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Show 0 lis B fm Tatims swaggered In. ITS' T'eDt Nd Pton, r" S- Unbeknown to "1 of an Alaska camp o , 1. man whom be iuc udtoWm. Bruc. Pxton V. u "'rrled to Har" ' ,ri it and Insists on 1Z A er wedding Samp slstew. - hop. Bruce and Janice ,S disturb-, shortly L will them her husband, X". .hot dead. "1! you 'r,,la:m. to Bruce, Vuce spend, the night . The commissioner ar-L, ar-L, i.on. He is asking S:;bou Hal. and Ta-friend. Ta-friend. e with the story. IAFTEB XII ,, not your squaw, is ued the Commissioner, se to marry on me. She sterHale. She say she IS no more, she lak gol' ere you yesterday?" i cleanin' out hangar, ake all day?" Word come dat cniei s Samp seesters, they woods. I cut every-Bring every-Bring to H house and j room." e come an' Meester ider, seester, dey work r mens come too." , Hale and Chester in 11 the time you were?" Meester Chester go i her, 'You feenish.' She i more green. W'en I he gone too." she? Where were you ice." I girl friend" he fas Tatima, this girl I marry, with you?" tay at Waffle Shop for ;e party there." He e come to dance late, it through." f girl was called next. ggered in, head back, the curious color dark en drained of blood. od time at the Indian ght?" igbtened. "Who, me? ian dance?" Her con-?erb. con-?erb. "I stay at Waf-Ight, Waf-Ight, help Mees Samp i ' up after marriage ' i isioner grinned at Haired Ha-ired him with a dis-. dis-. "Who, me? I stan' : If. You work for Mr. ' work for Mees Samp u do there?" ible. Wash deeshes, :h t'ings. Work hard." fad time to take care sfcabin?" ier head, set her lips ed line of defiance. : nanded: 1 Commissioner's ques-We ques-We all know that r Mr. Hale. Tell the "What do you mean speakin like that to me, to a woman old enough to be your mother? I want you should understand that the engi-neers engi-neers in this camp didn't leave their manners behind in the States. You et ten waffles for your lunch, Mary told me. I ain't under any obligations obliga-tions to feed you an your assistants assist-ants while you're here on this case. If you try to be a smarty with me, you'll eat with the men or the Eskimos, Eski-mos, understand" Tubby Grant camouflaged an exuberant exu-berant chuckle with a racking cough. Dauntless Martha Samp belligerently bel-ligerently faced the Commissioner. A smile tempered the amazement on his face as he rose. He was decidedly de-cidedly attractive when he stepped outside his official self, Janice decided. de-cided. "Miss Samp, if It's a case of love my waffles, love me, I'm eating out of your hand. I never tasted anything any-thing so good. Sit down. We'll listen lis-ten so long as you'll talk." She sat down. "Sakes alive, I guess you don't know what you're promising. I'm quite a talker when I get goin'. Howsoever. How-soever. I haven't got so much to say unless I get started on crime or matrimony. Surprisin how often you'll find 'em related. I've found the pistol." From the box she cautiously cau-tiously extracted , a revolver wrapped in a soft white cloth. A revolver with a gleaming mother-of-pearl butt The office whirled before Janice's Incredulous eyes. Bruce Harcourt'sl "I found it on the shore when the tide went out," Martha continued. "When I heard about Mr. Hale, an' there not being any weapon found, I says to myself, 'First thing'll be done will be to examine and check up on every pistol at headquarters. 'Tisn't likely though that whoever did it will keep it by him, he'll get rid of it. No place I know of better than the shore.' So every chance I had I ran down to the shingle while the tide was low. I had what you call a hunch that it wouldn't be far away, and it wasn't." The Commissioner broke the revolver. re-volver. "One cartridge gone." He replaced it on the table. "Ever seen this gun before, Miss Samp?" "Yes," "Where?" "It belonged to my nephew, Ar- isure, he come. He say very loud, 'W'at you mean sending for Mees Trent, Joe? Try any funny business an' I'll shoot.' An' then Mees Hale come In an' say, 'Wat you doln' with that pistol, Jimmy? Joe's frightened!' An' then she laughed an' laughed 'sthough she didn't know what she doin', an' I went to Waffle Shop an' wash deeshes." "You didn't see Mr. Hale again alive?" "Who, me? I not see heem again, never." "That's all. You may go." She swung out, head up, the Yaku-tat Yaku-tat blanket trailing from one hand. The Commissioner watched her till the door closed. Made a note on his pad. "You take stenographic notes, don't you, Grant? Take Miss Trent's testimony." He looked at Janice. "Sorry to bring you into this, but I want to hear about your visit to Hale's cabin." cab-in." "Mr. Hale phoned me to come and take a letter from his dictation. dicta-tion. A codicil." "Codicil! Did he sign It?" "I don't know. I put It in shape and sent two