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Show . ill 1 1 ? Lull lLI li U Uel) li lb 1 d eon ntnEs miiLinsno . C Ben Amff Williams. j CHATTER XIII Continued 2S Linda dared not tell Mr. Wines. tr.Hared not admit to herself how important im-portant this might be. He stopped :o;i;ncertainly ; and she said, half-sob-Seing with excitement: t t "No one had seen this bullet hole 'e ill you did. Mr. Wines. I want stay and tell them how you liv.ound it. Wait. You will, won't on? Till I telephone?" eg "Why, gucss't I can," he decided. thl'But what's the idee?" t She closed the door, carefully, as SS hough afraid that to do so might ) trase the indications his keen old s':,yes had been the first to see. Her s nought was of Phil; but she would .ot give Phil a hope that might yet ail. She must first be sure. While l.ld Mr. Wines watched in a puzzled '(.ay, she called Mr. Falkran. He was, his office reported, out of J own; to be gone till tomorrow aft-5 aft-5 rnoon. In sudden frantic haste and fear, Jfhe called the District Attorney's b:mce, asked for Mr. Flood. The jerator said: "He's away for the eek-end. Will anyone else do?" "Someone who knows about the gentry case," Linda pleaded des-' des-' tspratplv "Anvnnp " a3""v J ACH "Who is this; please?" Jjj "Miss Dane, Mr. Phillip Sentry's Secretary. " "I might give you Mr. Weldon? ie assisted in the trial, and he is ere." ,jj "Oh, do, please!" And a moment later she had Mr. Feldon on the phone. He said uardedly, "Mr. Weldon speaking." If "I'm Miss Dane, Mr. Weldon. Mr. W 'hillip Sentry's secretary." "Yes." "Can you come down to Mr. Sen- v ry's office, quickly, please?" j "Why, if necessary, yes. What is 5t? Let me speak to him." N 3 "Oh, he's not here! But it is neces- " ( ary. We've just found " She hes- V tated, then spoke carefully, explicit-y. explicit-y. "Mr. Wines is here," she said. S'The father of the dead girl, you now. And he has found what looks m :ke a bullet hole." 3 "A bullet hole?" Weldon's tone .as puzzled. "Yes. In the lock of the door." "But I don't see " "It might mean," she urged, "that Miss Wines was shot by someone else; was already dead when Mr. Sentry got here. You remember. .hey said the gun was pushed igainst her, but he said he cjidn't eel her when he fired. Can't you :ome, please?" "I see!" Weldon was alert now. 'You've found a bullet?" "No. just a hole." i "Don't touch anything," he di- rected. "I'll be down there in ten ';' minutes." . So Linda waited, and Zeke Wines .vaited; and when Weldon arrived .J.nd had seen what there was to '-J ee, he sent for another man who jrjvas expert in such matters to examine ex-amine this that they had found. Time thereafter dragged interminably, intermin-ably, while Weldon questioned j-Vines and Linda, and while the ex-'Jlert ex-'Jlert made his examination. Linda, ;vatching, fretted with impatience; jind once she urged, "Oh, can't you flurry?" But Weldon reassured her. "We've ' " ilenty of time. Miss Dane. Today -'md all tomorrow." "Something might happen!" He said gently: "Trust me, please. k'e've time to make sure of our ;round." ! And Linda, longing to telephone .;?hil, nevertheless held herself in :heck. Better that he should remain n ignorance of this crumb of hope ;han find it turn to ashes in his nouth. It was mid-afternoon before Wel-ion Wel-ion was satisfied. He told her "Jben: "Miss Dane, there's no doubt a jullet did strike here. There are )its of lead in the wood. And the X Jullet was pried out, later, with a tnife blade, or something of the ;ind. And it was of the same cali-er cali-er as the one which killed Miss Vines. Or at least approximately o. "But Mr. Sentry fired only one hot. At least, there was only one ;mpty cartridge in the gun when f-e recovered it. And we found H A-here his bullet hit the wall at IM:he end of the corridor out there. :V-rhat bullet matched his gun. A- "Of course, that shot of his may ;till have killed Miss Wines. There ?" s just a chance it didn't. Just a p"l:hance, the Medical Examiner says, i I hat if she were shot here in the Mjioorway she could have taken two jftr three steps to where she fell. It r-ffl s possible, that's all." He hesitated. -j 'There are many possible explana-ions explana-ions of this other bullet hole," he ;aid. 'l She nodded fearfully. "I see. But ;; nighln't it mean What will you io?" "I'll get in touch with Mr. Flood," JVeldon explained. "He's down on lie Cape; probably playing golf just iow. He will have to decide what o do.'