Show I 1 ilk V I 1 k 4 C A 4 4 s ltv MARY IMBIE h m air TOE CIRCULAR I 1 4 1 y OPP COPYRIGHT 1909 ty 7 11 ERRILL 21 SYNOPSIS lawrence blakeley lakeley 13 lawyer goes to pittsburg with the forged notes in the bronson case to ret get the deposition of john gilmore millionaire A lady requests blakeley akeley to buy her a pullman ticket lie gives her lower it 11 and re talus lower lover 10 lie ile finds a drunken man in lower 10 20 and retires la in lower 9 lie ile awakens in lower 7 and finds his clothes and bag missing the man in lower 10 Is found murdered clr s cum evidence points to both 21 blakeley lakeley and the man who stole his clothes the train Is wrecked and blakeley Is rescued from a burning car by a girl in blue ills arm Is broken the girl proves to be allson alison west his partners sweetheart blakeley returns home and finds he Is 19 under surveillance moving pictures of the train taken lust just before the wreck reveal to Di blakeley akeley a man leaping from the train with his stolen grip investigation proves that the man 9 name Is sullivan mrs the woman tor for whom 13 blakeley lakeley bought a pullman tiel et tries to make a bargain with him for the forged notes not knowing that they are missing 33 blakeley and an amateur detective investigate the home of sullivan sullivans s bister sister from a servant blakeley learns that allson alison west had been there on a visit and bul bellivan livan had been attentive to her sullivan Is the husband of a daughter of the murdered man blakeley s house Is ransacked by the police he ile learns that the affair between allson alison and his partner Is ott off CHAPTER I 1 continued and when the endless meal was over and yards of white veils had been tied over pounds of hair or Is it too bought by the yard and some eight ensembles with ith their ab eject complements had been packed into three automobiles and a trap I 1 drew a long breath and faced about I 1 had just then only one object in life to find allson alison to assure her of my absolute faith and confidence in her and to offer my help and my poor self it if she would let me in her service she was not easy to find I 1 searched the lower floor the veranda and the grounds circumspectly then I 1 ran into a little english girl who ho turned out to be her maid and who also was searching she was concerned because her mistress had no dinner and because the tray of food she carried would soon be cold I 1 took the tray from her on the glimpse of something white on the shore and that was how I 1 met the girl again she was nas sitting on an overturned boat her chin in her hands staring out to sea the soft tide of the bay lapped almost at her feet and the draperies of her white gown melted hazily into the sands she looked like a wraith a despondent phantom of the sea although the adjective Is redundant nobody ever thinks of a cheerful phantom strangely enough considering her evident sadness she was whistling softly to herself over and over some dreary little minor air that sounded like a bohemian dirge she glanced up quickly when I 1 made a misstep and my dishes jingled all considered the tray was out of the picture the sea the misty starlight the girl with her beauty even the sad little whistle that stopped now and then to go bravely on again as though it fought against the odds of a trembling lip and then I 1 came accompanied by a tray of little silver dishes that jingled and an un I 1 able odor of broiled chicken I 1 oh ohl she said quickly and then d oh I 1 I 1 thought you were jenkins timeo donados what s the rest of ita I 1 asked tendering my offering you t have any dinner you know I 1 sat down beside her see III be the table what was the old fairy tale little goat bleat little table appear I 1 im in perfectly willing to be the goat too she was laughing rather teemu bously we never do meet like other people do we she asked we really ought to shake hands and say how are you 1 I don t want to meet you like other people and I 1 suppose you always think of me as wearing the other fel low a clothes I 1 returned meekly 1 I im m doing it again I 1 dont dout seem to be able to help it these are arang er s that I 1 have on now she threw back her head and laughed again joyously this time oh its so ridiculous she said and you have never seen me when I 1 was not eating it a too pro prosaic salet which reminds roe me that the chick en is getting cold and the ice warm I 1 suggested at the time I 1 thought there could be no place better than the farmhouse kitchen but this Is I 1 ordered all this for something I 1 want to say to you the sea the sand the stars how alliterative you are she said trying to be flippant I 1 you are not to say anything until I 1 have bad had my supper look how tho the things are spilled around dut but she ate nothing after all and pre pretty tty soon I 1 put the tray down in the sand I 1 eald said little there was no hurry we were together and time meant nothing against that wash of the sea the air blew her hair in small damp curls against her face and little by bittle the tide re treated leaving our boat an oasis casts in a waste of gray sand olt it seven maids with seven mops swept it for halt a year do you suppose the walrus that they could get it clear she threw at me ind once when she must have known I 1 waa was going to