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Show I knew how to account for It. To me Mr. Janiieson was far less formidable undermy eyes, where I knew what he was doing, than he was off in the city, twisting circumstances and motives to suit himself and learning wis at he wished to know about events at Sun-nyside Sun-nyside in some occult way. I was glad enough to have him there, when excitements began to come thick and fast. A new elemo"' was about to enter into affairs; .day, or Tuesday at the latest, would lind Dr. Walker back in his gjeen and white house iu the village, end Louise's attitude to him in the immediate future would signify signi-fy Halsey's happiness or wretchedness, wretched-ness, as it might turn out. Then, too, the return of her mother would mean, of course, that she would have to leave us, and I had become greatly attached at-tached to her. From the day Mr. Janiieson came to Sunnyside, there was a subtle chaage in Gertrude's manner to me. It was elusive, difficult to analyze, but it was there. She was no longer frank Liddy heaved a sigh. "Girl and woman," she said, "I've been with you 25 years, Miss Rachel, through good temper and bad " the idea! and what I have taken from her in the way of sulks! "but I guess 1 can't stand it any longer. My trunk's packed." : "Who packed it?" I asked, expecting from her tone to be told she had wakened to find it done by some ghostly hand. "I did; Miss Rachel, you won't believe be-lieve me when I tell you this house is haunted. Who was it fell down the clothes chute? Who was it scared Miss Louise almost into her grave?" "I'm doing my best to find out," I said. "What in the world are yon driving at?" She drew a long breath. "There is a hole in the truukroom wall, dug out since last night. It's big enough to put your head in, and the plaster's all over the place." "Nonsense!" I said. "Pluster is always al-ways falling." But Liddy clenched that. "Just ask Alex," she said. "When ROBERTS MINZUART ILLUSTRATIONS BY -RWfiJ SYNOPSIS Mips Tnnes, . spinster and guardla.i of Gertrude nd Halsey, established summer headquarters at Sunnyside. Amidst numerous nu-merous dillicultles the servants deserted. As Miss Innes locked 'up for the night she was startled by a dark figure on the veranda. Unseemly noises disturbed her :luring the night. In the morning Miss tnnes found a strange link eulT-butlon in a hamper. Gertrude and Halsey arrived with Jack Bailey. The house was awakened awak-ened by. a revolver shot and Arnold Armstrong Arm-strong was found shot to death in the hall. 'Miss Innes found Halsey's revolver on the lawn. He and Jack Bailey had disappeared. dis-appeared. The link cuff-button mysterl-ourly mysterl-ourly disappeared. Detective Janiieson arrived. Gertrude revealed she was engaged en-gaged to Jack Bailey, with whom she talked In the billiard room a few moments mo-ments before the murder. Janiieson accused ac-cused Miss Innes of holding back evidence. evi-dence. He Imprisoned an intruder in an empty room. The prisoner escaped down a. laundry chute. Gertrude was suspected. A. negro found the other half of what proved to be Jack Bailey's cuff-button. Halsey reappears and says he and Bailey left in response to a telegram. Gertrude said she had given Bailey an unloaded revolver, fearing to give him a loaded weapon. Cashier Bailey of Paul Armstrongs Arm-strongs bank, defunct, was arrested for embezzlement. Halsey said Armstrong wrecked his own bank and could clear Bailey. Paul Armstrong's death was announced. an-nounced. Halsey's fiancee, Louise Armstrong, Arm-strong, was found at the lodge. The lodgekeeper said Louise and Arnold had a long talk the night of the murder. Louise Lou-ise was prostrated. Louise told Halsey, that while she still loved him she was to marry another, and that he would despise her when he learned the whole story. It developed that Dr. Walker and Louise were to be married. A prowler was heaid in the house. Louise was found at the bottom of the circular staircase. Louise said she had heard a knock at the door and answered it. Something brushed past her on the stairway and she fainted. CHAPTER XVII. Continued. "You heard no other sound?" the coroner asked. "There was no one with Mr. Armstrong when he entered?" en-tered?" "It was perfectly dark. There were no voices and I heard nothing. There was just the opening of the door, the shot, and the sound of somebody falling." fall-ing." "Then, while you went through the drawing room and upstairs to alarm the household, the criminal, whoever it was, could have escaped by the east door?" "Yes." "Thank you. That will do." I flatter myself that the coroner got little enough out of me. I saw Mr. Jamieson smiling to himself, and. the coroner gave me up, after a time. I admitted I had found the body, said I had not known who it was until Mr. Jarvis told me, and ended by looking up at Barbara Fitzhugh and saying that in renting the house I had not expected to be involved in any family BIBIEP mm t-J p$ii.3ioyi mwi i Li-.--.e..-. i .