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Show CIIAPTrR XIII THE STORY THIS FAK: Krturoln from . ylait with Dyke McKinntin, hie antle, Todd McKinnon, Georflne Wyrlb ad small daufbter, llarby, stopped to CHAPTER XIII Then Georgine did scream ; over and over, with the full power of her lungs. She was beside the door, Sliding the wall switch and clicking click-ing it up and down without result. There were no lights anywhere. There was, however, an answering stir from the other rooms. Startled voices were raised In response, other light switches were jiggled with the same futility. Doors opened. She saw Todd first, holding up the tiny flame of a cigarette lighter; then Mary Helen, blundering out of her room after seemingly falling over something. Mary Helen had a flashlight, and Its dazzling circle swung about the upper hall. Nella Peabody was standing at the top of the stairs, and Horace came plunging Into the hall Just as the light reached him. "She gone; Barby's not in her bed," Georgine said, half choking. chok-ing. "There wasn't any lights. I got up to I couldn't find her" Todd was beside her, supporting her with a steadying grip. "She's fallen downstairs," Geargine said, moving toward the opening. "No," Nella Peabody told her. "I was coming up, slowly but I thought I saw or felt, rather Eomeone coming out of your room, Just now." , "Where'd you get that'tbrch?" Todd inquired, holding his lighter close to Mary Helen's hand. Horace Hor-ace had vanished into the attic entry; the hall was full of voices, all crying out at once as the bedroom bed-room lights flashed on. Horace came out, remarking competently, "Main fuse was loosened," Just as Mary Helen gave a bewildered Inspection In-spection to the flashlight in her hand, and answered, "Why, I fell over it in my room, It was lying on the floor." It was Barby's treasured possession. posses-sion. Over the babble her own small voice sounded from across the hall. "Mamma! Mamma, where are you? There was a noise I'm cold, Mamma" She was on the chaise-lounge in Mary Helen's room, trying to sit up. "I called and called when that noise came, but I couldn't make you hear for the longest time, Mamma! I couldn't make any noise myself, at all." "I don't wonder," Georgine said, maternal calm falling on her like a cloak. "You're hoarse as a hootowl, my poor lamb. Come back into your own bed." Todd put her in and tucked the blankets tightly about her; she was wheezing and flushed. "I know what happened,'' Georgine said in a low voice. "She got up by herself, her-self, and then couldn't find her way back to her room because she was half asleep again. It's happened hap-pened before. Didn't you hear her come in, Mary Helen? She must have thought your couch was her cot, and Just dropped onto it" "Hear her? Good Lord, no," Mary. Helen said. "I did think there was a kind of thud, somewhere some-where in my dreams" she giggled gig-gled pleasantly "but that must have been when the flashlight went down. You're certainly a tender ten-der mother, Mrs. Wyeth, imagine yelling like that because your kid die wasn t in her crib!" r j "I'll yell louder," said Georgine tartly, "if she's in for another bout of asthmatic croup, after getting chilled this afternoon and again tonight" "But, my dear," said Nella, with an intent glance, "was that all that frightened you?" Horace's voice covered hers. "Damned queer about that fuse, it was okay when we went to bed. Is something-going something-going on, or shouldn't we ask? What did you say, Nell, about seeing see-ing someone" 4 . He stopped and turned his eyes away. Gcorgine's lips had parted to cry out "Yes! There was someone some-one in my room; it must have been one of you, what did he want?" But the words held themselves back. She let her eyes travel from face to face, meeting each look, knowing know-ing or puzzled. One of these three had been, not ten minutes before, whispering from the darkness of her room. "Mamma," Barby said hoarsely, "I can't breathe right" "She is going to be ill," said Georgine despondently, and turned into her bedroom. Todd, who without waiting to dress fully had gone out with Horace Hor-ace in tow, now appeared with a load of supplies from the drugstore. drug-store. The croup kettle was set up cslde Barby's cot and John Crane aid, "Thls'U fix you up In no time, young un. You keep the young lady quiet Mrs. Wycth, and in bed all day tomorrow, and I'll come In once or twice to make sure she's all right" He picked up his medical bag and looked vaguely vague-ly around as if to make sure he hadn't left anything. Todd, who had been exercising his gift for keeping out of the way when not wanted, sctrned to ma- vlilt Mrs. Prsbody. Mrt. Peabody told them about the death of Mill Tillslt. Thrjr derided to stay and Investifate. They talked with many different persons and decided that mutt of In evidence terialize out of the shadows. "Can you talk now, Georgine?" he murmured. mur-mured. Todd perched on the edge of the slipper chair inside her half-open door, hands in the pockets of his dark robe how like him, Georgine Georg-ine thought, to be sleek and immaculate-looking at three in the morning! and looked at her with intent, concerned eyes. "Now, my dear. What really happened?" His questions were injected so quietly as scarcely to break the flow of her murmured narrative. "You didn't hear Barby get up? Yes, that's probably what disturbed dis-turbed your sleep in the beginning. begin-ning. ... It was some minutes, maybe twenty, after I heard her, when the other sounds began; and live or ten more before I heard you scream . . ." "Someone who made you think he was I," he repeated thoughtfully, thought-fully, under his breath. Georgine drew her hand across her eyes. "It may not have been someone who meant harm to me. I don't know. It just felt dangerous." danger-ous." "It was," Todd said softly, his Jaw tightening. "I shan't leave you upstairs alone, from now until the minute we can go. I shouldn't leave you at all, if I had my way." "A bit difficult to manage, don't you think? But it was this afternoon after-noon that I could really have mangled man-gled you, for giving me the tip about her and then going off." "About whom?" "Nella. How could you, Todd? Maybe you thought she wouldn't dare do anything openly, but I'm sure she tried to drug me tonight She thought I was