Show tn T LIFE MUM n PA T 10 MA as xi K 0 D centa co zno inc W SYNOPSIS young bex hale calls on casper kneeland friend ol of hla his father ather in new york end and finds him proudly successful but strangely lei lie tells hale of his bif elfei a s dea death t while insane invites invite him for or the summer to halcyon camp his bis home on long Islan dand promises him he will be useful as his secretary there hale Is joined at lunch by fred ainsworth Aln worth an unpopular college mate also at halcyon who leaves him with a eeling feeling of unpleasant mystery lie he Is met at the train by mrs mm wllbur wilbur nash whom he questions about the menage and experiences a disturbing pren premonition ioni the premonition Is barely eased by the comfortable hospitality of hoi sanna Kne elands elderly sister and her friend ruth forbes middle aged sophisticate it tic ate in his room roam hale finds ands a colled tied paper printed this plase damje dan jerus lr us hale meets the rest of the strange grouper group Dr craig psychiatrist friend of bert kneeland nervous young son of casper and beautiful but moody joan kneeland niece of the house ains worth drops in at his room questions question s him about abou this his reactions and tells hi him of berts hopeless love tor for his heiress cousin and that mrs forbes Is down and out the whole group get on each othro oth rs nerves later hale sees hosanna furtively meeting a shabby man in the woods the maid teus teas of the recent poisoning of a cat and dog mrs nash suggests that ainsworth has some hold on them hale finds in his ats room a clever sketch of skull and crossbones kneeland arrives for the weekend week end also curious about hales reactions act i ons and asks him to be his substitute host hos t a life of the party and meanwhile try to solve the e mystery of the behavior of them all bert confides c aal des in hale his growing annoyance at craigs nightly visits ond and endless talks ot of cadag ers parts of which he preserves in his locked laboratory and hale advises the boy to discourage the visits ile he finds another sketch of a cobra colled coiled to strike with the cantlon capt fon lon why wate tor for this ile he writes to two famous psychiatrists collects fingerprints from the notes and sketches and drives into new york to get the prints analyzed call on two doctors and establish some contacts for information on ainsworth and craig george stuyvesant college friend confirms ainsworth Ain reputation as an a parasite CHAPTER V continued IZ 12 hale continued id like to toas ask kyou you about another guest there mrs spencer forbes do you know her ruth spencer forbes of course I 1 know her who know her replied stuyvesant ashes a pal of my mothers she often comes to the house I 1 rather like her myself ashes good fun it if you get her in the right mood four or five cocktails usually do it the things ive heard that woman bayl say what csc you want to know about ruth spencer forbes he ended more seriously 1 I suppose you know ashes on the an financial ancial rocks almost everyone Is just now but I 1 think her lion bon Is worse than that of most yes someone spoke of thit that ashes spending the summer with miss hosanna kneeland Stu stuyvesant vesant nodded ive heard of her ruth picks em u up p wherever she finds em ashes like ainsworth in that respect very democratic I 1 suppose miss kneeland has always bowed down before ruth and ruth lids has taken it like buddha on a shri shrine neShe she would that reminds me of some something thInk else there an heiress of sorts in the kneeland family a girl called calle dJune june or joan or something there Is ili and Is she easy on the eyell stuyvesant spoke enthusiastically 1 I met her twice last winter I 1 wanted to meet her oftener but she dropped out of sight in the spring Is ither it her house youre visiting ift her uncles camp but ashes there youre in 41 luck stuyvesant said slin simply ply say old man you get me down there for a weekend IU ill suggest it to her hale smiled the waiter wag clearing the table for forthe tha salad the two young men ate their luncheons and talked of other thin things gif then stuyvesant jumped to his feet feel im 04 he announced but ive got to see more of you I 1 hope ive told you what you want how about my putting you up at the engineers club would that be useful very much so thanks it might be convenient to have some place I 1 can use for town appointments youre treating mo me mighty well stuyvesant I 1 wont forget jt it 11 your present address hale gave him the address and telephone number of the kneeland town house and the camp address as well dwell the two young men faced each other rather self consciously dont drop out of sight again stuyvesant said you bet I 1 wont they shook hands enthusiastically doctor gordon dewar had made the apo appointment ointment with more than resignation ill see you right after my office hours he promised not that there will be many in the office most of my patients are going off their heads these days without my help lie he chuckled and hale liked the sound here he hoped was a man who would open up but doctor dewars opening up was cautious indeed almost at hales first words he changed from a losy faced and somewhat exuberant man ab about out town to a canny scot with clous eyes i all I 1 want doctor hale began briskly is to put a hypothetical case to you granting that a tain doctor is doing so and so what would be the penalty in your pro it he were caught at it have to be a lot more deft definite nite than that ny my friend doctor dewar said curtly 1 I expect to be heres the hypothetical po situation assume that im writing a playground play around it and need some information about the ethics of the medical profession in such a case ah the doctor looked relieved but still cautious hale talked for ten minutes at the end doctor dewar nodded slowly its a good situation he admitted dramatic and all that thal its the sort of thing more mor i e apt to happen in life than in the drama playwrights are afraid of turning the screw too far life Is never afraid of doing that Ws its f 0 v aa j who t know mow the he po poor orold old giolito girl doing it all the time his caution returned you understand that 1 I cant be quoted in any way or even evera mentioned in connection with a case of that sort given the conditions ive suggested what would be the procedure i for the ignoc innocent ent bystander who la Is watching them 11 m mm it was the doctors turn to talk and he did it hale listened put questions made a few notes at the end of twenty minutes he got up and held out his hand thanks he said gratefully youve given me just what I 1 needed the doctor returned the grip hale went away optimistically he ws was still walking in dark places but light was breaking through and at least he had one destination in sight it was fifteen minutes past four he called up the second psychiatrist and had another break the second psychiatrist was a different type from