-A.:,,';,!,.. ..... fl i fff from ihe floor, and inside weie all the missing bits of plaster. It had been a methodical ghost. It was very much of a disappointment. disappoint-ment. I had expected a secet room, at the very least, and I think even Mr. Jamieson had fancied he might at last have a clew to the mystery. There was evidently nothing more to be discovered; dis-covered; Liddy reported that everything every-thing was serene among the servants, and that none of them had been disturbed dis-turbed by the noise. The maddening thing, however, was that Jthe nightly visitor had evidently more than one way of gaining access to the house, and we made arrangements to redouble our vigilance as to windows and doors that night. Halsey was inclined to pooh-pooh the whole affair. He said a break in the plaster might have occurred months ago and gone unnoticed, and that the dust had probably been stirred up the day before. After all, we had to let it got at that, but we put in an uncomfortable Sunday. Gertrude Ger-trude went to church, and Halsey took a long walk in the morning Louise was able to sit up, and she allowed Halsey and Liddy to assist hir downstairs down-stairs late in the afternoon. The east veranda was shady, green with vines and palms, cheerful with cushions and lounging chairs. We put Louise in a steamer chair, and she sat there passively enough, her hands clasped in her lap. We were very silent. Halsey sat on the rail with a pipe, openly watching Louise, as she looked broodingly across the valley to the hills. There was something baffling in the girl's eyes; and gradually Halsey's boyish features lost their glow at seeing her about again, and settled into grim lines. He was like" his father just then. We sat until late afternoon, Halsey growing more and more moody. Short ly before six he got up and went into the house, and in a few minutes he came out and called me to the tele phone. It was Anna Whitcomb, in town, and she kept me for 20 minutes, telling me the children had had the measles and how Mme. Sweeny had botched her new gown. When I finished, Liddy was behind me, her mouth a thin line. "I wish you would try to look cheerful, cheer-ful, Liddy," I groaned, "your face would sour milk." But Liddy seldom replied to my gibes. She folded her lips a little tighter. jt ipi IP7 There Was Something Baffling in the Girl's Eyes. scandal. At which she turned purple. The verdict was that Arnold Armstrong Arm-strong had met his death at the hands of a parson or persons unknown, and we prepared to leave. Barbara Fitzhugh Fitz-hugh flounced out without waiting to speak to me, but Mr. Harton came up, as I knew he would. "You have decided to give up the house, I hope, Miss Innes." he said. "Mrs. Armstrong has wired me again." "I am not going to give it up," I maintained, "until I understand some things that are puzzling me. The day that the murderer is discovered, I will leave." "Then, judging by what J have beard, you will be back in the city very soon," he said. And I knew that he suspected the discredited cashier of the Traders' bank. Mr. Jamieson came up to me as I was about to leave the coroner's office. Laucu uci up, olio aam vjidu- larly, "he called her up, and asked her to keep you at the telephone, so he could talk to Miss Louise. A thankless thank-less child is sharper than a serpent's tooth." "Nonsense!" I said brusquely. "1 might have known enough to leave them. It's a long time since you and I were in love, Liddy, and we forget." for-get." Liddy sniffed. "No man ever made a fool of me," she replied virtuously. "Well, something did," I retorted. CHAPTER XIX. Concerning Thomas. "Mr. Jamieson," I said, when we found ourselves alone after dinner that night, "the inquest yesterday seemed to me the merest recapitulation recapitula-tion of things that were already known. It developed nothing new be- vnnd that stnrv nf Pr Stewart's nnrl with me, although I think her affection affec-tion never wavered. At the time I laid the change to the fact that I had forbidden for-bidden all communication with John Bailey,' and had refused to acknowledge acknowl-edge any engagement between the two. Gertrude spent much of her time wandering through the grounds, or taking long cross-country walks. Halsey played golf at the Country club day after day, and after Louise left, as she did the following week, Mr. Jamieson and I were much together. to-gether. He played a fair game of crib-bage, crib-bage, but he cheated at solitaire. The night the detective arrived, Saturday, I had a talk with him. I told him of the experiences Louise Armstrong had had the night before on the circular staircase, and about the man who had so frightened Rosie on the drive. I saw that he thought the information was important, and to he put the new cook's trunk there last night the wall was as smooth as this. This morning it's dug out, and there's plaster on the cook's trunk. Miss Rachel, you can get a dozen detectives and put one on every stair in the house, and you'll never catch anything. any-thing. There's some things you can't handcuff." Liddy was right As soon as I could, I went up to the trunkroom, which was directly over my bedroom. The plan of the upper story of the house was like that of the second floor, in the main. One end, however, over the east wing, had been left only roug-ly roug-ly finished, the intention having been to convert it into a ballroom at some future time. The maids' rooms, trunk-room, trunk-room, and various storerooms, including includ-ing a large airy linen room, opened from a long corridor, like that on the second floor. And in the trunkroom, that was volunteered." "An inquest is only a necessary formality, for-mality, Miss Innes," he replied.' "Unless "Un-less a crime is committed in the open the inquest does nothing beyond getting get-ting evidence from witnesses while events are still in their minds. The police step in later. You and I both know how many important thing? never transpired. For instance: .The dead man had no key, and yet Miss Gertrude testified to a fumbling at the lock, and then the opening of the door. The piece of evidence you mention. men-tion. Dr. Stewart's story, is one ol those things we have to take