Show lawrence blakeley lawyer goes to pittsburg with the forged notes in the cage to get the deposition ot ohn allmore millionaire in the latter a home he Is attracted by a picture of a young girl whom the millionaire explains Is his granddaughter A lady requests blakeley to buy her a pullman ticket lie elves her lower eleven and retains lower ten lie finds a drunken man in lower ten and retires in lower nine he awakens in lower seven and finds his clothes and bag missing the man in lower ten Is found murdered circumstantial evidence points to both blakeley and the unknown man who had exchanged clothes with him blakeley becomes interested in a girl in blue the train Is wrecked blakeley Is rescued from the burning car by the girl in blue ills arm Is broken they go to the carter place tor breakfast the girl proves to be allson west his partner s sweetheart her peculiar actions mystify the lawyer she drops her gold bag and blakeley puts it in his pocket blakeley returns home he finds that he Is under surveillance moving pictures of the train taken just before the wreck reveal to blakeley a man leaping from the train with his stolen grip clakeley learns that man named sullivan leaped from the train near M and sprained his ankle he stayed some time at the carter place while making inquiries at carters blakeley finds allion and kisses her mrs conway the woman for whom blakeley bought the pullman ticket tries to make a bargain with him for the forged notes not knowing that they are i missing CHAPTER theory I 1 confess I 1 was staggered the people at the surrounding tables after glancing curiously in my direction looked away again I 1 got my hat and went out in a very uncomfortable frame of mind that she would inform the police at once of what she knew I 1 never doubted unless possibly she ft give a day or aws grace in the hope that I 1 would change my mind I 1 reviewed the situation as I 1 waited for a car two passed me going in the opposite direction and on the first one I 1 saw bronson his hat over his eyes his arms folded looking moodily ahead was it imagination or was the small man huddled in the comer of the rear seat As the car rolled on I 1 found myself smiling the alert little man was for all the world like a terrier ever on the scent and scouring about in every dl I 1 to und mcknight at the incubator with his coat off working with enghu and a manicure file over the born of his auto its the worst horn I 1 ever ran across be groaned without looking up as I 1 came in the blank thing won t blow he punched it savagely finally elac a taint throaty croak sounds like croup I 1 suggested my sister in law uses camphor and goose grease for it or how about a eplee poultice but JM cKnight never sees any jokes but his own he flung the born clat terras into a corner and collapsed sulkily into a chair now I 1 said it youre through manicuring that horn tell you about my talk with the lady in black wrong asked mcknight languidly police watching her not exactly the fact Is rich there s the mischief to pay stogie came in bringing a few additions to our comfort when he went out I 1 told my story you must remember I 1 said that I 1 had seen this woman before the morning of the wreck she was buying her pullman ticket when I 1 did then the next morning when the mur der was discovered she grew hyster leal and I 1 gave her some whisky the third and last time I 1 saw her until tonight to night was when she crouched beside the road after the wreck mcknight slid down in his chair un til his weight rested on the small ot his back and put his feet on the big reading table it s rather a facer he said its really too good a situation for a corn non place lawyer it ought to be dramatized you cant agree of course and by refusing you run the chance of jail at least and of having alison brought into publicity which is out of the question you say she was at the pullman window when you were yes I 1 bought her ticket for her gaye her lower eleven and you took ten lower ten mcknight straightened up and lobed at me then she thought you were in lower ten I 1 suppose she did it she thought at all but listen man mcknight was growing excited what do ou figure out of this the conway woman knows you have taken the notes to the probabilities are that eho follows you there on the of an opportunity 0 o get them either for bronson or herself nothing doing during abo trip over or during the day in pittsburg but ehe learns the number of your berth as you buy it at the pullman ticket office in and she thinks she bees her chance no ono could haie foreseen fore seea that that drunken fellow would have crawled into your berth ow I 1 figure H out this way she wanted notes desperately deec till not for bronson but to hold over aman ly may ROBERTA inshore b isy I cor apato his head for some purpose in the night when everything Is quiet she blips behind the curtains of lower ten where the