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Show IjTHE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE 1; . By MARY ROBERTS RINEHAET. j&J, CHAPTER XXXIII. ''JL ,As 1 (,rovc ri'tHy i ,,c house SB irom Casanova Statiou in the hack, 1 w the clotectJve Burns loitering across $51 lie street from the "Walker place. So tbI umicsou was putting I ho screws on tfm fghtly now, but ready to give them a fjD wist or two, I felt certain, very soon. "m? Tbo h0lls0 waa (l,1,cu Two 5,10,115 01 IC circular staircase had been pried H iff, without result, and beyond a sec-TSB sec-TSB md message from Corlrudc, that Hal--5S y insisted ou coining homo and they could arrive that night, there. was noth- tie now. Mt. Jamieson, having failed o locale, the secret room, had gone to m-t too village. 1 learned afterwards that F'.i (c culled at Doctor Walker's, under I ' irctcnsc of au attack of acute indigos-I indigos-I - ion, nnd before he loft, had inquired s.l ibout the evening trains to the city. lo said he had wasted a lot of time .1 in the case, and a good bit of the TO; iivstery was in my imagination! The o'fn'fi! loctor was under the impression that 'tSf he house was guarded day and night. Onijl 'Veil, give a place a reputation like Y-4 ht, and vou ilon't need a guard at all t lius Jamieson. And sure enough, late -,-)& n the afternoon, the two private do-svw do-svw ectives. accompanied b Air. Jnniiesou. (i-alkcd dowu tho main street of Casa- inva and took a city-bound train. "M (That thev got off at tho next sla-lO'l? sla-lO'l? 'on "" wa'kcd back again to Sunny -cyi! iMo at dusk, was not known at the ij ime. Personally, I kuew nothing of I ritlicr nioe; 1 had other things to nb--Dili ibrb mo at lliat time. Liddv brought mo some tea while I" .f 'cslod after my trip, and on the tray Sas a small book from the Casanova 5 ibrary. It was called "the Unseen NCw iVorld" and had a cheerful cover on i rliich a half-dozen sheeted figures inked hauds around a headstone. JtAt this point in 1113' story, llalsey a!-A a!-A nys siys: "Trust a woman Ufadd !8 w'6 and two together, and make six." ? S ?b which I retort, that if two and two "?'p?l litis A make six, then to discover the Jivii fnkuown (iiiantily is the simplest v, hing in the world. That a houseful fiM if defectives missedjit entirely was bc-'7e bc-'7e :au5C they were bus' trying to prove "B lint two and two ma ko "four. jjTbo depression due lo my visit to the !Vaj joajiital lelt me at the prospect of ''SB leouig Ilalsev again that night. It was 'M ihout j o'clock when Liddy left me IDES' or a before dinner, having put .v-i tic into i gray silk dressing gown and JIRat pair of slippers. I listened to her nf il etrcafiug footsteps, and as soon as sho his Kifclv below stairs, I went up to jisbl 1"-' t rmili room. The place had not "p icen disturbed, and 1 proceeded at once nnits 'n trv jo discover tho entrance lo the ridden 100:11. The openings on either We, j I. havje said, showed nothing i nit perhaps three feet of brick wall. 1 l! Ijbcie was no sign of an entrance no evers, no hinges, to give a hint. Either ho mantel or I he roof, 1 decided, and i (fler a half hour at the' mantel, pro-luctive pro-luctive of absolulely uo result, 1 do--3 rjilod to trv the roof. 1 am not fond of a height. The few Lviif scabious on which I have climbed 11 Ulli top ladder have always left me dizzv ttitl weak in tho knees. The lop of "Si I10 ashinglon monument is as im-jjjjj im-jjjjj ioisiblc to me as I he elevation or the a ircsulcutial chair. And yet 1 climbed J nit 011 to the Sunnysido roof without ".'i, 1' second's hesitation. Liko a dog on ,c.n.lt '"' bearskin progenitor, ' Pith his spear ami his wild boar, to mr. low there was t ho lust of the chase, -m jlc frenzy of pursuit, the dust of bat-Ic. bat-Ic. I got omto a Iftllo of the Inlter ,J in me as I climbed from the unfinished I lallrooni out through a wiudoto the t( iof of (he east wing of tho building, I' in w;,s 0lllv ,wo t-or'cs " height. lfir,?CP 01,1 tl"?rp' f'eess to the. top y& fj the main building was rendered easy . rnl. lr,;8t U, looked easy bv a small .4 ;citii uon ladder, fastened to the J ;all oulMde of the ball room, and per-?iiiU)rplJT.rcct per-?iiiU)rplJT.rcct Iwelvc ct o,b'' sllorl' fl(J below, but they we difficult to climb. gathered my j iili sown around mo, jMi succeeded notl & n'n ""'""KtlK lop of the lad-361 lad-361 r;Al however, I was com- iletelv out ol br-alh. I sat down, mv fflCC n" 'op ,rujij;, and nut my hair- TO I" niuro scvnrcly. while llio wind .t flowed jnv dressing gown out liko a MPS' Si. 1 Ur"1 ,oni :1 Kat strip of Hie UWi wk 100.M- and now I rulhlchslv fin-."iJiSf- til1" (J,,st nation of my gown bv 1 ,l l,or a,Hl ,yi"c il ;ir6llu'1 m'y .) grrom far b.lnw lho smallest houmls a; S.m tp vltJ,' PL-t-nJiar disliuctnesB. I tr.'