deak speak I 1 held her han hand dand laud as long as I 1 merely held it she let it lie ile warm in mine but when I 1 raised it to my lips and hissed kissed the soft open palm she drew it away without displeasure not that please she protested and fell to whistling softly again her chin in her hands I 1 can t sing she said to break an awkward pause and so when I 1 ra fidgety or have something on my mind I 1 whistle I 1 hope you don t dislike it I 1 I 1 love it I 1 asserted warmly I 1 did when she pursed her lips like that I 1 was mad to kiss them 1 I saw youat the station she said suddenly you you were in a hurry to go I 1 did not say anything and after a pause she drew a long breath men are queer arent aren t they she said and fell to whistling again after awhile she sat up as it she had made nade a resolution 1 I I am going to confess something she announced suddenly you said you know that you had bad ordered all this tor for something you couyou you wanted to say to me but the fact Is I 1 fixed it al came here I 1 mean because I 1 knew you would come and I 1 had something to tell you it was such a miserable thing I 1 needed the accessories to help me out I 1 11 r don t want to hear anything that distresses you to tell I 1 assured her I 1 didat t com comei ethere here to force your con fl fi dence allson alison I 1 came because I 1 coulon couldn t help it she did not object to my use of her name have you found the your pa pers ehe she asked looking directly at me for almost the first time not ot yet we hope to the ithe police pollee have not interfered W with ith youa I 1 they haven t bad had any opportunity I 1 equivocated you t distress yourself about that andow an how dut but I 1 do I 1 wonder why you still believe in me nobody else does 1 I I wonder I 1 repeated I 1 why I 1 do dol it if ou produce harry sullivan she was baying saying partly to herself and it you could connect him with mr bronson and get a full account of why he was on the train and all that it it would help wouldn t lt it I 1 acknowledged that it would now that the whole truth was almost in toy my possession I 1 waa was stricken with the old cowardice I 1 did not want to know what she might tell me the yellow line on the horizon where the moon was coming up was a broken bit of golden chain my heel beel in the sand was again pressed on a worn wom ans yielding fingers I 1 pulled myself together with a jerk in order that what you tell roe MO may help me it it will I 1 eald said constrainedly it would be necessity necess iry perhaps that you tell it to I 1 the h e police since they have found the end of the necklace the end of the neckli cel she re to heated plowdy what about the end of the necklace I 1 stared at her don t you kemem her 1 I 1 leaned forward the end of the cameo neel necklace dace the part that was broken off and was found in the black sealskin bag stained with with blood blood od phe she said dully you mean that you found the broken end and then you had bad my good pocketbook pocket book and you saw the necklace in 1 it and you must have thought 1 11 I t think anything I 1 hastened to assure her 1 I tell you allson alison I 1 never thought of anything 7 7 av T A but that you were unhappy and that I 1 had no right to help you god knows I 1 thought you dian didn t m want ant me to help you she held out her hand to me and I 1 took it between both of mine no nord of love had passed between us but I 1 felt that she knew and understood it was one ot of the moments that come seldom in a lifetime and then only in great crises a moment ot of perfect understanding and trust then she drew her hand away and sat erect and determined her fingers laced la in her lap As she talked the amron came up slowly and threw its bright pathway across the water back of us in the trees beyond the sea wall niall a sleepy bird chirruped chirrup ed drowsily and a wave nave larger and bold er than its brothers sped up the sand bringing the moon a silver to our very feet I 1 bent toward the girl 1 4 1 am going to ask just one ques alon anything you like her voice was almost dreary was it because ot of anything you are going to tell me that you refused nichey richey she drew her breath in sharply no she sald said without looking at me I 1 ro no that w m as not the reason s CHAPTER allyons All Ali sons story she told her story evenly with her eyes on the water only now and then when L I 1 too sat looking seaward I 1 thought she glanced at me furtively and once in the middle of it she stopped altogether you don t realize it probably she protested but you look like a a war god your face Is horrible 1 I I will turn my back if it will help any I 1 eald said stormily storm lly but it if you ex hect me to look took anything but murder ous why you dont don t know what I 1 am going through with all the story ot of her meeting with the curtis woman was brief enough they had bad met in rome first where allson alison and her mother had taken a villa for a year sirs mrs curtla curtis had hovered on she was sitting on an overturned boat the ragged edges of society there pleading the poverty of the south since the war as a reason for not go ing out more there was talk of a brother but allson alison bad had not seen him and after a scandal which implicated mrs curtla curtis and a young of the austrian