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Show THE CIRCULAR SDMftGiSE mm ; w (J1 m km VP she stood squarely in the doorway, and it was impossible to preserve one's dignity and pass her. "Miss Armstrong is very ill and unable un-able to see any one," she said. I did not believe her. "And Mrs. Armstrong is she also ill?" "She is with .Miss Iyouise and cannot can-not be disturbed." "Tell hei-it is Miss limes, and that it is a matter of the greatest importance." impor-tance." "It would be of no use, Miss limes, my orders are positive." At thr.t moment a heavy step sounded sound-ed on the stairs. Past the maid's white-sir;. pped shoulder I could see a familiar thatch of gray hair, ami in a moment 1 was face to face with Dr. Stewart. Me was very grave, and his customary geniality was tinged with restraint. ' You are the very woman I want to see," he said promptly. "Send away your trap, and let me drive you home. What is this about your nephew?" "He has disappeared, doctor. Not only that, but there is every evidence that he has been either abducted or " I could not finish. The doctor helped me into his capacious buggy in silence. Until we had got a little distance he did not speak; then he turned and looked at me. "Now tell me all about it," he said. He heard me through without speaking. speak-ing. "And you think Louise knows something?" some-thing?" he said when I had finished. "I don't in fact, 1 am sure of it. The best evidence of it is this: She asked me if he had been heard from, or if "Miss Armstrong Is Very III and Unable to See Any One." anything had been learned. She won't allow Walker in the room, and she made me promise to see you and tell you this: don't give up the search for him. Find him, and find him soon. He is living." "Well," 1 said, "if she knows that, she knows more. She is a very cruel and ungrateful girl." "She is a very sick girl," he said gravely. "Neither you nor 1 can judge her until we know everything. Both she and her mother are ghosts of their former selves. Under all this, these two sudden deaths, this bank robbery, the invasions at Sunnyside and Halsey's disappearance, there is some mystery that, mark my words, will come out some day. And when it does,' we shall find Louise Armstrong Arm-strong a victim." Then we drove slowly home. I had the doctor put me down at the gate, and I walked to the house past the 'lodge where we had found Louise, and, later, poor Thomas; on the drive where I had seen a man watching the lodge and where, later, Rosie had been frightened; past the east entrance, where so short a time before the most obstinate effort had been made to enter en-ter the house, and where, that night two weeks ago, Liddy and I had seen the strange woman. Not far from the west wing lay the blackened ruins of the stables. I felt like a ruin myself as I paused on the broad veranda before be-fore I entered the house. Two private detectives had arrived in my absence, and it was a relief to turn over to them the responsibility persisted. "And you were as sure then." "He did not leave the Dragon Fly jammed into the side of a freight car before." "No, but he left it for repairs in a blacksmith shop, a long distance from here. Do you know if he had any enemies? Any one who might wish him out of the way?" "Not that I know of, unless no, I cannot think of any." "Was he in the habit of carrying monej'?" "He never carried it far. No, he never had more than enough for current cur-rent expenses." Mr. Jamieson got up then and began be-gan to pace the room. It was an unwonted un-wonted concession to the occasion. "Then I think we get at it by elimination. elim-ination. The chances are against flight. If he was hurt, we find no trace of him. It looks almost like an abduction. This young Dr. Walker have you any idea why Mr. Innes should have gone there last night?" "I cannot understand it," Gertrude said thoughtfully. "I don't think he knew Dr. Walker at all, and their relations re-lations could hardly have been cordial, under the circumstances." Jamieson pricked up his ears, and little by little he drew from us the unfortunate story of Halsey's love affair, af-fair, and the fact that Louise was going go-ing to marry Dr. Walker. Mr. Jamieson listened attentively. "There are some interesting developments devel-opments here," he said thoughtfully. l ..l..:. l ii but they could make out two figures, standing together. The women were curious, and, leaving the fence, they went back and by a roundabout path down to the road. When they got there the car was still standing, the headlight broken and the bonnet crushed, but there was no one to be seen." The detective went away immediately, immedi-ately, and to Gertrude and me was left the woman's part, to watch and wait. By luncheon nothing had been found, and I was frantic. I went upstairs up-stairs to Halsey's room finally, from sheer inability to sit across from Gertrude Ger-trude any longer and meet her terror-filled terror-filled eyes. Liddy was in my dressing room, suspiciously sus-piciously red-eyed and trying to put a right sleeve in a left arm-hole of 'J new waist for me. I was too much shaken to scold. "What name did that woman in the kitchen give?" she demanded, viciously vicious-ly ripping out the offending sleeve. "Bliss. Mattie Bliss," I replied. "Bliss. M. B. Well, that's not what she has on her suitcase. It is marked N. F. C," The new cook and her initials troubled trou-bled me not all. I put on my bonnet and sent for what the Casanova liveryman liv-eryman called a "stylish turnout." Having once made up my mind to a course of action, I am not one to turn hack. Warner drove me; he was plainly disgusted, and he steered the livery horse as he would the Dragon Fly, feeling uneasily with his left foot for the clutch, and working his right ROBERTS v IfflWHART ILLUJTfiATIOm BY 7?ftvvVJV' SYNOPSIS. Mis" lotas, spinster ami guardian of ! neb- and ftal.