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Show IF1 flfi K H WTi ' I ,r- By QEii nmes muunms pi SYNOPSIS Mtrv. seeking to sober up - tS ie Bovd, on the way . Sv. slaps him. and at- .Uentton of a policeman. ""J. knocks down. As he ar- ,M profSr Brace o( Harvard ul rescue and drives Barbara - 10 ' fh. wav they see Barbara's 0n f rom the direction of his but when he gets home , he "i,tl i.'it is 11:15 and that he's .. S'e bridge at the club. Next 7 '.W rtf his office has been ffd a Miss Wines, former tempo-': tempo-': 2vei T killed. The evening pa-1 pa-1 ' fco'm the story, and Sen-: Sen-: iihard Mary, elder daughter. ie h Nei Kay. young interne at where she works goes off T, Gus Loran's. Sentry s part-Mrs part-Mrs Loran's brother. Jimmy 11 Mr and Mrs. Sentry caU on old ;Vlry. a"1 Barbara, alone, re- Dan Fisher, reporter, who advises ,. Si talk. Phil Sentry, son at s disturbed at the possible impU- v., , ad suspicion of Miss Wines' ab-..Jrom ab-..Jrom her rooms for three days Aueust. He goes home to help. 1 li arrested and booked for mur-n.n mur-n.n Fisher explains the evidence t" him-that the robbery was a :'L safe opened by one who knew filiation, changed since Miss "employment there that a back rtey a duplicate of Sentry's, was n r, the girl's purse, and that Sen's Sen-'s bad been away those three days m :mi Brace calls, and backs up , -'3 in her denial that Sentry could :"jone it, because of the discrepancy j,e between the slaying and their .J Sentry on the road. CHAPTER IV Continued Arthur was always losing keys," ;. Sentry assented, and realized j a faint shock of terror that had spoken of her husband in past tense, and then, with a :i:er tremor, that Hare seemed : !o have noticed, as though it natural for her to speak of ISO. said hurriedly: "I hear the 3 coming downstairs. Let's not j L- about details, Dean!" Her eyes ::; his for a moment, held his ; :: Ms alter a moment were low- :;i as though some word had LiLsd between them. Phil argued, "But just the Lie-" Then he stopped as Bar-J Bar-J :.:. and Mary appeared in the :.nay. 'Morning, children," Mrs. Sen- - said lightly. "Sleepy-heads!" :;rbara saw Dean Hare; she -A: "Oh, have you seen father, t Hare? When will they let him .2 home?" ( I'm afraid not right away, Bar-;:." Bar-;:." he confessed. "You know, 7 ::;e things take time." But they know he didn't do it!" -'sara insisted. 1 Well, of course we know " I Hey know it, too!" the girl f 3d, "I told Mr. Flood" '. Sentry spoke quickly, almost irately. She knew what Bar's Bar-'s was about to say; that Mr. "ff had come home on the night I : '-he murder at a quarter of one. , l 'if Barbara said that, Dean Hare J know Arthur had lied to him. 'ought instinctively to protect -a from that discovery. ' St down, Barbara, Mary," she T 1 "Mter aU' here's breakfast s eaten, our routine to go on." ictor. LLrbara insisted: "But mother, lei - aiti Barbara!" ;:tbara sat down, puzzled by her : -'s manner; and Mrs. Sentry . -m, amazed at herself: I'm like , are 1 , ' hiding my head in the 'VShg t0.fetend- to blind SLhe said: "We've got to j re. ; our heads, our -sense of pro- fZ ' ,emustS0n eating, for the) rice! said in a low tone: "Must men' Wend nothing has happened? tht 'nt fool anyone but our- bfiti ielit: ' Sentry ignored her.' She W me laer, in polite and emp-noii;- . as one makes conversation ibftsl 'i'! nrrange d'nner partner, s 01've, Dean?" Olive was t u- !'e Wants to come over this aft-, aft-, tti you'd like." hii .course!" 'fc-fi fj' said grimly: "I'm surprised ,rtfc' ;,'""ngto. I expect most peo- 0t :-.b taK .'""a cried, furiously: "Mary! i" tas thouSh you thought fa- did it!" And she said: .J ' a" go see him, right :t " aU go together." i.rt"5, " want to see Neil!" : ' I . 