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Show THE STORY THUS FAR : Adam Bruce, FBI operator, and Inspector and Mrs. Tope met while on vacation In the North-eastern North-eastern wilds. Tope discovered the body of a murdered man at the auto camp of Bee Dewaln, a friend of Bruce's. Bruce. State Trooper Quill, Nat Cumberland, Cumber-land, D. A., and Dr. Medford were called. They decided to keep the murder secret during Investigation. Mrs. Tope told her husband that she recognized the body as that of Mr. Ledforge, head of New England Eng-land utilities. However, New York reported report-ed that Ledforge was at his onice. Doctor Doc-tor reports showed that man died of ruptured rup-tured appendix, while tied up. A car believed used by murderer was found. CHAPTER VI He looked at Joe Dane in mild triumph. tri-umph. "So that was pretty good for a stab in the dark, Mr. Dane!" "What's that about heel-plates?" young Dane demanded. "Well," said Tope, "somebody with heel-plates has walked through the woods near Faraway; and a man with heel-plates left some tracks up at the quarry; and Kell, Holdom's chauffeur, had a pair of shoes with heel-plates on them. They're in his closet down at Holdom's right now." "Then we want Kell!" Dane exclaimed. ex-claimed. "And Mrs. Kell? Was she running around with Ledforge? We've got to find her too!" Tope nodded. "It would help a lot," he assented, "if we could talk to her." He took Mrs. Tope's arm. "Let me know when you're ready to salvage the car, Mat. I want to be there. I'll be at the Mill if New York calls." And despite Dane's efforts to detain de-tain them, he and Mrs. Tope went down the stairs, and got into the little roadster at the curb. When they were under way, she said thoughtfully: "I don't like that young man, but he's right about one thing: You've got to find Mrs. Kell, make her tell you " "I guess we'll find her," he replied re-plied grimly. "But I don't expect her to tell us anything!" She looked at him. "You know-where know-where she is?" "Well," he confessed, "there were two or three little things I didn't tell them! Tnat gray suit in Kell's closet, clos-et, I looked at the name on the tailor's label. The name was Ledforge." Led-forge." She uttered a low ejaculation. "But Mr. Ledforge might have given giv-en it to Kell when Kell worked for him." "It wouldn't fit Kell," Tope told her. "Kell's a big man. His uniforms' uni-forms' were big. This suit was small." She frowned in bewilderment. "But even so," she insisted, "what has .that to do with Mrs. Kell? Where do you think she is?" He said heavily: "I think she's in the coupe in the quarry." "Why?" she whispered, in a still terror. "Why?" I "Adam and Bee found a man's ' tracks leaving there," said Tope. "Shoes with heel-plates. But there were no woman's tracks! And that gray suit in Kell's closet, there was blood on the sleeve of it, and the dead man hadn't any cut or wound that would have bled at all!" When Mrs. Tope and the Inspector Inspec-tor reached Dewain's Mill, Tope himself went indoors, but she stayed outside. The camp seemed deserted, desert-ed, till Adam Bruce and Bee De-wain, De-wain, hearing the car arrive, came together from the direction of Faraway. Far-away. "Well, you located the car. That's good." Adam said: "Yes. And I don't know when I've ever had to dp anything any-thing that scared me more than diving div-ing down into that gray water; but I felt the axle, and a wheel." He added: "And while I was doing that, Bee found the man's tracks. What do they mean?" "You're as bad as Joe Dane, always al-ways asking questions. Son," he countered, "how long are you going to hold out on me?" Adam protested: "Hold out?" But his face was red. "Why, yes just that. Why, for instance, in-stance, does Balser Vade dislike you?" "He's just a harmless crank," Adam insisted. The Inspector relaxed In his chair. "All right, son," he said. "You do as you like about telling me." Adam hesitated in some distress. "Any idea yet who the dead man may be?" he asked at last. Tope answered mildly: "Yes, in a way. Mrs. Tope thinks he's Ledforge, Led-forge, the Utilities Why, what's the matter, Adam?" For at that name, young Adam Bruce had come to his feet in quick astonishment, stood now leaning over Tope, and cried out: "Ledforge?" "Mrs. Tope says so," the old man insisted. "She saw Ledforge once at a stockholders' meeting." Adam relaxed; he chuckled. "You startled me for