cautiously; cautious-ly; the doctor has a patient whe wears black and does not raise hei veil. Why, it is the typical mysterious mysteri-ous lady! Then the good doctor comes across Arnold Armstrong, who was a graceless scamp de mortuis what's the relit of it? and he is quarreling quar-reling with a lady in black. Behold says die doctor, they are one and the same." (TO BE CONTINUED.) How is your patient.' ne asKea with his odd little smile. "I have no patient," I replied, startled. "I will put it in a different way, then. How is Miss Armstrong?" "She she is doing very well," 1 stammered. "Good," cheerfully. "And our ghost? Is it laid? "Mr. Jamieson," I said suddenly, "1 wish you would come to Sunnyside and spend a few days there. The ghost is not laid. I want you to spend one night at least watching the circular cir-cular staircase. The murder of Arnold Armstrong was a beginning, not an end." He looked serious. "Perhaps I can do it," he said. "I have been doing, something else, but -w-ell, I will come out to-night." We were very silent during the trip back to Sunnyside. I watched Gertrude closely and somewhat sadly To me there was one glaring flaw in her story, and it seemed to stand out for every one to see. Arnold Armstrong Arm-strong had had no key, and yet she said she had locked the east door. He must have been admitted from within the house; over and over I repeated it to myself. That night, as gently as I could. I told Louise the story of her stepbrother's step-brother's death. She sat in her big pillow-filled chair, and heard me through without interruption. It was clear that she was shocked beyond words; if I had hoped to learn anything any-thing from her expression. I had failed. She was as much In the dark as we were. CHAPTER XVIII. A Hole in the Wall. My taking the detective out to Sunnyside Sun-nyside raised an unexpected storm ol I protest from Gertrude and Halsey. 1 J was not prepared for it, and I scarcely my suggestion that we put an additional addi-tional lock on the east wing door he opposed a strong negative. "I think it probable," he said, "that our visitor will be back again, and the thing to do is to leave things exactly ex-actly as they are, to avoid rousing suspicion. Then I can watch for at least a part of each night and probably prob-ably Mr. Innes will help us out. I would say as little to Thomas .as possible. pos-sible. The old man knows more than he is willing to admit." I suggested that Alex, the gardener, would probably be willing to help, and Mr. Jamieson undertook to make the arrangement. For one night, however, how-ever, Mr. Jamieson preferred to watch alone. Apparently nothing occurred. The detective sat in absolute darkness dark-ness on the lower step of the stairs, dozing, he said afterwards, now and then. Nothing could pass him in either direction, and the door in the morning remained as securely fastened fast-ened as it had been the night before. And yet out of the most inexplicable occurrences of the whole affair took place that very night. Liddy came to my room on Sunday morning with a face as long as the moral law-. She laid out my things as usual, but I missed her customary garrulousues?,. 1 was not regaled with the new cook's extravagance as to eggs, ana t:.' even forbore to mention "that Jamieson," on vh::e arrival she had looked with silent disfavor. "What's the matter, Liddy?" I asked, at last. "Didn't you sleep last night?" "No, ma'am," she said stiffly. "Did you have two cups of colTee at your dinner?" I inquired. "No, ma'm," indignantly. I sat up and almost upset my hot water I always take s. cup of hot water wa-ter with a pinch of salt, before 1 get up. It. tones the stomach. "Liddy Allen," I said, "stop combing that switch and tell me what is wrong with you." as Liddy had said, was a fresh break in the plaster. Not only in the plaster, but through the lathing, the aperture extended. 1 reached into the opening, and three; feet away, perhaps, I could touch the bricks of the partition wall. For some reason the architect in building the house had left a space there that struck me, even in the surprise of the discovery, as an excellent place for a conflagration to gain headway. "You are sure the hole was not here yesterday?" I asked Liddy, whose ex pression was a mixture of satisfaction and alarm. In answer she pointed to the new cook's trunk that necessary adjunct of the migratory domestic. The. topwas covered with fine white plaster, as was the floor. But there were no large pieces of mortar lying around no bits of lathing. When I mentioned this to Liddy she merely raised her eyebrows. Being quite confident that the gap was of unholy origin, she did not concern herself with such trifles as a bit of mortar and lath. Xodoub; they were even then heaped neatlv on a gravestone in the Casanova churchyard ! 1 brought Mr. Jamieson up to see the hole in the wall, directly ai-er breakfast. His expression was very odd when he looked at ft, and the first thing he did was to try to discover what object, if any, such a hole could have. He got a piece of candle, and by enlarging the aperture a little was able to examine what lay beyond. The result was nil. The trunkroom, although al-though heated by steam heat, like the rest of the house, boasted of a fireplace fire-place and mantel as well. The opening open-ing had been made between the flue and the outer wall of the house. There was revealed, however, on inspection, only the brick of the chimney on one side and the outer wall of the house on the other; in depth the space ex-tended ex-tended only to the flooring. The breach had been made about four feet |