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Show MIL MCtJjuM LmMAJXyL ROBERTS lUNZHART SYNOPSIS. Mini Tunes, Blaster am! guardian of ftrtrrl an. I It.-tliwy. esl aili-' he. I bu tumor tu-mor headquarters at Sunnysale Arnold AririHtronK an found shnl (o deal,, in f tb Lull. Oriru.l on-i h-r lian.:.;, 4a-k i Jlalli.y ha. I o.iiiv.-mwI in H hllha.d , room shortly before tie- murder. J"'1':'-jlve J"'1':'-jlve .Ian, I. son aeoutu-.i Mlw l- '!'",d n bark ovldenee. Cashier I'.all-y ol I an Armstrongs hank, defunot, was nrr.-"i for e.nnez'.ienn-nt. I'aul Aims'io,,, s lath was m... I. I !!,? V'Vne Louise A n.ulPiim', told Halsey thai while l. siill w..l him. h was to marry n-I..; n-I..; I ' dvelped that Or Wa er uas II, man. Louise was tound Uli. . l'H l the hollo,,, of the oiremar ' Hhe said something; ha. I brushed bv h r In the dark ,. the stairway and M o fainted. H..H.-V In sn,..'0 -1 of A m-slmmi's m-slmmi's mi.ntT. Thomas, tl0 l''d - -was Ion, el dead w.tl, a n.Jte in -puekei hearing the name ' (.ue e a fare." A ladder h.nnd ont of 1; a.-o I -ons tho nivslery. 1 ho slahu s l",n and in lark M,ss ones snot an Inlrnder. llaUey n, vsl erlonsh I s.y. ,,,,! Ilia auto u:n lonn.l wreeked hv S fnht train, it developed I a s.-y ha , an a,Kun,onl in the. hhrary with a m m hr-fore, his disappearance. New . ''.'. ieai s. Miss I nnes learned II llse wa., ullye. CHAPTER X.XVII. Who Is Nina Carrington? The four days, from Saturday to the following Tuesday, we lived, or existed, ex-isted, in a state of the most dreadful suspense. We ate only when Liddy brought in a tray, and then very little. Tho papers, of course, had got hold of tho story, and we were besieged by newspaper men. From all over the country false clews came pouring in and raised hopes that crumbled again to nothing. Every morgue within 100 miles, every hospital, had been visited, vis-ited, without result. The inaction was deadly. Liddy cried all day, and, because she knew I objected to tears, snilTled audibly around the corner. "For heaven's sake, smile!" I snapped at her. And her ghastly attempt at-tempt at a grin, with her swollen nose and red eyes, made me hysterical. I laughed and cried together, and pretty pret-ty soon, like the two old fools we were, we were sitting together weeping weep-ing Into the same handkerchief. On Tuesday, then, I sent for the car and prepared to go out. As I waited at the porte-cochere I saw the under-gardener, under-gardener, an inoffensive, grayish-haired grayish-haired man, trimming borders near the house. The day detective was watching him, sitting on the carriage block. When he saw me, he got up. "Miss Innes," he said, taking off Tiis hat. "do you know where Alex, the gardener, is?" "Why, no. Isn't he here?" I asked. "He has been gone since yesterday afternoon. Have you employed him long?" "Only a couple of weeks." "Is he efficient? A capable man?" "I hardly know," I said vaguely. "The place looks all right, and I know very little about such things. I know much more about bir'.es of roses than bushes of them." "This man," pointing to the assistant, assis-tant, "says Alex isn't a gardener. That ' he doesn't know anything about plants." "That's very strange," I said, thinking think-ing hard. "Why, he came to me from the Brays, who are in Europe." "Exactly." The detective smiled. "Every man who cuts grass isn't a gardener, Miss Innes, and just now it is our policy to believe every person ing to strike me. He grew livid, and a small crooked blood-vessel in his temple tem-ple swelled and throbbed curiously. Then he forced a short laugh. "Who is Nina Carrington?" he asked. "I am about to discover that," I replied, re-plied, and he was quiet at once. It was not. difficult to divine that he reared Nina Carrington a good deal more than he did the devil. Our leave-taking leave-taking was brief; in fact, we merely stared at each other over the waiting room table, with irs litter of year-old magazines. Then I turned and went out. "To Richfield," I told Warner, and on the way I thought, and thought hard. "Nina Carringlon, Nina Carrington," the roar and rush of the wheels seemed to sing the words. "Nina Carrington, Car-rington, N. C." And I then knew, knew as surely as if I had seen the whole tiling. There had been an N. C. on the suit case belonging to the woman wom-an witli the pitted face. How simple it all seemed. Mattie Bliss had been Nina Carrington. It was she Warner had heard in the library. Tt wa3 something some-thing she had told Halsey that had taken him frantically to Dr. Walker's office, and from there perhaps to his death. If we could find the woman, we might find what had become of Halsey. Hal-sey. We were almost at Richfield now., so I kept on. My mind was not on my errand there now. It was back with Halsey on that memorable night. What was it he had said to Louise, that had sent her up to Sunnyside, half wild with fear for him? I made up my mind, as the car drew up before the Tate cottage, that I would see Louise if I had to break into the house at night. Almost exactly the same scene as before greeted my eyes at the cottage. Mrs. Tate, the baby-carriage in the path, the children at the swing all were the same. She came forward to meet me, and 1 noticed that some of the anxious lines had gone out of her face. She looked young, almost pretty. "I am glad you have come back," she said. "1 think I will have to be honest and give you back your money." "Why?" I asked. "Has the mother come?" "No, but