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Show E" c By GERALDINE BONNER g: W7I0 Service (Copyright by The Bobbs-MerrlH Co.) g: What human belncr tloen not love a , mystery .story? Knpecially one of those affairn in which a puzzling crime udrtenly disturbs the lives of a group jf people who have been (Toing along In a normal way. All at once a deed of malevolence is committed which turn.s their placid little world iopny turvy. No one knows the perpetrator per-petrator of the crime, but circutn- , -tfinces are such that any one of the h;ip;i I'ently honest, sincere members if '.he proup may come under suspicion. Sew angles of the affair and new mys-:rifs mys-:rifs develop, and a period of the most ivrackins suspense exists for all. Jn this case there is no super-detec-:ive with his mathematics, his chem-f'.;aiM, chem-f'.;aiM, Ills measuring" devices and hla methods of deduction to trap the crimi-;,;il crimi-;,;il and, by the very completeness of I be, cas; ugrainsi him, force him to a .tt! f".ston. NTo one but a few confused Ivilians and a couple of fairly astute :i w ofllcc-rs, both of the latter workup work-up in di fie rent directions and by the :i r iii nee of their theories obstructing Mt lie r than aiding a solution. It was jne of those crimes which seemed like-,y like-,y to remain a mystery unless some , accident occurred to clear it up. And the accident did occur; one of the strangest accidents ever written into a mystery plot, and so terrifying in its effects that it brought a voluntary and quite unexpected confession from the frutlty party (Jeraldine Bonner has written many clever stories and established herself its a master of thrill fiction. PROLOGUE one of the morning trains that tap the little towns along the sound ran into the Gram Central depot. The passengers, few in uumher for it was midsummer and people were going out of town, not coming in hied struggling!' strug-gling!' up the long platform to the exit. One of them was a girl, fair and young, with those distinctive attributes of good looks and style that drew men's eyes to her face and women's to her clothes. People watched her, noting the lithe grace of her movements, her delicate slimness, the froth of blonde hair that curled out under the lirim of her hut. She appeared oblivious to the interests in-terests she aroused and this Indifference Indiffer-ence had once been natural, for to be looked at and admired had been her normal right and become a stale experience. expe-rience. Xow it was assumed, nn armor nailer which she sought protection, hid herself from morbid curiosity and eagerly observing eyes. To be pointed out as Sybil Saunders, the actress, was a very different thing from being ) pointed out as Sybil Saunders, the fiancee of .lames Dallas of the Dnllas-I'arkinson Dnllas-I'arkinson case. The Dallas -Parkinson case had been a si n-alion three months back. James Dallas, a well known actor, had killed Homer Parkinson during a quarrel in n men's club, and lied before the horrl-lii'd horrl-lii'd onlookers could collect their tenses. Dallas, a man of excellent character, had bad many friends who claimed mitigating circumstances Parkinson, drunk and brutal, bad provoked pro-voked tlie assault. lint the Parkinson ian. new-rich oil people, breathing vengeance, had risen to the cause of their kinsman, poured out money In in: cfVorl lo bring the fugitive to ,ns-(ce. ,ns-(ce. and offered a reward of ten thou-wii'l thou-wii'l dollars for his arrest. Of course Sybil Saunders' had figured in the investigation, in-vestigation, she was the betrothed of tlie murderer, their marriage had been nl hiiinl. She bud gone through hours of questioning, relentless grilling, and lii'd steadily maintained her ignorance of Dallas' whereabouts; from tlie iih'ht of his disappearance she had heard nothing from him and knew nothing of him. The Parkinsons did not believe her statement, tlie police were uncertain. Her taxi rolled out into the swelter-1m; swelter-1m; heat. inoandseeni streets roaring imiler ihe blinding glare of the sun. Her destination was the olllce of Stnntil and Walberg, theatrical managers. mana-gers. Mr. Walberg offered her a friendly hand ami a chair. Mr. Walberg. Wal-berg. n kindly Hebrew, was kindlier than ever to this particular visitor. He, was sorry for her as who In his profession was not and wanted to helo her along and here was his proposition propo-sition : A committee of ladies, a high society bunch summering up in .Maine, warned to nivo a play fur charity. Thniaas N. Drl-'coll, the spool-cotton magnate who was In California, bad cTei-eil them his place up then- Cull islmid was the name for an outdoor iH'rfnriininoe. The ladies bad wanted classic which Mr. Walberg opined was all right, seeing the show was for 'luiriiy, and people could stand .being bored for a worthy object. "Twelfth N:-r'"" was the nlny they had selected. Die ladies bad placed the matter in Jb. Walherg's hands, and be bad at thought of Sybil Saunders f.ir v "'la. She K-as In his opiniou the ideal person. Compensation was pot !i" muiiitieent, but then Miss Saunders Saun-ders was not yet In the star cast, and '"I expenses would be covered. In-"''b'g In-"''b'g a week at Cull Island. , bud no need for further pers-n ""a. for Miss Saunders accepled al She was grateful lo him and .(1 s,, ,uu! ,,Uoj us if s!ie mean' .