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Show THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE was nothing to show that inside had been mystery and violence and sudden sud-den death. v In one of the tulip beds back of the house an early blackbird was pecking viciously at something that glittered in the light. I picked my way gingerly over through the dew and stooped down; almost buried in the soft ground was a revolver! I scraped the earth off it with the tip of my shoe, and, picking it up. slipped it into my pocket. Not until I had got into my bedroom and double-locked the door did I venture to take it out and examine ex-amine it. One look was all I needed. It was IlaLsey's revolver. I bad unpacked un-packed it the day before and put it on his shaving stand, and there could be no mistake. His name was on a small silver plate on the handle. I seemed to see a network closing around my boy, innocent as I knew he was. The revolver lam afraid of them, but. anxiety gave me courage to look through the barrel the revolver had still two bullets in it. I could only breathe a prayer of thankfulness that I had found the revolver before any sharp-eyed detective had come around. I decided to keep what clues I had, the cuff-link, the golf stick and the revolver, re-volver, in a secure place until I could see some reason for displaying them. The cuff-link had been dropped into a little filigree box on my toilet table. I opened the box and felt around for it. The box was empty the cuff-link had disappeared! CHAPTER V. Gertrude's Engagement. At ten o'clock the Casanova hack brought up three men. They introduced intro-duced themselves as the coroner of the county and two detectives from his father's house two nights in sue- cession, stealing in like a thief, when j he needed only to ask entrance to be i admitted." The coroner was a very silent man; lie took some notes after this, but he . seemed anxious to make the next ' train back to town. He set the in-quest in-quest for the following Saturday, gave i Mr. Jamieson, the younger of the two i detectives, and the more intelligent j looking, a few instructions, and, after i gravely shaking hands with me and ! regretting the unfortunate affair, took his departure, accompanied by the other detective. 1 was just beginning to breathe' freely when Mr. .laniieson, who had been standing by the window, came over to me. "The family consists of yourself alone, Miss Innes?" "My niece is here," I said. "There is no one but yourself and your niece?" "My nephew." I had to moisten i my lips. ' j "Oh, a nephew. I should like to see him, if he is here." "He is not here just now," I said as quietly as I could. "I expect him at any time." "He was here yesterday evening, I believe?" "No yes." "Didn't he have a guest with him? Another man?" "He brought a friend with him to stay over Sunday, a Mr. Bailey." "Mr. John Bailey, the cashier of the Traders' bank, I believe." And I knew that some one at the Greenwood club had told. "When did they leave?" "Very early I don't know at just what time." Mr. Jamieson turned suddenly and ( looked at me. cP ROBERTS RINtHART ILLUSTRATIONS BY 'RYWf3' SYNOPSIS. Mltn Innos, spinster and Kuarrtian of Ou t i nd.- and I I.-iIhi-v. established summer head.iiiirt'-i-.- ill. Knnnyside. Amidst nu-meruns nu-meruns .limruliies the servants deserted. Am Miss Inli'-s locked up fur the lliKllt, ulie whs stiii-Heil liv a ihirk litture on Hie leiiin.lii. She panned a terrible niKlil, ivtiieh whs lilleil wltli unseemly noises. In I he niorninK Mix Innes found l tlriiiiw link eull' billion In a clothes bumper. I lei li n.le ami Halsey arrived with .link Hiiil'-y. The house! was awak-uned awak-uned l,v a revolver shot. A strum?" man wiis found shot lo death In the hull. It proved to I),- the body of Arnold Arm-iohk Arm-iohk "hose banker fnl her owned the -ouiiiry house. MIhs Innes found Tlal-revolver Tlal-revolver on Hie lawn. Ho and Jack Bailey bad il isa ppea r.-d. CHAPTER IV. Continued. "Kspecially what?" "Kspecially since Jack Bailey and Arnold Armstrong were notoriously bad friends. It was Railey who got Arnold into trouble last spring something about the bank. And then, loo " "Go on," I said. "If there is anything any-thing more, I ought to know." "There's nothing more," he said evasively. "There's just one thing we may bank on. Miss Innes. Any court In the country will acquit a man who kills an intruder in his house at night. If Halsey" "Why, you don't think Halsey did It!" 1 exclaimed. There was a queer feeling of physical nausea coming over me. "No, no, not at all," he said with forced cheerfulness. "Come, Miss Innes, In-nes, you're a ghost of yourself, and I am going to help you upstairs and call your maid. This has been too much for you." About six o'clock Gertrude came In. She was fully dressed, and I sat up nervously. "Poor Aunty!" she said. "What a shocking night you have had!" She came over and sat down on the bed, and I saw she looked very tired and worn. "Is there anything new?" I asked anxiously. "Nothing. The car is gone, but Warner" War-ner" he is the chauffeur "Warner is at the lodge and knows nothing about it." "Well," I said, "if I ever get my hands