- "Can 1 tell Mr. Sentry's family?" fami-ly?" "Suppose you wait," he suggested kindly. "Wouldn't it be better to have something definite to tell them?" "But doesn't this prove Mr. Sentry Sen-try is innocent?" "Hardly that," he warned her. "I think youd better wait, really." "Can't we drive down to the Cape and see Mr. Flood?" "I intend to." "Please let me go with you." He smiled. "I don't know why not," he agreed. "Yes." He added, "I'll locate the Governor before we start, so that we will know where to find him, later today, if Mr. Flood wishes to do so." Half an hour later they were on the road. At a little before five they met District Attorney Flood at the golf club near his summer home. At a quarter of eight they were all back in Phil's office, while the District Dis-trict Attorney himself examined the bullet hole. He turned at last to Linda. "Well, Miss Dane," he said, a deep relief in his tones, "I shall see the Governor, Gover-nor, ask him for a reprieve." "What does that mean?" "A postponement." He hesitated. Phil leaped up the two or three steps to her side. He caught her close and tenderly. "Mother! Mother!" he cried. "The Governor has commuted the sentence sen-tence to life imprisonment!" CHAPTER XIV The newspapers were again filled with the story of the case. The Governor Gov-ernor had to meet editorial and public pub-lic criticism for his commutation of the sentence; but he met it silently, and without revealing the fact that the discovery of new evidence had been responsible for his change of mind. The secret of the bullet hole was well kept. The District Attorney Attor-ney believed that assuming Mr. Sentry was not the murderer the actual killer, whoever he might be, would feel a false security if he supposed sup-posed Mr. Sentry's guilt remained unquestioned. So except for a few individuals, no one knew the truth; but the District Attorney's office meanwhile was busy, checking back, following every line that promised a solution. The secret was well kept; but Dan Fisher knew. Barbara wrote him the truth; and over the next weekend week-end he came on from Cleveland, EE imMbm mmkm &r Occasionally Mr. Hare Stopped In to Discuss Affairs. "In fact, I may even suggest a commutation. com-mutation. This other bullet certainly certain-ly creates a grave doubt that Mr. Sentry actually killed Miss Wines." "But then won't the Governor pardon par-don him?" "I'm afraid not. Not yet, certainly. cer-tainly. Of course, this means a further fur-ther investigation of the case. The Governor I'm speaking frankly, you see may suspect that some of Mr. Sentry's friends have faked this evidence. But there must be a reprieve re-prieve at least. I'll see the Governor Gover-nor this evening " Linda considered. "When you know what he decides, Mr. Flood, will you let me tell them? Tell Mr. Sentry's family? You can telephone to me at my home." "Of course. You've certainly earned that." "Mrs. Sentry isn't well," she explained. ex-plained. "The shock even of good news " Linda meant to wait, to hold her ! peace, till she could go to Phil proudly with this word; but when she came home, she found it hard to wait. In the end, despite her resolution, she telephoned the Sentry Sen-try home. Barbara answered. Linda asked for Phil. "He's with mother," Barbara told ner. iney re ouiaoors somewuere. I couldn't bear to be with them." Barbara's tones were shaken. She said: "I can't bear to see mother. She's so strange and still." Linda said quickly, "Come over here, Barbara." She hesitated, then added: "Don't let them know you're coming. I've something to tell you." "Something about my father?" Barbara cried, a quick hope in her voice. "Come," Linda insisted. "I'll be here." So Barbara was the first to know what had been discovered; and when, at last, the District Attorney telephoned, Barbara was after Linda Lin-da the first to know the Governor's decision. Mr. Sentry's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Barbara was still weeping when in Linda's car they raced to the Sentry home; and Phil met them in the hall there, and the quick word was spoken, and the three young people for a moment clung fast together, to-gether, half-laughing, half-crying, in a happiness almost too great to be borne. Then Mrs. Sentry appeared on the stair landing above them. Wakeful, she too had heard Linda's car arrive. ar-rive. They did not see her till she was halfway down the