| Show TIC THIC CIRCULAR STAIRCASE M s A jaax sj mary y A A u ay iviry k v ic T SYNOPSIS niles innes inne v and guardian of gertrude amt u I 1 bals y established summer headquarters headquarter i at Sunny sunnyside Sunn side amidst nu mere nicrola us the servants ser vanta As an miss innes finneg locked up for or the night she ehe was startled by a dark figure on the alie veranda she parsert a terrible night which was tilled filled with unseemly noises CHAPTER II 11 continued theres going to t o be a death 1 she walled wailed oh miss hachel theres therea going to bo be a deatel doii there will be I 1 bald grimly it if you dont keep quiet liddy allen alien and so wo we sat there until morning wondering it the candle would last until dawn and arranging what trains we could take back to town if we had only stuck to that decision and gone back before it was too late the sun bun came cama finally and from my w window I 1 watched the trees along the drive take shadowy lorca form gradually lose their ghostlike appearance become gray and then green the greenwood club showed itself a dab of white against the hill bill across the valley and an early robin or two hopped around in the dow dew not until the milk boy and the sun eun came about the same time did I 1 de dare to open the door into the hall and look around everything was as we had left it trunks were heaped here and there ready for the trunk room and through tin an end window of stained glass came a streak of red and yellow daylight that was eminently cheerful the milk boy was pounding somewhere below and the day had bad begun thomas johnson came ambling up tip the drive about half past six and wo we could hear bear him clattering around on the lower floor opening shutters I 1 had lo 10 take liddy to her room upstairs however she was quite sure r she he would find something uncanny in fact when she did not having now the courage of daylight she was actually disappointed well wo we did not go back to town that hat day I 1 warned liddy not to mention what had happened to anybody and telephoned to town for servants then after a breakfast which did more credit to thomas heart than his head I 1 went on a short tour of investigation the sounds had come from the east wing and not hot without some qualms I 1 began there at first I 1 found nothing since then I 1 have developed my m y powers ot of observation but at that time I 1 was a novice the small seemed undisturbed I 1 looked for footprints which Is ie I 1 believe the conventional vent ional thing to do although my experience has haa been that as clews both footprints and thumb marks are more useful in fiction than in fact hut but the stairs in that wing offered something at the top of the flight had been placed a tall wicker hamper packed with linen that had come from town it stood at the edge of the top step almost barring passage and on the step below it was a long fresh scratch ratch Bc for three steps the scratch was repeated gradually diminishing as it some object had bad fallen striking each one then tor for tour four steps nothing on the fifth step below was a round dent la in the hard wood that was all and it seemed little enough except that I 1 was positive the marks had not been there the day before it bore out my theory of the sound which had been for all the world like the bumping of a metallic object down a flight of steps the four steps had been skipped I 1 reasoned that an iron bar for instance would do something of the sort strike two or three steps end down then turn over lumping jumping a few stairs and landing with a thud iron bars however do not fall downstairs down stairs in the middle of at the night alone coupled with the ho figure on oil the veranda the agency by which it climbed might bo be assumed hut but and hero was the thing that puzzled me most the doors boora were all fastened that morning the windows unmolested and tho the particular door from the card room to the verinda veranda had a corn com lock of which abic h I 1 held tho the key and which had not been tampered with I 1 fixed on an attempt at burglary as the most natural explanation an attempt frustrated by the falling failing of tho the object whatever it was waa that had roused me two things I 1 could not understand how the intruder had escaped with everything locked and why he had loft left the small sliver silver which in tho the absence of a butler had remained downstairs over night in the afternoon a hack came up from casanova with a fresh relay of servants the dilver took them with a flourish to the servants entrance and drove around to tho the front of 0 tile house where I 1 was awaiting him two dollars he said in reply to my question 1 I dont charge full rates because br braingin ingin em up all summer as I 1 do it pays to make a special price when they got on off tile the crali I 1 aez aez 1 I theres another bunch tor for Sunny sunnyside side cook parlor mald maid and all desm six bummers summers and a new lot never less than once a mantl they wont stand for the country and the lonesomeness I 1 rec kol hut with the presence ot of the I 1 1 I was wag roused by a revolver shot bunch of oc servants my courage revived and late in the afternoon came a message front from gertrude that she and halsey would arrive that night at about 11 coming in the