- So. in (1 j,l(nv (lf , ,,,,;,,! sallsfao-hai. sallsfao-hai. they walked to the door. Mr. Wal-lellmg.ovpr Wal-lellmg.ovpr such members of ihe '?"" !'s :' alreadv been engaged: - 'villus ;.vv Cor ,ie Duke. Isabel Hied f,- Mar!a! .,,, (;,.,,,(1 Tie for sir Toby no one could beat him, had the old Hnglish tradition and Anne Tracy for Olivia. At that name Miss Saunders had exclaimed in evident pleasure. Anne Tracy would be perfect, and it would bo so lovely having her. they were such friends. "And I'm going to give you my best director, Hugh IJassett. If with you and him they don't pull off u success the Maine public's dumber than 1 thought." Her business accomplished, Miss Saunders went home. She lived in one of those mid-town blocks of old brown-stone brown-stone bouses divided into flats. Letting Let-ting herself in with a latchkey she ascended as-cended the two flights at a rapid run. unlocked her door and entered upon the hot empty quietude of her own domain. She threw her hat on a chair, and falling upon the divan opened tlie paper that she had carried since she left the Grand Central station. She folded the pages back at the personal column mid settled over It, bent, motionless, her eyes traveling down its length. Suddenly they stopped, focused on a paragraph. She took u pad and pencil from the desk, drew n small table up to the divan, spread the newspaper on it, and copied (lie paragraph onto the pad. It ran as follows : "Sister Carrie: "Edmund sloney broke but Albert able to 'help him. Think we ought to chip In. Can a date be arranged for discussing bis affairs? "Sam and Lewis." She studied it for some time, the ' pencil suspended. Then it descended, crossing out letter after letter, till three p mm Now He Had Grown Bolder, Telling Her Where He Was. words remained "Edmonton, Alberta, Canada." The signature she guessed as the name he went by. She burned the writ ten paper, grinding grind-ing it to powder in the ash tray. The newspaper she threw Into the waste-basket waste-basket where Luella, the mulatto woman wom-an v.dio "did up" for her. would find it in the morning. She fell certain Luella was paid to watch her. But she had continued to keep the evil-eyed evil-eyed creature, fearful that ber dismissal dismis-sal would make them more than ever wary, strengthen tiieir suspkion that Sybil Saunders was In communicat ion wlib her lover. The deadly danger of it was cold at ber lieait. She bad heard direeiiy from him once, a letter the day after he bud lied; the only one that even he. reckless in his despair, bad dared to send. In that lie had told her lo watch the personal column In n certain paper pa-per and had given her the names by which she could Identify rbe paragraphs. para-graphs. She bad watched and twdce found the veiled message and twice wailed in sickening fear fur discovery. It bad not happened. Now he had grown bolder, telling her where be was it was as If his band beckoned her to come. She could write to him at last, do it this evening and take it out after dark. Lying very still, her hanos clasped behind her bead, .she ran over In her mind letter boxes, post o dices where she might mail it. Were the ones in crowded districts or those in secluded byways, the safest? It was like walking through grasses where live wires were hidden. A ring at the bell made her leap to her feet with wild visions of detectives. detec-tives. Eut it was only Anne Tracy, come in to see If she was back from her visit on the sound. It was a comfort com-fort to see Anne, she always acted as If things were just as they had been and never asked disturbing questions. She was Sybil's best friend, was to have been ber bridesmaid. Hut she knew no more of Sybil's secrets since Jim Dallas had disappeared than anyone any-one else.. And she never sought lo know that was why the friendship held. They had u great deal to talk about, but chielly the "Twelfth Night" affair Anne was Immensely pleased that Sybil had agreed to play. She did not say this she avoided any allusions allu-sions to Sybil's recent conducting of her life but her enthusiasm about It all was Irresistible. It warmed the sad-eyed girl Into interest ; the Viola costume was brought from Its cupboard, cup-board, the golden wig tried on. When Anne took her departure Inte In the day, she felt much relieved about. her friend she was "coming back," coming com-ing alive again. Anne occupied another little flat oi another of the mid-town streets in another an-other of the brownstone houses. Hers, was one room larger, for ber brother, Joe Tracy, lived with her when not pursuing his profession on the road. There were hiatuses in Joe's pursuit during which he Inhabited a small bedroom in the rear and caused Anne a great deal of worry and expense. Joe apparently did not worry, certainly cer-tainly not about the expense. Absence of work wore on his temper not because be-cause Anne bad to carry the flat alone, but because he had no spending money. They said it was his temper that stood In Ids way. Something did, for he was an excellent actor with that power of transforming himself into an empty receptacle to be tilled by the character be porl rayed, r.ut directors who had had experience of him, talked about' his "natural meanness" nud shook their heads. People who tried to be sympathetic with Anne about him got little satisfaction. All the most persistent ever extracted was an admission that Joe was "difficult." Hugh Bassett bad boosted and helped and lectured him. And not for love of Joe, for in his heart Bassett thought him a pretty hopeless proposition. That evening, alone in her parlor, Anne was thinking about him, lie had no engagement and no expectation of one, and It was not wise to leave him alone In the flat without occupation. occupa-tion. She went to the window and leaned out. The air rose from the street, breathless and dead, the heated exhalation of walls and pavements baked all day by the merciless sun. To leave Joe to this while she was basking in the delights of Gull island apart from anything lie might do it wasn't fair. And then suddenly the expression of ber face changed i:ud she drew in from the window Hugh Bassett was coming down the street. The bell rang, she pushed the button but-ton and presently 1 e was at the door saying be was passing and thought he'd drop In for a minute. He was a big thick-set man with a quiet reposeful repose-ful quality unshaken even by the heat, lie had dropped in a great deal this summer and as the droppings-in became be-came more frequent Anne's outside er. gagenients became less. They always simulated a mutual surprise, giving them time to get over that somewhat breathless moment of meeting. They achieved it rather better than usual tonight for their minds were full of the same subject. Hassett had come lo impart the good news about Sybil, and Anne had seen ber and heard nil about It. I'lnally when they had thrashed out all the matters of first importance Bassett said: "Did you till her that Walberg wanted Aleck Stokes for the Duke?" "No. I didn't say a word about it. What whs the use? It would only have upset her and you'd put a stop to It." (TO b:c CONTINUED.) |