mans breathing shows he Is asleep dlan t you say he snored he did 1 affirmed but I 1 tell you now keep suu and listen she gropes cautiously wound in the dark ness finally discovering the wallet un der the pillow can t you see it yourself lie was leaning forward excitedly and I 1 could almost see the grew some tragedy he was depicting she draws out the wallet then perhaps she remembers the alligator bag and on the possibility that the notes are there instead of in the pocketbook she gropes around tor it suddenly the man awakes and clutches at the nearest object perhaps her neck chain which breaks it is all in silence the man is still stupidly drunk but he holds her in a tight grip then tho tragedy she must get away in a minute the car will be aroused such a woman on such an errand does not go without some sort of a weapon in this case a dagger which unlike a revolver is noiseless with a quick thrust ashes a big woman and a bold one she strikes possibly Is right about the left hand blow harrington may have held her right hand or perhaps she held the dirk in her left hand as she groped with her right then as the man falls back and his grasp relaxes she straightens and attempts to get away the swaying of the car throws her almost into your berth and trembling with terror she crouches behind the curtains of lower ten until everything Is still then she goes noiselessly back to her berth I 1 nodded it seems to fit partly at least I 1 said in the morning when she found that the crime had been not only fruit less but that she had searched the wrong berth and killed the wrong man when she saw me emerge unhurt just as she was bracing herself for the discovery of my dead body then she went into hysterics you remember I 1 gave her some whisky it really seems a tenable theory but like tho sullivan theory there are one or two things that dont agree with the rest for one thing how did the remainder of that chain get into allson bests possession she may have picked it up on the boor well admit that I 1 said and im sure I 1 hope so then how did the murdered mans pocketbook get into the sealskin bag and the dirk how ac count for that and the blood stains now the use asked me knight of my building up beautiful theories for you to pull down well take it to maybe he can tell from the blood stains it the murderers finger nails were square or pointed Is no fool I 1 said warm ly under all his theories there s a good bard layer of common sense and we must remember rich that neither of our theories includes the woman at doctor van kirks hospital that the charming picture you have just drawn does not account tor all son bests connection with the case or for the bits of telegram in the sul ilvan fellows pajamas pocket you are like the man who put the clock together youve got half of the works leftover oh go home said mcknight als gust edly 1 m no edgar allan poe the use of coming here and asking me things it you re eo particular with one of his quick changes ot mood he picked up his guitar listen to this he said it Is a hawaiian bong about a fat lady oh ignorant one and how she fell off her mule but for all the lightness ot the words the voice that followed me down the stairs was anything but cheery there was a kanaka in balu did dwell who had tor his daughter a monstrous tat girl he sang in a clear tenor I 1 paused on the lower floor and listened he had stopped singing as abruptly as he had begun CHAPTER at the boarding house I 1 bad not been home for 36 hours since the morning of the preceding day johnson was not in sight and I 1 let myself in quietly with my latchkey it was almost midnight and I 1 had hardly settled myself in the library when the bell rang and I 1 was surprised to fand hotchkiss much out of breath in the vestibule why come in mr hotchkiss I 1 said I 1 thought you were going home to go to bed so I 1 was BO I 1 was he dropped into a chair beside my reading lamp and mopped his face and here it is almost midnight and I 1 m wider awake than ever ive seen sullivan mr Dl akeley you have 1 I have he said impressively you were following bronson at eight was that when it happened something of the sort when I 1 left you at the door of the restaurant I 1 turned and almost ran into a plain clothes man from the central office I 1 know him pretty well once or twice tie has taken me with him on interesting bits of crork he knows my hobby you know him too probably it was the man arnold the detective whom the states attorney has bad w bronson johnson being otherwise occupied I 1 had asked tor arnold myself I 1 nodded well he stopped me at once said hed been on the fellows tracks since early morning and had had no time for luncheon bronson it seems eating much these days I 1 at once blotted down the fact because it argued that he was being bothered by the man with the notes it might point to other things I 1 suggested indigestion you know hotchkiss ignored