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Show Iff? r nn it n n r I 1 H, LrQ LMJ s U q 1L R 5 , - By Ben nmE5 tijiumms L S; SYNOPSIS ,t,ara Sentry, seeking to sober up M tort Johnnie Boyd, on the way ' from' party, slaps him. and at-i. at-i. the attention of a policeman, cCU i.e boy knocks down. As he 'H ,n him, Professor Brace of Harvard to the rescue and drives Barbara nn the way they see Barbara's i S driving from the direction of his s at 12 45, but when he gets home ' n. hts wife it is 11:15 and that he's " playing bridge at the club. Next Sentry reports his ofhee has been kJJ and a Miss Wines, former tern-$ry tern-$ry employee, killed The evening n luridly confirm the story, and t Sty takes it hard. Mary, elder daugh-, daugh-, lo love with Neil Ray, young interne ' Vile hospital where she works, goes i to dinner at Gus Loran's. Sentry's .rt-er with Mrs. Loran's brother, Jim-v Jim-v Endle Mr. and Mrs. Sentry call on iS m Mrs Sentry, and Barbara, alone. . Zrites Dan Fisher, reporter, who ad-S ad-S her not to talk. Phil Sentry, son Tyale is disturbed at the possible im-" im-" "cations and suspicion of Miss Wines' -hcence from her rooms for three days Anting August. He goes home to help. 1 ;,ntry Is arrested and booked for mur- 1 ;(r Dan Fisher explains the evidence .5 leainst him that the robbery was a 2 i-'-e the safe opened by one who knew : Tt 'combination, changed since Miss s .jes' employment there that a back -or key, a duplicate of Sentry's, was 3 in the girl's purse, and that Sen-too, Sen-too, had been away those three days - August. Brace calls, and backs up S-rbara In her denial that Sentry could ve done it, because of the discrepancy ,, J time between the slaying and their Jj tsfng Sentry on the road. Phil, show- Lu, i uic k"1" . - . ' ' ' : ,jong box open and his gun, which :rjr bis father knew of. gone. Mean--,'cile, the police find the stolen money iurned in the furnace. Mrs. Sentry sees :er husband, who swears his innocence, Tit ;:d tells her he had known of the rob-;ery rob-;ery and murder the night before, but iled to call the police, and came home i: 12:30. Mary quarrels with Neil Ray, . ;:d runs away with Jimmy Endle to the (ii-v :ribbean. Linda Dane, friend of Bar-,4 Bar-,4 and Phil, tries to comfort Phil. $3, JiLkran, noted criminal lawyer retained, wii spires hope but not admiration. Dan irtn :jher, whom Barbara has been meet-if meet-if :i at her grandmother's, tries to use riuence to keep the family out of the ;:rs, and everyone shields Barbara, :: tbe verge of a breakdown. til : t CHAPTER VI Continued 15 One day when Brace was to meet Barbara at her grandmother's for ' M, and arrived before the girl, the ;!d woman spoke to him ol Bar-i Bar-i lira's condition, said stoutly: "I rii someone would marry her and :ake her away from here! She can't ! V stand much more. She hasn't the strength to go through all this. She ) shouldn't have to do it!" at He dissented gently. "People ltm can't shirk such things. Barbara's liter did, I know; but she will al-V3vs al-V3vs regret it. We have to accept Ijiir burdens, our responsibilities. " isce them squarely." i She said grimly: "Maybe! No t ibt you are a leTel-headed young :an, but I suspect you're too level-site level-site Ned for your own good!" s"-""' He smiled tolerantly. "I'm sor-- sor-- EU i?," he said. "But dear as Bar-e Bar-e lit- hra has come to be to me I can't o! 3 livise her to dodge or to evade." Ht-' "Dear to you, is she?" "Very!" "Then marry her," the old worn-jjjji worn-jjjji a counseled. "Sweep her off her t p. 'a Marry her and take care of ne said gravely: "I hope to, some :!?. But if I asked her now, she -;3ht come to me just to escape. I ',:i! her to come to me because a wants me." J"1' "Fiddlesticks! If you want her, w I "e her' on any terms at aU-" W: He shook his head. "I shall have pis t! be a witness at the trial, you i of cow," he confessed. "The District y lr' t'torney has warned me to be sly. Barbara need not know, yet; ;:l if we were married, and then I 'foA, she would blame me, nev-u, nev-u, fr:' - 'orgive me." t Jrfs "Get out of the reach of a sub-jd sub-jd fi ;:-na while you can." 1 can't do that. I've given my ;:rd!" reni ?all! H yu've the courage of Brit y P Barlara arrived, putting a :r.-:iod to their words; and after etert.:;1 . Mrs' Sentrv d'd not attempt niit ..'""nd Dan Fisher more to her lor J -i'e' EelweeD- these two something ie ani bindinS had developed. ;eJ t- Jame to her often, even when 'Ls?' ra was not there. Once he ; dispirited, and she saw this demanded, "What are you so oftirl "lil"he mouth about?" -acred 1lt.fi,med- "Been barking down ht't: "' e'" he confessed, "and the ' ,ai' at home." " j(: sense!" ;" " :c hitated. "Well, Linda Dane ii Ve been Putting our heads tM' kying to see some way ''; I thought we had a t:. 