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Show ': ' ' ' ii j The House of Whispers ij By WILLIAM JOHNSTON Ij li I Copyright y Little, BrowD A Co. li "I AM IN TROUBLE." SynoTJftii- Circumstances having preveaiel Spalding Nelson, clerk, from joining the American forces going to Fiance, he is In a despondent de-spondent mood when he receives an Invitation to dinner from his great-uncle, Rufus Gaston. On the way to the house he meets, under peculiar circumstances, a young girl, apparently In trouble, to whom he has an opportunity to be of slight service. She lives in the same apartment building as Rufus Gaston, Gas-ton, and he accompanies her to the house. Gaston and his wife are going go-ing to Maine for a trip and want to leave- Kelson in charge of the apartment. He accepts. Gaston and his wife tell their great-nephew of mysterious noises "whispers" which (hey have heard In the house. On his way to the Gastun apartment the next Sunday Nelscjn again meets his accidental acquaintance ac-quaintance of a few days before. Barbara Bradford. She tiroes him not to allow the fact of their being be-ing acquainted to be known. At the apartment Nelson meets the superintendent, "Wick and instinctively instinc-tively dislikes him. In a wall sare he finds a necklace of magnificent pearls, worth a email fortune. Meeting Barbara In the hallway she passes him without recognition. Dining in a restaurant he is conscious con-scious of the unpleasant scrutiny of a stranger, but a man whom he had seen before. Next day Nelson Nel-son finds the pearls have disappeared disap-peared from the wall safe. His first idea of informing the police Is not acted upon because of peculiar pe-culiar circumstances. He has been discharged from his position without with-out adequate explanation or reason, and feels himself Involved In something some-thing of a mystery. He decides to conduct an Investigation himself. CHAPTER III. Continued. 1 I dined in a little restaurant In one of the side streets and walked home. Immediately on entering the apartment apart-ment I decided to put my money in the wall safe. There would he less temptation for me to spend it if I carried only a little In my pocket. As I opened the safe hy means of the combination I made the astounding astound-ing discovery that one of the jewel cases had disappeared. And now I stood hesitating at the telephone. Self-prolection bade me ootify neither the superintendent nor the police. Yet I must do something. The jewels entrusted to my care had been stolen. Tlfe thief must be found and the pearls recovered. Why should not I myself play the detectivo? I had abundant leisure ' now. My great-uncle had informed me that there was something wrong In the house and had charged me to discover what it was. Here was the opportunity for me to fulfill the trust he had imposed on me. The thmght flashed across my mind, too, that perhaps the crafty old gentleman gen-tleman had delibeiTiUMy planned the disappearance of the gems. Perhaps he had devised an elaborate test to see if I was honest, If I was of tin! right caliber to be his heir. Mayhe he and his wife had not gone to Jlaine at all. They might even be quartered in another apartment In this very house, surreptitiously entering when they knew I was absent. There really real-ly had been no necessity for them to give me the combination of the safe. They need not have told me anything about the pearls. I wondered If they themselves might not have taken away the jewel box just to see if I would discover the loss and to ascertain what I wonld do about It. Another theory suggested Itself. My aunt evidently prized her jewels highly. high-ly. After they had started she might havr; repented having left them behind and have sent the old colored butler back to get them. lie of course would have a key to admit him, and they would have supplied f.z.' with the safe; combination, '.)s"y had me. Probably he had been told to leave some message for nie and had forgotten forgot-ten to do so. More than likely In a day or two I wonld receive a letter from old Rufus that would explain everything. I was glad r.ow I had not notified the superintendent not tkf police. My second theory surely w-as far more logical log-ical than the first. It seemed prepoa -terous that they wonld risk hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of gems just to test my honesty. Still. I determined to make s thorough thor-ough investigation. If Ihey had been stolen. I would set about in a scientific scien-tific way to discover