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Show What the Gmj H ese MM The Mystery of a Haunted Mansion copvr,KMbNy Mary. By Wyndham Martyn : L THE STORY Hilton Hnnby, prosperous Naw York merchant, hna purchased a country place the Grny house. ' near Pine Plains. Miss Solenoe, a former tenant of th i Gray house, calls at his otlAee and I warns him that the house Is under un-der a ourse. Further alarming details are impressed upon Adolf Smucker, Hanhy's secretary, by a man who claims to have been chauffeur for Sir Stanford Seymour, Sey-mour, former occupant of the place. The Hanbys laugh off the warnings they have received both from M isb Selenos and from Smueker's acquaintance, as some form of practical Joke. CHAPTER II Continued 3 "Wlio are you, to hurt In like tout?'' slip demanded finally. Hanby came Into the room, and she backed out. "Forgot all about you. Sollicker," Hanby admitted. "It was a birthday party. What Is It?" "1 wish to see Mrs. Hanby, too," Smucker returned. "It's a matter of life and death." Hanhy saw that the fellow had been drinking, and that the unaccustomed unac-customed stimulant had let down some of Snutoker's barriers of restraint. re-straint. He had always known that his employee disapproved of him. but be was unprepared for the bate that glared from the red-rlmmed eyes. It came as something of a shock. "Mrs. Hanby Is busy," he said "Also 1 don't propose to Inflict any business troubles on her. I may say that yon behaved In very questionable question-able taste In shouting what you did just now. It's none of your d S business whether I have a few people peo-ple tn to diimer, Is It?" "A matter of life and death," Smucker went on. "I am wasting my time, alarming my own wife, and spending car fare, all for your benefit, bene-fit, and you Insult me. I might have expected It I" "It's nothing to do with office business, busi-ness, then?" "A matter of life and death. Mrs. Hanby must hear It, too." Hanby paused a moment. ."All right! I'll send for ber." Dina Hanby bd long ago known that In Smacker ber husband employed em-ployed a disaffected and unpleasant sort of man. She bowed coldly to the Intruder, who found in her fresh fuel for his wrath. He saw a lovely woman of forty, who looked no more than thirty. He hated her for that Mrs. Smucker was not dowered with beauty. He saw a splendidly dressed woman who held herself regally. He considered that at forty a woman should be plump,and not concerned about dress or complexion. First of all she should be a good cook. Mrs. Hanby outraged his sense of feminine proportion. She was slender slen-der and graceful. Cnce, In the office, of-fice, when the light had been poor, he had mistaken her for Cella. "I am the death's head at the feat," he said pompously. "You have been Imagining yourself the mistress of a great mansion. It Is a house of death and disaster 1" "Oh, Hill" she cried. "What does he mean?" What the red-faced man had told him an hour or so earlier, Smucker now wove Into an Intensely dramatic narrative. Mr3. Hanby, listening eagerly, learned that the bouse in which she and her children were to live had, since Its erection more than a hundred years before, been the tomb of all young people who Inhabited Inhab-ited It. There was a superstitious strain In her, and Smucker could see that she grew uneasy. It Irritated him to see Hanby Immune from fear. . "Is this true?" she asked her hus band. It relieved ber to see him wholly unaffected by the dread that gripped her. She did not understand why he was concerned mainly with getting an accurate description of Mr. Seymour's Sey-mour's chauffeur. "Smucker, it's kind ot you to take the trouble to come here," said Hanby, Han-by, at last ; "but you've been the victim vic-tim of a practical Joker. I've dad one already, and this is the second." "You think I'm lying?" Smucker cried angrily. "No I think you were used merely as a tool." "Aud this is your gratitude I" Bitterness Bit-terness was in Smueker's voice. "It Is only what I might have expected I" Smucker would have been wise to note the unusual look of sternness which passed across his employer's face. "I will have a taxi called to take you to the subway. It Is raining I'm obliged to you for coming Sniui k er. You didn't know you were the victim of a man trying to play a Joke on me." W.'iile Hanby went to the telephone In a booth outside, Smucker turned n Mrs. Hanhy. He reveled In ner uneasiness. It gave him, the brin'er of It. a gratifying sense of superior try. "Ounce, drink, revel, and oppress ttliile you may 1" he said. "The time Is coming when we Intellectuals will relgn I" lie looked through the window, win-dow, which showed the Hudson. "What do you see there?" "The river, I suppose," said Mrs Hanby, puzzled. "It will be a river of blood some dny, from Albany to the sea. It will be reddened with the blood of cor rupt politicians, of the olllcer caste trained at West Point to enslave us. It will be red with the blood of New York capitalists. His blood, your husband's blood " Plna Hanby looked at him with flashing eyes. Why did this vin.llc mm I lip "Be Quiet," She Said, "You Disgust Mel" tlve little creature hate a man who had- kept him on year after year simply through pity? "Be quiet," she said, "you disgust me I" She turned from -him, and met her husband coming In. "The tnxl's coming," he said. ""Let me know tomorrow to what expense you've been put Good