copies to him by one of the men." "Make a rough draft for me when we get through this afternoon. While you were at the Hale cabin, what happened?" "Tatima has given an exact account" ac-count" "You met Chester as you went out?" "Yes." "What did he say to you?" "He asked what I was doing In Hale's cabin." "And you answered?" "That It was none of his business. busi-ness. The suspicion in his voice made me furious." "Mm! All the next day you were away from headquarters, I understand. under-stand. There was a party here in the evening. Did you dance with Chester?" "Yes." "Did he mention your meeting of the day before?" "Yes. He apologized for his manner man-ner and I explained why I answered as I did." "You parted good friends?" chie Harper." "Who owned the revolver after your nephew went?" "Mr. Bruce." , "Did you know that it was missing, miss-ing, Harcourt?" "Yes." Curtly Bruce Harcourt told of his discovery of the empty holster on his wall, added that he had Inquired In-quired among the engineers if any-one any-one of them had borrowed it. "Mm. Didn't connect it with the shooting, I suppose?" "The shooting hadn't occurred at the time I missed it." The door swung slowly open. A man with dazed eyes swayed on the threshold. His face was bruised, his clotting torn. The Commissioner Commission-er stared at him, open-mouthed. "Parks! Where did you come from? Plane crack-up?" The man's head achieved a wobbly shake. "Never got off. Fella grabbed me as I was climbing into the cock-nit cock-nit He flung me down with such force that I was stunned. I heard a roar an' then I didn't know any- ttWhat did he look like?" The Commissioner shook the dazed man in his eagerness. '""Go easy. I fell on that arm. Couldn't tell what he looked like eoggles on. But when he grabbed me I noticed a big black seal-ring Wnoars a seal-rinS in this outfit, Harcourt?" Tnpster the second engineer. Mrs Hale is Chester's sister?" ..rU 'talk with her next li iho able to see anyone. Miss Martha? -Twill do her good to rouse out of Jr daze. If M's. Hale !.' -What d'you mean, she s got a .ro'Halrwls a rich man. I've u He didn't need to work, St he was crazy over bridge-build- ing " (TO BE CONTINUED) "The best." Thank heaven that was over! She had squeezed by without telling what Jimmy had said In reply. "Was that all that was said?" Her assurance crashed. Good grief! She wasn't under oath, she hadn't sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth. She would say nothing which could incriminate nice Jimmy Chester. She smiled engagingly at the Commissioner. "Anything more would have been anti-climax, wouldn't it?" His smile was bland, too bland. "You were In the H house when Mrs. Hale came last night, weren't you? Sorry to remind you of what must have been a gruesome intrusion intru-sion on your happiness, but I want to know what happened." "We were sitting by the fire talking talk-ing when someone beat furiously at the door. Mrs. Hale stumbled into the room. She was breathless as though she had been running. Sne braced herself against the wall, tried to speak. Mr. Harcourt said, Steauy, Millicent What has happened? Her eyes were wide with horror as she called out. 'Joe's dead! Shot! She pitched forward to the floor. "You can remember nothing more that was said? See who's knocking, Janice's eyes met Harcourt'.. He must be intensely relieved that she had been reprieved from answering Sat question. Tubby Grant opened the door. Martha Samp stood on the threshold. In one hand she held a box. Harcourt rose. 'We were to send for you later. Miss Martha." The woman's grim Hps twisted m a smile. "Which's polite for sayin . Vh"t you doin' here?' Mr. Bruce I came to save you wastin' the gov-ernmenf. gov-ernmenf. time." She stepped Wo the center of the room. Her voice quavered with excitement Found me revolver that shot Joe Hale. Must be somewhere." , -Obviously." The Commissioner , voico dripped sarcasm. Martha Samp frowned at him. 1! i him from under low-nched low-nched her fine shoul- Tell truth? You not )' much as you t'ink. I ot Meester Hale." A ng twisted her face. A drop of blood efo as she went on. of cabin w'ile Mees y." since her return?" 'raps." losing this?" Bto bent forward to ded hand. In the )Iue glass bead. She le string about her ) veiled the fright ned in her eyes. She ;o days ago. Same e Indicated the girl .f desk. Janice felt to her hair as the ! d at her. hat young lady at the she. Meester Hale ler to come. Say he , First he send 1 ffle Shop. Mees 11 tell her letter. He ; cauful. After w'ile ; W han's. I :,Hale to tell Miss ' wa beautiful, did V not care. He say from marry-, marry-, WnV An' she say, I Pen beads break. I fetn "P. I hear no j Miss Trent's voice JSns, don't you? T "tuna some leetle j " a outside, l;PeJ very mad to ., f Chester. 'fore he he come into the |