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Show FT7 ' : , y j j. Pi$i&J&A wNU service. .i -f i 'J? SYNOPSIS THE STORY SO FAR: Janice Trent runs away from wedding Ned Paxton, rich, but a gay blade. Unbeknown to Bruce Harcourt, a family friend, she becomes be-comes secretary of an Alaska camp of which he Is chief engineer. Millicent Hale, wife of the man whom he succeeded, suc-ceeded, is also attracted to him. Bruce at Brst wants to send Janice back. On a trip to the city, she encounters Paxton and tells him she Is married to Harcourt. Har-court. The latter hears it and insists on a wedding that day. After a wedding party arranged by the Samp sisters, who run the Waffle Shop, Bruce and Janice go home, only to be disturbed shortly by Millicent who tells them her husband, Joe Hale, has been shot dead. "If you had only waited," she exclaims to Bruce, and crumples. Bruce spends the night Ln Investigation. The commissioner arrives, ar-rives, and a probe Is' on. He is asking Kadyama, Indian, about Hale and Tatima, Ta-tima, his girl friend. Now continue with the story. CHAPTER XII "Well? She's not your squaw, is she?" continued the Commissioner. "She promise to marry on me. She work lor Meester Hale. She say she lak dark mans no more, she lak gol' hair." "Where were you yesterday?" "In mornin' cleanin' out hangar." "Did that take all day?" "No sirree. Word come dat chief marry. Mees Samp seesters, they sen' me to woods. I cut every-t'ing every-t'ing green. Bring to H house and put 'em round room." "Yourself?" "Mees Hale come an' Meester Chester. Bruder, seester, dey work togedder, oder mens come too." "Were Mrs. Hale and Chester in the H house all the time you were?" "No sirree. Meester Chester go first. Say to her, 'You feenish.' She sen' me for more green. Wen I come back she gone too." "Gone, had she? Where were you last night?" "Squaw-dance." "Was your girl friend" he amended "was Tatima, this girl you expect to marry, with you?" "No. She stay at Waffle Shop for beeg marriage party there." He qualified, "She come to dance late, stay long night through." The Indian girl was called next. Tatima swaggered in, head back. Her face had the curious color dark skin has when drained of blood. "Have a good time at the Indian dance last night?" Tatima straightened. "Who, me? Me go to Indian dance?" Her contempt con-tempt was superb. "I stay at Waffle Waf-fle Shop all night, help Mees Samp seesters clear up after marriage party." The Commissioner grinned at Kadyama. Ka-dyama. "Sit down." Tatima favored him with a disdainful dis-dainful glance. "Who, me? I stan' up." "Suit yourself. You work for Mr. Hale?" "Who, me? I work for Mees Samp seesters." "What do you do there?" "Wait on table. Wash deeshes, sweep, do much t'ings. Work hard." "Yet, you had time to take care of Mr. Hale's cabin?" She tossed her head, set her lips In a heavy red line of defiance. Harcourt commanded: "Answer the Commissioner's questions, ques-tions, Tatima. We all know that you worked for Mr. Hale. Tell the truth." She regarded him from under lowered low-ered lids. Hunched her fine shoulders. shoul-ders. "Who, me? Tell truth? You not like it p'raps much as you t'ink. I tell. I work for Meester Hale." A spasm of feeling twisted her face. She bit her lips. A drop of blood stained her teeth as she went on. "I tak' care of cabin w'ile Mees Hale gone away." "Been there since her return?" "One tarn, p'raps." "Remember losing this?" The Indian girl bent forward to stare at his extended hand. In the center lay a blue glass bead. She clutched at the string about her neck. Inscrutability veiled the fright which had flamed in her eyes. She drawled: "Lose bead two days ago. Same tarn she there." With a nod she indicated the girl at the typewriter desk. Janice felt the color mount to her hair as the four men looked at her. "You mean that young lady at the desk?" "Sure, I mean she. Meester Hale he phone for her to come. Say he have secret letter. First he send Mees Hale to Waffle Shop. Mees Trent come. He tell her letter. He tell her she beautiful. After w'ile he say, 'I kees yo' han's. I ' " "Didn't like Hale to tell Miss Trent that she was beautiful, did you?" "Who, me? I not care. He say to her, 'You run away from marry-In'. marry-In'. Kees an' run kin'.' An' she say, to keep to bees-ness. He talk more, much more. Then beads break. I busy peeking them up. I hear no more." "Didn't hear Miss Trent's voice again?" "Ask much questions, don't you? P'raps you t'ink Tatima some leetle detecter. I hear her speak outside, that all. She speak very mad to Meester Jimmy Chester, 'fore he come in." "Chester! Did he come into the cabin?" mmwWm ; p ' Tatima swaggered in. "Sure, he come. He say very loud, 'Wat you mean sending for Mees Trent, Joe? Try any funny business an' I'll shoot.' An' then Mees Hale come in an' say, 'Wat you doin' with that pistol, Jimmy? Joe's frightened!' An' then she laughed an' laughed 'sthough she didn't know what she doin', an' I went to Waffle Shop an' wash deeshes." "You didn't see Mr. Hale again alive?" "Who, me? I not see heem again, never." "That's all. You may go." She swung out, head up, the Yaku-tat Yaku-tat blanket trailing from one hand. The Commissioner watched her till the door closed. Made a note on his pad. "You take stenographic notes, don't you, Grant? Take Miss Trent's testimony." He looked at Janice. "Sorry to bring you into this, but I want to hear about your visit to Hale's cabin." cab-in." "Mr. Hale phoned me to come and take a letter from his dictation. dicta-tion. A codicil." "Codicil! Did he sign it?" "I don't know. I put it in shape and sent two copies to him by one of the men." "Make a rough draft for me when we get through this afternoon. While you were at the Hale cabin, what happened?" "Tatima has given an exact account" ac-count" "You met Chester as you went out?" "Yes." "What did he say to you?" "He asked what I was doing in Hale's cabin." "And you answered?" "That it was none of