OCR Text |
Show nl IF II 1 IP 9 By GEO niilES WILLiniilE Ben Ames WUUamt. SYNOPSIS Barbara Sentry, seeking to sober up her escort, Johnnie Boyd, on the way home from a party, slaps him, and attracts at-tracts the attention of a policeman, whom the boy knocks down. As he arrests him. Professor Brace of Harvard comes to the rescue and drives Barbara home. On the way they see Barbara's father driving from the direction of his office at 12:45, but when he gets home he tells his wife it is 11:15 and that he's been playing bridge at the club. Next day Sentry reports his office has been robbed and a Miss Wines, former temporary tem-porary employee, killed. The evening papers luridly confirm the story, and Sentry takes it hard. Mary, elder daughter, daugh-ter, in love with Neil Ray, young interne at the hospital where she works, goes off to dinner at Gus Loran's, Sentry's partner, with Mrs. Loran's brother, Jimmy Jim-my Endle. Mr. and Mrs. Sentry call on old Mrs. Sentry, and Barbara, alone, receives Dan Fisher, reporter, who ad-vises ad-vises her not to talk. Phil Sentry, son at Yale, is disturbed at the possible implications im-plications and suspicion of Miss Wines' absence from her rooms for three days during August. He goes home to help. Sentry is arrested and booked for murder. mur-der. Dan Fisher explains the evidence against him that the robbery was a lake, the safe opened by one who knew the combination, changed since Miss Wines' employment there that a back door key, a duplicate of Sentry's, was found in the girl's purse, and that Sentry, Sen-try, too, had been away those three days In August. Brace calls, and backs up Barbara in her denial that Sentry could have done it, because of the discrepancy of time between the slaying and their . seeing Sentry on the road. Phil, showing show-ing the police over the house, finds his .'strong box open and his gun, which only his father knew of, gone. Meanwhile, Mean-while, the police find the stolen money burned in the furnace. Mrs. Sentry sees her husband, who swears his Innocence, and tells her he had known of the robbery rob-bery and murder the night before, but failed to call the police, and came home at 12:30. Mary quarrels with Neil Ray, and runs away with Jimmy Endle to the Caribbean. Linda Dane, friend of Barbara Bar-bara and Phil, tries to comfort Phil. Falkran, noted criminal lawyer retained, Inspires hope but not admiration. Dan Fisher, whom Barbara has been meeting meet-ing at her grandmother's, tries to use influence to keep the family out of the papers, and everyone shields Barbara, on the verge of a breakdown, CHAPTER VI Continued 15 One day when Brace was to meet Barbara at her grandmother's for tea, and arrived before the girl, the old woman spoke to him of Barbara's Bar-bara's condition, said stoutly: "I wish someone would marry her and take her away from here! She can't stand much more. She hasn't the strength to go through all this. She shouldn't have to do it!" He dissented gently. "People can't shirk such things. Barbara's sister did, I know; but she will always al-ways regret it. We have to accept our burdens, our responsibilities. Face them squarely." She said grimly: "Maybe! No doubt you are a leyel-headed young man, but I suspect you're too levelheaded level-headed for your own good!" He smiled tolerantly. "I'm sorry," sor-ry," he said. "But dear as Barbara Bar-bara has come to be to me I can't advise her to dodge or to evade." "Dear to you, is she?" "Very!" "Then marry her," the old woman wom-an counseled. "Sweep her off her feet. Marry her and take care of her." He said gravely: "I hope to, some day. But if I asked her now, she might come to me just to escape. I want her to come to me because she wants me." - "Fiddlesticks! If you want her, take her, on any terms at all." ""'" He shook his head. "I shall have to be a witness at the trial, you know," he confessed. "The District Attorney has warned me to be ready. Barbara need not know, yet; but if we were married, and then I testified, she would blame me, never nev-er forgive me." "Get out of the reach of a subpoena sub-poena while you can." "I can't do that. I've given my word!" "Pah! If you've the courage of a " But Barbara arrived, putting a period to their words; and after that Mrs. Sentry did not attempt him again. She found Dan Fisher more to her taste. Between these two something strong and binding had developed. He came to her often, even when Barbara was not there. Once he came dispirited, and she saw this and demanded, "What are you so down in the mouth about?" He grinned. "Been barking down a rat hole," he confessed, "and the rat wasn't at home." "Talk sense!" He hesitated. "Well, Linda Dane and I have been putting our heads together, trying to see some way out of this. I thought we had a lead. Old Mr. Wines, the dead girl's lather, told me that in her letters home the girl spoke of a man's havinn njsked