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Show l P"Bm ISABEL 'WAITTV - -----Wif . J5Cr 1 w-N-U RELEASE NjUjSSiSX flnaUy, tiptoelne past poor Lily Ken-dall'a Ken-dall'a room and on up Into my own. The picture of the now hateful old church stood in a corner of the hall near my door, where Victor had moved It when he'd gone to see if the $500 was still there. It stood on a newspaper, where Albion Potter had thoughtfully placed It to save the floor. I didn't pick it up until I'd made sure about the money, it was still where I'd left it! Certain peculiarities in the letter came to my mind, and it occurred to me at least Bessie had given me some hand-writing to compare, only I hadn't examined it closely. I'd go down and try to take a look. But first I picked up the picture to put it into my room. A wet painting isn't easy to handle, han-dle, but when it's wet on both sides it is really difficult. Potter had painted the entire back of the canvas can-vas an apple green, which was even wetter than parts of the picture itself. it-self. I, too, got it on my hands, and just when I placed the thing under one of the windows to dry, it fell over. I made a grab, fearing it would be spoiled and smooched, and caught it, doing more damage probably than as if I'd let it go. Now my hands and a bit of floor beyond be-yond the newspaper were a horrid sight. I seized the paper and tried to wipe off the place where my hand had been, messing up the back miserably. mis-erably. Then I stood the picture up again and raced downstairs to wash my hands. Never heard of painting a canvas on both sides before. Perhaps Per-haps the artists did it that way now or maybe Potter had painted on the Ml A It'll iW wit Mm . 1. eocloslnf $8M and ask- , f'L .a sbandoned chnrch ' L next day. She Bods. 1 f ie body of man den- i Lur. Uter. A fish shed . nX Is supposed to have Cand. Roddy Lne',11d,f ' Fb da. tlly KendaU Is Ims Bus h Norcross- scarf ) Albion Potter tlves , futile church he has Just i 1, Norcrosi writes a con- L with Judy's story. ? I J Werxvi Issed to save him!" f Id see it, now that Vic Itcd it out During the ' Jnoticed a few discrep-" discrep-" Lie's confession, but no- L number he had. Take " lelf, for instance. It in I blown the blue scarf it L pirate's Mouth belt be-lt iwas a land breeze be-n be-n ; turned, and the place " jsheltered. "j ' t to show it to the po- mtoate the brother she 1 incriminate him," Vic- " ;'s the cleverest thing Si ft-hat Bessie says about showing from the path little things like that 3 ing'i pretty good, too, ? fgotten Mr. Quincy was ie piazza all the eve- J e wheeled hiAi down to . He saw her go up to , More dark, and she ftlown again. But Hugh i is. I think it may have Jou spoke to, later. t talking back rapidly to i; Jen were working on the feus Quincy had man-lip man-lip somehow, and was I iself toward us with his " ilied to his cane. He r ving me a reproachful n fUght. iget what I told you, I Ijhe shot a warning nod " then he stationed him- l' kiddle of the road and 2 his signal. i ft to find Norcross and i! t this, Judy." " i ad somewhere. I should ! rf would eliminate him ' sects, wouldn't you?" , cs you and me, Bessie unt Nella and Uncle ik ren't on the list. Why, " is Potter and De Witt i mple, doesn't it? Are ig your Uncle Wylie Kendall hadn't been : a glance. He was pens, but personally I an examination, to be )'s crazy? Maybe he "I i amination, too!" J 1 the steps in high dudg-) dudg-) f I'd better take Thad-' Thad-' i advice. Victor Quade ty things like that ev-r ev-r iile which forced me I the suspicioner. Wylie ' ross was coming down I ! came directly toward I says she gave you a , I don't know what's ir. She won't speak to herself in." Maid of him? I was Ssee the men across the r my aunt's movements a. Then Bessie's de- Jne forget my own fear. I f ive her any more of I medicine?" di't. She takes far Ihe stuff. Why, an over-Don't over-Don't let her have it. stand when you" I f hen he'd read the let-fould let-fould have been an ad-f ad-f I'd done so myself, pet. Judy. My sister's f n awful care. Go up i u can get her to quiet S J"? I wish she was out J And you, too. When Te 1 omething I want Just now all I dare I of isbe careful." He ay hand till It hurt 1 letter?" ) tt it He's with the Ifarn. He told me to 1 9 important, Hugh." He I PPS forward. I fssie I'U be back soon, aid. Elad to escape the of his haggard eyes. Aon Bessie's door. She an't sleep! I can't I want me to get you a beu;?.PidyoU8ive m I low." , gambling off the bed. I ,ou the-my medi- Jp'ouldn'thave any J rl Do let me in, Bes-I Bes-I VH "I rub your f so badly." ,??alnhe.'d Bmg herse" sain, for muffled gobl 7Ply. I gave it up ! . "I shall teU the authorities every thing. Will you agree to leave her out of this? Here, Judy," he reached n his pocket and drew out his wal let, removing a few lean bills. "Give ner this, m be taken to Jail as soon as they come. I'd rather not see her. You tell her. Quade. to keep her mouth shut." "Don't take it, Judy. I'm telling you to keep your own mouth shut, but I suppose it's too late." "What's all this? What's all this?" None of us had noticed the minister , and Quincy, who'd come up behind us and were listening for dear life. "God bless my soul! Not you, Norcross?" Nor-cross?" Thaddeus Quincy wheeled back a pace and took a firmer grip on his cane, even yanking off the red cloth. "Knew it was you all the time, Norcross last night when you wouldn't answer Judy and me." "Yes, it was I. On