.', Willi hear ( in nniw.i- ,..1.:. .11:.... A U" h!' dll""l I lizard something r& rhiinrd V'V 11,11,1 ,f a fit,n',. e ?-. ' 0,1w,'l by a Iuiik and start led ;j00tij nciou from Beiilnh. 1 forgot mv fear "$$.$!lt six byl,,nl li,ne' iTho"'1"' ,,lou'" "'"'f!" J -ealled. JS' Joi.nV Vr -v. '"mod and looked Jfi !, when he did. ho stood for Uavc Tu , -m 11 P-'.'Lvzed, then he im,, 1 ",'HI- a"'. d'-opping -V' he K ' !nU'"' '",russ ' . ?5nn3 dnV!lll?"lVs,l1np lu n idunt .r c U,al, bo ''iied an m- ub?R 1 1,1 VI ,,01,l1 porcopliblo ? R11V1S IJ',,,cnl)w. ,1,u I'rfig' which f'T n, "1 'l, rPat 10 r : "'''II. if i tor'soli? r.."y' ehoice flSnJoThv m" ' m be,ievc ,,,e VfE'i's X' 1 V-v .llc v'Hage was thai Sllhfw ST?rv ;,, dou1 f oaclil ' ,1!,',,,p l"ner hour ap- fed I Jis ; i'i, -v' "le r,.r was flat. it. Vt.H 1 10 ov,'r t,v,,rv inel. .i.r r, lb(, rw,,,l WH8 disappoint I'1' I'C8 two iV.Ai. ,,,,IK 1l" " ,f,1,Pl" of MpVVy, fcs.,l,,ro. ''! "landing ftW of airai,T ''.,s.f,1lt0 lorniit (he 9H0 ?oni the r' 'r J .P''ked up a pebble fl ri, mn iii'in0 V ""'"'""K will, ipnr. ""- l(' toll how far it had Q!$X low .he Mr11 room tt,M. ' 1 "rough tho dJy room i,'!lj?i VaL 0,"l' ,0 ,h f?y' I cave mv- hlV,,l ,Iow" " ! t cou , mun ,:ifi ''"'Ki.slontly ! 'HoB, ,V10 Proljlom before me. " tA n 'bocwV M10 1001 wcr "t fa tors .J5 id boen iuHl . V,,,0P(, M'" room ofJV witb 1 'lit-1 "l" ('Poning t hen . UiJ5 iTic ninniM r'1 ilud ,'or ur wall. (f Diori" T 0fV Ulc' ""re I looked fd l thl K5SiS tli,,' had tU;J Midi !',u,1' n mini- RCroninmln, 'i V'i,ti 'vered $rA "'erect annlr1!01'5,' a,,(l finullv, bv aJ ; " accident.. I. j.u-ihed one of 1. the panels fo the side. It moved easily, revealing a small brass knob. Jt is not necessary to detail tho fluctuations fluc-tuations of hope and despair, and not a little fear of what lay beyond, with which I twisled and turned I he knob. It moved, but nothing seemed to happen, hap-pen, and then I discovered the trouble. pushed the knob vigorously to one side, and lho whole mantel swung loose from the wall almost a foot, revealing 11 cavernous space beyond. I took a long breath, closed the door from the trunk room into the hall thank heaven, T did not lock it and pulling tho mantel door wide open, 3 stepped into the chimney room. I had time to get a liazy view of a small portable safe, a common wooden table and a chair then the mantel door swung to, and clicked behiud me. stood quite still for a moment, in the darkness, unable to comprehend what had happened. Then 1 turned and boat furiously at the door with my fists. It was "closed and locked again, and my fingers in the darkness slid over a smooth wooden surface without a sign of a knob. 1 was furiously angry at myself, at thV .mantel door, at everything. I ditl not fear-suffocation; before the thought had come to me T had already seen a gleam of light from tho two small ventilating pipes in tho roof. The' supplied air, but nothing else. The room itself was shrouded in blackness. J sat down in the stiff-backed chair and tried to remember how many days ono could live without food and water. When that grew monotonous aud rather painful, I got up and, according to the tinie-honored rule for people shut in unknown and ink-black prisons, T felt my way arouud it was small onongh, goodness knows. felt nothing but a splintery surface of boards, and in endeavoring en-deavoring lo get bnck into the chair, something struck me full ju tho face, aud fell with tho noiso of a thousand explosions to the ground. When I had gathered up my nerves agaiu, 1 found it had been tho bulb of a swinging electric light, and that had it not been for the accident, 1 might have starved to death in an illuminated scpuleher. T must have dozed off. I am sure T did not faint. I was never more composed in my Jife. T remember planning, if T were not discovered, who would have my things. 