the method of tlie theft and to bring about restoration. restora-tion. I would keep my Investigation secret, and if it tifneil out that the pearls were safe, no one would know of my fright about the matter. I began be-gan outlining my work as a detective. Kirst. I would examine the safe kn.tb for possible finger prints. Second. I would infrroL'nte Mrs. Parke. I vti!d watch her carefully for any appearance of guilt. I would j try. without amusing her suspicions, j to nrmain if slm had let her key out of her possession. I Third. I would insert an advertSe- ntent offerius a rewnrd for the re:urn of the jew-elv so worked that onlr tlie ' thief and inrs,.';f wouM ui('lers;:i:i.l. I Fourth, I would try to h.c.vo the Hasjons and w.v:U qi.e:;,,n t).P (-all beys and tel. hone -;ri as to whether j they 1::rt rr-p-1 : i i;s'y r.'in-nH. i l'ifili. I rt::t try and i.n,v.t what j vv:is -;n r -. v-;,.:-er ;h:it Kid I VJ - nv .. I.;.-.-.-. V.-i.:!c :!iis did not seem to have any connection with the other affairs that were troubling me, If I was to remain in New York and become better acquainted with Barbara Bradford, as I fondly hoped, I meant to have nothing banging over me. I was about to get Into bed, had turned out the light, In fact, when I recalled the errand that had led nie to open the wall safe. I had tayire than two hundred dollars In my trousers pocket and I purposed putting It where It would be safe. With the feeling that if the jewels had disappeared, disap-peared, so might my money, I pressed the light button in the sitting room and looked about for a hiding place. Recalling' a custom of my mother's, I stepped over to the bookcase and taking tak-ing a Maeaulay's History, Volume Three, from the shelf, placed between the leaves all of my money except fifteen dollars. No burglar was likely to find It there. I extinguished the light and In the darkness stepped back Into my bedroom, bed-room, and stopped stock still. From somewhere in the room there came three distinct taps. Instinctively Instinctive-ly I crouched In an attitude of self-defense self-defense and strained my ears to listen. My first impression was that there was someone In the room, probably the burglar. I hesitated about turning turn-ing on the light. If he were armed It would give him all the advantage. Breathlessly I listened. Once more there came three distinct raps, Ihis time apparently from somewhere outside out-side the room. I wondered If It had been sounds like these that had so terrified ter-rified the old couple. Perhaps It was the echo of someone pounding in another apartment, the noise being carried along by a water pipe. The thought that It might be the crackling of some hidden steam or refrigerating pipe suggested Itself. Both these theories I rejected. The sound, whatever it was, had originated close at hand. It came again. This time I was certain cer-tain that it was not due to footfalls as I had at first conjectured. I was able, too, to locate more closely the direction from which It came. The window at the foot of the bed stood open, and the sound seemed to float in from somewhere outside. I hurried over to the window and thrust my head out. At first I could see nothing, noth-ing, hut even as I looked a white arm yj$3 Iff ir f .Read It I Stood There Aghast. thrust forth from an adjacent window on the same floor. It held a riding crop and reaching out as far as was possible It rapped three times on the sill f my window. It dawned on me at once that the window next must belong to the Bradford Brad-ford apartment. It must be Miss Bradford trying to signal to me: "Hello." I called out softly. "Oh, Is that you. Mr. Nelson?" a relieved re-lieved voice whispered. "I thought you would never hear. I must see you." "Why didn't you phone me?" "I couldn't. Someone might hear me." "What's the matter?" "I've had another letter." "From those men In the park?" "I suppose so." "Tell me about It." "I can't now. Can you meet me somew here tomorrow?" "Wherever you say." "Do you ride?" "Yes. indeed." "I'll be in the cross lane that lends from Mefowan's Pass tavern between eiht and eiL-ht-thirty." "I'll he there." Whether or not she heard me I did not know. She withdrew quickly from the room as if peaieene had entered. en-tered. I waited there In the window for a fall hour in case she ciinu'l wish to communicate wi'h mo ai-ain. By and by the liejit In her window was extitiL-uihed. hut even then I snt there at the window a.ljoiiiinr. hopii! j in vain that she would s-.