his business. busi-ness. The suspicion in his voice made me furious." "Mm! All the next day you were away from headquarters, I understand. under-stand. There was a party here in the evening. Did you dance with Chester?" "Yes." "Did he mention your meeting of the day before?" "Yes. He apologized for his manner man-ner and I explained why I answered as I did." "You parted good friends?" "The best." Thank heaven that was over! She had squeezed by without telling what Jimmy had said in reply. "Was that all that was said?" Her assurance crashed. Good grief! She wasn't under oath, she hadn't sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth. She would say nothing which could incriminate nice Jimmy Chester. She smiled engagingly at the Commissioner. "Anything more would have been anti-climax, wouldn't it?" His smile was bland, too bland. "You were in the H house when Mrs. Hale came last night, weren't you? Sorry to remind you of what must have been a gruesome intrusion intru-sion on your happiness, but I want to know what happened." "We were sitting by the fire talking talk-ing when someone beat furiously at the door. Mrs. Hale stumbled into the room. She was breathless as though she had been running. She braced herself against the wall, tried to speak. Mr. Harcourt said, 'Steady, Millicent. What has happened?' Her eyes were wide with horror as she called out, 'Joe's dead! Shot!' She pitched forward to the floor." "You can remember nothing more that was said? See who's knocking, Grant." Janice's eyes met Harcourt's. He must be intensely relieved that she had been reprieved from answering that question. Tubby Grant opened the door. Martha Samp stood on the threshold. In one hand she held a box. Harcourt rose. "We were to send for you later. Miss Martha." The woman's grim lips twisted in a smile. "Which's polite for sayin', 'What you doin' here?' Mr. Bruce, I came to save you wastin' the government's gov-ernment's time." She stepped into the center of the room. Her voice quavered with excitement. "Found the revolver that shot Joe Hale? Must be somewhere." "Obviously." The Commissioner's voice dripped sarcasm. Martha Samp frowned at him. "What do you mean speakin' like that to me, to a woman old enough to be your mother? I want you should understand that the engineers engi-neers in this camp didn't leave their manners behind in the States. You et ten waffles for your lunch, Mary told me. I ain't under any obligations obliga-tions to feed you an' your assistants assist-ants while you're here on this case. If you try to be a smarty with me, you'll eat with the men or the Eskimos, Eski-mos, understand?" Tubby Grant camouflaged an exuberant exu-berant chuckle . with a racking cough. Dauntless Martha Samp belligerently bel-ligerently faced the Commissioner. A smile tempered the amazement on his face as he rose. He was decidedly de-cidedly attractive when he stepped outside his official self, Janice decided. de-cided. "Miss Samp, if it's a case of love my waffles, love me, I'm eating out of your hand. I never tasted anything any-thing so good. Sit down. We'll listen lis-ten so long as you'll talk." She sat down. "Sakes alive, I guess you don't know what you're promising. I'm quite a talker when I get goin'. Howsoever. How-soever. I haven't got so much to say unless I get started on crime or matrimony. Surprisin' how often you'll find 'em related. I've found the pistol." From the box she cautiously cau-tiously extracted a revolver wrapped in a soft white cloth. A revolver with a gleaming mother-of-pearl butt The office whirled before Janice's incredulous eyes. Bruce Harcourt's! "I found it on the shore when the tide went out," Martha continued. "When I heard about Mr. Hale, an' there not being any weapon found, I says to myself, 'First thing'll be done will be to examine and check up on every pistol at headquarters. 'Tisn't likely though that whoever did it will keep it by him, he'll get rid of it. No place I know of better than the shore.' So every chance I had I ran down to the shingle while the tide was low. I had what you call a hunch that it wouldn't be far away, and it wasn't." The Commissioner broke the revolver. re-volver. "One cartridge gone." He replaced it on the table. "Ever seen this gun before, Miss Samp?" "Yes." "Where?" "It belonged to my nephew, Archie Ar-chie Harper." "Who owned the revolver after your nephew went?" "Mr. Bruce." "Did you know that it was missing, miss-ing, Harcourt?" "Yes." Curtly Bruce Harcourt told of his discovery of the empty holster on his wall, added that he had inquired in-quired among the engineers if anyone any-one of them had borrowed it. "Mm. Didn't connect it with the shooting, I suppose?" "The shooting hadn't occurred at the time I missed it." The door swung slowly open. A man with dazed eyes swayed on the threshold. His face was bruised, his clothing torn. The Commissioner Commission-er stared at him, open-mouthed. "Parks! Where did you come from? Plane crack-up?" The man's head achieved a wobbly shake. "Never got off. Fella grabbed me as I was climbing into the cockpit. cock-pit. He flung me down with such force that I was stunned. I heard a roar an' then I didn't know anything." any-thing." "What did he look like?" The Commissioner shook the dazed man in his eagerness. "Go easy. I fell on that arm. Couldn't tell what he looked like, goggles on. But when he grabbed me I noticed a big black seal-ring on his finger." "Who wears a seal-ring in this outfit, Harcourt?" "Chester, the second engineer." "Mrs. Hale is Chester's sister?" "Yes." "I'll talk with her next. Is she able to see anyone. Miss Martha?" " 'Twill do her good to rouse out of her daze. If M's. Hale isn't roused I'm 'fraid she'll get lower an' lower in her mind. 'Twould be a pity. She's got a lot to live for." "What d'you mean, she's got a lot to live for?" "Joe Hale was a rich man, I've heard. He didn't need to work, but he was crazy over bridge-building." (TO BE COSTINUED) |