a minute," he confessed. con-fessed. "Yes, I noticed that!" said Tope dryly. "Matter of fact, I meant to!" "But Mrs. Tope is wrong. Inspector." Inspec-tor." Adam declared. He hesitated. "I telephoned our people In New York this morning, from Kidgcomb, to ask ahout Ledforge. lie's in New York! I checked on that!" "Yes, so Oid wf," Tope assented. "Ledforge is in New York, oil right. But Adarn, how did you happen to think it might be Ledforge?" He looked at the young man shrewdly. "I'm wondering," he said, "if Balser Bal-ser Vade you said he was a letter-writing letter-writing kind of a man ever wrote a letter to Ledforge." Adam surrendered. "All right," he yielded; and he grinned. "I give in. Here it is. But I think Vade's harmless, Tope. Only, Ledforge ruined him, ten years ago, in a water-power project. Since then Vade has been a little cracked on the subject of brooks and streams. I told you about that. He blames Ledforge Led-forge for spoiling the rivers. Led-forge's Led-forge's office sent over to our people peo-ple half a dozen letters, pretty wild and extravagant, from this society for the protection of rivers, signed by Vade as secretary, and threatening threat-ening Ledforge with fire and brimstone! brim-stone! One of them said something about snatching him up in a fiery chariot, like Elijah or whoever it was; and that suggested kidnaping, so I came up here to see Vade." He added: "Vade admitted writing writ-ing the letters, and he dared me to mmmm "No, the dead man isn't Mr. Ledforge." Led-forge." arrest him. He seemed to want to be persecuted, seemed to want publicity, pub-licity, and a chance to tell the world what sort of man Ledforge is. I think he'd like to play the martyr, but Ledforge didn't want to prosecute." prose-cute." He added: "I suppose Ledforge Led-forge was as anxious to avoid publicity pub-licity as Vade was to get it." Tope nodded understandingly. "But after that, naturally you thought of Ledforge " "And I checked up," Adam agreed. "And Ledforge is in New York." Tope beamed. "So this can't be he," he assented. "And Mrs. Tope's mistaken." And he went on to recite re-cite to Adam the discoveries of the day. He told the tale of the stolen car, and of Whitlock's inquiries, and of the visit to the Holdom place, and of Miss Nettie Pineyard. "And Mrs. Kell and Kell have disappeared," dis-appeared," he explained. "Holdom was expected home Friday, but he didn't come. Kell came, in the limousine, lim-ousine, and drove away in it Afterward; After-ward; and Mrs. Kell drove the coupe away." Adam ran to quick conjecture. "And Kell joined her later, came with her here? Then they dumped the coupe in the quarry and headed for Canada?" "Well, maybe," Tope admitted. "What was it? Jealousy? Is Mrs. Kell the flighty kind?" The Inspector said reluctantly: "Well, it looks as if she spent last week-end ten days ago with Ledforge Led-forge somewhere. And if she'd go away with him, maybe she'd go with others. Maybe this dead man long as he's not Ledforge was one of them." He slapped his knee in sudden sud-den recollection. "We ought to have sent a tracer out after the limousine that Kell drove away in. Adam, do that, will you?" Adam nodded. "Yes. What else?" "Why, it just might be that Ledforge Led-forge is really missing, and they're covering it up in New York." "I'll find out," Adam promised. "And one other thing, Adam: May not have any connection, but I'd like to know. Holdom had a plane pilot pi-lot named liob Flint and it crashed in Long Island Sound on Saturday morning. Flint, he was killed. I'd like to know what made that plane crash. Maybe you can find out through the Department of Commerce." Com-merce." Adam said: "Sure." Then they heard voices outside; and Mrs. Tope and Bee Dewain appeared ap-peared in the open doorway. Bee had sandwiches wrapped in a napkin, nap-kin, and a glass of milk. Tope chuckled, anrl looked at Mrs. Tope. "I declare," he exclaimed, "I forgot all about food!" lie took the sandwiches and began to eat them comfortably. Adam said: "lt I've got to do some telephoning; don't want the neighbors listening in. Want to run me to town?" "Take our car," Tope suggested. "No need to bother Miss Dewain. I want to tell her what's been happening." happen-ing." He added with a chuckle: "You'll get back quicker if I keep her here!" So Adam drove away alone; and Tope told Bee what there was to tell. The girl listened silently till he