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Show room fell Into 1L Fell upon a pair of shoes, limp, black, low-heeled shoes, lying on their sides out from under a man's heavy, fur-lined overcoat over-coat Anson was In the closet. Slumped In a little heap. She was cold to my touch. I did not scream. It seemed to me as If I could never mnke any sound again, but I did, over my shoulder, to the people crowding now in back of me. "She's dead." 1 got out huskily. "Anson's dead." "All right, all right. You were waiting to Investigate. Then what were her exact words that passed between you?" I don't know why his overbearing overbear-ing manner should have been so Infuriating, In-furiating, but my nerves crisped and I said a good deal more than I had meant to say In public. "I was waiting to ask her about the handkerchief. She came out of the room, smoothing down her hair. She said, "Those foreigners!' and then, 'He can keep his hands off me.' " Slowlv the lnsnoctor'a cn. shirt. coftfffpI i Bradleyife!'iA &VJp CHAPTER XI ANSON was dead . . . Choked to death and thrust behind one of the prince's overcoats. Her pretty face was dark and terrible In congestion. con-gestion. She was rigid In death. She bad been dead Ave or six hours they said. The police were already with us; very soon the medical examiner made his appearance, together with Doctor Olllphant. A dazed horror hung over the house. Anson dead. The second murder. The thing was Inexplicable. Inexplica-ble. "There's a maniac hiding In this house 1" the princess declared In ex cltement "1 have felt Itt Ecco Miss Seton heard him In the night In her room I A miracle she was noi murdered in her very bed!" It was the first expression of be lief in my story I had heurd from the haughty princess. One of the strangest, most puz r.llng things about it to me was that out of Anson's stiff, clenched hand the medical examiner had pried a bright, brown, crescent, set with gilt terlng stones. Letty Van Alstyn's hair ornament. The broken thing she had thrown away and permitted Anson to carry off and then demanded back from her. It didn't make sense. She couldn't have been murdered for its possession, posses-sion, or the murderer would have taken It away. And why had she got it back from Miss Van Alstyn? We were a dreadfully shaken group of people. With drawn revolvers the police tramped through room after room, peering behind doors, benenth beds, Investigating the basement, the storerooms, the laundries, the wine ed towards Ranclnt. "Been making pnsses at her, prince?" Iinncinl smiled boldly back. "A pretty maid" He shrugged. "Anything else?" said Donahey shortly to me. "I asked her why she didn't complain com-plain to the princess, and she said that the maid was always wrong. Then she said she'd hnve to go back for the towels she had forgotten. I asked her to valt, and we bad the talk about the handkerchief." "Whut'd she tell you?" "Not a thing. Rut I had the very definite Impression that she had something on her mind. She said she'd tell all she knew downstairs at the inquest, but she didn't like to make trouble any one might have washed out a handkerchief.' Then she -vent back Into the room. And I don't think she thought that i Prince Ranclnl had come out of it while we were talking," I flung out, "for she looked awfully bothered at having to go In again." My eyes encountered Donnliey's cynically thoughtful face. I wondered won-dered If he was thinking the same thing as I was. Suppose Ranclnl had been in the room when Anson returned suppose he had grabbed her and she had started to scream? In his anger and pnnlc he might have choked her and choked harder than he meant. He was a big fellow. fel-low. Rut ticking away, deep down In my mind, was the Insistent thought that Anson had known something. Something about a handkerchief drying on a radiator. Something that was silenced now forever. The prince bad muttered, half angry, an-gry, half soothing. "That Is nonsense non-sense I There was nothing . . ." "All right, prince," Donahey agreed. "The girl goes back to your room but you aren't there that's your story, and you stick to It. Rut now sometime after that, any time In the next hour or so, somebody In that room got hold of her and choked her to death. Now where mi pvprvhndv for thnt ndt hour?" PTER IX-Contlnued oei - before the return ""i They came at last, fj&5f a the i-room fell silent before ' tZ and even the tur-as tur-as the fore-forward fore-forward and began ?, e he Intoned, "We, the 4 I hat the deceased, Nora fber death on the t of October, nineteen between eight and nine-P nine-P M. through shock and We, caused by being hit on ! , a sharp Instrument held , hand of person or persons lt was alL No names. No rec adatlon of holding any one to trand Jury. D(mib,?rose. The rustlings Hi begun In tne room ceased :1 io did the Jubilation In my For be said, "Vou have heard inding of the coroner's Jury. . jury is now dismissed. Thl remain In the hands of . 