1 know Liddy would want my heliotrope poplin, auI she's a fright in lavender. Onco or twice 1 heard mice in the partitions, and so 1 sat on the (able, with my feet on lho chair. I imagined I could hear the search going ou through tho house, and once some ono came into the trunk room; J could distinctly hear footsteps. "In the chimney! Tn the chimney! " I called with all my might, and "was rewarded by a piercing shriok from Liddy and the slam of the trunk room door. T foil easier aflcr that, although tho room was oppressively hot and enervating. ener-vating. I had no doubt tho search for me would now como in tho right direction, direc-tion, and a fler a little, I dropped into a doze. How long I slept I do not know. It must have been several hours, for T hnd been ti fed from a busy day, aud I wakened stiff from my awkward position, po-sition, I could not remember where I was for a few mi mil en, and my head felt heavy and congested. Gradually 1 roused lo my surroundings, and to lho fact -t hat' ip spite or the - ventilators the air was bad and growing worse. J was breathing long, gasping respirations, respira-tions, and 111 v face was damp and clammy. clam-my. I must havt been there a long time, and the searchers were probably liuuting outside the house, dredging the creek, or beating tho woodlaiuL 1 knew that another hour or two would find me unconscious, and with my inability in-ability lo cry out would go my "only chance of rescue. It was the combination combina-tion of bad air and heal, probably, for some inadequate ventilation was' coming com-ing through lho pipes. I tried to retain re-tain my consciousness by walking 1 lit, length of the room and back, over and' over, but 1 had not the strength to keep it up. so T sat down on lho table again, my back against the wall. The house was very still. Once my straining oar seemed lo catch a foof-fall foof-fall beneath rue. possibly in my own room. I groped for the chair from the table and pounded with if frantically on Hie floor. But nothing happened; 'l realized bitterly that if the sound was heard at all, no doubt il was classed with lh" other rappings that had so alarmed us recently. Il was impossible to judge the flighl ol Imic I measured live minutes by counting my pulse, allowing seventy-two beats to the minute. Hut it took' eternities, eter-nities, and toward the last I found it hard to count: my head was confused. And then I heard sounds from bo-low bo-low me, in the house. There was a peculiar pe-culiar throbbing, vibrating noise (hat I felt, rather than heard, much like the-pulsing "bent of fire engines in the city. For one awful moment I thought the house was 011 fire, and every drop of blood in my body gathered around' my heart; I hen I knew. It was the migine of Hie. automobile, and llalsey had como back, Hope sprang up afresh, llalsey 'a clear head and Gertrude's intuition in-tuition might do what Liddy 's hvs (fria and three detectives had failed in. After a time 1 thought I had been righl. There was certainly something going ou down below; doors were slamming, slam-ming, people were hurrying ihrongh Hie halls, ami certain high notes of ax-ciled ax-ciled voices penot rated to me shrilly. I hoped Hie' were coming closer, but after a timo the sounds died away below, be-low, nnd T was left to the silence and beat, to tho weight of the darkness, to tho oppression of walls that, seemed lo close in on me and stifle me. Tho first warning T had was a. stealthy fumbling a I the lock of the mailt el' door, Willi my iiioulh open lo scream, I slopped. Perhaps fij situation situa-tion had rendered me acute, perhaps it was instinctive. Whatever it was, 1 sal without moving, and some one outside, out-side, in absolute stillness, ran his fingers fin-gers over the carving of tho mantel' and found the panel. Now the sounds below redoubled; from the duller aud jarring I. knew I hat several people were running up the stairs, and as the sounds approached. ap-proached. I' could even hear whal the said "Watch the oiid staircase!" .lam-ieson .lam-ieson Avas shouting. "Damnation there's no light here!" And then a second later. "All togethor, now. Ono two three " Tin' door into the Iruplr mom' had bec-j locked from the inside At the second llial it gave, ope.iiag against the wall v.irl a cosh nid evidently tumbling '.TMiebo.1,;,' into the room,' the stealthy fingers beyond tho mantel door gave the knob the proper impetus, and I he door swung open, and closed again. Only and Liddy always screams and puts her fingers in h'cr ears at this point