on Halsey Innes I shall not let go until I have told him a few things. When we get this cleared up, I am going back to the city to be quiet. One more night like the last two will end me. The peace of the country fiddlesticks!" Whereupon I told Gertrude of the noises the night before, and the figure on the veranda in the east wing. As an afterthought I brought out the pearl cuff-link. "I have no doubt now," I said, "that it was Arnold Armstrong the night before last, too. He bad a key, no doubt, but why he should steal into his father's house I cannot imagine. He could have come with my permission permis-sion easily enough. Anyhow, whoever r 1 -1 ij-kfe-r her stop suddenly, as if she had been struck. "He does not," she said in a tone that was not her own. "Mr. Bailey and my brother know nothing of this. The murder was committed at three. They left the house at a quarter before be-fore three." "How do you know that?" Mr. Jamieson Jam-ieson asked oddly. "Do you know at what time they left?" "I do," Gertrude answered firmly. "At a quarter before three my brother and Mr. Bailey left the house, by the main entrance. I was there." "Gertrude," I said excitedly, "you are dreaming! Why, at a quarter to three " "Listen," she said. "At half-past two the downstairs telephone rang. I had not gone to sleep, and I heard it. Then I heard Halsey answer it, and in a few minutes ho came upstairs and knocked at my door. We we talked for a minute, then I put on my dressing dress-ing gown and slippers, and went downstairs down-stairs with him. Mr. Bailey was in the billiard room. We we all talked together for perhaps ten minutes. Then it was decided that that they should both go away " "Can't you be more explicit?" Mr. Jamieson asked. "Why did they go away?" "I am only telling you what happened, hap-pened, not why it happened," she said evenly. "Halsey went for the car, and instead of bringing it to the house and rousing people, he went by the lower road from the stable. Mr. Bailey was to meet him at the foot of the lawn. Mr. Bailey left " "Which way?" Mr. Jamieson asked sharply.. "By the main entrance. He left-it left-it was a quarter to three. I know exactly." "The clock in the hall is stopped, Miss Innes," said Jamieson. Nothing seemed to escape him. "He looked at his watch," she replied, re-plied, and I could see Mr. Jamieson's eyes snap, as if he had made a discovery. dis-covery. As for myself, during the whole recital I had been plunged into the deepest amazement. "Will you pardon me for a personal question?" The detective was a youngish man, and I thought he was somewhat embarrassed. "What are your your relations with Mr. Bailey?" Gertrude hesitated. Then she came over and put her hand lovingly in mine. "I am engaged to marry him," she said simply. I had grown so accustomed to surprises sur-prises that I could only gasp again, and as for Gertrude, the hand that lay in mine was burning with fever. , "And after that," Mr. Jamieson went on, "you went directly to bed?" Gertrude hesitated. "No," she said finally. "I I am not nervous, and after I had extinguished the Tight, I remembered something I had left in the billiard room, and I 'One Look Was All I Needed." felt my way back there through the darkness." "Will you tell me what it w:as you -had forgotten?" "I cannot tell you," she said slowly. "I I did not leave the billiard room at once " "Why?" The detective's tone was imperative. "This is very important, . Miss Innes." "I was crying," Gertrude said in a low tone. "When the French clock m the drawing room struck three I got up and then I heard a step on the east porch, just outside the cardroom. Some one with a key was working with the latch, and I thought, of course, of Halsey. When we took the house he called that his entrance, and he had carried a key for it ever since. The door opened and I was about to ask what lie had forgotten, when there was a flash and a report. Some heavy body dropped, and, half crazed with terror and shock, I ran through the drawing room and got upstairs I scarcely remember how." She dropped into a chair, and I thought Mr. Jamieson must have finished. fin-ished. But he was not through. "You certainly clear your brother and Mr. Bailey admirably." he said. "The testimony is invaluable, especially especial-ly in view of the fact that your brother broth-er and Mr. Armstrong had. I believe, quarreled rather seriously some itme ago." "Nonsense." I broke in. "Things are bad enough, Mr. Jamieson, without inventing in-venting bad feeling where it doesn t exist. Gertrude, I don't think Halsey knew the the murdered man. did he?" But Mr. Jamieson was sure of his ground. iTO BE CONTINUED.) it was that night lei t this little souvenir." sou-venir." Gertrude took one look at the cufflink cuff-link and went as white as the pearls in it; she clutched at the foot of the bed and stood staring. As for me, I was quite as astonished as she was. "Where did you find it?" she asked finally, with a desperate effort at calm. And while I told her she stood looking out of the window with a look I could not fathom on her face. It was a relief when Mrs. Watson tapped at the door and brought me some tea and toast. The cook was in