me well ar nold had some reason for thinking that bronson would try to give him the slip that night so he asked me to stay around the private entrance there while he ran across the street and get something to eat it seemed a fair presumption that as be had gone there with a lady they would dine lei surely and arnold would have plenty of time to get back what about your own dinner I 1 asked curiously sir he said pompously I 1 have given you a wrong estimate of wilson budd hotchkiss if you think that a question of aliner would even obtrude itself on his mind at such a time as this he was a arall little man and tonight he looked pale with heat and over exertion did you have any luncheon I 1 asked man awakes and clutches at th nearest object he was somewhat embarrassed at abat 1 I really mr blakeley the events of the day were so engrossing well I 1 said I 1 m not going to see you drop on the floor from tion just wait a minute I 1 went back to the pantry only to be confronted with rows of locked doors and empty dishes downstairs in the basement kitchen however I 1 found two unattractive looking cold chops some dry bread and a piece of cake wrapped in a napkin and from its surreptitious and generally hang dog appearance destined tor the coach man in the stable at the rear there were none everything but the chabre and tables seemed under lock and key and thera was neither napkin knife nor fork to be found the luncheon was not attractive in appearance but ate his cold chops and gnawed at his as though he had been famished while he told bis story I 1 had been there only a few minutes he said with a chop in one hand and the cake in the other when dronson rushed out and cut across the street lies a tall man mr blakeley and I 1 had hard work keeping close it was a relief when he jumped on a passing car although being well behind it was a hard run for me to catch him he had left the lady once on the car we simply rode from one end of the line to the other and back again I 1 suppose he was passing the time for he looked at his watch now and then and when I 1 did once get a look at his face it made me er uncomfortable ho could have crushed me like a fly sir I 1 had brought mr a glass of wine and he was looking better he stopped to finish it declining with a wave of his hand to have it refilled and continued about nine 0 clock or a little later he got off somewhere near washing ton circle he went along one of the residence streets there turned to his left a square or two and rang a bell he had been admitted when I 1 got there but I 1 guessed from the appear ance of the place that jt was a board ing house I 1 waited a few minutes and rang the bell when a maid answered it I 1 asked for mr sullivan of course there was no mr sullivan there I 1 said I 1 was sorry that the man I 1 was looking tor was a new boarder she was sure there was no such boarder in the house the only new ar rival was a man on the third floor she thought his name was stuart my friend has a cousin by that name I 1 said 1 I II 11 go up and see she wanted to show me up but I 1 said it was unnecessary so after tell ng me it was the bedroom and sitting roon on the third floor front I 1 went up I 1 mel a couple of men on the stairs but neither of them paid any attention to me A boarding house Is the easiest place in the world to en ter they re not always so easy to leave I 1 put in to his evident irritation ben I 1 got to the third story I 1 took out a bunch of keys and posted myself by a door near the ones the girl had indicated I 1 could hear voices in one of the front rooms but could not understand under what they said there was no violent dispute but a steady hum then bronson jerked the door open it he had stepped into the hall he would have seen me fitting a key into the door before me but he spoke before he came out you re acting like a maniac he said lou know I 1 can get those things some way im not going to threaten you it isn t necessary you know me it would be no use 1 the other man said 1 I tell you I 1 haven t scon the notes tor ten days but ou will bronson said sav abely you re standing in your own way all if you re holding out expecting me to raise my figure you re making a mistake it s my last offer 1 I take it it it was for a million said the man inside the room id do it I 1 expect it I 1 could the best of us have our price bronson slammed the door then and flung past me down the ball after a couple ot minutes 1 knocked it the door and a tall man about your size mr blakeley opened it he was acry blond with a smooth taco and blue eyes what I 1 think aci call a handsome man 1 I beg your pardon for disturbing you I 1 said can ou toll me which Is mr johnsons room mr francis johndon John pon I 1 cannot deiy bo answered chiv lly 1 I e only been hero a few days 1 I thanked him and left but 1 had aad a good look at him and I 1 think d know him readily any place TO BC CONTINUED |