only now I was not alono in tho chimney room. There was some one elso in the darkness, someone who breathed hard, aud who was so clos-e I could have touched him with mv Jin ml. 1 wns in a paralysis of terror. Oul-sidi- there were excited voices aud credulous oaths. The trunks were being be-ing jerked about in a frantic search, tho wiuduws wore thrown open, only to show a sheer drop of forty feet.' And tho man in tho room with me leaued against tho mantel door and listened. J lis pursuers were plainly baffled; baf-fled; I heard him draw a long breath, and turn to grope his way through the blackness. Then he touched my hand, cold, clammy, death-like. A hand in an empty room! He drew in his breath, the sharp iutaking of horror that fills lungs suddenly collapsed. col-lapsed. X think absoluto terror had him by J ho throat. Then he stepped back, williont -turning, retreating foot by foot from The Dread in the corner, and 1 do not think he breathed. Then, with the relief of snacc bo-twceii bo-twceii us, J scre:med, ear-split tiugly, madly, and they heard nic outside. "In tho chimney! " I shrieked. "Behind "Be-hind the mantell The 01.111101!" With an outh the figure hurled ilsofl across tho room at me, and I screamed again. In his blind furv he had missed me; .1 heard him slrike'lhc wall. That one time I eluded him; I was across the room, and I had got the chair. He-stood He-stood for a second listening, then he inside another rush, and 1 struck out with my weapon. T think it stunned him, for I had a second's rcspijo when 1 could hear him breathings and some one shouted outside: ' w ; ' We can Jt get in. How docs it open?" But the man iu the room had changed his tactics. T knew he was creeping on me, inch by inch, and 1 could not tell from -where. And then he caught me. lie held his hand over my mouth, and 1 bit him. T was helpless, help-less, strangling ami some one was trying try-ing to break in the mantel from outside out-side Jt began lo yield somewhere, for a thin wedge of yellowish light was reflected on the opposiio wall. When ho saw that, my assailant dropped me with a curse; then the opposite man-, tel swung open noiselessly, closed again without a sound, and 1 was alone. The unrulier was gone. "In tho next room!" T called wildly. wild-ly. "The next room!" But the sound of blows on tho mantel drowned my voice. By tho lime 1 had made them understand, a couple of minutes had elapsed. The pursuit was taken up then by all except Alex, who was determined de-termined to liberate me. 'When J stepped step-ped out into the trunk room, a free woman again. 1 could hear (lie chase far below. 1 must say, for Alex's anxiety to sot me free, he' paid little enough attention to my plight, lie jumped, through the opening into the secret room, and picked up tho portable saTc. " T am going to put this in Air. llalsey llal-sey s room. Miss Tunes," ho suid, "and T shall send ono of the detectives lo guard it'!" I hardly heard him. I .wanted to laugh and cry in the same breath lo crawl into' bed and have a cup of tea. and seold Liddy, and do any of tho thousand natural things that I had never expected to do' again. And tho air! The touch of the "cool night air on my face! As Alex and T reached the second floor, Air. Jamieson met us. JIo was grave and quiet, and hc.uoddcd com-preheiidingly com-preheiidingly when ho saw the safe. "Will you come with me for a moment, mo-ment, Aliss limes?" he asked soberly, sober-ly, and on my assenting, ho led the way to .Uic east, wing. - Micro- wero-ljghts moving around below, and some of the maids were standing gaping down. They screamed when they saw me, and drew back lo let me pass. There was a soil of hush over Hie scene: Alex, behind be-hind 'me, muttered something I could not hear, and brushed past me without ceremony. Then T realized that a man was lying doubled up at the foot of Hie staircase, and that Alex was stooping stoop-ing over him. As 1 came slowly down. Winters step-.ped step-.ped bank, and Alex straightened himself, him-self, looking at 111c across the body with inpouet ruble eyes. In his hand he held a vshaggy gray wig, aud before me on the floor lay the man whose headstone stood in Casanova church-3ard church-3ard 1 'a ul A riust rong. Winters I old lho slorv in a dozen words. In his headlong riight down the circular staircase, with Winters just behind, -Paul Armstrong had pitched forward violently, struck