bed. completely demoralized, she reported, re-ported, and Liddy. brave with the daylight, day-light, was looking for footprints around the house. Mrs. Watson herself was a wreck; she was blue-white around the lips, and she had one hand tied up. She said she had fallen downstairs down-stairs in her excitement. It was natural, natur-al, of course, that the thing would shock her, having been the Armstrongs' Arm-strongs' housekeeper for several years and knowing Mr. Arnold well. Gertrude had slipped out during my talk with Mrs. Watson, and I dressed and went downstairs. The billiard and card rooms were locked until the coroner and the detectives got there, and the men from the club had gone back for more conventional clothing. I could hear Thomas in the pantry alternately wailing for Mr. Arnold, as he called him, and citing the tokens that had precursed the murder. The house seemed to choke me, and, slipping a shawl around me, I went out on the drive. At the corner by the east wing I met Liddy. Her skirts were draggled with dew to her knees and her hair was still in crimps. "Go right in and change your clothes," I said sharply. "You're a sight, and at your age!" She had a golf stick in her hand, and she said she had found it on the lawn. There was nothing unusual about it, but it occurred to me that a golf stick with a metal end might have been the object that had scratched scratch-ed the stairs near the cardroom. I took it from ber, and sent her up for dry garments. Her daylight courage and self-importance, and her shuddering shud-dering delight in the mystery, irritated irri-tated me beyond words. Alter I left her I made a circuit of the building. Nothing seemed lo be disturbed; tin house looked as calm and peaceful in Hie morning sun as it had the day 1 had been coerced into taking it. There the city. The coroner led the way at once to the locked wing, and with the aid of one of the detectives examined the rooms and the body. The other detective, after a short scrutiny of the dead man, busied himself with the outside of the house. It was only after aft-er they had got a fair idea of things as they were that they sent for me. I received them in the living room, and I had made up my mind exactly what to tell. I had taken the house for the summer, 1 said, while the Armstrongs Arm-strongs were in California. In spite of a rumor among the servants about strange noises I cited Thomas nothing noth-ing had occurred the first two nights. On the third night I believed that some one had been in the house; I had heard a crashing sound, but being be-ing alone with one maid had not investigated. in-vestigated. The house had been locked in the morning and apparently apparent-ly undisturbed. Then, as clearly as I could, 1 rea'-e i how, the night before, a shot I ,ui j roused us; that my niece and I had j investigated and found a body; that 1 did not know who the murdered man j was until Mr. Jarvis from the club informed me. and that I knew of no reason why Mr. Arnold Armstrong should steal into his father's house at night. I should have been glad to allow al-low him entree there at any time. "Have you reason to believe. Miss Innes," the coroner asked, "that, any member of your household, imagining Mr. Armstrong was a burgalr. shot him in self-defense?" "I have no reason for thinking so," said quietly. "Your theory is that Mr. Armstrong was followed here by some enemy and shot as he entered the house?" "I don't think I iHive a theory," I said. "The tiling that has puzzled me is why Mr. Armstrong should enter "Please try to be more explicit," he said. "You say your nephew and Mr. Bailey were in the house last night, and yet you and your niece, with some women servants, found the body. Where was your nephew?" I was entirely desperate by that time. "I do not know," I cried, "but be sure of this; Halsey knows nothing of this thing, and no amount of circumstantial cir-cumstantial evidence can make an innocent in-nocent man guilty." "Sit down," he said, pushing forward for-ward a chair. "There are some things I have to tell you, and, in return, please tell me all you know. Believe me. things always come out. In the first, place, Mr. Armstrong was shot I mm above. The bullet, was fired at close range, entered below the shoulder shoul-der and came out, after passing through the heart, well down the hrik. In other words. I believe the murderer stood on the stairs and fired down. In the second place, I found on the edge of the billiard table a charred cigar which had burned itself pai tly out, and a cigarette w hich had consumed itself to the cork tip. Neither Neith-er one had been more than lighted, then put down and forgotten. Have you any idea what it was that made your nephew and Mr. Bailey leave ti'.cir cigars and their game, take out the automobile without calling the chauffeur, and all that at let me see certainly before three o'clock in the morning?" "I don't know," I said, "but depend on it, Mr. Jamieson, Halsey will be back himself to explain everything." "I sincerely hope so." he said. "Miss Innes, litis it occurred to you that Mr. Bailey might know something of this?" Gertrude had come downstairs and just as lie spoke she came in. I saw |