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Show - Hhconf essul Unconfei'sll 5 Tn.niMBriTii - rr-' i raiiiiiiiiiiii i mm mk.0 went to my room for my phone-call." phone-call." Suddenly Keller hwk charge of the rather scattering conjectures. He was a short, stout, energetic man. with a ruddy face, and keen blue eyes. "See here." he said, "this Is our house and Nora seems to have vanished from it . . . Either she's out about the grounds, walking off her headache or whatever row you had. or she has cut and run to town. . . . Now let's find out She couldn't get out of the grounds without going out the gate, and that's looked and she'd have to apply to the lodge-keeper. lodge-keeper. We'll phoue him." I remembered the high walls, and the forbidding Iron gates, that opened for me that afternoon. But the lodge-keeper, being phoned to, stated that no one had applied, either for admission or departure, "That settles that she hasn't gone to town." "Have you any theory, Dan?" Mrs. Keller demanded. He appeared to hesitate. He gave a quick look at all our curious faces clustered about, and I suddenly felt sorry for hlra. It was Indecent this public exposure of the man's secret wretchedness. "We'd bad a row," he said slowly, slow-ly, as If the words were dragged from him. ''She she was hysterical. She she threatened a good many things If I well never mind. . . . Anyway, after I'd found her sleep lng, I began to be afraid of an over dose of some sleeping-stuff anyway I asked Paula to go up. I was on easy, somehow." Slowly, he added : "She's been ' like this before. But this was a bli worse." "Well, there's no good talking here," Keller told ns. "Nora Is probably prob-ably out walking off a headache down one of the paths. We'd better start out and find her since there'll SYNOPSIS ills So'0", young- nd beautiful i . MPort on paintings. I com-;Lt'i com-;Lt'i to so over the collection painting. I the home of th 'Jlh. Kellers In New York, when u In progress. From her indow ih witnesses a man In an-K an-K room strike a woman. Short-tfter Short-tfter Mrs. Keller sends up word, tins her to Join the party at dln-I, dln-I, Llls hastily dresses and goes f ght Is seated between Mr. tT , critic, and Monty Mitchell. fiold lawyer. Introductions fol-l. fol-l. There are Mr. Harrlden. Mine La Van Aletyn, Mrs. Crane, Mr. latklni nd Prince and Prlncesa iuclnl guests. Leila finds she la Ling the place of Nora Harriden. fls Harrlden leaves the table, and I tchdl explains he has gone up to L bow his wife's headache la. He I karnt shortly. No one answered. There was no sound within the room. Then, feeling feel-ing an urgent need not to fall In that mission laid npon me, I pushed open the door. The room, Illumined by one shaded light was empty. The bed was ready for the night, the rosy silk coverlets turned down, a gossamer wisp .of lace and chiffon laid out I looked about There were doors in plenty behind which she might be; I went to each and spoke. No sound behind them. I went buck and tried nnother door the closet, apparently but that was locked. She certainly wasn't In a locked closet. Another door, half open, led to the dressing-room dressing-room and bath, and these were untenanted un-tenanted too. CHAPTER I Continued 2 1 wondered If Deck were Inter--led Id Nora Harrlden, If she ba.l ,n the lady he was expecting In !e gallery. I gathered courage and i Mrueuuri him - and he talked finite Feeling like a thief in the night, I came out, and saw Miss Van Al-styn Al-styn In the hall. We passed, I smiling smil-ing confusedly, and hurried downstairs. down-stairs. Instantly, as If he had been watching, Alan Deck came up, my betraying the odd trust that Alnn Deck had put In me? The Princess Runclnl spoke up. "I was, you know. I went up when Dun asked me." "And Anson was, of course. She has told us how she found the room. You didu't notice anything unusual, did you. Anson?" Mrs. Keller broke off to demaud of the maid who was hovering on the edge of the group. The girl hesitated. "Why, no ma'am. ma'-am. It was Just empty ; that was all." "And you