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Show THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE ful of maids that will bear watching, one and all. But there has been no strange woman near the house or Liddy would have seen her, you may be sure. She has a telescopic eye." Mr. Jamieson looked thoughtful. "It may not amount to anything," he said slowly. "It is difficult to get any perspective on things around here, because every one down in the village is sure he saw the murderer, either before or since the crime. And half of them will stretch a point or two as to facts, to be obliging. But the man who drives the hack down there tells a story that may possibly prove to be important." "I have heard it, I think. Was it the one the parlor maid brought up yesterday, about a ghost wringing its hands on the roof? Oh perhaps it's the one the milk-boy heard; a tramp washing a dirty shirt, presumably bloody, In the creek below the bridge?" I could see the gleam of Mr. Jamie-son's Jamie-son's teeth as he smiled. "Neither," he said. "But Matthew Geist, which is our friend's name, claims that on Saturday night, at 9:30, a veiled, lady " "I knew it would be a veiled lady," I broke in. "A veiled lady," he persisted, "who was apparently young and beautiful, engaged his hack and asked to be driven to Sunnyside. Near the gate, however, she made him stop, in spite of his remonstrances, saying she preferred pre-ferred to walk to the house. She paid A few feet away in the hall was the I spot where the body of Arnold Armstrong Arm-strong had been found. I was a bit nervous, and I put my hand on Halsey's Hal-sey's sleeve. Suddenly, from the top of the staircase above us came the sound of a cautious footstep. At first I was not sure, but Halsey's attitude told me he had heard and was listening. listen-ing. The step, slow, measured, infinitely in-finitely cautious, was nearer now. Halsey tried to loosen my fingers, but I was in a paralysis of fright. The swish of a body against the curving rail, as if for guidance, was plain enough, and now whoever it was had reached the foot of the staircase and had caught- a glimpse of our rigid silhouettes against the billiard room doorway. Halsey threw me off then and strode forward. "Who is it?" he called imperiously, and took a half dozen rapid strides toward to-ward the foot of the staircase. Then I heard him mutter something; there was the crash of a falling body, the slam of the outer door, and, for an instant, quiet. I screamed, I think. Then I remember turning on the lights and finding Halsey, white with fury, trying to untangle himself from something warm and fleecy. He had cut his forehead a little on the lowest step of the stairs, and he was rather a ghastly sight. He flung the white object at me, and, jerking open the outer door, raced into the darkness. Gertrude had come on hearing the noise, and now we stood, staring at each other over of all things on vested, and through an ugly stroy Mr. Innes called and then rushed at me, 1 I was alarmed, and flung the blanket at him." Halsey was examining the 'ut on his forehead in a small mirror an the wall. It was not much of an injury, in-jury, but it had bleil freely, and his appearance was rather terrifying. "Thomas ill? he said, over his shoulder. "Why, I thought I saw-Thomas saw-Thomas out there, as you made that cyclonic break out of the door and over the porch." I could see that under pretense of examining his injury he was watching watch-ing her through the mirror. "Is this one of the servants' blankets, blank-ets, Mrs. Watson?" I asked, holding up its luxurious folds to the light. "Everything else is locked away." she replied. Which was true enough, no doubt. I had rented the house without bed furnishings. "If Thomas is ill," Halsey said, "some member of the family ought to go down to see him. You needn't bother, Mrs. Watson. I will take the blanket." She drew herself up quickly, as if in protest, but she found nothing to say. She stood smoothing the folds of her dead black dress, her face as white as chalk above it. Then she seemed to make up her mind. "Very well, Mr. Innes," she said. "Perhaps you would better go. I have done all I could." And then she turned and went up the circular staircase, moving slowly and with a certain dignity. Below, the three of us stared at one another across the intervening white blanket. "Upon my word," Halsey broke out, "this place is a walking nightmare. I have the feeling that we three outsiders out-siders who have paid our money for the privilege of staying in this spook-factory, spook-factory, are living on the very top of things. We're on the lid, so to speak. Now and then we get a sight of the things inside, but we are not a part of them." "Do you suppose," Gertrude asked doubtfully, "that she really meant that blanket for Thomas?" ROBERTS RINZHART rLLL87MT70m BY Tyyft7 SYNOPSIS. Miss Innes, spinster and guardian of Gertrude and Halsey, established summer headquarters at Sunnyside. Amidst numerous nu-merous difficulties the servants deserted. As Miss Innes locked up for the night, she was startled by a dark figure on the veranda. She passed a terrible night, which was filled with unseemly noises. In the morning Miss Innes found a strange link cuff button in a clothes hamper. Gertrude and Halsey arrived with Jack Bailev. The house was awakened awak-ened by a revolver shot. A strange man was found shot to death, in the hall. It proved to be the body of Arnold Armstrong, Arm-strong, whose banker father owned the country house. Miss Innes found Halsey's Hal-sey's revolver on the lawn. He and Jack Bailev had disappeared. The link cuff button mysteriously disappeared. Detective De-tective