Show E LAP 5 V L jq fienny MARY 4 0 y flOS HT 4 oy BY twists P aa r W ft f SYNOPSIS innes spinster and guardian ru ardlan ot of gertrude aertrude and II alsey established summer bummer headquarters nt at amidst nil u bercum the berant deserted AS iniss innes locked up tor for the tha night she he aa d by a dark figure on tile the veranda unseemly noises disturbed disturb cl lier her luring the night in tile morning miss innes found a strange link cult cuff button in i hariper hamper gertrude anti and halsey arria arrived with jack dailey the tha house was wall awakened by a revolver shot and arnold arm strong was found shot to death in the hall flits innes found Ilal revolver on the lawn lown lie ile and jack ualies hail had dis appe areil the ille link cult button btitton mystery bously disappeared detective jamieson Jam leaon arrived gf gc artrude leveah d she he was engaged to jack 11 alley with whom she bho talked in the billiard room a few moments afore the murder jamieson Jam leson accused nw miss innas of holding back evidence ile he imprisoned an intruder in an empty ronn jonm the prisoner escaped down a laundry chute gertrude va BS suspected A negro found tile the other halt half f what proved to be jack balleys alleys ll cuff button halidy reappears and says finis lie ile and ball left in response to a telegram gertrude said bhe had given dailey bailey an unloaded revolver fearing to give five him a loaded weapon candit canhit r dailey bailey of paul arm prongs str onRa bank defunct was arrested tor for amb emb said armstrong Arm wre aked his hl own bank banic and could clear 13 bailey alley paul pail armstrongs death was an bounced loun ced Ilal seya fiancee ll fl ancee boio Io io arm aprong tron was waa found at the idge the said mid boulse and arnold had a long ions talk the of nt the murder lott lna ITI vas prostrated rouie told halscy thelt that wh atilla ae she he still loved him she was to marry another and that he would de depplar pise her when he ha learned tho the whole story CHAPTER XIV continued gertrude and halsey went for a long walk that afternoon and louise louisa slept time hung heavy on my hands bands and I 1 did as I 1 had fallen alien into a habit of doing lately I 1 sat down and thought things over one result of 0 my meditations was that I 1 got up suddenly and went to the telephone I 1 had taken the most intense dislike to this dr walker whom I 1 bad never seen been and who was being tallied talked of in the countryside its the fiance of louise armstrong I 1 knew sam huston well there had been a terue when sam wait waa a good deal younger than he be Is now defore before he be had married anno anne endicott Endl cott when I knew him even better so now I 1 felt no hesitation in calling him over thir the telephone but when his office boy had given way to his confidential c lerk clerk and th that at functionary had bad conde scented to connect his employers desk telephone I 1 was somewhat at a loss logs as aa to how bow to begin why how are you rachel sam said sonorously going to build that house at rock view it was a 20 year old od joke of his sometime perhaps I 1 said just now I 1 want to ask you a question about something which Is none of my bus business ineRs 1 I see you changed an lota iota jn in a quarter of a century rachel this was intended to be another jest ask ash ahead everything but my domestic affairs Is at your service try to be serious I 1 said and tell me this has your firm made any plans tor for a house recently for a dr walker at ct Ci sanova yes yea we have where was it to be built I 1 have a reason aleason for asking it was waa to be I 1 believe on the armstrong place mr armstrong himself consulted me and the inference was in tact fact I 1 am quite certain the house was waa to be occupied by mr air armstrongs daughter who was engaged to marry dr walker when the architect had inquired for the different members of my family and had finally rung off I 1 was certain of one thing louise armstrong was waa in love with halsey and the man she sha was going to marry was dr walker Alore moreover over this decision was not new marriage had been contemplated for some time there must certainly be ba some explanation but what was it that day I 1 repeated to louise the telegram mr air harton had opened she seemed to understand but an unhappier face I 1 have never seen she looked like a criminal whose reprieve Is over and the dakof day ot execution approaching pro aching CHAPTER XV liddy gives the alarm the next day friday gertrude broke the news of her stepfathers step athers fathers death to louise she did it as gently as she could telling her first that lit ha was waa very ill and finally that he be was dead louise received the news in the most unexpected manner and when gertrude come came out to tell me how she had bad stood it I 1 think she was almost shocked she just lay and stared at me aunt ray she said do you know I 1 belleve believe she to Is glad bladl and she ehe Is too honest to pretend anything else ele what sort of a roan man was waa mr paul armstrong anyhow lie ile was a bully as well as a rascal gertrude I 1 sald said but I 1 am convinced of one thing louise will send tor for halsey now and they will make it all up for louise had steadily refused to see hauey halsey all that day and the