his head against the, door to the east veranda, mid probably broken his nock. Jlo had died as Winters reached him. As (he deleclive finished, 1 saw llul-sel, llul-sel, pale and shaken, in the card room doorway, and for the first time' that nignt J lost, my soir-control. I put unarms un-arms around my boy, and for a moment mo-ment he had lo support me. A second sec-ond later, over' Halsev's shoulder, I saw something that turned mv emotion emo-tion into other channels, for, 'behind him, in the shadowy card room, were Gertrude and Alex,' the gardener, ami there is no use mincing matters he was kissing her! , 1 was unable to speak. Twice T opened my mouth ; (hen turned Hal-sey Hal-sey around aud pointed. Thev were quite unconscious of us; her head was 011 his shoulder, his face against her hair. As il happened, it was Air. .'Jamieson .'Jam-ieson who broke up the tableau. Ho slopped over to Alex and touched him on the arm. "And now,'.' ho aid quietly, "how long are you and 1 to play our little, comedy, Air. Bailey?" CHAPTER XXXIV. The Odds and End:;, Of Dr. Walker's sensational escape that night lo South America, of the recovery of over a million dollars in cash and securities iu lho safe from the chimney room the papers have kept the public well informed. Of mv slum-in slum-in discovering the secret chamber they have been singularly silent. The inner in-ner ' history has never been told. Air. Jamieson got all kinds of credit, and some of it ho deserved, but. if .Jack LJailey. as Alex, had nol traced Halsev and insisted on lho disinterring of Paiil Armstrong's casket,- if he had not. suspected sus-pected the truth from the start, where would the deli-dive have boon? When Ilalsev learned (ho truth, he insisted on going the next morning, weak as he was, to Louise, and bv night she was at Suiinyside. under Gertrude's particular care, while her mother Imd gone to Barbara Fitzhugh's. What; llalsey said lo Airs. Armstrong f nover knew, but that he was considerate con-siderate and chivalrous T feel confident. confi-dent. It was Ualsey's way always with women. He and Lpnjso hud no conversation together uutil that night. Gertrude and Alex 1 mean .Jack had gone for a wallc, although it was 0 o clock, and anybody but a pair of voung geese would have, known ilia I. dew was falling, fall-ing, and that it is next to impossible to get rid of a summer cold. At half after nine, growing weary of my own company. 1 went downstairs to find the young people. At the door of the living room T paused. .Gertrude and .Jack had returned and were thore, sitting together ou a divan, with only one lamp lighted Thev did not see or hour me, aud T beat a hastv retreat to the librarv. But here again 1 was driven back. Louise was sitting in a deep chair, looking the happiest I had ever seen nor, with llalsey on tho arm of the chair, holding her close. It was .110 place lor an elderly spinster. spin-ster. 1 retired to my upstairs "sitting room and got out Eliza Kliucfellcr's lavender slippers. Ah, well, Hie foster fos-ter motherhood would soon have to be put away in camphor again. The next day, by degrees, I got the whole story. Paul Armstrong had a besetting evil the lovo of money. Common enough, but ho loved money, not for what it would biiy, but for its own sake. An examination of the books showed 110 irregularities ir-regularities in the past .year since John hud been cashier, but before that, iu the time of Anderson, the old cashier, who had died, much strange juggling had been donevith the records. The railroad in Ncw'Mcxico had apparently drained the banker's private fortune, and he determined to rotricvd it by ono stroke. This was nothing less than the 'looting of the bank's securities, fuming them into money, and making his escape. But the law has long arms. Paul Armstrong evidently studied tho situation situa-tion carefully. Just as the only good Indian is a dead Indian, so the only safe defaulter is a dead defaulter. lie decided to die, to all appearances, aud when lho hue and cry subsided, he would bo. able to enjoy his mono' almost al-most anywhere he wished. Tho first nccessitv was an accomplice. accom-plice. The connivance of Doctor Walker Walk-er was suggested by his love for Louise. Lou-ise. The man was unscrupulous, and with the girl as a bait, Paul Armstrong soon had him fast. The plan was apparently ap-parently the acme of simplicity; a small town iu