didn't see any one about? Earlier In the evening?" I thought It was with a sort of reluctance re-luctance that she glauced about at Deck. "I did see Mr. Deck once, going go-ing down the hall he might have been standing outside her door." Everybody turned to look at him then. Ills room, as I learned later, was In the left wing on the second floor, so there was no occasion for him to be passing Nora Uarrlden's door. He said, very casually: "Oh I went past on my way to the gallery. I'd left a handkerchief there before dinner, and thought I'd get It." "And I saw Miss Van Alstyn, said the maid. "That was after dinner." "Yes. I went up to my room," said Miss Van Alstyn. She glauced directly di-rectly at me, and I felt a horrid premonition. "Weren't you Just coming out, when I went by?" In miserable Indecision I hesitated, the blood rushing to uiy cheeks like flags of guilt. I knew they were wondering how I, of all people among thetn, I who knew Mrs. Harrlden Har-rlden only by name, could possibly hnve gone to her room when she was reported sleeping off a headache. head-ache. I had to speak to say something. I felt I could not violate my trust and yet w hat was Alan Deck to me? I said slowly. "Yes, I went up. Before the princess did. I wanted to see how she was." I had a desperate hope that the Inquiry In-quiry might end there, that they might assume I bad been sent on the same errand as the princess. But Harrlden had caught my words and cried out roughly : "I didn't ask you to I What the devil did you mean entering her room?'' "I don't answer a question like that" I flashed back. "Oh, yes, you will," he told me J and srung by the Insulting overlord' ship of his tone, I flung at him: "Very well I will I I went because, from my window, before dinner, I had seen you strike her In the faca I knew she was hiding the mark, staying In her raom; and since I was the only one who knew It I thought I could go to her, and she might trust me to get her something to put on It to cover It" For one moment, when I saw his eyes, the sheer savage pain In them, I was sorry; the next moment they blazed red. "That's a He," he said. "I never struck her. What d'you mean, saying say-ing that?" I could only stand and stare, gripped In a horrible uncertainty. I could not swear that the figure In the window bad been his. Very stiffly I said: "I certainly saw a man's figure In that room, and saw him strike a woman. The curtains cur-tains were not drawn, and be was standing In the window." An odd shiver ran across Harrl-den's Harrl-den's face. Then he said, through Hps that seemed to be enunciating with palnfulness: "I have no means of knowing who was In my wife's . mm- if mt I III JJmJm ml? ; musiugly, with his suggestion of a 1 rawl. of a new book ; but all the me 1 bad a feeling that be was i.ly playing off the top of bis mind nd lie under part of It was deep-i deep-i brooding on some Inner matter. Suddenly I said: "What does in, Harrlden look like?" "You've never seen her?" he said i.jwly. "Not unless I saw her coming In. , , There was one lovely woman d gnld pajamas I saw with dark fi." "Yes, that was Nora," he said. Then, for the second time, a man tfl the table; and this time It was ilao Deck. He looked at bis wrlst-latch, wrlst-latch, exclaimed sharply, and loud j, "Jove, I've got to put in a call 1" iad with another word to his host- . ?sa, took himself off. He was gone nDger than Mr. Harrlden had been 'ins. I know that when be was nj, there was a queer constraint Don! that table. The talk went H but is If It were forced; and I . bought that people were watching Ir. Barriden furtively were they Miking, as 1 was, that Alan Deck d gone up for the chance of a ( w ord alone with Nora Harri-lent Harri-lent I I got the chatty Mr. Mitchell tc lell me who the others were. I Thtre were six of us women : Keller and her sister, Mrs. fnne; and there was Miss Van Al-piji; Al-piji; nd there was a red-haired little piece, Mrs. Watklns, who was P her second honeymoon, I famed. I That made four, and I was five; jMd the Princess Itanclnl was the jpth. The