embassy allson alison bad had been forbidden to see the woman the women had never liked her anyhow I 1 she said she did ancon vent lonal ional things and they are very conventional there and they said she did not always pay her berher her gambling debts I 1 dian t like them I 1 thought they t like her because she was waa poor and popular then we came home and I 1 almost forgot her but list spring when mother Ws kas not well she had taken grandfather to the riviera and it always uses her up we went to virginia hot springs and we met them there the brother too this time his ills name was Sull Sul han lisan harry pinckney sullivan ai I 1 know go on mother had a nurse and I 1 was alone a great deal and they were very kind to me 1 I 1 I saw a lot of them the brother rather attracted me part ly partly because be did not make love to me he ile even seemed to avoid me and I 1 was piqued I 1 had bad been spoiled I 1 suppose most of the he other men I 1 knew had bad had bad 1 I I knew that too I 1 said bitterly and moved away from her a trifle I 1 ft as 28 brutal but the whole story was a long torture I 1 think she knew what I 1 was suffering tor for she showed no resentment 8 sent ment it was early and there were few people around none lione that I 1 cared about and mother and the nurse played cribbage eternally until I 1 felt as though the little pegs were ere driven into my brain and when mrs curtla curtis arranged drives and picnics 1 I 1 I slipped away and went I 1 suppose you won t believe me but I 1 bad had never faa 10 f i lone done that kind of or aning before ana una i JL va well ell I 1 have paid up I 1 think what sort of looking chap was sullivan I 1 demanded I 1 had got up ind and was pacing back and forward on ho the said I 1 remember kicking savage ly IF at a bit of water soaked board that lay in lit my way very handsome as large as you are re but fair and even more erect I 1 drew my shoulders up sharply I 1 im am straight enough but I 1 was nas fairly sagging with alth jealous rage when mother began to get around somebody told her that I 1 had been going about with mrs curtis and her brother and we had a dreadful time I 1 t was dragged home like a bad child did anybody ever do that to youl you nobody ever cared I 1 was born did you marry him I 1 demanded an orphan I 1 said with a cheerless attempt at levity go on 0 if mrs curtla curtis knew she never said anything she wrote mo me charming letters and in the summer when they went to cresson she asked roe me to visit her there I 1 was too proud to let her know that I 1 could not go where I 1 wished and so 1 I sent polly my maid to her aunt aunts s in the country pretended to go to seal harbor and really went to cresson you see I 1 warned you it would be an unpleasant story I 1 went over and stood in front of her all the accumulated jealousy of the last few weeks had been fired by what hat she told me if sullivan had come across the sands just then I 1 think I 1 would have strangled him with my hands out of pure hate did you marry I 1 demanded dem my voice sounded hoarse and strange in my ears all I 1 want nant to know did you marry him a W no I 1 drew a long breath I 1 you cared about hims she hesitated no she said finally 1 I did not care about him I 1 sat down on the edge 0 of the boat and mopped my hot face I 1 was heartily ashamed of myself and mingled with my abasement was a great relief it she had not married him and had not cared for him nothing else was of any importance I 1 I 1 was sorry of course the moment the train had started but I 1 had wired I 1 was coming and I 1 could not go back and then when I 1 got there the place was charming there were no neighbors but ne w e fished and rode and motored and it was as moonlight like this 1 I put my hand over both of hers here clasped in her lap 1 I I know I 1 acknowledged repentantly and people do queer things when it Is moonlight the moon has got me tonight to night allson alison it if I 1 im am a boor remember that won wont t sour her fingers lay quiet under mine and so she went nent on with ith a little sigh 1 I began to think perhaps I 1 cared but all the time I 1 felt that there was mas something not quite right htow now and then mrs curtis would say or do something that gave me a queer start as it if she bad had dropped a mask tor for a moment and there was trouble with the servants nants so they were almost insolent I 1 could rit under saud I 1 don t know when it da daw ned on me that the old baron cavalcanti had been right when he said they were not my kind of people nut but I 1 wanted to get away wanted it des pera tely of course they were not your kind I 1 cried the man was mar war ried tho the girl jennie a housemaid was a spy in mrs sullivan a employ if it he had pretended to marry you I 1 would have killed him himl not only that but the man he murdered harrington was hla his alfes father and X 11 see him hang by the neck yet it if it takes every energy and every penny I 1 pos op sess I 1 could have told her so much more gently have broken tho the shock for her I 1 have haye never been proud of that evening evenin 0 on the sand I 1 was vias alternately a boor and a ruffian like a hurt youngster loung ster who passes the blow that baa has hurt him on ork to his playmate that both may bawl together and now allson |