tho west, an attack of heart disease, a body from a medical college dissecting room shipped iu a trunk to Dr. Walker bv a colleague in San Francisco, Fran-cisco, and palmed off for tho supposed dead banker. What was simpler? The woman, Nina Carringtou, was the cog that slipped. What shc only suspected, what she really knew, we never learned. Sho was a chambermaid in tho hotel at G , and it was evidently evident-ly her intention to blackmail Doctor Walker. Tlis position at. (hat time was uncomfortable; to pay the woman to keep quiet would be confession. Ho denied the whole thing, and she went to I fa I sey. It was this that had taken llalsey to tho doctor the night he disappeared. He accused the doctor of lho deccptiou, and, crossing the lawn, had said something some-thing cruel to Louise. Then, furious at her apparent connivance, he had started for the station. Doctor Walker Walk-er aud Paul Armstrong the latter still lame where T had shot him hurried across to the embankment, certain onlv oT ono thing, "llalsey must not (ell the detective what ho suspected until the money had been removed from the chimney room. They stepped into vtho road in front of the car to stop it, and fate played into their hands. The car struck the train, and they had only to disposo of the unconscious figure in the road. This they did as 1 have told. For throo days llalsey lay in Ihe box car. lied ha'nd and 'foot, suffering suf-fering tortures 'of thirst, delirious at times, and discovered by a tramp at .Tohnsville onlv in time to save his lire. To go back lo Paul Armstrong. At the last moment his plans had been frustrated. Sunnysidc, with its hoard in (he chimney room, had been rented without his knowledge! Attempts lo dislodge me having failed, ho was driven driv-en fo breaking inlo his own house The ladder in the chute, the burning of tho stable and the entrance through the card room window all were in the course of a desperate attempt to get into the chimney room. Louise and her mother had, from the first, been the great stumbling blocks. The plan hud been lo send Jjouiso away until it was too late for her to interfere, inter-fere, but hc came back lo tho hotel at C just at Ihe wrong lime. There was a terrible scene. The girl wa told that something of the kind wa necessary; that tho bank was about to close aud her stepfather would cither avoid arrest aud disgrace in this wav, or kill himself. Fanuy Armstrong was a weakling, but Louise was more difficult diffi-cult to manage. She had no love for her stepfather, but her devotion to her mother was entiro, self-sacrificing. Forced into acquiescence by her mother's moth-er's appeals, overwhelmed bv the sit nation, the girl consented and fled. From somewhere in Colorado sho sent an anonvmous telegram lo Jack-Bailey Jack-Bailey at the Traders' Bauk. Trapped as she was, she did not want lo see an innocent man arrested. The telegram, received on Thursday, had sent the cashier to tho bank that night iu a frenzy. Louise arrived a I .Sunnyside aud found Ihe house rented. Not knowing whal lo do, sho sent for Arnold at Ihe Ltieenwood club, and fold bun a little, not all.. She I old him that there was something wrong, and that the bauk was about lo close. That his father was' responsible. Of Ihe conspiracy she said nothing. To her surprise. Arnold already knew, through Bailev that things were not right. Aloreover, he suspected what Louise did not, that Ihe money was hidden at Sunnyside. He had a scrap of paper that indicated a concealed room somewhere. His inherited cupidity was aroused Eager lo gel llalsey aiid Jack Bailev out of the house, he went up lo the cast entry, and in the billiard room gave the cashier what he had refused earlier in the evening tho address of Paul Armstrong in California and a telegram which had boon forwarded lo Ihe club for Bailey, from Doctor Walk or. It was in response to ono Bailev had sent, and it sairl Hint Paul Arm strong was vary ill. Bailey was almost desperate. He decided lo go west and find Paul Armstrong, Arm-strong, and to force him to disgorge. But Ihe catastrophe at Ihe bank occurred oc-curred sooner than he had expected. On lho moment of starting west, at Andrews Station, where Air. Jamieson had located Ihe car, he read that the bank had dosed, and, going back, surrendered sur-rendered himself. John Bailey had known Paul Armstrong Arm-strong intimately. Be did not believe that