her to dinner. I started start-ed to check on him." "Who was it?" "I can't very well" "Nonsense! I can keep my mouth shut when I choose." "Well, it was Mr. Loran." "Gus Loran?" She considered, nodded. "He's an eld goat," she agreed. "He never would have married mar-ried that Endle woman otherwise. Go on. What about him?" Dan Fisher said: "The thing looked possible at first. I found that Mr. Loran T;as away in August, at the same time Miss Wines was away. But that blew up. Two ways. It turned out that Loran was in Maine. I've talked with his guide. He has a camp on a lake up there. Flies up, flies his own plane. He was there." He added: "And Just to make sure, I checked on him for the night she was killed. We know what time she went to Mr. Sentry's office. of-fice. Mr. Loran boarded a New York train about the same time, went right to bed. The porter saw him in his pajamas a little after eleven; and the porter's sure Loran didn't get off the train after that" She demanded, "Why couldn't Miss Wines have been in Maine too?" "Guide says, No." "Maybe he's lying." "Didn't seem like a liar." "Maybe she was near there. Maybe May-be he flew over to where she was." He hesitated, and she said sharply, sharp-ly, "Speak up, man!" "Miss Wines wasn't In Maine," he said reluctantly. "They've found where Miss Wines was. She was at a hotel in New Jersey." The old woman's fingers twitched, her eyes closed, then opened again, shrewd and keen. She said in a ing she interrupted their discussion to say: "Phil, tell me truly, do you think father killed her?" He was shocked into silence for a moment; countered then, "Gosh, Barb, what do you take me for?" "Do you?" she insisted. "No, of course not." "I read all the newspapers," she said. ''If he didn't, how could all the things they say be true?" He said: "But you haven't read father's side of it, Barb. Wait till he tells his story." "What is his story, Phil?" "Why, he doesn't know anything about it at all." She looked away from him. "Phil, shall we all have to testify?" "Not mother," Phil replied. "Probably not any of us." He added: add-ed: "Mother can testify if she wants to, though. She probably will if he wants her to." "I won't!" "Well, if he wants us to " "I won't!" she repeated tensely, eyes still averted. "No matter who wants me to. I won't! I'll cut out my tongue first." Her voice shook, and he said: "Whoa, Barb! You're scared. "Why Couldn't Miss Wines Have Been in Maine Too?" low tone: "You're not looking at me. I suppose Arthur was with her?" He nodded. He said miserably: "But it's Barbara that gets me! She'll have to go through it alL the trial, everything. She may even have to testify! I wish I could marry mar-ry her, get her out of this." "In love with her, are you?" "Yes!" She demanded, "Then why don't you?" Dan looked at her quickly, and he colored, and then he chuckled. "You're a girl after my own heart!" he declared. "I'd do it in a minute if she'd have me but I can't!" "Why not?" "Money," he confessed. "And this is the only job I've got. If I could land a promise of a job somewhere some-where else But these are tough times in the newspaper game." "I'll finance you." He grinned, shook his head. "Easy come, easy go," he reminded remind-ed her. "I've never been able to hold on to money unless I earned it myself." He added: "But I'd like to find some way to keep her out of this. Keep her out of the trial, anyway. any-way. Why don't, you take her away yourself, to Europe or somewhere?" The old woman said quietly, "The next trip I take, I shall have to go alone, Dan." He met her eyes honestly, without with-out denial. "This must have hit you hard," he assented "The shock, the worry, the uncertainty." She said, half to herself: "There's no uncertainty. I've accepted that It's more Ellen's fault than his, perhaps. per-haps. She shut him out of her life long ago. He had to turn somewhere. some-where. Yet I don't mean to blame her. At least she went on living with him. This is hard on her; but it may change her, soften her." She added: "Yet he is my son! Whatever he has done!" Dan's eyes filled. He gripped her hand. She said with a sudden faint smile: "Professor Brace thinks it's Barbara's duty to see it through. I judge you don't agree?" He shook his head. "Lord love you, no!" And his eyes began to blaze. "Sometimes Brace " Then he checked himself. "I wish I could take her away!" So in these days all their solicitude solici-tude cams more and more to center cen-ter upon Barbara. Phil sought in every way to cheer her; and as Christmas approached he tried to enlist her interest in planning some holiday observance that could be endured. They were in her room one night. Barbara abed, Phil sitting sit-ting beside her while they groped for iome device, when with no warn There's nothing to be scared of!" She looked furtively all around. "Phil," she whispered, "do they know for sure when Miss Wines was