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Show h- MARX ROBERTA M&ttAKT I IILCStRATlONS Jy yi. G. 8c.OPYB.iOMr b- 60BE3 - MERRItL COMPANY J 1 .V--.'..' y-.y-1 -. - - i. ; ;' .. -u WBMWti ksM My S J: '. y -s-' TV . . f.pi - tilt? ES Jl SYNOPSIS. Lawrence TlUikdi-y, lawyer. gofS to I'tttHhiirx Willi Clio for--T.il notes In the BroiiMon case to Kd the deposition of John Olimore, millionaire. In the latter's home, ho la uttraeted l)v 11 pleturc of a younu Klrl whom I lie. milliona ire explains ts his KranrlihuiKhter. A lady requests Blakelcy to buy her a rullmiin ticket. He ylves her lower eleven and retains lower ten. He flndH a drunken man in lower ten and retlreM In lower nine. IFe awakens in lower seven anil finds his clothes and hair mlsslnii. The man In lower ten Is found murdered. ( rc 1 1 n.sta n t I II evidence places both Mlakolev and the unknown man who had exchanged clothes with him. under misclct',;i of murder. Blakeley becomes Interested In n Klrl In blue. The train Is wrecked. Blakelev is rescued from ths burnlnK car tiv Ihe girl In blue. His arm Is broken. Thcv ko to the Carter place for breakfast. The Klrl proves to be All-son All-son West, his partner's sweetheart. Tier peculiar actions mvstlfv the lawyer. She 1rops her gold h ie and Blakelcy puts it In his pocket. Blakelcy returns home. He finds that he Is under surveillance tvnd hears of strange doings in the house next door. CHAPTER XV. Continued. As we turned the corner I glanced back. Half a block behind us Johnson John-son was moving our way slowly. When he saw me he stopped and proceeded pro-ceeded with great deliberation to light a cigar. By hurrying, however, he caught the car that we took, and stood unobtrusively on the rear platform. He looked fagged, and absent-mindedly paid our fares, to McKnight's delight. de-light. "We will give him a run for his money," he declared, as the car moved countryward. "Conductor, let us off at the muddiest lane you can find." At one o'clock, after a six-mile gamble, gam-ble, we entered a small country hotel. We had seen nothing of Johnson for a half hour.- At that time he was a quarter of a mile behind us, and losing rapidly. Before we had finished our "This way," I motioned to Mc-Knight, Mc-Knight, and we wheeled into the narrow nar-row passage behind us, back of the boxes. At the end there was a door leading into the wings, and as we went boldly through I turned the key The final set was being struck, and no one paid any attention to us. Luckily Luck-ily they were similarly indifferent to a banging at the door I had locked, a banging which, I judged, signified Johnsoii. "I, guess we've broken up his interference," inter-ference," McKnlght chuckled. Stage hands were hurrying in every direction; pieces of the side wall of the last drawing room menaced us; a switchboard behind us was singing like ' a tea-kettle. Everywhere we stepped we were in somebody's way. At last we were across, confronting a man in his shirt sleeves, who by dots and dashes of profanity seemed to be directing the chaos. , "Well?" he said, wheeling on us. "What can I do for you?" ' "I would like to ask," I replied, "if you have any idea just where the last cinematograph picture was taken." "Broken board picnickers lake ?" "No. The Washington Flier." He glanced at my bandaged arm. "The announcement says two miles," McKnight put in, "but we should like to know whether it is railroad rail-road miles, , automobile miles, or policeman po-liceman miles." "I am sorry I can't tell you," he replied, re-plied, more civilly. "We get those pictures pic-tures by contract. We don't take them ourselves." v "Where are the company's offices?" "New York." He stepped forward and grasped a super by the shoulder. "What in blazes are you-doing with that gold chair in a kitchen set? Take that piece of pink . plush there and throw it over a soap box, if you have not got a kitchen chair." I had not realized the extent of the shock, but now I dropped into a chair and wipe.1 my forenead. The unexpected unex-pected glimpse of Alison West followed fol-lowed almost immediately by the revelation rev-elation of the picture, had left me Itmn Cinil nnnamarl TlTnIri I nrli f titoo ! "And There's Johnson Just Behind, the Coolest Proposition In Wash-j Wash-j ington." looking at his watch. "He says the moving picture people peo-ple have an office down-town. We can make it if we go on now." So he called a cab, and we started at a gallop. There was no sign of the detective. "Upon my word," Richey said, "I feel lonely without him." The people at the down-town office of the cinematograph company were very obliging. The picture had been taken, they sfvid, at M , just two miles beyond the, scene of the wreck It was not much, but it was something to work on. I decided not to go home but to send McKnight's Jap for my clothes, and to dress at the Incubatot I was determined, if possible, to make my next day's investigations without Johnson. In the meantime, even if it was for the last time, I would see He: that night. I- gave Stogie a note for Mrs. Klopton, and with my dinner clothes there came back the gold bag wrapped in tissue paper. (TO BE CONTINUED.) 