-.y. established sumni'-r h.a.i'iiiarters :it Si i r I n vh I !-. Tie- s-f. ants deseri. Ci-rrruiii- ;i.-,,l Hals.-y arrive with Jack Hat ley. Tin- house was aw a k.-n.-.l by :t r-'V'nlvr shot urnl Arnold . rtust ron was t'.ninij shot In d-alb in tin- hall. -Miss lun.-s fiiiiial Halsey's n v 1 e r on (Inlaw (In-law a. H' ami Ja.-k fiall.y ha.l disappeared. disap-peared. ;!! rial-- r.-y.-a led li.al she was i.ai;i-fl I., .la. k Hail. v. with wh.ini sla-talked sla-talked ill tie- billiard room shortly liefor.-the liefor.-the inur.l'-r. a .-. l I e .lariii.--a.n a.-us--.I Miss lines of In. Mia., hack e bb-n. . lie i Ii l p ia s;. , 1 1 .1 an iatiu.l.-r 'a an en;p' m.o'ii. Th.- pri.--onr escape!. ( tan.).- w as suspected sus-pected h-caus.- ..I' an injujvil fool, llal-s.-y reappears anil sas la- an. I Uaii.y were called awaiy by a I elct'a rn. Cashier l'.a!.-. of Paul Armstrong's batik, il -fitni-t. waH aifastt- l lor I'tnbaz-'.l. tta tit. I'atil A trnsl nurtt's oiath wais annoi; a.-.-il. I!als.-y's linn , Louis.- A rinst r. i :: u. to!. I IlaLsry that whil.- site still lovoil him. sla-was sla-was to marry anolh. r. It ilyvolopr.l thai I r. W.alki-r was the man. I.ouisr was found at tin- bottom of tla- (inailar s'air-casa. s'air-casa. I it-c.n a-ri ntc yonscinusni'ss. slip said sonndhinK had bruslu'd by bar on tin1 stairway and sla1 fainted. Baih y is sus-pactod sus-pactod of Arnistrou'-c's mnrdar. At'lt-r "sarins a hosf," Thomas, the lod.-kocp-rr, was found dead with a slip in his po.-kot br-arinK the name of "l.urian Wallace. Wal-lace. " Lr. Walker asked Miss Innes to vacate in favor of Mrs. Armstrong. She refused. A note from Itailey to Gertrude arrai!L;ins a meeting at ni'ht was found. A bidder out of plaee deepens thp mystery. mys-tery. The stables were burned. Durint: the excitement a man stole into the house. A search failed to reveai him. Miss Innes shot an Intruder. A man limping was seen on the road, llalsey myateriously disappeared. Louise scenting danger before be-fore hl3 absense was noted. CHAPTER XXV. Continued. "He's as dear to me as he is to you," she said sadly. "I tried to warn him." "Nonsense!" I said as briskly as I could. "We are making a lot of trouble trou-ble out of something perhaps very small. Halsey was probably late he is always late. Any moment we may hear the car coming up the road." But It did not come. After a half-hour half-hour of suspense, Louise went out quietly, and did not come back. I hardly knew she was gone until I heard the station hack moving off. At 11 o'clock the telephone rang. It was Mr. Jamieson. "I have found the Dragon Fly, Miss Innes," he said. "It has collided with a freight car on the siding above the station. No. Mr. Innes was not there, but we shall probably find him. Send Warner for the car." But they did not find him. At four o'clock the next morning we were still waiting for news, while Alex watched the house and Sam the grounds. At daylight I dropped into exhausted sleep. Halsey had not come back, and there was no word from the detective. CHAPTER XXVI. Halsey's Disappearance. Mr. Jamieson came back about eight o'clock the next morning; tie was covered with mud, and his hat was gone. Altogether we were a sad-looking sad-looking trio that gathered around a breakfast that no one could eat. Over a cup of black coffee the detective told us what he had learned of Halsey's Hal-sey's movements the night before. Up to a certain point the car had made it easy enough to follow him. And I gathered that Mr. Burns, the other detective, de-tective, had followed a similar car for miles at dawn, only to find it was a touring car on an endurance run. "He left here about ten minutes after aft-er eight," Mr. Jaiftieson said. "He went alone; at 8:20 he stopped at Dr. Walker's. I went to the doctor's about midnight, but he had been called out on a case, and had not come back at four o'clock. From the doctor's it seems Mr. Innes walked across the lawn to the cottage Mrs. Armstrong and her daughter have taken. Mrs. Armstrong had retired, and he said perhaps a dozen words to Miss Louise. She will not say what they were, but the girl evidently suspects sus-pects what has occurred. That is, she suspects foul play, but she doesn't know of w-hat nature. Then-, apparently, appar-ently, he started directly for the station. sta-tion. Along somewhere in the dark stretch between Carol street and the depot he evidently swerved suddenly perhaps some one in the road and went full into the side of a freight. We found it there last night." "He might have been thrown under the train by the force of the shock," I said tremulously. Gertrude shuddered "We examined every inch of track. There was no sign." "But surely he can't be gone!" I cried. "Aren't there traces