lho money was gone; in fact, il was hardly possible iu the interval since Ihe securities had been taken. Whore was it? And from some chance remark let fall some months earlier by Arnold Armstrong at a dinner, Bailev rdt. sure there was a hidden room at Sunnyside. He tried to see the architect archi-tect of tho building, bul, like the con-tractor, con-tractor, if ho . knew of the room, he refused any information. If was Ualsey's Ual-sey's idea that John Bailey conic lo lho house as a gardener, and pursue his investigations as he could. His smooth upper lip had been sufficient disguise, with his change of clothes, and a hair cut by a country barber. So it was Alex, Jack Bailey, who had been our ghost. Not only had he alarmed Louise and himself ho admit ad-mit led on the circular staircase, but he had dug Hie hole in the trunk room wall, and later sent FJizn into hvs teria. The nolo Liddy had found iu Gortrude 's scrap basket was from him, and it. was ho who had startled mo into unconsciousness by the clothes chute, and, with Gertrude's help, had carried nic fo Louise's room. Gertrude. I' learned, had watched all night beside ino, in an oxlrcmity of anxietv nbout me. Thnt old Thomas had seen his master, mas-ter, aud thought he had seen the Sunnyside Sun-nyside ghost, there could be no. doubt. Of that story of Thomas', about seeing .lack Bail 03 iu the footpath between the club and Sunnyside, the night Lid-d' Lid-d' and 1 heard the noise on the circular cir-cular staircase that, too, was right. On the night beforo Arnold Armstrong was murdered, .lack Bailey had made an attempt lo search for the secret room, lie secured Arnold's keys from his room at the club, and got inlo the houbc, armed with a golf stick for sounding tho walls. lie ran up ngainst. the hamper at the head of lho stairs, caught his cuff link in it, and dropped the golf stick with a crash. He was glad enough to get away without an alarm being raised, and he look the "owl" train to town. Tho oddest thing to nic was that Mr. Jamieson had known for some time that Alex was .Jack Bailey. But the faco of the psendo gardener was very queer indeed, when that; night, in the card room, tho detoctive turned to him and said: "llow long arc .vou and I" coinc lo play our little comedy, Ir. Bailey?" Well, it is all over now. Paul Armstrong Arm-strong rests iu Casanova clmrelyard. and this time there is no mistake. T went to tlie funeral, because I wanted to bo sure he was reallv buried, and 1 looked at the step of the shaft where I had sat that night, and wondered if it was all real. Sunnvsidc is for sale no, r shall not Juiy it. Little Lucien Armstrong is living with his step-grandmother, step-grandmother, and she is recovering gradually J roin troubles that, had ox-tended ox-tended over the entire period of her second marriage Anne Watson lies not far from the man she killed, and who as surely caused her death. Thomas, the fourth victim of the conspiracy, con-spiracy, is buried on the hill. With Nina Harrington, five lives were sacrificed sacri-ficed in the eoun-o of this grim conspiracy. con-spiracy. There will be two weddings before long, and Liddy has asked for my heliotrope poplin lo wear to the church. T knew sho would. She has wanted il for three .years, and she was quite ugly the time J spilled coffee on it. Wc are very quiot, just the two of us. Liddy still clings to her ghost theory, aud points to my -wet and muddy mud-dy boots in the trunk room as proof. I am gray, 1 admit, but I haven't felt as well in a dozen years. Sometimes, when J am bored, I ring for Liddy. and wc fall: things over. When Warner married Rusie. Liddy sniffed and suid what I took for faithfulness iu T?osie had been nothing but mnwkishnciss. I have, not yet outlived Liddy 's contempt because T gave them silver knives and forks as a wedding gift. So we sit and talk, and somlimcs Liddy threatens to leave, and often T discharge her, but wc slay togother somehow. 1 am talking of renting a house next year, and Liddy says to be sure there is no ghost. To bc'perfect ly frank, I never really lived until that summer. Time has passed since T began this story. My neighbors are packing up for another summer. Lidd-is Lidd-is having the nwnings put up, and the window boxes filled, Liddy or no Lid-dj Lid-dj I shall advortisc tomorrow for a house in the i.oiintrv, and T don't care if it has a Circular Staircase T-f IK KND. |