some one came and paid the boy's board for a month. She talked to him for a long time, but when I asked 'him afterward he didn't know her name." "A young woman?" "Not very young. About 40, I suppose. sup-pose. She was small and fair-haired, just a little bit gray, and very sad. She was in deep mourning, and, I think, when she came, she expected to go at once. But the child, Luclen, interested in-terested her. She talked to him for a long time, aud, indeed, she looked much happier when she left." "You are sure this was not the real mother?" "O mercy, no! Why, she didn't know which of the three was Lucien. I thought perhaps she was a friend of yours, but, of course, I didn't ask." "She was not pock-marked?" I asked at a venture. "No, indeed. A skin like a baby's. But perhaps you will know the initials. in-itials. She gave Lucien a handkerchief handker-chief and forgot it. It was very fine, black-bordered, and it had three handworked hand-worked letters in the corner P. B. A." "No," I said with truth enough, "she is not a friend of mine." F. B. A. was Fanny Armstrong, without a chance of doubt. With another warning to Mrs. Tate as to silence, we started back to Sun nyside. So Fanny Armstrong knew of Lucien Wallace, and was sufficiently interested to visit him and pay for his I support. Who was the child's mother I and where was she? Who was Nina : Carrington? Did either of them know-where know-where Halsey was, or what had happened hap-pened to him? CHAPTER XXVIII. A Tramp and the Toothache. The bitterness toward the dead president of the Traders' bank seemed to grow with time. Never popular, his memory v. as execrated by people who had lost nothing, but who were fiHad with diHgh.-.t by constantly hearing new stories of the man's gn.sping avarice. But, like everything else those days, the bank failure was almost forgotten by Gertrude and myself. We did not mention Jack Bailey; I had found ! nothing to change my impression of 'his guilt, and Gertrude kaew how I felt. As for the inurd?r of the bank president's son, I was of two minds. One day I thought Gertrude knew or at . least suspected that Jack had done it; the next I feared that it. had been Gertrude Ger-trude herself, that night alone on the circular staircase. And then the mother of Lucien Wallace would obtrude ob-trude herself, and an almost equally good case might be made against her. There were times, of course, when I was disposed to throw all those suspicions sus-picions aside, and fix definitely on the unknown, whoever that might be. I had my greatest disappointment when it came to tracing Nina Carrington. Carring-ton. The woman had gone without leaving a trace. Marked as she was, it should have been easy to follow her, but she was not to be found. A description de-scription to one of the detectives, on my arrival at home, had started the ball rolling. But by night she had not been found. I told Gertrude, then, about the telegram to Louise when she had been ill before; about my visit to Dr. Walker, and my suspicions that Mattie Bliss and Nina Carrington were the same. She thought, as I did, that there was little doubt of it. I said nothing to her, however, of the detective's suspicions about Alex. Little things that I had not noticed at the time now came back to me. I had an uncomfortable feeling that perhaps Alex was a spy, and that by taking him into the house I had played into the enemy's hands. But at eight o'clock that night Alex himself appeared, ap-peared, and with him a strange and repulsive re-pulsive individual. They made a queer pair, for Alex was almost as disreputable disrepu-table as the tramp, and he had a badly swollen eye. Gertrude had been sitting listlessly waiting for the evening message from Mr. Jamieson, but when the singular pair came in, as they did, without ceremony, cere-mony, she jumped up and stood staring. Winters, the detective who watched the house at night, followed them, and kept his eyes sharply on Alex's prisoner. pris-oner. For that was the situation as it developed. He was a tall lanky individual, ragged and dirty, and just now he looked both terrified and embarrassed. Alex was too much engrossed to be either, aud to this day I don't think I ever asked him why he went off without with-out permission the day before. "Miss Innes," Alex began abruptly, "this man can tell us something very important about the disappearance of Mr. Innes. I found him trying to sell this watch." He took a watch from his pocket and put it on the table. It was Halsey's watch. I had given it to him on the f I I jUJ-. HI...!, !. . ,i n iraxllHIil Htt 'Hx twenty-first birthday; I was dumb with apprehension. "He says he had a pair of cuff-links also, but he sold them " "Fer a dollar'n half," put in the disreputable dis-reputable individual hoarsely, with an eye or. the detective. "He is not dead?" I implored. The tramp cleared his throat. "No':n," he said huskily. "He was used up pretty bad, but he weren't dead He vias e.miiif to hisself when I" he sloi ;,ed and looked at the defective. de-fective. "I didn't steal it, Mr. Winters," Win-ters," lie whined. "I found it in the road, honest to God, I did." Mr. Winters paid no attention to him. He was watching Alex. "I'd better tell what he told me." Alex broke in. "It will be quicker. When Jamieson when Mr. Jamieson calls up we can start him right. Mr. Winters, I found this man trying to sell that watch on Fifth street. He offered of-fered it to me for $3." "How did