my way to kill Lane." "Good heavens, Norcross, do you know what you're saying? You don't have to admit anything," Victor said. "Less you say the better for you." "I want to talk. I want to confess. con-fess. I wish to God the police would come say, what's Potter running for?" We could all see the artist climbing climb-ing into his car and driving like mad down the narrow Neck. "To get Gerry to help us launch the boat." For a moment our eyes watched the car, but our ears were tuned to Hugh. He was ranting, almost the way his sister did. "I came down here to kill Lane for what he did to my sister. I saw him coming down the Castle driveway. drive-way. We rfrent over to the church and fough t it out, man to -man. Hit him too hard, I guess. Anyway, hs died and I put him in the chest, just as Judy said. I ought to have locked it, but I heard someone coming." Following the pattern following the pattern just like the letter. i "Hugh, let me see that a minute. min-ute. I'll give it right back," I said to him. He didn't seem to care what he did. He automatically handed me the crumpled ball of a letter. 1 turned my back and took a good look at the writing. Neat, tiny, very individualistic. Nothing at all like mine, with the money, I gave it back to him. "so I tied the scarf around her neck and choked her," he was almost al-most shouting. "But she wouldn't fall through the Pirate's Mouth, so-" "God help us all!" ejaculated De Witt. I could see Potter's car coming back with my uncle. "How much money was it you sent me, Hugh-ie?" Hugh-ie?" I had never called him thai pet name before, but he was sc distrait and I couldn't think him capable of all those crimes. "What ails him?" Albion Potter asked. "He's confessed," shrilled Mr. Quincy. Anyone would have thoughl he was enjoying himself. "Norcross? Well, I vum!" Uncle Wylie marched straight up to Hugh. "Keep your trap shut, young feller, me lad. Iffen you did kill Lane 1 guess we'll all back you up. It was self-defense, warn't it?" "And Old Man Brown?" "And Miss KendaU?" The men gathered around the boat, shaking their heads and mur-i muring to themselves. They might be good witnesses as far as Lane was concerned, but the others-Uncle others-Uncle Wylie screamed in a high falsetto, the way he did whenever he wanted anything: "Nella!" Auntie came running. "Where'd you hide the Eleanor's rollers?" "Hide 'em? How should I know? Up in the barn chamber, ain't they?" She stood, a trim whisp of woman in a neat checkered bib apron, her gnarled hands on her hips. Then, catching sight of Hugh, j "You sick, Mr. Norcross?" j Hugh raised haggard eyes and said nothtag. "I declare I feel a spell comin' on, too. Want some of my elderberry wine?" Her eye fell on the patch on the boat. "Land sakes! I'd ruthei put to sea in a barrel, 'tain't safe, is it, Wylie?" Uncle Wylie was examining the patch. He looked at it outside and in then he scratched his head. "Never "Nev-er git acrost the gap. Cove nel ther Course we can roll her down and 'see. Me, I'd tear that thing oil and do it right." "Why don't you do it then?" hii wife asked tartly. Take too long. Let's see if she'D hold water." "Oh, what the heck!" Hugh sprang ud to help get a log under the Eleanor Elea-nor "Let'8 get going. I want th police to come. I want to be arrested ar-rested before my sister come! dThaddeus Quincy wheeled himseh out of the way.: De Witt stood with closed eyes, praying again, 3 St Potter and Unde WyU took hold of the boat Aunt Nella came down the stepi and I went to meet her. She shot i nuerulous glance at Hugh and askec Z Twist he'd meant I tried to tel vir in a breath. (TO BE CONTINUED) "You sick, Mr. Norcross?" back of another picture. It didn't matter. The thing was not to miss anything outside. I could see Mr. Quincy still waving wav-ing his red banner at the dots in the harbor. The men were hammering hammer-ing at the bottom of the Eleanor. The boat, they called to me, was virtually water tight they hoped. The thing was to get it to the shore. Would I go get Wylie Gerry to tell them how? It was too heavy to carry car-ry and they were afraid they'd scrape the patch off if they just dragged it along. Weren't there any rollers? "Uncle Wylie'll show you. He's at the bridge." If De Witt or Potter thought I was their Western Union boy they were much mistaken. I skedaddled over to where Victor was standing beside Hugh, who had Just finished reading his sister's letter. let-ter. Now he held it out to Quade. "For God's sake, what shall I do?" "You could destroy it." "You read it?" Victor nodded. "You all invited me to sort of take charge. I'll help any way I can, Norcross." "But surely you don't think? Bessie? She wouldn't kill an ant She's afraid, that's all And she ll stick to her story. You see, it wouldn't do any good to destroy this. She'd only confess all over again. She knows I'm guilty. Youve got to believe me, man! I murdered Roddy Lane." "Hugh Norcross! I-I don t believe be-lieve you." I gasped, tears smarting smart-ing my eyes. He didn't have the-the the-the courage, I was thinking. Victor said: "And Miss Kendall? You killed her, too. of course. Why?" "Because she knew too much. .Because .Be-cause she saw me coming out of PoUer's room with that confounded cleansing fluid of his and because she was on the church teP h Roddy and I had the row and I hn him. So I strangled her w,th my scarf. Bessie? Absurd! He looked like handsomt dark shadow, haunted by remor" He crumbled his sister's letter his hand. i |
