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Show II J&MM on flie By CLIFFORD EAYMOND J (WNU Service.) Copyright. The Bobbs-Morrlll Co. F!l "He's a devil. So's Ashley. You said you fancied Ashley. In one fashion fash-ion you might be right. Blair's a fool about women, and Ashley isn't. He doesn't get himself tied up, and Blair does. He's crazy. And you'd think he was Irresistible. Maybe he is with the only kind of women he ever sees or is ever likely to see. It's a wonder won-der he's come out of some of his cases. "They are all alike. For a month Blair will be obsessed with a girl. You would be sure it was for eternity. So would she. The great lover. If she's Omphale she thinks he's Hercules Her-cules at the spinning wheel. Oh, don't grin ; I know some music. I was an Anglican vicar once, whatever that has to do witlv it. He makes them think they are all Delilahs. He likes violent ones. His favorite woman wom-an is the tigress. He quits every one in about a month. It's a wonder he's alive. He laughs at them. I know perfectly well he must have killed some of them to keep himself from being be-ing killed. "You think I'm romancing. I saw a girl, half Spanish, half Riff, come up behind him in a Marseilles cafe with a half-foot knife blade. I was with some American naval officers off a cruiser, the Nashville I think it was. Blair was sitting with Ashley. Blair's back was to the girl, but Ashley was facing her and he saw her. He knew who she was and why she had the knife, but he gave her a break. The only warning Blair got was a sort of . made a pass it would have taken him right througn the stomach and the spine. So pretty soon he began to laugh, and Ashley took his hand off the table. They knew each other pretty well. They do yet. "They sat there two hours, and every once In a whll Ashley would lean back and laugh. He certainly enjoyed that girl's visit. When they were comfortably drunk they went away arm In arm. That's Blair and Ashley." "You said Maisle was Trembly's wife," said Stanton. "Did I?" "Well, maybe It was Blair said It. Where's she living now? Chicago?" "I don't know." "There are some things I want you to know tomorrow. You're going over to talk to the state's attorney." "I am, like h 1. And why? What am I charged with?" "Nothing. You're helping us partly in return for helping you. And you're being decent to me. Who do you suppose sup-pose would believe my story without something to show for it? You're that something." "We'll see," said Roberts. "Probably "Prob-ably I shan't mind." "I hope you won't, partly for your own sake. I think It will be better for you. Nowvjou can go Into the washroom, or you can come with me to the smoking room. I'm going to call the porter to make up the berths. If you stay here tell him what you want." "I'll stay here," said Roberts, "and I'll take the upper berth. Ring three times when you come back. Then I'll know who it is." CHAPTER X Roberts Bolts for Safety When Stanton awoke the following morning there was no sound from Roberts Rob-erts in the upper berth. The train was an hour and a half's run from the La Salle Street station, and the lieutenant lieu-tenant did not disturb his roommate but quietly set about dressing and shaving. Then he considered whether to have his breakfast without awaking and speaking to Roberts or to arouse him. He thought it best to arouse him. "Roberts," he called, "are you awake? Want to get up?" There was no answer. "Say, Roberts," he called again, "I'm going to breakfast." There was no sound from the upper berth, and Stanton reached In to shake the sleeper. He could feel nothing but the bedclothes. That astonished him, and he stood up on the couch to look In the berth. Roberts was not there. This was so completely beyond Stanton's Stan-ton's understanding that he looked In the washroom on impulse although he himself had just stepped out of it. Then he looked for Roberts' bag. It also was gone, and the case was clearer. Stanton rang for the porter and opened the door. The porter was at work on a near-by section. "That was my ring," said the lieutenant. lieu-tenant. He did not say George. "The man who was traveling with me isn't In his berth. I thought he was asleep. His bag isn't In the room. Do you know anything about him?" "He got off at Elkhart," said the porter. "Didn't you know that?" The porter had no plantation Idiom which would require an attempt at phonetics In type. He did not say "Captain" or "Boss." "No, I didn't know it," said the lieutenant. lieu-tenant. "Nothing wrong, is there?" the porter por-ter asked. "Nothing at. all. If he wanted to get off it was his business. If he didn't want to tell me that also was his affair. He probably made a sudden sud-den decision and didn't want to disturb dis-turb me." "Have you " the porter checked himself. "Have I what?" "What I started to say might not sound so good," said the porter, smiling. smil-ing. "So I'll not say it. I was thinking think-ing that your friend might have left a message with me for you and since he didn't" "I'd better see whether I have all my belongings? That's all right. I didn't have enough to worry about, and I guess he wouldn't want any of them. I'll go to breakfast." "Yes, sir," said the porter. By the time Stanton was seated In the dining car the whole episode had becomu amusing, his own part In It as much as any other. His ward had absconded. He was returning home with some fantastic stories and nothing noth-ing else. He knew one of the murderers murder-ers and had talked to him but wa not able to lay a finger on him. He could not bring