killed? The papers said at first someone heard the shot a little past one, but Mr. Hare said they think maybe she was killed earlier." Phil hesitated. "I don't think they're sure, Barbara. But it wasn't a shot that man heard. They've found a truck that backfired back-fired about that time." And he said: "They know when Miss Wines ate dinner; and they know about how long it takes food to digest, so they go by that, partly; and partly by well, things doctors look for." "What time do they think she was killed?" He did not answer; and she whispered: "Phil, father got home that night at quarter of one. I told Dan Fisher, and Dan told me not to tell anyone, but I had already told Mr. Flood." Her voice rose, was shrill. "I won't tell it again, PhiL Never! I won't! They can't make mel" He took her, haking, in his arms, intent to comfort her. "You won't hava ,to, Barb. I won't let them botbir you." She clung to bim. "I'll cut out my tongue first." "Don't get so excited, Barbl" "But why did Dan tell me not to tell, Phil?" Phil said almost sternly: "Now listen, Barb! Quit worrying! It's all right. What do you read the papers for anyway? Where do you get them?" "In at grandmother's," she confessed. con-fessed. "I have to, Phil. No one ever tells me anything, and I have to know what's going on." And she cried desperately: "Phil, I won't tell! They can't make me, can they?" He evaded answering. "Say, you're doing a great Job on grandmother, grand-mother, Barb," he said. "You surely sure-ly take a load off mother and me. Of course, we miss you at home, but someone has to be with her. Is 1 she all right? Is there anything she wants?" And the shot at random was sue- I cessful. "Yes, there is," Barbara remembered. "She told me to tell you, she wants to see Mr. Falkran!" Falk-ran!" Phil seized on this. "Sure!" he cried. "I'll get in touch with him; we'll take him in to see her this afternoon. Right away." And the enterprise at once engaged en-gaged them. Barbara went in town to make her grandmother ready; and when at half-past two Phil appeared ap-peared with the lawyer, the old woman received him In state, sitting sit-ting very erect in her great chair. But at once she sent Phil and Barbara Bar-bara out of the room, and when they were alone she asked Falkran questions, watched him, studied him. He suggested at last, "You haven't been to see Mr. Sentry." "No." "He asks often for you," Falkran told her. "I shall be glad to tell him I have seen you so hale and welL" She eyed him shrewdly. "You want me to go see him?" "I know It would help him," he admitted. "Then I will," she promised, In a curiously submissive tone. "The first fine day." "Splendid!" he said, beaming. "If you do, Mrs. Sentry, I guarantee everything else." Old Mrs. Sentry tried to carry out her promise to see her son. "But I shall want to be with Arthur alone," she said, then added: "Yet I'd like for you for all of you to ride down with me, wait for me outside. My courage Is good, but I'm not as strong as I used to be." They waited for a fair day, but that winter in Boston was a bitter one. Not till the first week of February, Feb-ruary, on the eve of the approaching approach-ing trial, did the season serve. Then came a day when spring seemed just around the corner, and the sun shone warm. Old Eli brought the ancient limousine. Barbara and the nurse helped Mrs. Sentry dress; Phil and Barbara steadied her to the elevator and down and into the car. She sat between Barbara and Mrs. Sentry, Phil on the small tip-up tip-up seat in 'front of them. They drove through scant mid-afternoon traffic to the jail; and the old woman's wom-an's cheeks shone bright and brighter, bright-er, flushed and hot, and Barbara saw a pulse pound in her thin throat. But she could not when the time came, go in. As the car stopped, she collapsed suddenly, not falling, not even toppling sidewise, but just shrinking down into herself so that she was small. Even their untrained eyes saw that she was ill; that this was not faint-heartedness. In a sudden sud-den terror, uncertain what to do, Phil and Barbara stammered and fumbled; but Mrs. Sentry said steadily: "We'll have to take her home. It was too much for her." They all stayed in town that night with her; for the doctor had forewarned fore-warned them. Once the old woman spoke, in a surprisingly strong voice. She said: "Tell Arthur I loved him." And she added, with' no irony in her tones, "And tell Mr. Falkran I hope he can use this just as welL" Her death, toward dawn, made headlines. "Sentry's Mother Stricken Strick-en at Jail," said the morning paper. pa-per. "Mrs. Sentry Dead on Eve of Trial," said the afternoon editions. Her funeral occurred on Saturday, two days before the trial was to begin. be-gin. The brief and premature warm spell had ended in a blizzard that clogged traffic. They followed her to the cemetery between banked walls of snow. (TO BE CONTINUED) |