1 iuncueou lie slcisv.--! e u ihlu tut; mn. One of his boots was under his arm, and his whole appearance was deplorable. deplor-able. He was coated with mud, streaked streak-ed with perspiration, and he limped as he walked. He chose a table not far from us and ordered Scotch. Beyond Be-yond touching his hat he paid no attention at-tention to us. "I'm just getting my second wind," McKnight declared. "How do you feel, Mr. Johnson? Six or eight miles more and we'll all enjoy our dinners." Johnson John-son put down the glass he had raised to his lips without replying. The fact was, however, that I was like Johnson. I was soft from my week's inaction, and I was pretty well Tone up. McKnight, who was a well-epring well-epring of vitality and high spirits, ordered or-dered a strange concoction, made of nearly everything in the bar, and sent It over to the detective, but Johnson refused it. "I hate that kind of person," McKnight Mc-Knight said pettishly. "Kind of a fel-tow fel-tow that thinks you're going to poison his dog If you offer him a bone." When we got to the car line, with Johnson a draggled and drooping tail to the kite, I was in better spirits. I had told McKnight the story of theJ three hours just after the wreck; 1 had not named the girl, of course; she had my promise of secrecy. But I told tiim everything else. It was a relief to have a fresh mind on it: I had puzzled puz-zled so much over the incident at the farm-house, and the necklace in the gold bag, that I had lost perspective. He had been interested, but inclined to be amused, until 1 came to the broken chain. Then he had whistled softly. "But there are tons of fine gold chains made every year," he said. "Why in the world do you think that the er smeary piece came from that necklace?" I had looked around. Johnson was far behind, scraping the mud off his feet with a piece of stick. "I have the short end of the chain In the sealskin bag," 1 reminded him. "When I couldn't sleep this morning I thought I would settle it,, one way or the other. It was hell to go along the way I had been doing. And there's no doubt about it. Rich. It's the same ed. "The older you get It, the worse the attack." Johnson did not appear again that day. A small man in a raincoat took his place. The next morning I made my initial trip to the office, the raincoat rain-coat still on hand. I had a short conference con-ference with Miller, the district attorney, at-torney, at 11. Bronson was under surveillance, sur-veillance, he said, and any attempt to sell the notes to him would probably result, in their recovery. In the meantime, mean-time, as I knew, the Commonwealth had continued the case, in hope of such contingency. At noon I left the office and took a veterinarian to see Candida, the injured in-jured pony. By one o'clock my first day's duties were performed, and a long Sahara of hot afternoon stretched ahead. McKnight, always glad to escape from thei grind, suggested sug-gested a vaudeville, and in sheer ennui I consented. I could neither ride, drive nor golf, and my own company com-pany bored me to distraction. "Coolest place in town these days," he declared. "Electric fans, breezy songs, airy costumes. And there's Johnson just ,behind the coolest proposition in Washington." He gravely bought three tickets and presented the detective with one. Then we went in. Having lived a normal, nor-mal, busy life, the theater in the afternoon aft-ernoon is to me about on a par with ice cream for breakfast. Up on the stage a very stout woman in short pink skirts, with a smile that McKnight Mc-Knight declared looked like a slash in a roll of butter, was singing nasally, with a laborious kick at the end ' of each verse. Johnson, two rows ahead, went to sleep. McKnight prodded me j iih his elbow. "Look at the first box to the right," he said, in a stage whisper. " 1 want you to come over at the end of this act." It was the first time I had seen her since I put her in the cab at Baltimore. Balti-more. Outwardly I presume I was calm, for no one turned to stare at me, but every atom of me cried out at the sight of her. She was leaning, lean-ing, bent forward, lips slightly parted, gazing raptly at the Japanese conjurer con-jurer who had replaced what Mc- bring you to dinner to-night, and I said I knew you would fall all over yourself to go. You are requested to bring along the broken arm, and any other souvenirs of the wreck that you may possess." "I'll do nothing of the sort," I declared, de-clared, struggling against my inclination. inclina-tion. "I can't even tie my necktie, and I have to have my food cut for me." "Oh, that's all right," he said easily. eas-ily. "I'll send Stogie over to fix you up, and Mrs. Dal knows all about the arm. I told her." (Stogie