him home, and It was a Wisconsin case even if anything ever could be made of it. He had been returning re-turning with a possible victim who had run away from him. He thought he knew why Roberts had bolted. The man was convinced Blair and Ashley were on the train. He also was persuaded that they thought he didn't know It. They would expect him to get off at the La Salle Street station without any suspicion that they were back of him. Therefore There-fore it would be easy to deceive them, get off and make a dash by any route he wanted for the Pacific coast and his dive Into the obscurities of the Far East. After breakfast Stanton sat In his room reconciling himself with amusement amuse-ment to his predicament. I never said I was a detective, he thought to himself him-self as an answer to the whole thing. His murderers had flown out of his ken and jurisdiction. "Is everything all right?" the porter asked when he came to take the bag out of the room. "Everything," said the lieutenant. As he walked down the train shed toward the gate he decided to stand there a moment and satisfy himself as to Blair and Ashley. If they were on the train Roberts would have to be conceded something more than agitated agi-tated romancing. The lieutenant was not required to wait. The two had preceded him, and they were waiting at the gate. Blair's expression was puzzled when he saw only Stanton, but Ashley was grinning. The lieutenant, seeing them, found that he was getting angry and was on the point of showing it. He stepped out of the way of the stream of passengers and stopped beside the two. "Welcome home, lieutenant," said Ashley. "Hardly expected to be here before you. Didn't Mr. Roberts come with you?" "I think I'll call the wagon for you," said Stanton. "AVhy, Lieutenant?" said Ashley. "We're here to meet my Uncle Hiram Greene, of Oshkosh." "Then you'd better go to the North Western station." "D n you, Blair, you had to be so cock-sure. Here we are at the wrong station." "Oh, dry up!" said Blair. "Who Is this cheap copper? On your way, flat-foot." flat-foot." Stanton lost his temper. He drew his pistol. Blair started back, but Ashley continued to grin. People nearby near-by sturdbled and pushed back out of the way. A few women cried out. A station policeman hurried up. "I'm Lieutenant Stanton, of East Chicago Avenue. Call a wagon for these men." "Blair," said Ashley, "sometimes you're certainly an awful d n fool." "I'll break you for this," said Blair to Stanton. "In Chicago?" said Stanton, amused again. "Big boy, just now you're one of two vagrants. I may give you a murder charge later. Anyway, Roberts Rob-erts gets a break." "He'll need it," said Ashley amiably. He was grinning when Stanton left him and Blair at the detective bureau. The man's amusement was not feigned. Blair having made a fool of himself, Ashley, although he was In ho better case than the other, was enjoying it. "He couldn't win," said Ashley, "but a thing like that never stops the big boy. Lieutenant, you'll love him when you know him better, but you'll have to protect him from Roberts. I'll never be able to." Stanton went directly to the state's attorney's office In the Criminal Court building. CorvaleskI had just come in, and Horde, the first assistant, entered en-tered the room before they had sat down. "Telegram just came for you, Lieutenant," Lieu-tenant," he said, holding out a yellow envelope, "from some one who thought of addressing you here." Stanton opened it and read: "Decided best to leave you. Am indebted to you for consideration and kindness. Am playing the game safe and will win. R." The telegram had been sent from Elkhart, Ind. "That's where he left the train," said the lieutenant, laying the paper in front of the state's attorney. "Who is R? And why did he leave the train?" "R is Roberts. He is one of the three survivors of the Turner will. He left the train while I was sleeping, to get away from Blair and Ashley, the other two survivors. They have him marked for number four. They were on the train. They are over at the bureau now. That's what I came to talk to you about. It will all seem crazy to you, but I'll tell It as it happened. hap-pened. First I'd suggest you have Mr. Horde telephone the bureau to send over exhibits A and B. You might do well to talk to them." "Do that. Horde, will you? Spin your yarn, Lieutenant." For a half-hour Stanton gave a concise con-cise narrative. "And there you are," he concluded. "I've always told you I was no detective. detec-tive. I've got my birds and no cage. I've just let a man slip me. lie's dodging his own murder. I've got a murderer, or two of them, and ws can't lay a finger on them." (TO BE CONT1NUEDJ CHAPTER IX 11 Portraits by Roberts In the drawing room Roberts at once locked the door and drew the curtains cur-tains at the windows. lie then opened his bag and took out a quart bottle of whisky. With it he went into the washroom and poured himself a half-glass half-glass of the liquor. After drinking it neat he gasped and coughed, but even in his nervousness nervous-ness he remembered to play host. He rinsed the glass and came out to offer It and the bottle to Stanton who shook his head. "No? ... All right," said Roberts. "We'll have lunch here in the room. We'll have all our meals here. Blair and Ashley are on the train. I'll need all the breaks if I can get away from them. D n the luck that I had to run into them at old man Darling's. Without With-out that I'd have had a fair chance." It might seem that Roberts at this time was overemphasizing the probable prob-able consequences