boy was frantic we had a quiet hour halsey and 1 I that evening and I 1 told him several things about the request that we give up the lease to Sunny sunnyside side about the telegram tel effram to louise about the rumors of an approaching marriage between the girl and dr walker and of nl 0 my own interview with he her 1 h v in n H n big chair with his bl face ace in fill tho the shadow and my heart fairly ached for him ile ho was so big and when I 1 had finished he drew a long breath whatever louise does he be said nothing will convince me ine aunt ray IW that she care for or me and up to two months ago when she and her mother went west I 1 was waa the happ happiest fellow on earth then something ething made mada a difference she wrote mo me that tier her people were opposed to the marriage that her feeling tor for me was what it had haa always been but that something had bad happened which had bad changed her ideas its as to the fluture I 1 was not t to write until she wrote me and whatever occurred I 1 was to think the best I 1 could of her it sounded like ii a puzzle when I 1 saw tier her yesterday it was the same thing only perhaps worse II li alsey I 1 asked have you any idea of the nature matura of the interview between louise armstrong find and arnold the night ho he was murdered it wad was stormy thomas says once or twice bt he almost broko into the roo room m ho he was so alarmed for louise another thing halsey alsey II I 1 said bald haye have you overheard ever heard louise mention a woman named carrington nina carrington ring ton never he be positively for try as we would our thoughts always came back to chat hat fatal saturday night and the murder every conversational al path led to it and we all felt that jamieson Jam teson was tightening the threads of evidence around john joba dailey the detectives absence was hardly reassuring he must have had bad something to work on in town or he be would have returned IN 7 no r we W had a quiet hour halsey and 1 I the papers reported that the cashier ier of the traders bank baick was III in his apartments at the knickerbocker a condition not surprising considering everything the guilt of the defunct president was no longer in doubt the missing bondi bands had been advertised and some borne of them discovered in every instance they had bad been used as collateral for large loans and the belief was current that not less than a million and a halt half dollars had been realized every one connected with the bank had bad been placed under arrest and released on heavy bond was he alone in his guilt or was the cashier his accomplice where was the money the estate of the dead man was waa comparatively small a city house on a fashionable street Sunny sunnyside side a large estate largely mortgaged e d an insurance of and some personal property this was waa all the rest lost in speculation probably the papers sald said there was one thing which looked uncomfortable for tack jack dalley bailey ile ha and paul armstrong together had bat promoted a railroad company in new mexico and it was rumored that together they had sunk large sums of money there the bustness business alliance between the two men added to the belief that dalley dailey knew something of the looting ills unexplained absence from the bank on monday lent color to the suspicion against him the strange thing seemed to be his ouen surrendering dering himself on the point of departure to me it seemed the shrewd calculation of a clever rascal I 1 was not actively antagonistic to gertrudes Gertru deB lover but I 1 meant to be can convinced v incel one way or the other I 1 took no one on faith that night the sunnyside Sunny side ghost aghos t began to walk again liddy had bad been sleeping Ble in louises dressing room on a ouch couch c and the approach of dusk was a signal for her to barricade the entire suite situated as it was beyond you athe the circular staircase nothing but an extremity ot of excitement would havo have made her bar pass it after darl dark I 1 confess myself that the place seem seamed e d lome to havo a sinister appearance but blit wo kept that wing well lighted anil and until the lights went out at midnight it wits was really cheerful it ono one did not know its history on alday l night then I 1 had find gone to bed resolved to go at once to sleep thoughts that insisted on obtruding themselves I 1 pushed resolutely to the back ot of my mind anti and I 1 systematically relaxed every muscle I 1 fell asleep soon boon and was dreaming that dr walker was building his new house immediately in front of 0 my windows I 1 could hear bear the thump thump of oc the hammers and then I 1 waked to it a knowledge that somebody was pounding on my door I 1 was up at once and with the sound of my footstep on the floor the low knocking ceased to be ba followed immediately by sibilant whispering through tho the keyhole miss alias rachell miss alias rachell oll somebody was saying over find and over Is that you liddy I 1 asked my hand on the knob for the tovo love of mercy let me fill in she said in a low tone she was leaning against tho the door for ben I 1 opened it she fell in she was greenish white and she had A red and black barred flannel petticoat over her shoulders Ll listen sten she said standing in the middle of 0 the floor