car from neld things were looking up lip and when beulah my cat a most intelligent animal found some early catnip on a bank near the house and rolled in it in a feline ecstasy I 1 decided that getting back to nature was the thing to do while I 1 was dressing for dinner liddy rapped at the door she was hardly herself yet but privately I 1 think she was worrying about the broken mirror and its augury more than aily anything thing else when she came in she W was as holding something in her hand and she laid it on the dressing table carefully 1 I found it in the linen hamper she said it must be mr Ilal but it seems queer how it got there it was the half of a link cuff button of unique design and I 1 looked at 10 it carefully where was it in the bottom of the hamper I 1 asked on the very top she replied its a mercy amerce it fall out on the way when liddy had bad gone I 1 examined the fragment attentively I 1 had never seen it before and I 1 was certain it was not Ifal it was of italian workmanship and consisted of a mother of pearl foundation encrusted with tiny seed pearls strung on horsehair to hold them in the center was a small ruby the trinket was odd enough but not intrinsically of great value its interest for me lay in this liddy had found it lying in the top of 0 the hamper which had blocked the east wing stairs that afternoon the armstrongs housekeeper a youngish good looking woman applied for mrs ralstone Hal Rals stona tons place and I 1 was glad enough to take cpr she looked as though sho she might be equal to a dozen of 0 liddy with her snapping black eyes and heavy jaw iler her name was anne watson and I 1 dined that evening for the first time in three days CHAPTER III mr john bailey appears I 1 had dinner served in the breakfast room somehow the huge lining dining room depressed me and thomas cheerful enough all day allowed his spirits to go down with the sun ile iio had it a habit of watching the corners of oc the room left shadowy by tho the candies on the table and altogether it was not a festive meal dinner over I 1 went into the living room I 1 had three hours before tho the children could possibly arrive and I 1 got out my knitting the chug of 0 the automobile as it climbed the hill was the most welcome sound bound I 1 had heard for or a long time and with gertrude find actually before me my troubles doubles seemed over for good gertrude tood rood smiling in the hall with her ha quite julto over one and her hair in i vry v ry direction under her pink veil oer ger trudo is a very pretty girl no matter how her hat Is and I 1 was not surprised when halsey presented a good looking young man mail who bowed at mo me and looked at trude that la is tho the ridiculous nickname gertrude brought from school 1 I tavo have brought a guest aunt ray halsey said 1 I want you to adopt him into your affections and your sat arday to monday hat let me present john dalley bailey only you must call him jack in 12 hours holl hell bo be calling you aunt arntt I 1 know him I 1 we shook hands and I 1 got a chanco chance to look at sir air natley dalley he was a tall fel fellow low perhaps ps 30 and he be wore a small mustache I 1 remember wondering why he seemed to have hae a good mouth and when he be smiled his teeth were above the average one never knows why certain nien men cling to 0 o a messy upper lip that must get gel into things any more than one understands some women building up their hair on wire atrocities aties otherwise to he ha was very good to look it at stalwart and tanned with ith the direct gaze that I 1 like I 1 am particular about mr bailey because he was a prominent fig ure in what happened later gertrude was tired with the trip and went up to bed very soon I 1 made up my mind to tell them nothing until the next day and then to make as light ot of our excitement as possible after all what had I 1 to tell tella an inquisitive face peering in at a window a crash la in the night a scratch or two on the stairs and half a cuff button As tor for thomas and his forebodings it was always my belief that a negro is one part thief one part pigment and the rest superstition supe istl it was saturday night the two men went to the billiard room and I 1 could hear them talking as I 1 went up stairs it seemed that halsey had stopped at tile the greenwood club for casolene ga solene and found jack dailey bailey there with the sunday golf crowd air ifal but ley had not been hard to persuade probably gertrude knew why and they had carried him off triumphantly I 1 roused loused liddy to get them something to eat thomas was beyond reach in the lodge and paid no attention to her hei evident terror of 0 the kitchen regions then I 1 went to bed the men were still in the billiard room when I 1 finally dozed off and the last thing I 1 tern remember ember was the howl of a dog in front of the house it walled wailed a crescen crescendo doof of woe that ti trailed ailed off hopefully only to break out afresh from a new point ot of the compass at three 0 clock in the morning I 1 was roused by a revolver volver le shot tile the sound seemed to come from just outside my door for a moment I 1 could not move then 1 I heard gertrude stirring in her room and the next rao moment ment she had open the connecting door 0 aunt hay aunt hay she cried hysterically