Show T i ir MARY noart BY yv rr dowall mf sr JW lwft ca T SYNOPSIS dflia innes spinster and iru ardlan of at grtrude gertrude and 11 Ill almay my estaba tf ed summer bead rs a at t amidst nu nil aties the ner vanta deserted As al miss mia annen locked up for or th tho a night she ahe was startled b by a daik k figure on the veranda unseemly boldes disturbed her 1 ting the night in ilia morning g A ti an 0 1 ann apes found a strange link cuff b button u ato n in k hamper gertrude and rainey arrived with jack palley nalley the house watt was awak abed by a revolver shot hot and A arnold arm win was found shot allot to in death in the mona iles innes found aund revolver revolve r on n ibe the lawn ila ha and jack hailey hall had dl disappeared appear d tho the link cuff button mystery dusty disappeared detective jamieson Jam lenon arrived gertrude revealed she one was enraged age d to 0 jack ll li alley with whom she talked a k ed t in n the billiard room a few moment b before fore the murder Jar pleon miss ri innes ot of holding hick evidence ite ile un an intruder Ini ruder r in art an empty room 1 the I he prisoner noner em acied down a laundry chute gertrude WB kupect e d A awo gro found ahe the other half of f what r roved 0 vlod t to be ba jack nai halley jaya n cult cuff biaton f r and ray pays ile and balley left ift I 1 in n reo to a telegram gertride Cert Gert nide said sh he 0 hd had given amley U an unloaded revolver to rive give illa him loaded weapon cashier of paul armstrong n bunk bank dunat dun Lt was ar arrested tor for bezz lement halsey said armstrong wr ked his hl own bank and could clear 13 billey alleY pau armstrongs death dath was waa announced oun ced Ilal Ila ineys neya flan flancer cea loula louisa A arm rm was wa found at t tho the lodge clodgo the tha fo dge keeper said louthe and arnold hid f jonir lalk lk the night of f the h murder mude loule waa prostrated i art I 1 lout loute e told liasse ll alney y chit bat walla hgr she dihe astl belll I 1 loved 0 ved hlin she h w waa a a to marry another i and that he ha would de ale parry or ir when hen he enfried the whole story glory it developed W that or dr wai walker ker and loufay louise were to be married A prowler w s heard in the house haima loula wan found at the bottom ottom of the ilia circular Wal rease CHAPTER XVI continued 1 I was wa not sleeping leeping well she be g enn an partly I 1 think because I 1 had bad slept during the afternoon liddy brought me some bamo hot milk at ton ten and I 1 slept until 12 then I 1 wakened and I 1 got to thinking about things and worrying so BO I 1 could not dot go to sleep 1 I r was won wonterina derina why I 1 had not heard card from arnold since the bince I 1 saw him that night at the lodge I 1 was afraid he was waa ill because he was to have done something for me and ho he had bad not come back it must havo have been three when I 1 heard beard some rome one rapping 1 I ent eat up and listened to be ba quite sure and the rapping kept up I 1 was waa cautious and I 1 was about to call liddy then suddenly I 1 thought I 1 knew what it was the east entrance and circular staircase were always used by arnold when he was waa out late and sometimes when ho he forgot his key he would woul rap and I 1 would go down and him let him in I 1 thought ho be had come back to seo me mei I 1 think about the time for his hours were always erratic dut but I 1 was afraid I 1 was too weak to get down the stairs the knocking kept up aud and just us as I 1 was about to call liddy she bho ran through the room nod and out into the hall I 1 got up then feeling weak and dizzy and put on roy my di easing dressing gown it it was arnold I 1 knew I 1 must se sec 0 him it was very dark everywhere but of course I 1 knew my way I 1 felt along or the stair rall and went down as quickly as I 1 could the knocking knock lne had stopped and I 1 was afraid I 1 was too late I 1 got to the foot of the staircase and over to the door on to the east cast veranda I 1 had bad never thought of anything anny thing but bat that it was vas arnold until I 1 reached the door it was unlocked and opened about an inch everything was waa black it was perfectly dark out side aide I 1 felt very queer and shaky then I 1 thought perhaps arnold had used his key he did strange things sometimes and I 1 turned around just RS as I 1 readied reached the foot fool of 0 tho the staircase I 1 thought I 1 heard some eoma ono one coming my nerves were going anyhow there in the dark and I 1 could scarcely stand land I 1 got up as far as the third or fourth step then I 1 felt that some one was coming toward me on the staircase the next instant a hand band met mine on the stair rail mil someone brushed pa past pait it me and I 1 screamed then I 1 bupt have fainted that was waa louises story there be no doubt of 0 its truth and the thing that niada made it inexpressibly awful to me was that the poor girl had crept down to answer the summons