-. k to rer.ew-the rer.ew-the com ersa t n. When at last I got Into bed I wR In 8 JoMlsnt n:o.-.d. I had qijlte f..r- i given M'ss Bradford for nittln: me when she TiTe! rriO In c. c:i j ,:i ny vrh her ; bu-;!it isn.J sS-er. It w as pr..t!-b for me to know that when trouble again threatened her she had decided to trust In me and had sought my aid. I fell asleep at last and slept for I do not know how long. Opening my eyes in the darkness I seemed to feel the presence of someone in the room. There was the sound of footfalls some-where some-where muffled, seemingly some distance dis-tance off. I was almost certain I could detect muttered words. In a curious detached state of mind I listened, list-ened, wondering whether I was awake or asleep. The footsteps seemed to come closer, then recede. The whispering whis-pering noise ceased. I sprang up, and hastily lighting up all the rooms, explored ex-plored them thoroughly. There was no evidence anywhere of anyone's presence. As I lay there thinking about It, I decided that my Illusion must have been a dream, due to my thought of spirit rapplngs when I first had heard Miss Bradford's signal. I was still thinking about my experience expe-rience when I awoke early the next morning. Springing lightly out of bed, I stopped In utter bewilderment. There, In the center of the room on the floor lay a small white folded slip of paper. It could not have been a dream, after all. I had heard footsteps foot-steps and whispers. I had not Imagined Imag-ined It. Someone had been In the room while I slept. There was the proof, the note they had dropped. Wondering If Miss Bradford had found still another unusual way of communicating with me I hastened to pick up the folded paper that lay on Oie floor. On the outside It bore my name, in typewriting, "Mr. Spalding Nelson." With eager fingers I unfolded the paper, wondering what message It contained. con-tained. As I read it, I stood there, aghast. It ran : "Why didn't you tell the police about the pearls?" CHAPTER IV. I had twice traversed the cross lane near McGowan's Tass tavern waiting for Barbara Bradford. Although It had been my Intention to ride thllher I was amazed to learn on applying at two of the stables near the park entrance en-trance to hire a horse that the few they had there either were owned privately pri-vately or had been already engaged. There was nothing for me to do but to go to my rendezvous on foot. I had almost despaired ot jiiss uratiiorus coming when I spied her cantering slowly along the lane, followed at, a decorous distance by a groom. She was looking right and left and when she saw me her face brightened but she rode a few steps past me with no sign of recognition. I was wondering what to make of this new slight when she suddenly reined In and allowed the groom to come up with her. "James," I heard her say to the groom, "my bead aches, and Hie riding rid-ing Is making it worse. Take the horses hack to the slable, and I will walk the rest of the way home." "Very well, Miss Bradford," he said, touching his cap, as he assisted her to alight. She waited until he had vanished and then hastened to the bench where I was seated, one I had purposely selected se-lected because It was half hidden by a turn In the road and the branches of a wide-spreading tree. She colored vividly as I rose to greet her with outstretched hand. "Oh. Mr. Nelson," she cried. "I don't know what you will think of me. asking ask-ing you to meet me here. I am In trouble. I must tell someone. I don't know what to do !" "The only thing to do," I suggested, "is to begin at the beginning and tell me the whole story. I've sisters of my own. Just pretend you are one of my sisters and let nie help you." She looked at me thoughtfully, studying nie as If questioning whether wheth-er or not I was to be trusted, and apparently ap-parently deciding in the allirmatlve, told me on amazing story. "It's all about my sister, Claire," she began. -'She's five years older than I. She's a lovely girl, but she's that is, she used to he impulsive, romantic, roman-tic, md headstrong. She and my mother never got along well together, and she was sent away to boarding school, fine winter. It was six years ago, mother was in Kurnpe and only Dad and I were at home . . ." She sighed sadly. F.vident ly her words were bringing back to her moments mo-ments of heartache. 