7Mr- Wines, the dead girl's a'e k me 11181 her letters : fte Sirl spoke of a man's " ' J ?ked her to dinner. I start-':' start-':' 'ok on him." iers l- . no was iV hf-',t ,',Catt'tveryweU-" ded ; :;sense! I can keep my mouth I choose." Vi'Was Mr' Loran." JIlt' "iei ran?" She considered, i "' '.;:j 'He's an Cild goat," she -i b "ever would have mar- ; en ,rndle woman otherwise. VT about him?" nc!l i'H t T said: "The '"3 er,,,! Mr?Slbl6 at fi"t- I found i ,.e t-oran M away jn August, ame time Miss Wines was away. But that blew up. Two ways. It turned out that Loran was in Maine. I've talked with his guide. He has a camp on a lake up there. Flies up, flies his own plane. He was there." He added: "And just to make sure, I checked on him for the night she was killed. We know what time she went to Mr. Sentry's office. of-fice. Mr. Loran boarded a New York train about the same time, went right to bed. The porter saw him in his pajamas a little after eleven; and the porter's sure Loran didn't get off the train after that." She demanded, "Why couldn't Miss Wines have been in Maine too?" "Guide says, No." "Maybe he's lying." "Didn't seem like a liar." "Maybe she was near there. Maybe May-be he flew over to where she was." He hesitated, and she said sharply, sharp-ly, "Speak up, man!" "Miss Wines wasn't in Maine," he said reluctantly. "They've found where Miss Wines was. She was at a hotel in New Jersey." The old woman's fingers twitched, her eyes closed, then opened again, shrewd and keen. She said in a ing she interrupted their discussion to say: "Phil, tell me truly, do you think father killed her?" He was shocked into silence for a moment; countered then, "Gosh, Barb, what do you take me for?" "Do you?" she insisted. "No, of course not." "fread all the newspapers," she said. "If he didn't, how could all the things they say be true?" He said: "But you haven't read father's side of it, Barb. Wait till he tells his story." "What is his story, Phil?" "Why, he doesn't know anything about it at alL" She looked away from him. "Phil, shall we all have to testify?" "Not mother," Phil replied. "Probably not any of us." He added: add-ed: "Mother can testify if she wants to, though. She probably will if he wants her to." "I won't!" "Well, if he wants us to " "I won't!" she repeated tensely, eyes still averted. "No matter who wants me to. I won't! I'll cut out my tongue first." Her voice shook, and he said: "Whoa, Barb! You're scared. "Why Couldn't Miss Wines Have Been in Maine Too?" low tone: "You're not looking at me. I suppose Arthur was with her?" He nodded. He said miserably: "But it's Barbara that gets me! She'll have to go through it all, the trial, everything. She may even have to testify! I wish I could marry mar-ry her, get her out of this." "In love with her, are you?" "Yes!" She demanded, "Then why don't you?" Dan looked at her quickly, and he colored, and then he chuckled. "You're a girl after my own heart!" he declared. "I'd do it in a minute if she'd have me but I can't!" "Why not?" "Money," he confessed. "And this is the only job I've got. If I could land a promise of a job somewhere some-where else But these are tough times in the newspaper game." "I'll finance you." He grinned, shook his head. "Easy come, easy go," he reminded remind-ed her. "I've never been able to hold on to money unless I earned it myself." He added: "But I'd like to find some way to keep her out of this. Keep her out of the trial, anyway. any-way. Why don't you take her away yourself, to Europe or somewhere?" The old woman said quietly, "The next trip I take, I shall have to go alone, Dan." He met her eyes honestly, witn-out witn-out denial. "This must have-hit you hard," he assented The shock, the worry, the uncertainty. She said, half to herself: "There s no uncertainty. I've accepted that. It's more Ellen's fault than his, per-ri. per-ri. . u.. u, nut nf her We haps. She shut him out of her me long ago. He had to turn somewhere. some-where. Yet I don't mean to blame her At least she went on living with him. This is hard on her; but -it may change her, soften her. She added: "Yet he is my son! Whatever he has done!" Dan's eyes filled. He gripped her hand. She said with a sudden famt smile: "Professor Brace Barbara's duty to-ee it through. I judge you don't agree? He shook his head. 