you know the watch?" Winters snapped at him. "I had seen it before, many times. I used it at night when I was watching watch-ing at the foot of the staircase." The detective was satisfied. "When he offered of-fered the watch to me, I knew it, and I pretended I was going to buy it. We went into an alley and I got the watch." The tramp shivered. It was, plain how Alex had secured the watch. "Then I got the story from this fellow. fel-low. He claims to have Eeen the whole affair. He says he was in an empty car in the car the automobile struck." The tramp broke in here and told his story, with frequent interpretations interpreta-tions by Alex and Mr. Winters. He used a strange medley, in which familiar fa-miliar words took unfamiliar meanings, mean-ings, but it was gradually made clear to us. On the night in question the tramp had been "pounding his ear" this struck me as being graphic in an empty box-car along the siding at Casanova. The train was going west, and due to leave at dawn. The tramp and the "brakey" were friendly, and things going well. About ten o'clock, perhaps earlier, a terrific crash against the side of the car roused him. He tried to open the door, but could not move it. He got out of the other side, and just as he did so, he heard some one groan. The habits of a lifetime made him cautious. He slipped on to the bumper bum-per of a car and peered through. An automobile had struck the car and stood there on two wheels. The tail lights were burning, but the headlights head-lights were out. Two men were stooping stoop-ing over some one who lay on the ground. Then the taller of two started on a dog-trot along the train looking for an empty. He found one four cars away and ran back again. The two lifted the unconscious man into the empty box-car, and getting in themselves, them-selves, stayed for three or four minutes. min-utes. When they came out, after closing clos-ing the sliding door, they cut up over the railroad embankment toward the town. One, the short one, seemed to limp. The tramp was wary. He waited for ten minutes or so. Some -women came down a path to the road aOjd inspected in-spected the automobile. When they had gone, he crawled into the box-car and closed the door again. Then he lighted a match. The figure of a man, unconscious, gagged, and with his hands tied, lay far at the end. The tramp lost no time; he went through his pockets, found a little money and the cuff-links, and took them. Then he loosened the gag it had been cruelly tight and went his way, again closing the door of the box-car. Outside on the road he found the watch. He got on the fast freight east, some time after, and rode into the city. He had sold the cuff-links, but on offering the watch to Alex he had been "conped." The story, with its cold recital of viliainy, was done. I hardly knew if 1 were more anxious, or less. That it was Halsey. there could be no doubt. How badly he was hurt, how far he had been carried, were the questious that demanded immediate answer. But it was (he fust real information we had had; my boy had not been murdered mur-dered outright. But instead of vague terrors tin re was now the real fear that he might be lying in some strange hospital receiving the casual attention atten-tion cot.!--en'y given to the charity eases. Even this, had we known it. would have been paradise to the terrible ter-rible truth. I wake yet and feel my-ielf my-ielf cold and trembling with the horror hor-ror of Halsey's situation for threr-days threr-days after his disappearance. (TO Bt; CONTINt'KD.) around here a rascal until he proves to be the other thing." Warner came up with the car then, and the conversation stopped. As he helped me in, however, the detective said something further. "Not a word or sign to Alex, if he comes back," he said cautiously. 1 went first to Dr. Walker's. I was tired of beating about the bush, and I felt that the key to Halsey's disappearance disap-pearance was here at Casanova, in spite of Mr. Jamieson's theories. The doctor was in. He came at once to the door of his consulting room, and there was no mask of cordiality cor-diality in his manner. "Please come in," he said curtly. "1 shall stay here. I think, doctor." 1 did not like his face or his manner; there was a subtle change in both. He had thrown off the air of friendliness, and 1 thought, too, that he looked anxious anx-ious and haggard. "Dr. Walker." I said. "1 have come to you to ask some questions. I hope you will answer them. As you know-, my nephew has not yet ben found." "So I understand." stiffly. "1 believe, if you would, you could help us, and thm leads to one of my qiu-sMons. Will you tell me what was the nature of the conversation you held with him the night he was attacked at-tacked and carried orf?" "Attacked! Carried off!" he said, with pretended surprise. ' Really. Miss Innes, don't you think you exaggerate? 1 understand it is not the first time Mr. Innes has disappeared." "You are quibbling, doctor. This is a matter of life and death. Will you answer my question?" Certainly. He said his nerves were bad. and I gave him a prescription for them. I am violating professional ethics when I tell you even as much as that." 1 could not tell him he lied. I think 1 looked it. But I hazarded a random shot. "I thought perhaps," I said, watching watch-ing him narrowly, "that it might be al,.nit- N'i:,a Carrington." ' : n.p-roe; I tho. g'lt he was go- Mr Alex Was Almost as Disreputable as the Tramp. |