princess was lovely In Batuesque way. cup of coffee In his hands. "She Isn't there," I murmured. "Not there?" "No. I looked everywhere, bath and all. She simply Isn't there." ne stood by me, staring oddly. Then he gave a sort of Jerk, and started for the stairs. "Thanks very much," he said as he passed me. . . . I watched hi in go up; and a queer, hard hostility to Nora Harrlden burned In me. Now he was looking for ber. In some place be bad Just thought of. I remember thinking this; and then I found myself next to Mr. Harriden. Har-riden. He was a big man, but not stout He looked as If be might be merciless. Then, as the Princess Itanclnl was moving past us, to the tables being formed for bridge, be caught ber quickly by the elbow. "Paula run up and see my wife, will you? I think she ought to see a doctor she won t for me. You talk her over." The princess turned on him her lovely face. In which no surprise was apparent "She Is 111, then?" "Nerves she ought to have something some-thing quieting. Run up and see If she won't see a doctor. ... I'd only stir ber up." The princess smiled, and moved obediently to the staircase. He bad blurted out bis own helplessness help-lessness so honestly! I could surmise, sur-mise, better than the princess, the reason for that helplessness that slap In the face be had given ber. I Imagined Nora would not soon forgive for-give that. And I wondered what It was all about Jealousy, of course; "She isn't Tnere," i iwurmurea. be no peace till she's found. I'll get the men started." He went to the room phone. Mrs. Keller said slowly: "If we knew what she had on Bad she undressed, Dan?" He hesitated. "No. I don't think so." "Aren't you sure? When you came down to dinner, was she In negligee?'' negli-gee?'' "She was in those gold pajamas? Well, she can't have gone walking In thorn nan Rhe?" Mm. Keller moved room herore I came up. There was a perfectly ghastly silence. si-lence. I didn't dare loot at Alan Deck, though I know I was asking myself If It had been be In that room, be who had slapped that woman. wo-man. I could understand his message he had tried to send by me: To take no steps. Finally Keller spoke. "All this is getting us nowhere; petty rows don't matter. The question ques-tion Is, whew has Nora gone to? Since she hasn't changed her clothes, she's probably somewhere about, and I suggest we go out and help the men who are looking." The men trooped off for coats against the chill of the October night and we women were left together. to-gether. I had a feeling that I was in disgrace, a dangerous interloper who might explode at any moment with more shattering bombs of revelation. rev-elation. Suddenly Mrs. Crane sold, In her practical voice: "A bandit couldn't possibly have got In here, could be, Carrie In the window and carried her off?" "It sounds fantastic," said Mrs. Keller. "Well. It's been done." (TO BE CONTINUED) toward the dressing-room. "Call Anson, An-son, and see If she picked them op," she directed her husband. Anson, the pretty maid who had been summoned downstairs, appeared ap-peared promptly and reported that the room had been dark and empty when she came In to open the bed. She said that It looked as If some one had been lying on the bed without with-out taking the covers oft But Mrs. Harrlden was not anywhere about, and there were no gold pajamas. "Perhaps they are In the closet," Mrs. Watklns suggested, and Mrs. Keller moved to the closet door. 'That's odd," said Mrs. Keller, shaking the knob. "Nora usually locks her Jewelry tip," said Harriden. "I doubt If the pajamas are there. She wouldn't hang them up." "Well, we can have It opened, and see. Call the housekeeper, Anson." "If she's still In the pajamas, she Isn't on her way to town," said Mrs. Keller; and as the housekeeper appeared ap-peared with her pass-key, she took It from her and turned the lock. Harriden. for all his disbelief 01 the pajamas being put up there, was quick to step inside, as the lights sprang on, as If he wanted no hand but his, I thought a little sentimentally, sentimen-tally, to handle his