'This-he and I must at to do." . Lrbell rang, and Oscar went , " ' and Phil followed him "U .Mrs' Sentry suggest- 4 V. I"1 t0 dinner. " you t ry Or to tea?" i ,.esitated. nodded; then Lin- , hj "me in with Phil. "Moth- j , too early for me to N scl Messed quietly, i con,;ng a little later, Mrs. vn, , mn'1 want to wait. ,( ereVouibe Up... U1'- We're not a side- 1 llTy protested, "Mary!" - w s,idJ "1Vs aU right' I feel k now yu a" t oUs',, 1 didn't come to it', ' r,y- Please don't feel j" 'a a TeJe a'ways-at least, en such g00d friends." Barbara said, "Darling!" And Phil said, "Good kid, Lin!" Dean Hare rose to go, and he nodded to Phil so that the boy went with him to the car. "Phil," he suggested then, "don't let your sisters or your mother go to see your father yet. Not today. I shouldn't even go myself, if I were you. In a day or two, yes; but just now he's terribly shocked'. It would distress any of you to see him; and I think it would be harder for him to keep his self control." "Gosh! I suppose so," Phil agreed, shakily. He urged, "I want him to know we're with him, though!" "I'll tell him," the attorney promised. prom-ised. But then Mrs. Sentry came to the open door. "Oh, Dean," she called, "will you arrange for me to see Arthur, let me know when I'm to come?" Hare looked to Phil for support; but Phil said, "I know it will do him good to see mother, Mr. Hare." And the lawyer surrendered. "Very well," he agreed. "If you " Oscar came to summon Mrs. Sentry Sen-try to the telephone. "Mr. Loran calling," he explained. She departed, depart-ed, and Hare said doubtfully: "I still think it's a mistake, Phil, for her to go. Mr. Loran came He said: "Mrs. Sentry wants to see Mr. Sentry this morning. I'll be with her. Could you hold oft on the questions till this afternoon?" Irons reflected: "Well, the Grand Jury's sitting, and the D. A.'s idea was to give them the evidence we've got, tomorrow." He looked at Hare. "I understand you and Mr. Flood agreed not to arraign him before'" "Yes." Irons looked at Phil apologetically. apologetical-ly. "It was hunch, as much as anything, any-thing, when I booked him," he confessed. con-fessed. "But the D. A. got some stuff last v night, and I'll want to have all the dope I can get, for the Grand Jury." "Of course," the lawyer agreed. "But this afternoon will do, to ask your questions. Suppose I meet you here at two." Phil, listening, felt himself shiver; shiv-er; his teeth pressed hard together to keep them quiet. There was something in their tones deeply terrifying. ter-rifying. He was almost relieved when Dean Hare drove away, and he himself was left with Inspector Irons. When Hare departed, the other men who had come in the police car approached, . and Irons introduced intro-duced them to Phil. Inspector Hays, Sergeant Kane, Officer Regan. And the Inspector suggested then, "Morning, Children," Mrs. Sentry Said Lightly. last night while I was there. He was just back from New York. Your father almost broke down, just talking talk-ing to him. Mr. Loran was sympathetic, sympa-thetic, of course, and loyal, and indignant in-dignant at the police; but it does no good to take that attitude. The police aren't to blame." He hesitated, hesi-tated, said then, "We have to face the fact that there's a lot of circumstantial circum-stantial evidence against your father." fa-ther." ' Phil said explosively, "You know darned well my father wouldn't kill anyone!" "It's not a question of knowing. It's a question of proving." Then he turned, for a police car came up the drive. Reporters on duty like guards at the entrance trotted after it; and Dan Fisher was among them. The police car stopped behind Dean Hare's; but Dan came along to where Phil and the lawyer stood, and he said in a low tone: "Sentry, if you and Mr. Hare are interested, Flood waited outside last night till Professor Brace came out, questioned him." Phil nodded, only half hearing, staring at the police car, from which officers alighted. Fisher asked softly, soft-ly, "Who was the young lady who came in a few minutes ago?" "One of my sister's friends." "What's her name?" Phil hesitated, but Dean Hare said, "Phil, the best rule with reporters re-porters is, if they're going to find out anyway, tell them." Phil nodded ruefully. "I suppose so She's Linda Dane." Fisher said, "Oh! I know her brother, Joe." Someone else demanded, de-manded, "Not engaged to her, are you'" Phil shook his head, coloring with anger, and Inspector Irons alighted from the police car and said to the reporters: "All right, boys, outside. Give these folks a break. I'll see that you get anything that you ought to have." They obeyed him, moved away, and Dean Hare asked: "Anything new, Inspector?" "I want to have a look around inside," in-side," the Inspector explained. 