night I" When Smucker had gone, Dina pur her hands on her husband's shoul ders. "Dear," she said, "you've always been very good to me. You've given me everything that I wanted and much more than 1 deserved. I want to ask a favor." "It Is granted," he replied ; "even nnto the half of my lands and forests, for-ests, my lakes and lordly manor bouses, and the small change I have In my pocket." "Get rid of that man the first thing tomorrow. He Is evil, and hutes you." "AJ1 right, Salome," ald Hanby. "His head will be on a charger for you any time yon care to call for It after ten o'clock tomorrow morning." As she went back to her guests, she asked him why he laughed at Smueker's story. "Because Reggie Brophy and Bill Pelham have put up a Joke on me. Reggie Is mad as a hornet because this cuts out our Wednesday and Sunday foursome, Pelham said he'd prevent me from going there by hook' or crook. If that wasn't Reggie feed Ing old Smucker with that haunted bouse stuff, I'll drink the lake dry I" "It mlgbt be Reggie," she admitted. admit-ted. "It would be just like him What about Bill Pelham?" "Bill Is Selina, the patron saint of I'ekes and toy Poms. Listen to the story of Miss Selenos, who hates and despises men, particularly me. Bill is about the best actor In our crowd, and he made up pretty well well enough to fool me for a time." "But would they do It?" she asked. "It will be a long wet drink for me Lf I'm wrong," he Inughed. "Wanted on the long distance, sir," said Mary Sloan. "Ask Junior to go," said his father. "1 want to tell the rest ubout Reggie and Bill," he explained to his wife. Before he could commence his recital. re-cital. Junior, usually Impassive to the point of Irritation, burst in. "It's from the police at PLne Plains," be cried. "Oad, your care CiKrKHlIKHKHCHrK taker at the Gray bouse has been murdered mur-dered I" Hlllon llunhy came back to his guests after ten minutes at the telephone. tele-phone. "A very nnfortunute thing," he told them. "A man named Kerr, whom I engaged through my lawyers only yesterday, has been killed. I must go up tomorrow and see about It." "I'll go with you, dad," Junior said promptly. "Tell us the detulls." "There are none. Kerr was an unmarried un-married man of good character, a veteran of the Spanish-American war, who had been living at Kingston. I wanted a caretaker, because we shun't be living there tor a time, and I've been warned that thieves make a specialty of new plumbing fixtures. If there's nobody to guard them." "But you haven't had time to put any In," said Plna. "That's the mysterious part of It there's nothing to steal. Kerr moved a bed and a few household belongings Into a ground-floor room, and ttiey have not been disturbed." "Was he killed Inside the bouse?" Celia demanded. "No outside. His body was found In the lake." Ilamby shot a quick look at his wife as he said this. From the little frown she gave he saw that the mem ory of what Smucker had said lingered lin-gered with her and assumed a new Importance at this tragedy. "Was he drowned?" Dina aBked. "No his head was battered In with the handle of a pick. Why they threw him In the lake I can't Imagine "They did .lt to conceal the body," suggested Junior. "The weights probably slipped off and the corpse came ro the surface again." "Lakes are always dragged," Hanby Han-by replied. "It seems a silly, meaningless mean-ingless crime." "There's always motivation, If you know where to lock for It," Junior answered wisely. "On the whole, It's rather fortunate that I'm going up with you tomorrow." "The police will be delighted," his father said. Hanby was annoyed to think that this crime had obtruded Itself on his birthday. It was a bad beginning for his ownership of the Gray house. "The police!" sneered Junior. "What do the police know of the psychology psy-chology of crime?" "Pity them, don't chide them," Cella mocked. "Poor policemen, tbey haven't been to' Mercersburg and New Haven." "There's probably a whole lot more In this than you think," Junior went on, unshaken. "On the face of It, it's a crazy, motiveless crime. We may run Into all sorts of amazing things wheels within wheels. Kerr : may not have been a caretaker. He may have been sen there to spy on us." "Then who killed htm?" Hanby snapped. He could see that Dina was disturbed more than he liked. "And why?" "That we shall find out," replied Junior. "When first you spoke of the Gray bouse, 1 thought there was something mysterious about it. Why did It stand empty so long? Haunt ed, probably. Oh, these things hap pen I In your generation they scoffed, but we are wiser. In my psychology psychol-ogy class " "Tell me aDout it tomorrow," tn terrupted his father. "Come on, peo pie let's dance 1 This Is my birth day. Away wltb gloom !" He seized Dina, and they began elaborate improvisations on a foxtrot fox-trot motif. "You don't think there's anything in It, do you?" Dina asked him. " mean, anything to do with what that awful little man was saying?" "Of course not," he answered -We shall find at the Inquest that some roving tramp killed Kerr to steal his savings." "Tramps!" she said: She was city bred, and distrusted remote places 'There are always tramps, aren't there ?" "They won't worry us. We shall have a house filled with people, and there'll be gardeners and workers Also this is my great surprise I'm takiug a year off from business. I can afford it." (TO BE CONTINUED.) |