of this unfortunate coincidence, however true they proved in the event. Allowance, however, must be made for all the motives animating ani-mating the Turner will associates. Persons Per-sons with intimate knowledge of their characters gave more weight to distrust dis-trust than to desire of money without at all overlooking the strength of the latter. As Maisie later says, it was a panic. Turner undoubtedly knew the men thoroughly. Possibly if Blair and Ashley had not encountered Roberts Rob-erts as they did in Newburgh the temptation to do away with him might have been resistible. This remains conjectural, but it is possible that without the meeting at Mr. Darling's home the murders might have been three and not six. "I'll ring for the porter," said Rob-berts. Rob-berts. "Have him send a waiter. Whenever anyone comes I'm going into the washroom." "I'll go through the train," said Stanton, "and see if they're on." "What good would that do?" "You'd be able to stop worrying in one case and really begin it In the other." "Never mind. I know they're on the train. They may or may not know I know it. Let them guess. I'll need ail the breaks." After lunch Roberts slept on the couch and Stanton read. When Roberts Rob-erts lazily aroused himself he played games of solitaire, and enjoyed his bottle, coaxing the lieutenant to join him in a two-handed game of cards or in drinks. "You're a dull John Law," he said. "Hunt up your friends," said the lieutenant. '"We might invite them in." "That's an idea. A truce. They'd keep it as long as they wanted to." "What did you fellows do to Turner? Tur-ner? You might as well begin cleaning clean-ing up that." "That seems to be preying on your mind. Nothing was done to Turner. Incidents will happen in a rough life. We haven't lived in the parlor. Sometimes Some-times one man would get a little the worst of It and sometimes another. No one would keep account of them. Turner wasn't the fellow to do it." "Just a great big boy." "That's it." "And the best two-fisted hater I've ever heard of. Play your cards, or you'll have me knowing I'm simpler than I am." With dark and after dinner Roberts appeared almost at ease In his mind. His bottle explained some of his comfort. com-fort. The cloister sense he again had the curtains drawn in the closed room of the speeding train was another reason for his lifting spirits. He was talkative, and the lieutenant thought something might come of that but very little did. "They'll pair for it," he said late in the evening in one of his few references refer-ences to his flight, "but I may handle them yet. They've always been paired, and it's a queer combination at that. I never could, understand how they , trusted each other. I don't believe they can. I'll never know why I haven't trapped and shot them. Nothing Noth-ing but scruples can keep anyone from murder In New York or Chicago. It can't be detected. You know that, Stanton. "You know murder can't be discovered discov-ered if sensible men hide it. Only mad men and fools are caught. Everything Every-thing favors concealment and prevents detection. The only thing that keeps a man's enemies alive is his own conscience. con-science. You know that. I'll not be so sure of mine, with this conscienceless conscience-less pursuit of me going on the way you see it. "Blair is a public nuisance. I have seen enough of his life to hang him a dozen times. Once at Port Said a porter was surly. Blair cracked him on the chin, knocked him overboard, senseless, and leaned on the rail and grinned, watching the spot where he went under. "I saw Jiim in a Tia Juana cantina, not one of the American bars, take the knives away from two Mexicans and carve them. Then he shot a rurale in the leg, took his horse and, with Ashley behind him, get across the line. Ashley was laughing all the time as if it was a musical comedy or Charlie Chaplin, He Seemed to Follow the Girl by Watching Ashley's Expression. anticipatory grin on Ashley's face and the same sort of look in his eyes. That was sport for Ashley. Blair knew him well enough to be warned that something amusing to Ashley was behind him. He knew that. It might have been danger or just a fellow coming up to slap him on the back or knock his hat down over his ears and buy a bottle of wine. That would be champagne. That's always wine to Blair. He's a pig, but he's an old tusker of a wild boar. And it could be something else behind him and it was. "I don't know how he did it, but he seemed to follow the girl by watching Ashley's expression and he whirled just as she struck. She shrieked and fainted. They said afterward he had broken her arm. She was carried away. No one could blame Blair for what they saw, and It was nothing to the police what emotional suffering she might have had., To the Continental Con-tinental police that's hooey. Pulling a knife's something, but you've got to stick it in a heart to have a case for the Wce. Over here you could have got a jury to hold Blair while the gal sliced him. It might be a good system sys-tem at that. I wish to G d she had been a second quicker or that Ashley had kept his d n face straight. He could have had his fun later. "When Blair sat down again he ordered or-dered some more drinks and began to cuss Ashley. Ashley just laughed, ffhe madder Blair got and the louder he cussed, the more fun Ashley had. I thought there'd be murder yet, but Ashley had one hand spread out on the table and there was a blue shadow between two of his fingers. He had one of these d n little single shot .38's covered. Blair saw it. If he had |