fathoms under, that's how she could dare come into my room openly. Probably she saw Barby go out, and wander into Mary Helen's room and stay there; and that was her chance" "Please tell me how much." "Wait a minute!" Todd said levclly. "What made you pick on Nella? Not the case I made out against her? But dear heart hers was no more convincing than any of the others." Georgine gazed at him, stupl-fled. stupl-fled. "I didn't read the others. You mean to say" He seemed to be struggling with amusement "I !iad to include her, Georgine, but if you'd only read a bit farther, you'd have seen that Mary Helen, or Horace, or Susie or the doctor might just as easily have been a murderer." "You should be flattered," said Nella at the luncheon table, "that the children are home for all their meals while you're here." "We are flattered indeed," said Todd expansively. Everyone smiled at everyone else, and Georgine fought down a wild impulse im-pulse to laugh. It wasn't funny; she was sure of that; there was a purpose in the continued presence of Mary Helen and Horace. "And how's the kiddie?" Mary Helen inquired. "Horace and I were In to see her this morning, and she looked so much brighter." "I thought so too," Mrs. Peabody Pea-body said. "When did you two find time to pay a call?" Georgine asked casually. "Oh, while you were down getting get-ting her breakfast Seemed as if she might be lonely." As if I'd been gone for hours, Georgine thought indignantly. "She's quite happy alone," she remarked re-marked In a sweet tone. "Right now she's sitting up reading the Alice that Dyke gave her." "Oh, that reminds me if you don't mind my asking." said Nella diffidently, "was there any Interesting Inter-esting news from the sergeant?" pointed to Gilbert, Mrs. Peabody' boa band, now la tho army. However, Todd pointed out, that any one of the relatives would have kad the chance to kav ao-cored ao-cored and fitea Miat filial! polaoa. "News? I haven't heard from him." Nella gave her a look of bewilderment be-wilderment "Didn't you find your letter?" "Letter?" "It came by special delivery last night about nine. 1 didn't want to wake you, so 1 just tiptoed in and laid it on the desk." "Why, no, Nella," said Georgine slowly. "I didn't happen to find it." She could not allord to meet Todd's eyes, nor anyone's. "Oh, dear, do you suppose that in the dark I laid it down under something, or missed the desk entirely?" en-tirely?" "You might have done. I'll look." She gazed at her plate and ate steadily. The letter could not have fallen to the floor, for she had been all around those baseboards this morning, tapping them. A letter from Dyke: in her mind's eye she saw a page in her own handwriting, lying face upward on the carpet near the door. It had borne the words, "How much did Mary Helen tell you?" "Barby's going to get tired, spelling out that story," Todd remarked. re-marked. "I wish we had something some-thing to give her for a change. You haven't any illustrated books, Nella? Nel-la? Or some old pictures that might have a story connected with them?" "No, I'm afraid not," said Mrs. Peabody, "unless you count those photograph albums. There's one in the drawing room." "That ought to do." He was beautifully casual. "Finished, Georgine? We might have a look to see if it would interest her." Georgine went with him obediently. obedi-ently. There was method in this irrelevance, she thought For one thing, the folding doors cut of) one's view of the stairs, and any of the family could slip up to the second floor within the next few minutes. He wanted them to havi the opportunity. "These are fine specimens," Todd said, turning the pages of tht plush album on the marble-topped table. He swung toward the dooi as if to make sure his voice would be audible. "Will you look at th gentleman in the hand-painted tie! And here's a family group, on the front porch of this house-Lord, house-Lord, kind of uncanny, seeing thi old place when it was new and those trees were small; doesn't look real. This must be Miss Till-sit Till-sit Seems to me Mrs. Labare had a larger copy of this same picture There was no answer to thesi comments, and Todd glanced at Georgine. Then he strolled over tc a corner whatnot and picked uj a small reading glass from oni of its shelves. "See if you can find out what those pieces of jewelry were," he murmured. "I say, Mary Helen,", said Todd into the hall, "Barby's going U drive us crazy asking what all these rings and pendants and what not were, that your great-aunt had in her heydey. Was that ring an amethyst?" Mary Helen, on her way Into thi sitting room, turned and came across the hall. "No, topaz," sh said interestedly, bending ovei the album. "A great big one; shi must have paid fifty dollars for it" "And those six stones on thai chin chain? It's a li'le incongruout to see that one plain piece amon all the baroque." "Those were amethysts," Mary Helen said. "I never cared foi them at all, myself, unless the) were deep-colored, and these wen pale. I hate this kind of jewelry anyway. It wasn't worth a thing, but they seemed to like it in tht nineties." "Did anyone come up to see you, darling, while you were flnishins your lunch?" "I heard a coupla people go into the bathroom," said Barby with frankness, "but I didn't see who, Nobody's been even to this end ol the hall. Mamma, and I'm kind of tired of reading." Georgine closed the doors to thi hall and opened the conncctin one from her room to the sewinj room. She heard Todd beginninj a story about the gentleman ii the frock-coat as she hurried ovei to the desk. The manuscript at she had expected, was untouched It was Just possible that the letter let-ter had fallen down behind thi bed, to be caught on a ledge of thi headboard; but it had not Sin felt perfectly sure what the mld night intruder had wanted: thi letter, in answer to hers in which she had asked that innocent questionwhich ques-tionwhich might have been ln terpreted, by any one of three 01 four persons, as an ominous one And when the intruder had failed to find It had he attempted to dc her bodily harm before she could read it? And here it was. How very simple, sim-ple, and how natural it looked; tht top drawer of the desk was opto half an Inch, and the letter stood upright against Its front panel ai if it had been brushed off the tor of the desk. I TO Bl CONTOrUXD) |