of a brother who would never need hor her kindly offices again twice now without apparent cause some one ona had entered the house home by menna means of the eat east entrance 1 had apparently gone hla way unhindered through the house and gone out again as he be had entered had this unknown visitor been bean there a third time the night arnold armstrong was murdered or a fourth the time mr air jamieson Jam leson had locked some ome one in the clothes clothe chute sleep was impossible I 1 think for uny any of us we dispersed finally to bathe and dress dresa leaving louise little the worse for her e experience rut but I 1 determined that before the day was wag over she mut must know the true state of affairs i another I 1 made and I 1 put it into execution immediately after fter breakfast I 1 had bad one of the unused bedrooms in the east wing back along the small corridor prepared tor for occupancy nod and from that time on alex the gardener slept there one man in that barn of a bouse was waa an absurdity with things happening all the time and I 1 must say that alex was as a unobjectionable as any one could possibly have been the baxt morning also halsey aud and A 1 made an exhaustive ex examination of the circular staircase the small entry at t its foot and the opening from it there thera was no evidence ot 0 I 1 anything unusual the night before and an va Z A W mita my home lc Is in englewood the doo tor began had we ve not ourselves heard the rapping noises I 1 should have felt that louises imagination had run away with her the outer door was closed and locked and the staircase curved above us for all the world like any other staircase II 11 alsey alser who had never taken sort serf my account of the night liddy and I 1 were there alone was grave enough now ile he examined the paneling 0 of the wainscoting above and below the stairs evidently looking for or a secret door and suddenly there flashed into my mind the recollection of a scrap of paper that mr air jamieson Jam leson had found among arnold armstrongs effects AS nearly hearly as possible I 1 repeated its contents contenta to him while halsey took look them down in a notebook note book q 1 I wish you had told fold me this before he ha said as he put the memorandum carefully away we found nothing at all in the house and I 1 expected little from any examination of the porch and grounds dut but as we opened the outer door something tell fell into tho the entry with a clatter it was a cue buo from the billiard room halsey picked it up with an exclamation ma tion careless enough he said some of the servants servant have been amusing themselves I 1 was tar far from cou convinced vinced not one ot 0 t tho the servants would go into that wing at night unless driven by dire necessity and a billiard cuel As aa a wea weapon pon of 0 either offense or defense it was waa an an absurdity unless one accepted ce atea liddye of a ghost and even then as halsey pointed out a billiard playing ghost would be ba a very modern evolution of an ancient institution that afternoon we gertrude halsey and 1 I attended the coroners inquest in town dr stewart had bad been summoned also it transpiring that in that early sunday morning when gertrude and I 1 had gone to our rooms ho he had bad been called to view the body we went vent the tour four of us its in the machine preferring tho the execrable roads to tho matinee train with halt of C casanova as staring at us and on the way wn wj decided to say nothing of louise and her interview with her stepbrother the night he died tho the girl was in trouble enough as it was CHAPTER A hint of scandal in giving tho gist of what happened at the inquest I 1 have only one ex s cuseto cuse to recall to tho the reader tho the events of 0 the night of 0 arnold armstrongs ings murder many things had occurred which were not brought out at the inquest and some things wore were told there that were new to me altogether it was a gloomy affair and the six men in the abrner who con tho coroners jury were evidently the merest puppets in the hands handi of that all powerful gentlemen the coroner gertrude and I 1 sat well back with our veils down there were a number of 0 people I 1 knew darbara barbara aitz liuch in extravagant mourning she always went into black on the slightest provocation because it was becoming ana mr jarvis the man who iho had come over from the greenwood club the night of the murder mr air was waa there too looking impatient p as aa the inquest dragged but alive to every particle of 0 evidence prom from a corner mr jamieson was watching the proceedings intently dr stewart was wan called first ilia evidence evl danco waa vas told briefly and amounted to this on the sunday morning Lous at a quarter before five he had been called to the telephone the masgo was from a mr air jarvis who ho asked him to come at once onca to sunny suany side as there had been an accident there and mr arnold armstrong had been shot