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Show STORY FROM THE START While despondent over the enforced en-forced hidlni; of her fiance, Jim Dallas, slayer In self-defense of Homer Parkinson, member of an Influential family. Sybil Sounders, popular actress, la engaged to play Viola In a charily performance perform-ance 'it "Twelfth Night" on Gull Iland, on the Maine coast. After the play Hugh Bassett, Anne Tracy'a fiance. Tells Joe he has heard he Is spying on Sybil to learn the whereabouts of Jim Dallas and earn the reward offered of-fered by the -Pnrlilnson family. The boy denies U. Joe Is arranging arrang-ing for a vacation trip. To Anne he betrays his enmity toward Sybil. Stoltes tells Sybil he has news of Dallas, and to secure privacy tUey arrange to meet In a small summer house. The sound of a pistol shot startles the assembled company. Investigation Inves-tigation shows a revolver has been taken fim a desk In the library. CHAPTER IV Continued "That's just what vp. wanr to know. Whore were you?" "Sitting out on the balcony." "See anybody r" "No. I've been looking about 1 wont down the path to the pine grove mill round the house but I didn't see b soul." "Why, who could It be?" suld Anne, ' "Aren't v.e nil" she looked over the (landing figures "No, we're not till here. Who's outside?" "Mrs. Stokes is." Shine spoke up. "1 saw her walking along the ocean bluffs as I came up from the point." "Sybil Is, too," Mrs. Cornell added. "She went out just a few minutes ago ) saw her from nij window." "It can't be either of them." Bas-sett's Bas-sett's vexation had given place to a Midden uneasiness. "I don't understand. under-stand. Nobody could have come over from the mainland with the tide up. I'll go out there " A sound from outside stopped him. It was a cry In a woman's voice, close by. "What's that?" someone said, and before an answer could come, the cry rose again a high wailing scream carrying car-rying words : "Sybil.! Sybil 1 Sybil's dead-Sybil's dead-Sybil's killed 1" A clamorous mingling of voices rose from the group, combined in a single up-swelling note of horror. The men rushed for the entrance and met Flora Ktokes. She burst in between them, white as the ghost of Caesar, with her opened mouth a dark cavity. "Sybil's murdered dead shot." Knch word way projected in a scream-! scream-! hit! gasp. j Basset t shouted at her, "Where?" ! Anil she waved an uriu toward the channel. '"There from the Point. She's gone ( ; she's dead ! She went over Into the I wnier. Ou the top of the cliff. She's ; tnurdered dead murdered!" As if she were dead, too, and of no more consequence, jhey lied past her n line of people streaming out into the serene evening that held a hideous catusliophe. Only Anne stayed, her face as If overlaid by a coating of white paint. She went to Flora and seized her by the arm. '"What was It?" she whispered. "Who did it?" The woman looked at her at first as ! 1f not knowing who she was. Then Jerking her arm free, clasped her hands against the sides of her bead imd went across the room slarlng upward up-ward and crying out : "I don't know. 1 didn't see . It's i God's truth, I ju't know." Anne ran after the others CHAPTER V r The moon lmd risen and hung on the lge of the sky like a great disk of white paper. Anne saw the others 'mining this way and that along the "ilge of I he point. A boat was pushing nt from ihe deck, Stokes In It. and, i nnijdil by the crrrent. It shot down he gleaming surface of the channel', there were cries In men's voices and I Slops' answ-T. bell-clear from the I uter. Then Shine ran by her, b.tcW I the house, grim-vlsnged with star- ! his eyes. She rati on through the pine wwm "D the path beyond. Mrs. Cornell ;e: fied. to speak with chaltorlng ' Wth, but ended In a scream and foil j U'u her shoulder, liver her head : Anue saw I '.asset I Hying down the '"he to the wharf. Then presently '"'Us moving out from 1 lay worth They sped back and' forth, up and dwu. swift black shapes thai seemed '" he n.ecuiing some complicated ; maneuvers along the glittering track ! "f moonlight. She was aware of L'.as-"ett's L'.as-"ett's figure leaving the wharf and r".iig to the house, of Shine lliuddin,-''' lliuddin,-''' "d calling; "They're here already! I got so'.ue-"e so'.ue-"e on the wire and I (old him to g. ; "ke hell." Miss Plnkney's voice answered him from the edge of the Point where she "'d like a hla.k basalt statue: ''Oh. they're here, all right. Kvery ''-"er ilit ),as a boat's out. But it's ; J10 ;se; no one who's eer got caught I" that runeiu'-i been found." j. Shine muttered nu Invocation and win,. i T1)ey sti)i)( S1M,01.,. Mai-ing nt tho boats the heal w.iw;rs l01. Syl)., vyho h,if ;(n hour c" was alive like themselves and now j 's where? ! AJ soon is In uaw r),u Uwt in oper- 1 By GERALDINE BONNER v7Tr? Sen-Ice (Copyright by The Bobbs-Merrlll Co.) ation, I'.nssett ran to the house. He had to find Flora and get fuller information infor-mation from her before be called tip the police, and not seeing her outside, he supposed she was still there. The great room was almost dark. He felt tor one of the standard lamps and pulled the string. The gush of light fell directly over her, close to him, sunk In an armchair, as still as If she, too, had ceased to live. ne hud expected ex-pected difficulties in getting n coherent co-herent statement from her, but she told him what she hud seen, briefly and clearly, as if she had known he was coming and was ready for him. She had skirted the island and come to that pan of the path which faced the Point. X hollow intervened, extending ex-tending to tiie water's edge In a mass of shelving rock. Across this hollow she saw Sybil appear on the end of the Point, coming up from the opposite side, and almost immediately heard the shot. Sybil had thrown up her arms, staggered forward and gone over the bltuT. It all happened in a dash and Flora, though describing herself her-self as dazed, had run down the path into the hollow and out on the rocks thinking she could catch her.. But she saw Ihe body go swirling by far out of her reach, caught and borne along in the current. She had watched it, stunned, then had come to her senses and staggered back to the shore and ran to the house. On the way there she had seen no one and heard nothing. noth-ing. Passett left her and went to the library to call up Forestvllle, the county coun-ty seat. It was the starting poiut for limiting parties to New Brunswick, and I'.assett, a sportsman in his leisure hours, had stayed there several times assembling his guides and gear. On his last trip, two years ago, trouble with a guide had brought him in contact con-tact with the sheriff, Abel Williams. Over legal wrangling they had struck up a friendship and he remembered Williams as a man of some capacity, straight and fair-minded. If he was still In office It would simplify matters mat-ters ; to start out with confidence in the director would be a vital gain. He waited, the receiver ngalnst his ear, a foot drumming on the carpet, then a deep and growling voice hummed along the wire. It was Abel Williams. Williams would be down as soon as he could, with Mr. Itawson, the district attorney nn hour and a half to two hours, the r'oads being bad. The shore people had been told it was an accidentthat's acci-dentthat's all right, couldn't hold nn inquest anyway without a body and it ' was a good thing to keep 'em off. Better Bet-ter not let anything come out till they'd got the situation in hand, easy to fix at that end as the United American Ameri-can Press man was off fishing. They'd it do a good deal better if the press was held off for a spell. Seeing where the island was and that there was no one on it but their own crowd, it would be possible eo keep things out of the public eye till they' had the work well started. Bassett looked at his watch nearly eight probably two hours to wait. The best thing he could do was to get them together and keep them ns quiet as he could. As he went down the path his mind collected and marshaled In order the fucts he would have to present. They hud nil been in the house except Stokes on the balcony and Flora walking round the island. Stokes eaten into by a hopeless love, Flora on lire with jealousy and hate passions that make for murder. "God. what's going to be Ihe end of this?" he groaned to himself. He found thenl lu a group near the pine grove, excitedly conferring together. to-gether. Mokes had .lust . returned with the electric torch and they were preparing to search the ground for fool prims. liussett brought thfcii activities to nn end and shepherdoo them to the house. Willi dragging feel and lowered heads they trailed up the path and filed Into Ihe living room. Here, under the radiance of the lights, they looked ut rue another as f expecting to see startling changes and fell (xoitnliitf into chair.:, or snt. stiff and upright, with rigid vascies. Basset I had told them when the authorities au-thorities might be expected and as the hour drew near, dread of the lirama hi which they found themselves stilled tlu-ir tongues. The sea breez.