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Show Ft Jaion. i Mr. Quade. Mr Nnn... . . Mr. Quade. Mr. Norcross or Mr De Witt will hold your legs. Like kissing the blarney stone." "111 look. Lemme. I don't get hydrophobia," Lily screamed. We had to laugh, and It relieved the tension. Victor Quade lay down on the rock, but Lily grinned back at us. I "Oh, go ahead and laugh. High, ain't It? Of course I know hydrophobia hydro-phobia Is really what they call it when people play sick all the time. Like my niece, before she got in pictures. What I meant was cliff, tomania." She flung her full bulk alongside Victor, till I held my breath lest she shove him Into the deep. But in an-other an-other moment Victor rose, shaking his dark head disappointedly. "Nobody down there on that shelf. Not a thing, so far as I could see, with the fissure at the far end and the ocean below. What a frightful place! Either way, a thin person might roll off into the sea." "Used to be called Lovers Nook," Bessie sighed. She walked away rapidly toward the church steps, with Hugh following to console her, as per usual. "Won't somebody help Miss Kendall Ken-dall up?" I asked. But Lily yelled, "Don't touch me!! I I can get up myself." It took her quite a time. The men turned away, politely, while the hot Is0 receives U ! abandoned ehwch JS day- Th body f ifew Hours later. !f wWnUy uu," !2 1 ' j uncle WyUe'i Knrned .bed. Evt-. Evt-. foona asm.t Bet- I', read Jon D.W.tt, lta Judy's 'tofy APTEB X lds on the door- tp close to me, Judy. ain. "But I don't see ays get them to give (their penmanship. I funny capital F In i flourish on It" have been speaking 'he point is, my dear. Lrison is no longer ih the original gone. L and Brown out, In I possible third-party 't you see?" ou believed that all fay you were question-I question-I Mr. Quade." indie this. You keep . I'll spring a trap. 'all over the country, Luence. just as I sur- I boy, this criminal!" er and laid a hand on I "Be careful, won't Ike a burr," I smiled . li bim out into the 7 hurried upstairs and i in my bureau drawer ) wi. Chowder or no ) s going with the bunch iey could eat canned . lie couldn't manage :tor had whetted my ost as much as my irning he'd given me. lion of staying behind l bbed and searched by n assassin while the j down by the Pirates rply couldn't believe m one of our guests, jess would have been i responsible, the gang gathered Potter, who was dab-Isttle dab-Isttle church picture, gave me some kero-imed. kero-imed. a?" shrilled Lily Ken-lid, Ken-lid, wondering who on pant it after what had e. it, I'll give it to you, Potter said shyly. ie delighted, Mr. Pot- 0 sound sincere. 1 me and I'll pay you I "I'm dyin' to have i?y niece." aown to that horrible cellar?" u?7, ot course no- Better If nobody went," Victor explained. ere is a club there. May be your brother's, maybe not. Doesn't Prove a thing either way. What I thought was blood may be rust, per-naps, per-naps, though I don't think so. The Police will be ripping if we m.ss around too much. This is certain none of us wants to leave fresh prints on anything down there." "I wish I could go!" Thaddeus Quincy regretted plaintively. "Take the same committee you had before be-fore and have another look, Quade. And you men do what he tells you. He's up in this murder stuff and the rest of us aren't." "Thanks for that double-edger. Victor Quinn accepts the compll-ment. compll-ment. Victor Quade has his doubts." I gave Victor the key and the crowd piled into the little old musty church. Goodness! How dark it was! The cobwebby windows, with their darkly stained glass, showed scarcely scarce-ly any light at all. The vestibule was light enough where the sun streamed through, but save for that bright patch of searchlight sun down the main aisle, the pews were almost al-most in a tomb till your eyes got did I say tomb? Tomb is right! Lily astonishingly took command. "Why should the men have all the fun? Come on, Judy Jason. We ain't murderers. We don't play golf. Let's us take a peek. Why give the real killer a chance to take his hanky and give the stick a swipe?" Good idea, several conceded. Victor Vic-tor didn't like it. He was afraid we'd disturb the position of things, but Lily was already waddling down the main aisle. The Rev. De Witt surprised us by announcing he was going outside with his glasses to take a squint at the bridge. The milkman might be early. Picnickers might be arriving at the Head. Was it likely everybody was sleeping late after the night-before night-before celebration? And, look, he'd seen boats in the harbor. Not close, of course. But couldn't we signal? Build a fire? He stopped, remembering remem-bering last night's, I suppose, and the uselessness of such procedure on the Fourth of July. "Go along out and shoot off a couple cou-ple of rockets," the artist added facetiously. Shall we help him, Mr. Quade?" "Why not? You've no call to stay here. It's occurred to me that the auction" That's all I heard. Lily and I took the narrow crooked basement stairs. She had to turn sidewise, once, but she made it. I was glad Victor had given me back my flashlight. flash-light. Even by daylight, that dank, rocky floored hole is spooky. Lily stood quaking on the bottom stair while I tiptoed to the sea chest, closed now, and as innocent-looking as when I'd knelt in front of it and tried to wheedle the lock with a bobby pin. Only