finished. Then she said: "No, the dead man isn't Mr. Ledforge. Led-forge. I had a letter from him this morning. Or rather Mr. Eberly did!" And she explained: "You see, Mr. Eberly and Mr. Ledforge are old friends. The bank had some Utilities bonds, and that was one reason rea-son it had to close; but Mr. Eberly never blamed Mr. Ledforge. Mr. Eberly left Saturday morning to go fishing in New Brunswick, and I used to be his secretary he arranged ar-ranged to have his mail delivered to me so I could take care of it. He's not married, so he often does that when he goes away." Tope listened without questions, and she went on: "This letter came this morning from Mr. Ledforge. He wants Mr. Eberly to come over and fish with him in the trout-pond above his summer sum-mer place, tomorrow afternoon. Mr. Lediorge wrote the letter himself." "You sure?" "Yes, of course. I've never seen him, but I know his handwriting. I'll show you the letter." Tope said mildly: "Why, I'd like to see it." And he asked: "Any way you can get in touch with Mr. Eberly, Miss Dewain?" "Telephone," she said. "Or telegraph." tele-graph." "I wish you'd call him up, tell him about this invitation." And he added add-ed disarmingly: "If he doesn't want to come back to fish with Mr. Ledforge, Led-forge, ask him to fix it so I can go in his place. I like to fish." "All right," she assented, amused; and Tope asked: "Mr. Eberly seen Ledforge lately, late-ly, has he?" She shook her head. "No. Mr. Ledforge called him up about ten days ago Saturday, I think it was. Wanted to see him; but Mr. Eberly was in Boston over that week-end. The operator knows I handle some things for Mr. Eberly so she shifted the call to me." "Where did Ledforge call from?" Tope wondered. "Up here, I think," Bee replied. "He said something about 'dropping in.' Something casual. Not as if he were in New York." Tope nodded, and then they heard a car turn in and stop by the Mill, and Bee looked out and said: "It's Mr. Cumberland, and Joe Dane." "Call them up here," Tope directed direct-ed sharply. "Before the whole world knows they're here!" He came to the door as Bee made haste down the drive; but she was too late to avert the danger Tope foresaw. Joe Dane was inflated by the prospect of handling what promised prom-ised to become a celebrated case. So when they turned in off the road and stopped beside the Mill, where Earl Priddy was working, Joe called in important tones: "Hi, Earl! Where's Inspector Tope?" Priddy straightened up and scratched his head and stared. "Inspector?" "In-spector?" he echoed, his eyes wide. "Inspector of what? What's he Inspector In-spector of, Joe?" Bee, arriving just then on the spot, hushed him sharply. "Never mind, Earl! It's none of your business. Go on with your work." She summoned sum-moned Joe away; the car moved on to Cascade, where Tope waited, and the two men alighted there. Tope looked at Dane in mild disapproval. dis-approval. "Young man," he said, "you advertise too much!" "It's all right," Bee said reassuringly. reassur-ingly. "I told Earl it was none of his business!" Tope chuckled. "Why, that's line, miss," he assented. "After that, Earl Priddy won't give it another thought, I know! You certainly fixed that." And he added gently: "You go along now and telephone Mr. Eberly. And let me see that letter." And as the girl turned away, he said: "Come in, Mat. Come in, Dane. I guess Earl doesn't matter. We couldn't keep this thing dark much longer." And he added slowly: "They've located Holdom. He's in a private hospital down near Hartford with a broken head, a concussion, maybe a fractured skull." Cumberland nodded, and he explained: ex-plained: "New York says Ledforge and Holdom started up here last Friday, in Holdom's limousine, wilh Kell driving. They left New York early, about nine o'clock. Holdom went around to' pick Ledforge up at his apartment; and the ollicer on the beat saw Ledforge come out and get in. "They don't know when Ledforge came back, but he was in his ollice Monday morning, and he was at the bank and in his ollice this morning." morn-ing." Tope nodded, and Cumberland went on: "Well, today, when they had made sure about Ledforge, they sent a man to Holdom's ollice, and the staff there was all excited, because they had just had a telephone message mes-sage from Holdom. He's in this private pri-vate hospital In a little town just this tide of the Connecticut line." fTO HE CONTINUED) |