'Lord Jove you, no!" And his eyes began to I"6 CreBaraeraanphna0rseou hf very" way to cheer her; and as Christmas" approached : he tr.ed to enlist her interest in planning some ho iday observance that could be endured. They were in her room one night, Barbara abed, Phil sit tine beside her while they groped tosome device, when with no warn- There's nothing to be scared of!" She looked furtively all around. "Phil," she whispered, "do they know for sure when Miss Wines was killed? The papers said at first someone heard the shot a little past one, but Mr. Hare said they think maybe she was killed earlier." Phil hesitated. "I don't think they're ' sure, Barbara. But it wasn't a shot that man heard. They've found a truck that backfired back-fired about that time." And he said: "They know when Miss Wines ate dinner; and they know about how long it takes food to digest, so they go by that, partly; and partly by-well, by-well, things doctors look for." "What time do they think she was killed?" He did not answer; and she whispered: "Phil, father got home that night at quarter of one. I told Dan Fisher, and Dan told me not to tell anyone, but I had already told Mr. Flood." Her voice rose, was shrill. "I won't tell it again, Phil. Never! I won'tl They can't make me!" He took her, shaking, in his arms, intent to comfort her. "You won't hav to, Barb. I won't let them bother you." She clung to him. "I'll cut out my tongue first." "Don't get so excited, Barb!" "But why did Dan tell me not to teU, Phil?" Phil said almost sternly: "Now listen, Barb! Quit worrying! It's all right. What do you read the papers for anyway? Where do you get them?" "In at grandmother's," she confessed. con-fessed. "I have to, Phil. No one I ever tells me anything, and I have to know what's going on." And she cried desperately: "Phil, I won't tell! They can't make me, can they?" He evaded answering. "Say, you're doing a great job on grandmother, grand-mother, Barb," he said.. "You surely sure-ly take a load off mother and me. Of course, we miss you at home, but someone has to be with her. Is she all right? Is there anything she wants?" And the shot at random was successful. suc-cessful. "Yes, there is," Barbara remembered. "She told me to tell you, she wants to see Mr. Falk-ran!" Falk-ran!" Phil seized on this. "Sure!" he cried. "I'll get in touch with him; we'll take him In to see her this afternoon. Right away." And the enterprise at once engaged en-gaged them. Barbara went in town to make her grandmother ready; and when at half-past two Phil appeared ap-peared with the lawyer, the old woman received him in state, sitting sit-ting very erect in her great chair. But at once she sent Phil and Barbara Bar-bara out of the room, and when they were alone she asked Falkran questions, watched him, studied him. He suggested at last, "You haven't been to see Mr. Sentry." "No." "He asks often for you," Falkran told her. "I shall be glad to tell him I have seen you so hale and wea" She eyed him shrewdly. "You want me to go see him?" "I know it would help him," he admitted. "Then I will," she promised, in a curiously submissive tone. "The first fine day." "Splendid!" he said, beaming. "If you do, Mrs. Sentry, I guarantee everything else." Old Mrs. Sentry tried to carry out her promise to see her son. "But I shall want to be with Arthur alone," she said, .then added: "Yet I'd like for you for all of you to ride down with me, wait for me outside. My courage is good, but I'm not as strong as I used to be." They waited for a fair day, but that winter in Boston was a bitter one. Not till the first week of February, Feb-ruary, on the eve of the approaching approach-ing trial, did the season serve. Then came a day when spring seemed just around the corner, and the sun shone warm. Old Eli brought the ancient limousine. Barbara and the nurse helped Mrs. Sentry dress; Phil and Barbara steadied her to the elevator and down and into the car. She sat between Barbara and Mrs. Sentry, Phil on the small tip-up tip-up seat in front of them. They drove through scant mid-afternoon traffic to the jail; and the old woman's wom-an's cheeks shone bright and brighter, bright-er, flushed and hot, and Barbara saw a pulse pound in her thin throat. But she could not, when the time came, go in. As the car stopped, she collapsed suddenly, not falling, not even toppling sidewise, but just shrinking down into herself so that she was small. Even their untrained eyes saw that she was ill; that this was not faint-heartedness. In a sudden sud-den terror, uncertain what to do, Phil and Barbara stammered and fumbled; but Mrs. Sentry said steadily: "We'll have to take her home, it was too much for her." They all stayed in town that night with her; for the doctor had forewarned fore-warned tiem. Once the old woman spoke, in a surprisingly strong voice. She said: "Tell Arthur I loved him." And she added, with no irony in her tones, "And tell Mr. Falkran I hope he can use this just as well." Her death, toward dawn, made headlines. "Sentry's Mother Stricken Strick-en at Jail," said the morning paper. pa-per. "Mrs. Sentry Dead on Eve of Trial," said the afternoon editions. Her funeral occurred on Saturday, two days before the trial was to begin. be-gin. The brief and premature warm spell had ended in a blizzard that clogged traffic. They followed her to the cemetery between banked walls of snow. (TO BE CONTLWED) |