now the lock hung open. I played my torch down the space between the chest and the wall. Sure enough, there was the golf club! I didn't want to touch it. The blood was unmistakable. It gave me the jitters. Af. K Sf Jy; fJi She flung her full bulk alongside Victor. roistering land breeze played with her ballooning skirts. But finally the behemoth came panting up to me. "Somethin's rotten In Denmark!" she hissed. "Keep away from that Quade feller!" Keep away from Victor? What could she mean? I was dying to make her be more explicit, but she shook her rigid marcel at me forbiddingly. for-biddingly. "Not now!!" This time the hiss, whispered so that I don't see how anybody could have failed to overhear over-hear it, was a command. It's only a few steps from the top of the cliff overhanging the vicious vi-cious Pirate's Mouth to the site of the Quaker church. The inn guests were making toward Bessie and Hugh, seated on the steps. Victor came back beside Lily Kendall, who Immediately switched to the other side of me. "Great bootleggers' cache-that big shell of rock, Judy." "Yes. Uncle Wylie said the coast guard found some stuff hidden down there during prohibition. The bootleggers, boot-leggers, fearing a raid, had tried the Pirate's Mouth, but somebody must have tipped them off." Victor wasn't looking at me, I noticed. no-ticed. He was watching Lily Kendall Ken-dall Why? She was marching, eyes and' bosom front, like a grenadier. "Well even the police wouldn't find anything today," he sighed, giv-lng giv-lng her a side glance. She only pressed her lips tighter together. "What did you expect to find-Roddy find-Roddy Lane?" I asked. "Or old man Brown?" Mr. Quincy spoke up. He was looking at his watch. "Why, it's only Ave minutes of 9. Never saw a morning last so long or fly so fast, either." "I'm practically starved," Bessie called. "Hugh wants a look at the eolf club Mr. Quade says he saw in tie basement Then we're going back to the inn. I've got to have an aspirin." "Why don't you go along bacK now?" Victor asked. "I'm sure-er -Miss Kendall will be glad to go with you." . "Sorry. Miss Kendall stays.' Th ! was the first time I'd heard L y snap out of her kittenish role. W to the gang." .she added, her lower Up protruding till she looked positively menacing. . "Wise lady." Victor shrugged Til wait for my brother." Bessie said with finality. "Are we all to go I dollars!" Albion was J Miss Kendall, I'll be-! be-! ! Unless Judy Miss orrected himself hur-let hur-let me give you this t another. Fact Is, I monkey for an easel." wry chance you get." the steps where Mr. Jumping his cane and :U, well what are we aittag for Hugh Nor-ered Nor-ered an orange square sister. "Tie your hair Bess. You're right, f has vanished. What therfor half a dollar." nt I paid two-seven-Jat wart last Christ-; Christ-; is't in any of my I've hunted." Mm't matter," Hugh "I wish you'd cheese old carf in the midst d on ahead. Bessie, morning was growing ,ffiinute, so that I was " my sleeveless print Spotted white sports eyes kept glancing " Wheels while Lil the chair. She kept at chatter with all of ;sfally Mr. Potter. j'Wait of her in her crystal beads? No. to think of it ine jet would do. He 5? rhim $5 and (tUlhe'd earned that? JH Mrs. Gerry, win 7' "ay longer at . beautiful here." " .hlm and smiled. other boarders nd Aunt Nella's e ruined, after alL J? the cliff where ; Joherous path down te Mouth, he held J,flt-dyou.can.it.pho. ,iaat go down there Sie aSreed, drawing bdygodown?I " co 'Ce lnt0 Pi-lng Pi-lng over tQ th.s Wgover. You do it "Come here, Miss Kendall. Look at this." She came, quivering, and leaned down to pick it up. "Wait." I handed her my handkerchief. hand-kerchief. "Use this. Just see If there are initials on the end and put it right back." "Plain as day!" Lily gasped. "But I don't believe that nice Mr. Norcross Nor-cross did any killin' not after what I saw in" "Hurry up, you girls." We both whirled at the sound of Victor's voice. Neither of us had heard him come down the stairs, but there he stood. I could hear the babble of voices above and the lash-ing lash-ing of the sea outside. "Coming," I said, but Lily stood glaring at him. "They're going to re-enact the auction." Victor whispered added caution to me: "You keep mum about the letter. Let me. Coming, Miss Kendall?" He started to stand aside on the stair to let her pass; then, seeing the futility, he went along up. "0 K.," Lily said. "I'm right behind you. But you can't tell me that nice Hugh Norcross" Bessie cut in, chillingly: "So it was Hugh's club!" She was leaning down at the head of the stairs, the way I'd seen her that night she told me about the missing turpentine. Whenever I think of Bessie Norcross Nor-cross I see her brooding white face leaning over stairs, listening. "And it doesn't prove thing," Victor said, comfortingly. "Sure, it don't, honey," Lily panted pant-ed "Proves he's innocent if you ask me The feller that done it left it on purpose. Your brother would -a- thrown bis Into the sea to wash oS the blood, if nothin' more." "Then Quade was right?" Mr. Quincy. who'd been wheeled into the main aisle, worked his way nearer. S was blood on it?" he asked. "Br-r-r-r-r-r! No doubt about it. Somebody's done you dirt Hugh Norcross." Hugh grabbed my arm, while Bes-.u Bes-.u i clung to the other one of his. ?5ear7 1 wish you'd go back to the inr, he said. (TO BE CONT1SVED) |