stairs. They heard her then, and turned, and and he saw Falkran and saw Flood. He told Mrs. Sentry and the others oth-ers afterward, "You know as much as they do." And he said, abashed before them: "I feel pretty rotten. I thought he did it, you know." Barbara said honestly: "So did we all, PhiL I thought so myself but I never admitted it." Mrs. Sentry remembered something some-thing Falkran had said at their first interview. "And just because everyone ev-eryone thought him guilty, everyone every-one knows he is innocent now," she said. "Dan, when will they let him go?" Dan confessed: "Maybe never; not yet, anyway. Really all this bullet hole means is that he might not have done it. But they'll never rest now till they get the answer." "It's already been long," Mrs. Sentry said, half to herself. "But I can wait, now." When the time came for Dan's departure, Barbara went with bim; and days passed, and Phil's first hope for some quick proof of his father's innocence insensibly faded. Days ran to weeks; and hope began be-gan to die in Phil again. He and Mrs. Sentry, though they stayed at home, considered a North Cape cruise, and they thought of Cali fornia, Canada, Europe; and Phil brought home travel folders and they studied them diligently, and at. night they might be decided on an early departure. But in the morning Mrs. Sentry always reflected: "You know, Phil, we're perfectly comfortable here. And I don't want to go away from him. I'll stay." I Yet toward the end of July, at ! Linda's suggestion, they decided on ; a fortnight in York. Mrs. Sentry j would go a day or two ahead, with ' the servants, to open the house; . Phil and Linda would follow later, j That Linda should go with them seemed a matter of course. Phil found as always deep happiness in her companionship. She demanded nothing except to be with him. And j he could give her nothing. If any j dreams ever took shape in his j thoughts, he remembered his mother's moth-er's pleading cry, "Stay always with j me, Phil!" And more than ever she needed , him now. His mother and the servants left for York on Wednesday; and on Friday Fri-day morning, Phil and Linda fol-lowed, fol-lowed, in Linda's car. The girl drove; and as they picked their way through traffic toward the Turnpike, Phil said: "Linda, I saw your father, yesterday. yester-day. He suggested that he put my ! name up at his club." He added, I "I was mighty grateful to him; but they'd be sure to turn me down." "Father wouldn't have offered, if there were any chance of that." "He's like you, Linda. He and ' your mother. So darned loyal. But others may not feel the same." "Haven't all your friends been the same?" "Some have. Some have not. Mother felt hurt at first when Mr. Hare suggested another to defend father, though doubtlessly it was for the best. Occasionally he stops in to discuss affairs and to encourage Mother. "The Warings the way they acted act-ed grieved Mother," Phil continued. "And then, she resigned from all her committees and things; and they accepted her resignations. That was tough on her. She's been happier hap-pier lately. Happy in just loving father. But she doesn't really seem well. I'm pretty worried about her, Lin." Linda, grave eyes upon the road, changed the subject. "Do you hear from Mary?" she asked. Phil nodded grimly. "She's married mar-ried again, a South American; beef baron, something of the kind." Their thoughts, as sometimes happens with two people as close to one another an-other as they had come to be, ran together. Thinking of Dan and Barbara, Bar-bara, they said aloud in a 'sort of chorus: "But Barbara " Then they looked at each other, and laughed, and he said, "We were going to say the same thing!" "Yes. Just the way married people peo-ple do " He protested: "Lin, do you have to keep torturing me?" "My dear," she said, "don't you know by this time that you and I are already married, in so many real, deep ways? And I'm not asking ask-ing anything more than we already have, Phil." She added, half to herself, her-self, "At least, I don't think I am." He said: "There's no help for it, Lin. I can't ask " She smiled, her eyes upon the road. "You wouldn't even have to ask me, PhiL" "And mother needs me. I'm all she's got to hold to now, with Mary and Barbara both gone." Linda did not argue with him; but during the next few days at York, watching Mrs. Sentry and Phil together, she was sometimes secretly angry. (TO BE COKTIM'ED) |