'inspector of police until fur evidence warrants calling In district attorney of Queen's 7 Pending investigation nr iis will be allowed, without ssion to leave the premises." ' CHAPTER X IVTCALLY every one quieted .in. The sharp outbreak of 3 dropped to more consider-indertones consider-indertones at that phrase, tout permission." I overheard Watkina reminding each other ! they had meant to stay till cried sharply, "It's the diamond 1" and llarrlden pushed forward. We were all pushing forward. Through the confusion Deck's voice came, sharp with anger. "I tell you I only picked the thing up again a few minutes ago I left It about this morning." I had reached Mitchell now. "Oh, that's true don't you remember he asked you for a cigarette this morn Ing?" I gasped. "Oh, do get in to them and tell them sol" "Steady now," Mitchell was murmuring. mur-muring. He put his hand over mine as It gripped his arm. , Harrlden's voice dominated the confusion. He stood over Deck like a madman; he looked as If it was all he could do to keep his bunds off him. "Nora's diamond 1" he hurled at him. "The big pendant thnt was worth the lot . . . So you hid it out, eh? You dirty thief 1 You dirty killer! Ry God, we've got you we've got you now!" And then Donahey, trying to make himself heard, "Mr. llarrlden, please " There was no stopping Harriden. All the hatred that had been working work-ing in the man, all the festering suspicion seething in him since Elklns' report of Deck's threatening threaten-ing words came out now, like pent up gall. "You hound! You skunk! Chas Ing after my wife, making her life miserable with your importunities. Entreating her to be 'compassionate 'compassion-ate to take pity on your 'lovesick 'love-sick soul'l Soul!" He spat out a vile word. "Pegging to drown yourself In her eyes! . . . You'll be drowned In quicklime before I'm through with you!" And Deck, very straight and stiff. iff 3( :,day, inyway, and presently l Crane'i voice was audible to , telling Item that Dan was jtag on, too, that he planned rate bli wiei body to the cem-7 cem-7 ob ilondij morning. He want-!r want-!r toe simplest ceremony at ime. She said that she and X Sellers were going with him. pi the main hall had been p of ill the outsiders the pti streamed out into It again. psi oi, In the dining room, pooled efficiency was setting tb paraphernalia of another 't luncheon. one reacted from the tens-j: tens-j: langnter kept breaking . out, h ran Incautiously high, then, ptalng, dropped to undertones pen itill lively. I wer felt lonelier In my life. 1 m aome one to talk It over Bui I hadn't anybody; Deck 'wished Into the drawing fMd Mitchell, too, was no-Ntebeseen. no-Ntebeseen. i I heard Deck's voice, sharp !track of a whip. "Damn It hey, I told you myself that went through. ... Am me because the village tele- "You're crazy, Harriden. A man can't resent Insults from one In your condition." "Your condition is what will worry you when they put you In handcuffs and lead you to the death ceilwhen they drag you, whining and puling, to the electric chair!" And then Letty Van Alstyn fainted. She dropped like a stone at Har-rlden'a Har-rlden'a feet, and he stood there, bis fury checked, looking blankly down at her. The faint did not last long; the women kneeling by her were still asking for more air, for water, for cushions, when I heard her voice saying, rather weakly, but with complete com-plete control, "How silly! But I didn't eat much breakfast. I'e been fueling faint" She got tip very quickly; I saw Harriden go to her side and say something; she gave him a quick upward glance, then moved away. As If he had forgotten Deck he went heavily after. I stood there, shaken through and through. I turned to Mitchell but he had left me; he was standing be side the table picking up the aban- It was hard to discover where every one had been during that hour for they had moved about so much. Ranclnl said he had gone downstairs for a time, then up to the Kellers' sitting-room on the second sec-ond floor where he and his wife had waited with the Kellers and Mrs. Crane for the summons to the Inquest The only ones who declared they had stayed definitely lu their own rooms during the entire time were Alan Deck. Harriden and myself. my-self. Harriden stated he had been either eith-er in his own room or In his wife's room the entire morning, and that he had heard no disturbance of any kind In the Ranclnl apartment "And If I had, I wouldn't have cared!" Deck said be had been In Ms room, but that he had no proof of It I could offer no proof, either, that I had stayed in my room, after aft-er the time the maid had gone to deliver my two notes. I had a bad time over those notes. The one to Mitchell was easily ex-plained, ex-plained, but when I admitted that I had written to Alan Deck asking him to come to see me L saw a gleam In Donahey's eyes. : ..won nnw Miss Seton, why did Tha Prince Was Most Self-possessed. Self-possessed. cellar. And there was not a trace of an Invader to be found In that great house. There was not a clue except the brown crescent, and not a mark on the closet aoor except the prints of the maid who found the body. No one had seen Anson alive since the time that I bad talked with her in the hall. Donahey had us herded all together to-gether again in the drawing room, and he barked his questions at us with the manner of a thoroughly belligerent and bewildered man. "And Just what time was that, Miss Seton?" be snapped. I hurried to give an approximation approxima-tion of the time. He summed up, "Well, you'd say It was a little before be-fore nine when you saw her? And you were the last person that saw her alive." "I think the Prince Ranclnl was you want to see him?" "It was pretty lonely, waiting for that Inquest. And since Mr. Harriden Harri-den had linked us in his accusations, accusa-tions, 1 felt we had a lot to talk over." Then he said to Deck, "You didn't come up this morning, though?" "Didn't Ret the letter till too late The maid had left It for me on the table, and I didn't see it In time." 