wife's thlugs. "They certainly aren't here," he said, his voice muffled by the closet "Nothing but coats and dresses. She may be hiding somewhere, to be dramatic." dra-matic." So people were detailed to go over the house. No one was discovered In the housa 1 "She's either gone away or been abducted." Mrs. Keller summed up In her decisive way. "There are plenty of bandits who might abduct j;oraand hold her for ransom. Was the window open, Dan when you went down?" "I don't remember think not." Then Mr. Keller put the question I had been dreading: 1 "And no one was In the room after 1 that?" There was a moment's wait I kept 1 a guilty silence, flow could I ex- 1 plain my intrusion there, without 1 I bad a strong feeling that peo-P peo-P about that table were only mak-'"8 mak-'"8 conversation till Alan Deck ranie back. I had begun to won-jw won-jw If he were ever coming, when entered, said something about " rotten service and sat down. Almost Immediately, as If aware ""at bis conduct had given rise to ""welcome speculation, be began to Ulk to me. "Dlil you see the pictures?" he ""Med to know. "Ion forgot I left them to you," 1 reminded him. "Ah, so you did. ... Yon didn't return?" "No. rn 8ee them lo the morn-pg." morn-pg." ! Then, suddenly, he said an as-wnndlng as-wnndlng thing; th? 88yI want yon t0 do me-(or me-(or me. Will you? After Infernal meal Is over, slip up ee Nora Harrlden will you?" idemurred. "I don't know Mrs." "Tell her yon come from me," he W decisively. "Tell her to take no till I've seen her." Bat she'll think-" I began "eakly. ,.?ve 8t to reach her," he said ; fllrm.ehw his voice affected me tent Was 80 desPerate, so ur- can't h Can,t trnst a servant- 1 rr W She doesn't answer her "om phone. ... I beg you-" w coarse I will." 1 8aid quickly. farned1 the UierS See yo" he roomV7 notbut wnIch ta ner Second tloor-on the front. It's Mv Jlm t0 the north." to th. , flashed ba- The nert Mthe hltt0ihenortl,! Why, that u,".,' hted wlnd0" I had stared u l,7m ra narrl'len. then, who now l 8 her n,ar 'aos there CHAPTER 1 to?:D har(3,y watt for that meal flr..C ler' ColT was In the braflcpnrrT1In: 1 bnrried P tne right branT 8,a,rs- tornlng to the heo HMi;n- At U'e door that had lgMtet, 1 knocked B0ftJy. and Jealousy, I Imagined, of Alan Deck. Harrlden had the reputation of being madly In love with his wife, and Insanely Jealous of her beauty. I saw Deck return and go into the drawing-room. Miss Van Alstyn was already down. Then, for a moment, I forgot the narrlden affair !n my bother over the bridge-playing. I was letting myself be apportioned appor-tioned to a table, when the princess entered. Harrlden and Mrs. Keller were standing together; she went to them and said something. I heard Uarrlden's reply: "Why. that's absurd. Where can sbe be?" Mrs. Keller answered something; she sent a man to ask a maid, evidently; evi-dently; for a maid came In for a moment, and denied having seen Mrs. Harrlden about the house. "Too ask the others," Mrs. Keller said, and there was a curious moment mo-ment of Indecision. The wave toward to-ward the card-tables was stayed In mld-alr. People debated with each other. "If she had a headache, she might go out" About the house was a general bustle of running feet and voices; evidently the staff was hurrying from floor to floor. Alan Deck drew near me. "It's odd I didn't And her, either." he said simply. We all drifted up the stairs to Mrs. Uarrlden's vacant room, as If we could get a clue from eying Its bright emptiness. "It's queer." Harrlden kept saying, say-ing, staring about under frowni.g brows. , , He went on: "She was lying on the bed when I went down said she had a headache. She had certainly had a crise des nerfs. . . When I came up. during dinner, I opened the door, not the hall door, but the one between our rooms, very gently, and her room was dark and still; so I thought she was asleep, and I had better not disturb her." Mrs Watkins suddenly raised her rather shrill young voice, "lou iTdn't see her, by any chance, when voo were up, Alan?" 1 -No-not a gUinpse," he said. 1 , |