11 that's all right?" "Of course." And I might ask some questions. I suppose you'll want to be in on that." He added, as though apo o-gizing o-gizing for his own forbearance it s not the way I usually handle things, but the D A. says to keep you in touch as we go along. The lawyer nodded. Thanxs. "Mr. Sentry, you want to show us around?" "Glad to," Phil agreed. "I'd like to have a look at the garage." Phil led the way, watched the Inspector In-spector note the cars, study the garage. ga-rage. "Chauffeur sleep up above?" he asked. Phil nodded. Old Eli was burning leaves by the tennis court, and they went that way. Irons asked the old man: "You usually hear a car come in at night, do you?" Eli said, "Hey?" And Phil explained: ex-plained: "He's pretty deaf. You'll have to talk louder. But he wouldn't hear anything at night Takes an earthquake to wake him." Eli demanded querulously, "What you say?" Irons nodded. "Skip it," he decided. de-cided. He crossed to the pergola, looked down at the water just below be-low them here. Two ducks sunning themselves on the bank waddled into the water and swam warily away. "All right," said the Inspector. "Let's go in the house." Indoors, with his mother and sis- I ters looking to him for strength, Phil himself was stronger. His grandmother had come downstairs; they were all in the living-room. Phil explained what the Inspector wished to do, suggested they stay where they were. Inspector Hays and Sergeant Kane went toward the kitchen. Regan had remained outside. out-side. Inspector Irons and Phil went upstairs. Phil suggsted, "If there's anything any-thing special you're looking for, I might help you." Irons hesitated. "I don't want to put anything over on you," he said gently. "I told Mr. Hare I wouldn't ask you any questions unless un-less he was here." Phil colored. "We've nothing to hide!" he protested. "Sure, I know," the Inspector agreed. "But I'll just look around. I. want to see everything. Whose room is this?" "Mine," said PhiL The Inspector nodded; he opened the drawers of the chiffonier, the desk, the closet, the recess under the window seat where Phil kept rods and fishing gear. Phil, looking over the other's shoulder, saw something there; a japanned metal box with a combination combi-nation lock. And the cover of the box had somehow been forced open! His thoughts went racing ... In the summer after his Freshman year, at a dude ranch in New Mexico, Mex-ico, one of the cowboys had given him an old single-action .45 revolver, with cartridge belt and holster; had told him that the weapon had been taken off the body of a man killed in a gun battle, years before. Phil brought it home; but because Mrs. Sentry was afraid of firearms, he never showed it to his mother or his sisters, kept it here in this locked box. Only, he had showed it to his father. His father had known it was here . . . Irons picked up the box, now empty, emp-ty, and he held it to his face and sniffed at it. The old holster had been heavy with grease and oil. Phil remembered the rich smell. He heard himself now, saying hurriedly: hurried-ly: "That's my old tackle box. Used to keep a couple of reels in it, in leather cases." The inspector did not turn. "I forgot the combination, had to break it open with a " He tried to think what tool his father might have used. "With a chisel," he said, and repeated: "Couple of reels, and some bass plugs " "Must have been hard on the chisel," chis-el," the Inspector commented, and turned, the box in his hands, and looked at PhiL Phil saw sympathy and understanding in the older man's eyes, and was sick with fear. Then bergeant Hane said from the doorway, in an intent tone: "Hays wants you, Inspector. Down cellar." cel-lar." Irons nodded. "Right," he said. With the broken box under his arm, he followed Kane. Phil followed them. Irons once looked back, as though to bid him stay behind; but he did not speak. In the cellar, Inspector Hays stood by the furnace. The furnace door was open. The fall had been warm, these last few days unseasonably so; and there had been here no recent re-cent fire. Irons went toward the other inspector. in-spector. Hays said quietly, "See if you see what I see." He turned a flashlight's beam into the fire box of the furnace. Irons stooped to look in. After a moment he stood up. "Close the door easy," he said crisply then. "Close the draughts. Any air might make the ashes crumble crum-ble or muss them up. I'll get Peters Pe-ters and Knobble right out here. They can handle it." Phil touched his arm. "What is it, Inspector?" he asked. (TO BE CONTINUED) |