-. freighted with the acrid odors of nn-coveied nn-coveied mud and seaweed, blew ilirough Hie room. Basset! rose and closed the garden door, and eyes shifted to him, hung on his hand as it slid the bolt. lie crossed to where Anne was sitting sit-ting by the entrance. She had her back to the room and was looking out at the lights of Hayworth dotting the shore. He stood behind her chair und put his hand on her shoulder. Her ringers stole up and rested on his. Icy-cold. Icy-cold. Ho bent till his head was close to hers und whispered: "Bear up. Thank God this can't touch you in any way." Her lingers pressed an answer but she said nothing. Shine came toward them: "Those fellers were lucky who got off this afternoon. I might huve gone with them if I'd had the sense." Anne answered this time: "Yes, they were more fortunate than we are." Mrs. Cornell, between sobs, spoke up : "But even If we were here they can't suspect us. We've got alibis, we're all accounted for. We were ail in " She realized where she was going and stopped. There was a portentous silence. Shine almost shouted, pointing point-ing out at the channel : "The tide's falling fust. They can't get into the dock here. How will they make a landing?" Bassett answered : ! "In a cove at the upper end of the ! Island. They've a dock there for low water. They have to make a detour. ! that's nil." Flora, who had been sitting with her hand over her eyes, dropped it nnd sat erect. Her breath came from her in a loud exhalation that was almost a I groan. Every pair of eyes shifted to her, watchful, questioning, apprehensive. apprehen-sive. "Do you feel ill, Flora?" said Bassett, Bas-sett, moving to her side. "No no," she looked wildly about. "But this waiting it's so awful." Miss Pinkney suggested a glass of water, but Flora waved a hand as if pushing it away. Stokes rose and moved to a sent beside her. "They'll be here soon now." She sank buck and closed her eyes. Her husband bent a somber, sidewise look toward her, then laid his hand on, one of hers. Her own turned and the thin fingers twined like clinging roots about his. "It won't be hard," he reassured. "Just give them a clear account of what you saw." She waved the other hand in front of her face, like a person in unendurable unendur-able pain, who makes a vague distracted dis-tracted gesture for silence. Anne spoke from, the door: "There's a light moving out from the shore." The statement shook them. There was a simultaneous stir of feet and bodies, a heave of labored breaths. Bassett went to the entrance : "Yes that's a launch. They're coming. com-ing. I must go to meet them.4' He looked over the company, the haggard faces all turned toward him. Some of them wore an expression of yearning appeal as If he was their only source of strength in this devastating devas-tating hour: "Now, remember there's nothing to get scared or rattled about. They'll ask you questions and wtiat you 'must do is to answer them accurately not what you think or imagine but what you know. Keep that in the front of your minds. The clearer you are In your statements the quicker you'll get through. And please stay here, just as you are. They'll probably want to see you right oil'." A benumbed silence followed his departure. de-parture. Anne moved from 'the door to a chair nearer the others. Stokes withdrew ids hand from Flora's and straightened himself, jerking down his waistcoat and craning his neck up from his collar. The low rippling murmurs mur-murs of the receding tide were singularly sin-gularly distinct. Suddenly the shrill whistle of a lHUnei, pierced the night outside. Mrs. Cornell leaped us If the sound had been a weapon that had stabbed her: "Oil!" she cried, "why do they do that? Isn't Sybil being murdered enough to stand !" "l or God's sake, keep your mouth ) shut," Stokes tiling at her, glaring. j The savage quality in his voice pen- I elruted Mrs. Council's encasing ter- j rors. She shrunk and slid the look ol j a frightened animal at Shine. Then j the silence settled und they snt like ' those who have looked upon the heud of Medusa. ' (TO BK CONTINUED.) '.T.'.T.'.T.'.I.-.TAT.'.T.'.T.'.T.'.T.'.T.'.TATA ' |