructed theory of that afternoon and evening it was almost correct not quite there was a telegram that morning from gertrude halsey haley conscious conn cloua and improving probably home in day or no BO GERTRUDE OEn with halsey found and improving in health and with at last something to work on I 1 began that day thursday with fresh courage As aa mr air jamieson Jam leson had said the lines were closing up that I 1 was to be caught and almost finished in the closing was happily unknown to us ua all it was late when I 1 got up I 1 lay in my bed looking around the four walls of the room and trying to imagine behind what one of them a secret chamber might lie certainly in daylight deserved its name never was a house more cheery and open less sinister in general appearance thero there was not a corner apparently that was vas not open and aboveboard above board and yet somewhere behind its handsomely papered walls I 1 believed firmly that there lay a hidden room with all the possibilities it would involve I 1 made a mental note to have the house measured during the day to discover any discrepancy between the outer and inner walls walla and I 1 tried to recall again the exact wording odthe paper jamieson Jam leson had found TO 1311 CONTINUED TOO BAD I 1 S 1 I 1 k mr air knocker I 1 had bad little faith in tho the curative properties of your medicine the agent but it cured you mr enocher yes ot of even the |