'Left it lying I thought you were In your room all that time?" Deck hesitated. Then he said lightly. "Practically all. There were a few minutes when I popped into Mitchell's room, next mine, to donea cigarettes. The Inspector was saying, bis voice unemotional again, "This will take some disproving, you know, Mr. Deck." And the words sent the quick thought to me that the only way to disprove this about Deck was to prove something else about some one else. I thought of Anson. If that handkerchief. hand-kerchief. I was sure she had seen had been In Letty Van Alstyn's room! Letty had fainted. Perhaps she hadn't realized, until that moment, the consequences of throwing that suspicion upon Deck. Now when she was still shaken, i i aoesn't happen to re- Uat I asked for a New nmberr Wd see the hack of Deck's i Miras confronting Donahey "t table of notes. 1 saw " Alstyn's brown head, , towards him, a little on one Harriden standing be- irsht a ,impse f h,s JI tared t,lidly, -Bessie S"' Eot a very good mem- that". ' 11 Si;erns l,,eer t0 ;W, ,?D wh0 ees awy from JJ UMe to put In a long dls- doesn't wait to get It-ftlf It-ftlf !..Ul,stnira after a lost get some clgarettes-ju.. member my case was mislaid. And I hadn't any supplies left I waited a bit for Mitchell, then came back. So lt all went on. There was nothing else brousht out that 23 1 to matter. At the last the Inspector concentrated on the sub-lect sub-lect of Deck's cigarette case, when ne thought be had lost it, whet . he Brst found It agaln-in the hall, Deck said, on one of the tables, he couldn't remember exactly where and then, very suddenly, as If his mind were making itself up, Donahey Dona-hey told the rest of us we were excused ex-cused and retained Deck for a more private Investigation. (TO BE CONTINUED) JL.',,,,nB IVck 80 c,osei.v mw Clancy the officer touch ?ng something, and Deck ' looking around, drew out , case from his pocket, ' WWD leather on I d iUr ta'd' Con. Mr. Inspector, 'Ca C y"r8elf never 5 for a connection Mji . ''ter snmethlng else." 'Mr .'?TMed Dnahey. nia , ,enKed D''ck. "Are 'li . h ,h,s '"finitely? oagtr, Khi,t Fve 6ot to -fWUnt tnmnrrw or my ifn ant you fellows tQ gay ' didn't miTCe what was haP- 'V,' fn 3W ,he funnT look 'V-etuf6' I,e was holdln8 mSe,'n hls hand nd Then i investigating '?t5, eP"Shed be8lde CT8 ut,h8 wntent. Su"n, J,aw ,ne cigarettes tie.iu close(1 over If I ;hlWl8th"e.IhVar i lSd,hc,ancir- "Wl, i then aoruebodj was the time to confront her wun that handkerchief evidence ... If only Anson could be found . . . She must have come out of hiding by I ran up the stairs; I took the left-hand branch, so as to pass along the main hall, looking for some maid to question. The door Into the prince's room was open and looking In, I saw the malcLwho did my own room, busied about It , . "Have you seen Anson yet i said breathlessly. . She stopped on her way to the closet with a pair of slippers In her hand. "We haven't seen her, Miss Seton, Not since that time you were talking talk-ing with her this morning. I moved away, thinking I had better bet-ter get hold of Mitchell Then I heard the maid scream. I had never heard such blood-curdling shrieks In my life. Shriek after shriek. My legs stumbled under me as I ran baskhet0wha8- backing hysterically away from the closet, her apron over her head. "What Is It? What Je moaned. "Oh, tbere." and began sh rlek ..ng agala I dashed to the closet; the aoor w.1. wide and the 1U.U fn the the last person." I said quicKiy, remembering. re-membering. "She left me to go back to his room." Donahey shot one of his gimlet glances up at Ranclnl. "How about that, prince?" The prince was most seir-pos-sessed, most affable In his reply. "Miss Seton Is mlstaken-I left before be-fore the poor girl re-entered I passed through the apartment o ! my wife and when I came on they were still talking In the hall. "How about that. Miss Seton? He savs you were still talking togeth- when he left the premises." -Well. I didn't see him." was all I hey were very busy talking." ..id I the prince with satisfaction. "Donahey looked curiously at me. ..vvhnt were you talking about? Twas wVt.ng to as her about whether she had seen any bindker-rh,!f bindker-rh,!f drying on Friday evening. I had nS that she didn't voiun-fir voiun-fir rlj unless she wm Mbed I. and I hadn't beard that Couldn't you wait for the l ,aSter all the things said about me here I think I had right lo In-S2 In-S2 - -ch as I couid ... n, the real murderer I |