Jamieson and the coroner arrived. Gertrude revealed that she was engaged to Jack Bailev. with whom she had talked in the billiard room a few moments mo-ments before the murder. Jamieson told Miss Innes that she was hiding evidence from him. He Imprisoned an intruder in an empty room. The prisoner escaped down a laundry chute. It developed that the intruder was probably a woman. Gertrude Ger-trude was suspected, for the intruder left a print of a bare foot. Gertrude returned re-turned home with her right ankle sprained. A negro found the other half of what proved to be Jack Bailey's cuff button. Halsev suddenly reappeared. He said he and Bailey had left because thev had received a telegram. Gertrude said that she had given Bailey an unloaded un-loaded revolver, fearing to give him Halsey's Hal-sey's loaded weapon. Cashier Bailey of Paul Armstrong's bank, defunct, was arrested, ar-rested, charged with embezzlement. CHAPTER X. Continued. "In cash?" "In cash." "But the man who did it he would be known?" "Yes, I tell you both, as sure as I stand he, I believe that Paul Armstrong Arm-strong looted his own bank. I believe he has a million at least, as the result, re-sult, and that he will never come back. I'm worse than a pauper now. I can't ask Louise to share nothing a year with me, and when I think of this disgrace for her, I'm crazy." The most ordinary events of life seemed pregnant with possiblities that day, and when Halsey was called to the telephone, I ceased all pretense at eating. When he came back from the telephone his face showed that something had occurred. He waited however, until Thomas left the dining din-ing room; then he told us. "Paul Armstrong is dead," he announced an-nounced gravely. "He died this morning morn-ing in California. Whatever he did, he is beyond the law now." Gertrude turned pale. "And the only man who could have cleared Jack can never do it!" she said despairingly. "Also," I replied coldly, "Mr. Armstrong Arm-strong is for ever beyond the power of defending himself. When your Jack comes to me, with some $200,000 in his hands, which is about what ' you have lost, I shall believe him innocent." in-nocent." CHAPTER XI. Halsey Makes a Capture. It was about half-past eight when we left the dining room, and still engrossed en-grossed with one subject, the failure of the bank and its attendant evils, Halsey and I went out into the grounds for a stroll. Gertrude followed fol-lowed us shortly. "The light was iR "Thomas was standing beside that magnolia tree," Halsey replied, "when I ran after Mrs. Watson. It's down to this, Aunt Ray. Rosie's basket bas-ket and Mrs. Watson's blanket can only mean one thing: There is somebody some-body hiding or being hidden in the lodge. It wouldn't surprise me if we hold the key to the whole situation now. Anyhow, I'm going to the lodge to investigate." Gertrude wanted to go, too, but she looked so shaken that I insisted she should not. I sent for Liddy to help her to bed, and then Halsey and I started for the lodge. The grass was heavy with dew, and, man-like, Halsey chose the shortest way across the lawn. Half way, however, he stopped. "We'd better go by the drive," he said. "This isn't a lawn; it's a field. Where's the gardener these days?" "There isn't any," I said meekly. "We have been thankful enough, so far, to have our meals prepared and served and the beds aired. The gardener gard-ener who belongs here is working at the club." The Step, Slow, Measured, Infinitely Cautious, Was Nearer Now. thickening," to appropriate Shakespeare's Shakes-peare's description of twilight, and once again the tree-toads and the crickets were making night throb i with their tiny life. It was almost oppressively op-pressively lonely, in spite of its beauty, beau-ty, and I felt a sickening pang of homesickness for my city at night for the clatter of horses' feet on cemented ce-mented paving, for the lights, the voices, the sound of children playing. The country after dark oppresses me. The stars, quite eclipsed in the city by the electric lights, here become insistent, in-sistent, assertive. Whether I want to or not, I find myself looking for the few I know by name, and feeling ridiculously ri-diculously new and small by contrast always an unpleasant sensation. After Gertrude joined us. we avoided avoid-ed any further mention of the murder. To Halsey, as to me, there was ever present, I am sure, the thought of our conversation of the night before. As we strolled back and forth along the drive, Mr. Jamieson emerged from the shadow of the trees. "Good evening," he said, managing to include Gertrude in his bow. Gertrude Ger-trude had never been even ordinarily courteous to him. and she nodded coldly. cold-ly. Halsey, however, was more cor- him, and he left her there." Now, Miss Innes, you had no such visitor, I believe?" be-lieve?" "None." I said decidedly. "Geist thought it might be a maid, as you had got a supply that day. But he said her getting out near the gate puzzled him. Anyhow, we have now one veiled lady, who, with the ghostly ghost-ly intruder of Friday night, makes two assets that I hardly know what to do with." "It is mystifying," I admitted, "although "al-though I can think of one possible explanation. ex-planation. The path from the Greenwood Green-wood club to the village enters the road near the lodge gate. A woman who wished to reach the Country club, unperceived, might choose such a method. There are plenty of women wom-en there." I think this gave him something to ponder, for in a short time he said good night and left. But I myself was far from satisfied T was determined, however, on one thing. If my suspicions suspic-ions for I had suspicions were true. 1 would