is his Japanese factotum, so called because he is lean, a yellowish brown in color, and because he claims to have been shipped into this country in a box.) The cinematograph was finishing the program. The house was' dark and the music had stopped, as it does in the circus just before somebody risks his neck at so much a neck in the dip of death, or -the hundred-foot dive. Then, with a sort of shock, I saw on the white curtain the announcement: THE NEXT PICTURE IS THE DOOMED WASHINGTON FLIER, TAKEN A SHORT DISTANCE DIS-TANCE FROM THE SCENE OP THE WRECK ON THE FATAL MORNING OF SEPTEMBER TENTH. TWO MILES FARTHER -ON IT MET WITH ALMOST COMPLETE COM-PLETE ANNIHILATION. I confess to a return of some of the sickening sensations of the wreck; people around me were leaning- forward for-ward with tense faces. Then the letters let-ters were gone and I saw a long level lev-el stretch of track, even the broken stone between the ties standing out j distinctly. Far off under a cloud of ! smoke a small object was rushing to- j ward us and growing larger as it ! came. , Now it was on us, a mammoth in size, with huge drivers and a colossal tender. The engine leaped aside, as if just in time to save us from destruction, de-struction, with a glimpse of a stooping stoop-ing fireman and a grimy engineer. The long train of sleepers followed. From a forward vestibule a porter id a white coat waved his hand. The rest of the cars seemed still wrapped in slumber. With mixed sensations I chain." I We walked along in silence until we caught the car back to town. "Well," he said finally, "you know the girl, of course, and I don't. But If you like her and I think myself you're rather hard hit, old man I wouldn't give a whoop about the chain in the gold purse. It's just one of the little coincidences that hang people now and then. And as for last night if she's the kind of a girl you say she Is, and you think she had anything any-thing to do with that, you you're addled, that's all. You can depend on It, the lady of the empty house last week Is the lady of last night. And yet your train acquaintance was in Altoona at thft time." Just before we got off the car, I reverted re-verted to the subject again. It was never far back In my mind. "About the young lady of the train, Rich," I said, with what I suppose was elaborate carelessness, "I don't want you to get a wrong impression. I am rather unlikely to see her again, but even if I do, I I believe she Is already al-ready 'bespoke,' or next thing to It" He made no reply, but as I opened the door with my latch-key he stood looking up at me from the pavement pave-ment with his quizzical smile. "Love is like the measles," he orat- I Knight disrespectfully called the. Columns Col-umns of Hercules. Compared with the draggled lady of the farm house, she was radiant. For that first moment there was nothing but joy at the sight of her. McKnight's touch on my arm brought me back to reality. ' "Come over and meet them," he said. "That's the cousin Miss West Is visiting, Mrs. Dallas." But I would not go. After he went I sat there alone, painfully conscious that I was being pointed out and stared at from the box. The abominable abomin-able Japanese gave way to yet more atrocious performing dogs. "How many offers of marriage will the young lady in the box have?" The dog stopped sagely af "none," and then pulled out a card that said eight. Wild shouts of glee by the audience. "The fools," I muttered. After a little I glanced over. Mrs. Dallas was talking to McKnight, but she was looking straight at me. She was flushed, but more calm than I, and she did not bow. I fumbled for my hat, but the next moment I saw that they were going, and I sat still. When McKnight came back he wag triumphant. "I've made an engagement for you," h said. "Mrs. Dallas asked m to saw my own car,. Ontario, fly past, and then I rose to my feet and gripped McKnight's shoulder. On the lowest step of the last car, one foot hanging free, was a man. His black derby hat was pulled well down to keep it from blowing away, and his coat was flying open in the wind. He was swung well out from the car, his free hand gripping a small valise, every muscle tense tor a jump. "Good God, that's my man!" I said hoarsely, as the audience broke into applause. McKnight half rose; in his seat ahead Johnson stilled a yawn and turned to eye me. I dropped into my chair limply, and tried to control my excitement. "The man on the last platlori.i of. the train," I said. "He was just about to leap; I'll swear that was my bag." "Could you see his face?" McKnight asked la an undertone. "Would you know him again?" "No. His hat was pulled down and his head was bent- I'm going back tJ find out where that picture was taken. ta-ken. They say two miles, but it may have been forty." The audience, busy with Its wraps, had not noticed. Mrs. Dallas and Alison Al-ison West had gone. In front of us Johnson had dropped his hat and was Btooping for It |