and holding on to me oh silsa alias rachel its tile tho ghost of that dead man hammering to get ful sure en ought there was a dull thud thud thud it camo came apparently from tho the wall its not a ghost I 1 said decidedly it it was a ghost it rap it would come through tho the keyhole liddy looked at the keyhole hut but it sounds very much as though some one Is trying to break into the house liddy was shivering v violently 10 bently I 1 told her to get TOO me my slippers and she brought me a pair of kid gloves so BO I 1 found ray my things myself and prepared to call halsey alsey ll As before the night alarm had found the electric lights gone the hall save tor for its night lamp was in darkness as aa I 1 went across to Ilai room I 1 hardly know what I 1 feared but it was a relief to find him there very sound asleep and with his door unlocked wake up I 1 said shaking him ile he stirred a little liddy was half in and half out of the door afraid as usual to bo be left alone and not quite daring to enter iler her scruples seemed to fads fade however all at once she gave a suppressed yell bolted into the room and stood tightly clutching the footboard foot board of the bed halsey was gradually waking ive seen it liddy walled A woman in white down the hall I 1 paid no attention I falsey I 1 persevered some one Is breaking into the house bouse get up wont you it our house ho he said sleepily and then he roused to the exigency of the occasion all right aunt ray hay be said still yawning it if let me got get into something P it was all I 1 could do to get liddy out of the room the demands of the occasion caslon oc had bad no influence on her heri she she a ad d seen the ghost she persisted pars anted and she going into the hall dut but I 1 got her over to my room at last more dead than alive and made her ife he down on the bed the mappings tap pings which seemed to have ceased a while had commenced gain again but they were fainter halsey came cama over in a few minutes and stood listening and trying to locate locals the sound found give rne me my revolver aunt ray it be said and I 1 got it the one I 1 had found in the tulip bod bed and gave it to bilm ile ho saw liddy there theio and divined at once that li it louise wa alone salone you let me attend to this fellow whoever it la is aunt ray hay and so go it to a louise will you she may be awake and alarmed so in spite of 0 her protests I 1 left liddy alone and went back to the east wing perhaps I 1 went a little faster past the yawning yarning blackness black 0 of the circular staircase and I 1 could bear halsey creaking cautiously down tho the main staircase the rapping nipping 0 ot r pounding had ceased anti and the silence wits almost painful and then 7 sud u d deuly from apparently under tinder my v very e ry feet there rose a womans comans scream a cry of terror that broke olt off as sudden ly as it ennie came I 1 stood frozen and still every drop of blood in my body seemed to leave the surface and gath er cr around my heart in the dead sl si lonco lence that followed follow ed it ft throbbed as ag it if it would burst nora alore dead than alive all ve I 1 stumbled into louises Lou isas bedroom seq was as not there I 1 CHAPTER XVI I 1 in n the early morning I 1 stood looking at tho the empty bed tho coverings had been thrown back and louises pink silk dressing gown mas jias gone from the foot ebore it had lain the night lamp burned dimly revealing the emptiness of the place I 1 picked it up but my hand shook so that I 1 put it down aaen and got somehow to the door there were voices in the hall and gertrude came running toward me ma what Is ltv it she cried what was wan that sound where I 1 id louise Loula aT she la is not in her room I 1 said stupidly 1 I think it was she who screamed liddy had joined us now carrying a light we stood huddled together at the head of the circular stair staircase caRe looking down into its shadows there was nothing to bo be seen and it was waa absolutely quiet anulet down there then we heard halsey running up tho the main staircase ile he camo came quickly down the hall to where wo we were standing theres no one trying to get in I 1 thought ought I 1 heard some one shriek who was waa it our stricken fanes faces told him tho the truth some one screamed down there 1 I said and and louise la is not in tier her room with a jerk halsey took the light from liddy and ran down the circular staircase I 1 followed I 1 iro im more slowly my nerves seemed to be in a state of paralysis I 1 could scarcely step at the foot of the stairs calgey gave an exclamation and put down the light aunt ray hay bo be called at the foot of tile the staircase huddled in a heap tier her head on the lower stair was louise armstrong sho she lay limp and white her dressing gown dragging loose from one sleeve of tier her nightdress night dress and the heavy braid of her dark hair stretching its length a couple of steps above her head bead as if 11 she had slipped down she was not dead halsey put her down on the floor and began to rub her cold hands while gertrude and liddy ran for stimulants As AB for me its 1 I sat fat there at the foot ot of that ghostly staircase sat oat because my knees kneel won hold ine ice and wondered where it would all end loutsos wan still unconscious but rhe nhe was |