make my own investigations, and Mr. Jamieson should learn only I what was good for him to know. J We went back to the house, and j Gertrude, who was more like herself "Remind me to-morrow to send out a man from town," he said. "I know the very fellow." I record this scrap of conversation, just as I have tried to put down anything any-thing and everything that had a bearing bear-ing on what followed, because the gardener Halsey sent the next day played an important part in the events of the next few weeks events that culminated as you know, by stirring the country profoundly. At that time, however, I was busy trying to keep my skirts dry, and paid little or no attention to what seemed then a most trivial remark. At the lodge everything was quiet There was a light in the sitting room downstairs, and a faint gleam, as i( from a shaded lamp, in one of the up. per rooms. Halsey stopped and examined ex-amined the lodge with calculating eyes. "I don't know, Aunt Ray," he said dubiously; "this is hardly a woman's affair, if there's a scrap of any kind, u hike for the timber." Which was Halsey's solicitous care for me, put into vernacular. "I'll stay right here," I said, and crossing the small veranda, now shaded and fragrant with honeysuckle, honey-suckle, I hammered the knocker on the door. Thomas opened the door himself Thomas, fully dressed and in his cus-tomisry cus-tomisry health. I had the blanket over my arm. i "1 brought the blanket. Thomas," I said; "I am sorry you are so ill." The old man stood staring at me and then at the blanket. His eon-fusion eon-fusion under other circumstances would have been ludicrous. "What! Not ill?" Halsey said from the step. "Thomas. I'm afraid you've been malingering." Thomas seemed to have been debating debat-ing something with himself. Now he stepped out on the porch and closed the door gently behind him. (TO be roxTixrion.) earth a white silk and wool blanket, exquisitely fine! It was the most tin-ghostly tin-ghostly thing in the world, with its lavender border and its faint scent. Gertrude was the first to speak. "Somebody had it?" she asked. "Yes. Halsey tried to stop whoever it was and fell. Gertrude, that blanket blank-et is not mine. I have never seen it before." She held it up and looked at it; then she went to the door on to the veranda veran-da and threw it open. Perhaps 100 feet from the house were two figures, .hat moved slowly toward us as we looked. When they came within range of the light, I recognized Halsey, and with him Mrs. Watson, the housekeeper. house-keeper. CHAPTER XII. One Mystery for Another. The most commonplace incident takes on a new appearance if the attendant at-tendant circumstances are unusual. There was no reason on earth why Mrs. Watson should not have carried a blanket down the east wing staircase, stair-case, if she so desired. But to take a blanket down at 11 o'clock at night, with every precaution as to noise, and, when discovered, to fling it at Halsey and bolt Halsey's word, and a good one into the grounds this made the incident more than significant. They moved slowly across the lawn and up the steps. Halsey was talking quietly, and Mrs. Watson was looking down and listening. She was a woman of a certain amount of dignity, most j efficient, so far as I could see, although al-though Liddy would have found fault if she dared. Rut just now Mrs. Watson's Wat-son's lace was an enigma. She was defiant. 1 think, under her mask of submission, and she still showed the effect of nervous shock. "Mrs. Watson." I said severely, "will you be so good as to explain this rather unusual occurrence?" "I don't think it so unusual. Miss Innes. " Her voice was deep and very clear; but it was somewhat tremulous. "I was taking a blanket down to Tnomas, who is not well to-night, and I used t'.iis stairctse, as being nearer the ps:h to the l'dge. When dial, although we were all constrained enough. He and Gertrude went on together, leaving the u'etective to walk with me. As soon as they were out ol earshot, he turned to me. "Do you know. Miss Innes." he said, "the deeper I go into this thing, the more strange it seems to me. I am very sorry for Miss Gertrude. It looks as if Bailey, whom she has tried so hard to save, is worse than a rascal; ras-cal; and after iter plucky fight for him, it seems hard." I looked through the dusk to where Gertrude's light dinner dress gleamed among the trees. She had made a plucky fight, poor child. Whatever she might have been driven to do. 1 could find nothing but a deep sympathy sym-pathy for her. If she had only come to me with the whole truth then! "Miss Innes," Mr. Jamieson was say- i ing. "in the last three days, have you j seen a any suspicious figures around the grounds? Any woman?" "No." I replied. "I have a house- since her talk with Halsey, sat down at the mahogany desk in the living room to write a letter. Halsey prowled prowl-ed up and down the entire east wing, now in the cardroom, now in the billiard bil-liard room, and now and then blowing blow-ing his clouds of tobacco smoke among the pink and gold hangings of the drawing room. After a little 1 j joined him in the billiard room, and together we went over the details of the discovery of the body. The cardroom was quite dark. Where we sat, in the billiard room, only one of the side brackets was lighted, and we spoke in subdued tones, as the hour and the subject seemed to demand. When I spoke ot the figure Liddy and I had seen on the porch through the cardroom window win-dow Friday night, Halsey sauntered into the darkened room, and together we stood there, much as Liddy and I had done that other night. The window was the same grayish rectangle in the blackne-"? (v before. |