in the mud anything?" "There is no mud only dust. There has been no rain. And the footpath there is of cinders. Miss Innes, I am Inclined to think that he has met with bad treatment, in the light of what has gone before. I do not think he has been murdered." I shrank from the word. "Burns is back in the country coun-try on a clew we got from the night clerk at the drug store. There will be two more men here by noon, and the city office is on the lookout." "The creek?" Gertrude asked. "The creek is shallow now. If it tvere swollen with rain it would be different. There is hardly any water in it. Now, Miss Innes," he said, . turning to me, "I must ask you some questions. Had Mr. Halsey any possible pos-sible reason for going away like this, without warning?" "None whatever." "He went away once before," he w g j S3 i ne w'uuicui wiiu claims, tu ue uue mother of Lucien Wallace has not come back. Your nephew has apparently appar-ently been spirited away. There is an organized attempt being made to enter en-ter this house; in fact, it has been entered. Witness the incident with the cook yesterday. And I have a new piece of information." He looked carefully away from Gertrude. "Mr. John Bailey is not at his Knickerbocker Knicker-bocker apartments, and I don't know where he is. It's a hash, that's what it is. It's a Chinese puzzle. They won't fit together, unless unless Mr. Bailey and your nephew .ave again " And once again Gertrude surprised me. . "They are not together," she said hotly. "I know where Mr. Bailey is, and my brother is not with him." "Miss Gertrude." he said, "if you and Miss Louise would only tell me everything every-thing you know and surmise about this business, I should be able to do a great many things. I believe I could find your brother, and I might be able to well, to do some other things." But Gertrude's glance did not falter. "Nothing that I know could help you to find Halsey," she said stubbornly. stubborn-ly. "I know absolutely as little of his disappearance as you do, and I can only say this: I do not trust Dr. Walker. I think he hated Halsey. and he would get rid of him if he could." "Perhaps you are right. In fact. 1 had some such theory myself. But Dr. Walker went out late last night to a serious case in Suminitville, and is still there. Burns traced him there. We have made guarded inquiry at the Greenwood club and through the village. vil-lage. There is absolutely nothing to go on but this: On the embankment above the railroad, at the point where we found the machine, is a small house. An old woman and a daughter, who is very lame, live there. They say that they distinctly heard the shock when the Dragon Fly hit the car, and they went to the bottom of their garden and looked over. The automobile was there; they could see the lights, and they thought some one I had been injured. It was very dark, elbow at an imaginary horn every time a dog got in the way. Warner had something on his mind, and after we had turned into the road he voiced it. "Miss Innes." he said. "I overheard over-heard a part of a conversation yesterday yester-day that I didn't understand. It wasn't my business to understand it, for that matter. But I've been thinking all day that I'd better tell you. Yesterday afternoon, while you and Miss Gertrude Ger-trude were out driving. I had got the car in some sort of shape again after the fire, and I went to the library to call Mr. Innes to see it. I went into the living room, where Miss Liddy said he was, and half-way across the library I heard him talking to some one. He seemed to be walking up and down, and he was in a rage, I can tell ( you." "What did he say?" "The first thing 1 heard was excuse ex-cuse me, Miss Innes, but it's what he said, 'The damned rascal,' he said, 'I'll see him in' well, in hell was what he said, 'in hell first.' Then somebody else spoke tip; it was a woman. She said: T warned them, but they thought 1 would be afraid.' " "A woman! Did you wait to see who it was?" "I wasn't spying. Miss Innes," Warner War-ner said with dignity. "But the next tiling caught my attention. She said: 'I knew there was something wrong from the start. A man isn't well one day, and dead the next, without some reason.' 1 thought she was speaking of Thomas.'' "And you don't know who it was!" I exclaimed. "Warner, you had the key to this whole occurrence in your hands and did not see it!" However, there was nothing to be done. I resolved to make inquiry when I got home, and in the meantime, mean-time, my present errand absorbed me. This was nothing less than to see Louise Armstrong, and to attempt to drag from her what she knew, or suspected sus-pected of Halsey's disappearance. But here, 1 as in every direction I turned, I was baffled. A neat maid answered the bell, but , Gertrude. of the house and grounds. Mr. Jamieson, Jamie-son, they said, had arranged for more to assist in the search for the missing man, and at that time the country was being scoured in all directions. The household staff was again depleted de-pleted that afternoon. Liddy was waiting wait-ing to tell me that the new cook had gone, bag and baggage, without waiting wait-ing to be paid. No one had admitted the visitor whom Warner had heard in the library, unless, possibly, the missing cook. Again I was working in a circle. (TO I!K CONTIXt'KD. |