'To make a long story short. Claire ran away from the school and married mar-ried married a French chauffeur em-pluyed em-pluyed by a family in the neighborhood. neighbor-hood. She took me into her confidence confi-dence a week later, and I well. I told dad. There was a terrible time about It all. I'ad found out that l.er hus. hand was alrendy married, had a wife and child right here in this city. lie had the i:i;i rria L'e aniiunorj ;,nd man-tiL-ed to keep .v!.ry:!i;r.e oat of the ,.,. pM-s. He threatene.l Chore's Im-lchd wi:h prh on and made l,i;u go h:ol; to !Fr:::ice. I ;"! was sin.j.' v woclorfi:!. No er:e J:ne'.v an;,'! a!io;:t M-T.rc' ( :, e-..e-.f en' the J.;-;:i. I eip.-,! of the i : o.. and the ;,.;,!;,. I 'jown ;n ii . iU it,-;i,:y, v Ut (!.!. .. ) the marriage annulled. Dad kept mother moth-er abroad until after It was all over, and to this day she never has heard a word about It." "Your father must be a wonderful man." I said enthusiastically. "He was," she said simply. "He hag been dead two years." "Oh, I'm so sorry," I cried, " I did not know." "If Dad were alive he would know what to do. You see, when he died, there was not much money left. We're really little better than paupers. We've been living from day to day on our tiny capital, and Mother has been working every wire to arrange a good match for Claire. I wanted to do something, to go out and earn a living for myself, but she never would consent. con-sent. She insisted I'd he damaging Claire's prospects If I went Into trade, as she calls it, and I promised her I'd do nothing until after Claire Is safely married." "And Is she to be married?" I asked. A troubled expression came Into her face. "She was to be, but now I don't know. She Is engaged to marry young Harry D. Thayer, who Is worth a lot of money, but someone has found out about her secret." "How did they find out?" I asked eagerly. I understood now the mysterious myste-rious meeting In the park that bad brought me first into touch with Barbara Bar-bara Bradford. Some band of rascals was trying to blackmail Claire Bradford, Brad-ford, and her sister was trying to save, her. "That's the greatest mystery of all," exclaimed Miss Bradford. "Before Dad died he turned over to me all the papers about the annulment of Claire's marriage. Somehow he seemed to rely on me far more than on either Mother or Claire, lie explained to me the Importance of always keeping them, In case the past should ever crop up, but he charged me to see that they always were safely put away where no one could find them." "Where did you keep them?" I asked. "In the wall safe In my sitting room." "In the wall safe!" I cried, thinking think-ing In bewilderment of the coincidence coinci-dence that these papers should have had a similar hiding place to the (las-ton (las-ton jewels which hed vanished so strangely. "Yes," she answered, plainly puzzled at my bewilderment. "It was an excellent ex-cellent hiding place. No one but myself my-self had the combination. I don't see now who could have taken them. I found the safe locked as It always was." "When did you first discover tho papers pa-pers were missing?" "Lot me see," she pondered. "Claire's engagement w-as announced at a dinner three weeks ago last Thursday. The newspapers on Sunday Sun-day carried a brief notice of It. Two days later the first note came." "What note?" She reached Info the pocket of her riding habit and drew forth a folded slip of paper. "I brought It with me to show yon; here, this Is the first one." Like the mysterious nolo I myself had received only the preceding niuht, this one was not Inclosed In an envelope. en-velope. It was just a folded slip, addressed ad-dressed In typewriting to "Miss Claire Bradford." On Ihe other side was this message : "What If Thayer knew about your being married before? How much will you give to get tho'o paper back?" "Where ditl you get this?" I asked. "I found It on the floor of my hod-room hod-room one morning when I got up late. I gave It to my sister without Having read It, thinking she htid dropped it there. She read It ami screaiiietl and fainted. Fortunately Mother was out of the bouse fit Ihe time. Nat orally t read the note Ihen. I went to the safe ami found the documents gone. Claire has been nearly crazy o er since. She Insists that It Is all n;y fault. She says I ought to h-.ivo destroyed de-stroyed the papers, but I couldn't, could I?" "Of course not." I replied v. rr 'aly. "You did quite right In keepiM:: them. It w as not your fault they v. ere Stolen." ' "I couldn't destroy them. Dud had top nie to keep Ihein," she said simply. "What did you do then? Did yon tell your mother?'' Earbara has heard the whi3pers, too. ci i j Hi-; t us 1 1 : I. i-.i |