some same one has been kil hilled ledl thieves I 1 said shortly thank goodness there are some men in the house tonight to night I 1 was getting into my slippers and a bathrobe bath robe and gertrude with shaking hands handa was lighting ti a lamp then we opened the door into the hall where crowded on the upper landing of the stairs the maids white faced and trembling were peering down headed by liddy I 1 was greeted by a series of low screams and questions and I 1 tried to vilet inlet thern them gertrude had dropped on oil a chair and sat eat there limp and salv shivering I 1 went at once across the hall to room and knocked then I 1 pushed the door open it was cripi y the bed had not been occupied ile ho must be in mr Dai baileys leys room 1 I 1 said excitedly and followed by liddy we went there lite like Ilal lial it had not been occupied I 1 gertrude was on her feo now but she leaned against tile the door for support they have hava been killed she gasped then she caught me by the arin ami and dragged rib toward the stairs they rhey may only be hurt and we must ona find them she said her eyes dilated with excitement I 1 dont remember how we got down the stairs I 1 do remember expecting every moment to bo be killed the cook was waa at the telephone upstairs calling the greenwood club and liddy was waa I behind mo me afraid to come and not daring to stay behind we found the living room and too the drawing room undisturbed somehow I 1 felt that whatever we found would be in the or on the staircase lind and nothing but tile the fear that flint halsey was in danger drove me on with every stop step my knees seemed to give way under me gertrude was ahead and lu lif the she he stopped holding her candle candie high then she pointed silently to the doorway into the hall ball beyond huddled there on the floor face down with his arms extended was a mail gelaude Gel rude ran forward with a gasping ng sob jack she cried oh jack I 1 liddy had run screaming and the two of us were there alone it was waa gertrude who turned him over finally until we could see his white face and then she drew a deep breath and dropped limply to her knees it was the body of a man a gentleman in a dinner coat and white waistcoat stained now with blood the tha body of a man I 1 had bad never seen before CHAPTER IV where Is halsey gertrude gazed at the face in a kind ot of fascination then she put out her hands blindly and I 1 thought she was going to faint lie ile has killed him she muttered almost inarticulately and at that because my nerves were going I 1 gave her a good shake what do you mean I 1 said frantically there was a depth of grief and conviction in her tone that was worse than anything she could have said the shake braced her anyhow and she seemed to pull herself together hut but not another word ifould she say she stood gazing down at that gruesome figure on the floor while liddy ashamed of her flight and afraid to come back drove before her three t ht ee terrified women servants servant into tile the drawing room which was a us near as any of them would venture once in the drawing room loom gertrude collapsed and went vent from one fainting spell into another I 1 had all I 1 could do to keep liddy from drowning her with cold water and the maids huddled in a corner as much use as so 8 a many sheep in a short time although it seemed hours a car came rushing up and anne anna watson who had walto to dress opened the door three me mel from the greenwood green club in all kin of costumes cosi hurried in I 1 recognized a 1 mr ir jarvis but the others strangers wrong the jarvis man asked and we made a strange picture no doubt nobody hurt Is there therea lie he was looking at gertrude Oer trudo worse than that mr jarvis I 1 said 1 I think it la is murder at the word woid there was a commotion the cook began to cry and mrs watson knocked over a chair the men were visibly impressed not a any ny me member M ber of the family sir air jarvis asked when lie he had got his bis breath no I 1 said and motioning liddy to look after gertrude I 1 led the wily way with a lamp to the door one of the men gave an all exclamation and they all hurried across the room mr jarvis took the lamp from me ine I 1 remember that and then feeling my spit getting dizzy and lightheaded light headed I 1 closed my eyes when I 1 opened them tile their I 1 r bri brief e f exa examination dal nat I 1 on was over oer and mr jarvis was trying to put me in a chair you must get upstairs he said firmly you and I 1 miss gertrude too this has haa been a terrible shock in a ills bis own honie home too I 1 stared staled at him without comprehension alio who is it I 1 asked with difficulty fi there seemed a band drawn tight around my throat it li Is arnold armstrong he said I 1 looking at me oddly and he has been murdered in his fathers house after a minute I 1 gathered myself together and mr jarvis helped me into the living room loom liddy had rot got ber gertrude trudo upstairs and the tha two s strange men from the club stayed with the body the reaction from the shock and strain was tremendous I 1 was collapsed and then mr jarvis asked me a question that brought back my wandering faculties facilities where Is halsey alscy Il he asked 1 absey Ilaf I I 1 sey suddenly gertrudes strick stricken eu face row rose |