the first he was impressed by hales letter from doctor Kingsbury the psychiatrist and obviously rather proud of his brief association with him hale suspected him of af being a bit of a medical snob like dewar he be attached much importance to Kings burys assertion ser tion that Kales discretion could be relied upon i after a little fencing the two men got down to brass tacks yes doctor hitchcock knew ew doctor craig then aalthe all the unhelpful data dati hale had expected craigs fine training his bis medical connections and the like all that thai being granted hale asked doctor hitchcock why craig more popular why he any friends hitchcock was ready to answer that hes too young for one thing he pointed pointe dout out for another hes too self centered care tor for friends he time for them lie he considers his own time very valuable much more valuable than some of us think it Is he smiled I he lehds has dropped hints that hes bea on the track of something important hes corresponding with some bigwig in vienna but be say who jt lt is what about his bis character as you see it ambitious rather abnormally so BO ruthless id say eay in going after w what hat hi he wants all I 1 know abou abbu thim part of that is theory hale was satisfied he had bad put a wholly different problem to hitchcock from theone the one presented to dewar ile he had got what he wanted from both lie he returned to the building that held Ain office and again interviewed the elevator operator no mr ainsworth had not been in the building that day the operator expect him he had been there last thursday lie he never came more than once a week these days and often he show upeor up for two or three weeks when ho does show up you wont feel obliged to ao mention that a red headed chap hasteen has been asking questions about him will you the operator grinned fingering angering the additional halt half dollar he had received and said he rex went back to the bureau he had visited that morning he left tor for fingerprinting a slip of paper ains worth had given him to in the library when he be had asked ainsworth for the address of a classmate ivo ive num numb Vired ered all those prints very carefully he said be mighty careful about the tha numbers in your reports mark any later specimens I 1 send you by consecutive following figures express yourself in your written reports so a layman can understand you ive got a lot to learn about this sort of thing hale next made his way to casper Kne elanda elands town house it was a brownstone front on a street just off the avenue in the sixties and much bukea like a dozen other brownstone houses in its neighborhood his ring at the bell was answered with dellbe deliberation ration by a middle aged colored man neatly dressed and prematurely bald im stopping here tonight rex bex said ur mr kneeland telephoned you about it it I 1 suppose yes suil suh s heres my luggage 10 said hale ashe as he entered he took from his pocket and held out a comb a box of safety razors a tooth brush and a small cake of soap each article chastely wrapped in cellophane he had bad just purchased the collection in a corner drugstore drug store my plant plan he added sedately is to escape in a sheet it the house catches are tonight if you all will jest come this wa way the man led him up the staircase your name rex bex asked as they went george davis suh well george davis there are those who like to wrap themselves in suk silk pajamas on a night liko like this I 1 bunim but im not one of them theres no one but you in th the house ehouse mr kneeland said no suh sub george warmed into hospitality as heaed he led the guest along an upper hall mist kneeland Khe eland say you all tean itan have anything you want he announced noun ced throwing open a door AU all right thanks hale said gratefully ill take that portrait ot of miss joan on this wall its it a good one they had entered a front bedroom on the second floor miss Kne elanda elands portrait pointed painted by wayman adams faced them from a commanding position above the mantel ah reckon george suggested thoughtfully mist kneeland he bo meant bathrobes bath robes maybe he be did whose room la Is this its lest jest tor for company comp ny suh sub why miss joans pictures here miss joan she don like that picture 11 that settles that Is this the room youre putting me into if 11 it Is hustle along one of mr knee lands discarded bathrobes P m a buseman bu syman george and the cespon responsibilities litle ties S of life are pressing upon me S step ep lively george returned dropped the bathrobe over ov erthe the foot of the bed and tactfully retired when rex had bathed shave dand redressed dressed re he was a giant refreshed fre fres shed fied he had not quite decided what chatto to do with his evening now he suddenly r resolved to dins dine at maxims and see a cheerful play there ther e were several goodbold good holdovers hold overs over s from the spring season he carried out this program and enjoyed it when he returned 4 to the kneeland house a little dittli after eleven and started upstairs he saw a line of light under the door of a room george had described as mist miff Kne elands laibly 11 simultaneously neou the door opened and knee land looked out that you my boy he ha called come in a minute I 1 hope george Is making you comfortable be added carelessly as hale took the chair he offered I 1 altogether too much so ao hals hale testified im getting to be a sybarite I 1 ought to be working with a few mule teams on the side of some mountain to bring me back to normal kneeland shook his head bead grab everything you can get while the grabbing Is good head my motto there will be plenty of times when yoi cant get what you want all right sir hale agreed briskly what I 1 want now la Is to ask you a few questions what kind ot of questions it If thera are arc many efthem of them better light up and have a drink before you be gin to shoot there will be many alter after that lead hale said firmly he helped himself to a cigar from the box kneeland indicated what I 1 want he said atter after the two men had lighted up Is your authority to act for youat halcyon camp in any serious emergency that may comeux come up when youre not there kneeland i looked startled are you expecting an eberg emergency en cyll its always p possible well give me a llna line on it 1 I cant canado do that sir why not because to be frank im afraid you might spill the beans you might see something and go off at half cock before the time was ripe since you have in chargo charge of this investigation I 1 feel justified in asking you to give me a freo free hand kneeland frowned and savagely aava gely bit oft off the end of his cigar thaes a large order and I 1 dont like mysteries 1 I know you dont sir why you asked me to loo look kinto into this one and there Is one youre sure of that im pretty sure of lt it but I 1 cant prove it i unless the person back ot of it gives himself away TO DE BE CONTINUED CONTINUE DY |