ile he dressed hastily gathered up some instruments and drove to Sunny sunnyside side ile he was met by mr jarvis who took lim liim at once to the east wing there just as he had bad fallen was the body of arnold armstrong there was no need of the instruments the man was dead in answer to the coroners question no the body had bad not been moved save to turn it over it lay at the foot of the circular staircase yes he believed death had been instantaneous the body was still somewhat warm and rigor mortis had not set get in it occurred late in cases of sudden death no he believed the probability of suicide might be eliminated tho the wounds could have been self inflicted but with difficulty and there had been no weapon found the doctors examination was over but he hesitated and cleared his throat mr air coroner he said at the risk of taking up valuable time I 1 would like to speak of an incident that may or may not throw some light on this matter tho the audience was alert at once kendly proceed doctor tho the coroner n er sold said my aly home to Is in englewood two miles to iles from casanova Casano the doctor began in the absence of dr walker a number of casanova people have been consulting me A mouth month ago five weeks to be exact a woman whom I 1 had never seen came to ray my office she was mourning and kept her veil down and she brought for examination a child it a boy of six rix the rho little follow fellow was ill it looked like typhoid and the mother was waa frantic she wanted a permit to admit the youngster to the childrens hospital in town here bere where I 1 am a member of the staff and I 1 gave her one the incident would have escaped me but for a curious thing two days before mr armstrong was shot I 1 was sent tor for to go to the country club some one had been struck with ith a golf ball that had gone wild it was late when I 1 left I 1 was on foot and about a mile from the club on the clayburg road I 1 met two people they were di desput ing violently and I 1 had nor difficulty in recognizing mr armstrong the woman beyond douat was the one who lad had consulted me about the child at this hint of scandal mrs ogden fitchugh sat eat up very straight jaffe son was looking slightly skeptical ard and the coroner made a note the childrens hospital you say doctor he ha asked yes yea but the child who was waa entered as lucien wallace was taken away by ills his mother two ngn I 1 have tried to trace them and failed all at once I 1 remembered the telegram sent to louisa by some one signed P F L W presumably dr walker could the veiled woman bo be the nina carrington of the message but it was only idle speculation I 1 had bad no way ot of finding out and the inquest was proceeding the report of the coroners physician came next the postmortem post mortem examination showed that the bullet had bad entered the ihu chest in the fourth left space and had taken an oblique course downward and backward piercing cing both the heart and lungs the left lung was collapsed and the exit point of the ball had ben been found in the muscles of the back to the left of the spinal column it was waa improbable that such a wound had been self inflicted and its oblique downward course pointed to tho the fact that the tha shot had been fired from above in other words as the murdered man had been found dead at the foot fool of a staircase it was probable that tha t the shot had bad beep been lared dred by some gome one ne higher up on an the stairs there were no marks of powder the bullet a 38 caliber had bad been found in the dead mans clothing cloU ilce and was wa shean to the jury mr jarvis was called next but his bis testimony amounted to little ila iia had been summoned by telephone to sun aside had come over at once with the steward and mr air winthrop at present out ot of town they had been admitted by the housekeeper andrad and had found tho the body lying at the toot foot of the staircase lie ile had made rade a search for or a weapon but there was A as none non around the outer entry door in th the east wing had been unfastened and was open about an inch I 1 had bad been growing more and more mor nervous when the coroner called mr john bailey the room was filled ft ith suppressed excitement mr jamieson Jam leson went forward and spoke a few words word to the coroner who nodded then was called mr innes the coroner said will you tell under what circumstances circumstance you saw mr arnold armstrong the night he died cledt 1 I saw him first at the country c club I 1 u b halsey said 1 quietly I ila iia was wag ra rather ther pale but very comp competed oved 1 I stopped there with my automobile for casolene ga solene mr air armstrong had been playing cards when I 1 saw him there he was coming out of the talking to mr air john dalley bailey the nature of the was it amicable hesitated they were having a dispute he h said 1 I asked mr air bailey to leave the th club with me and come to Sunny ld over sunday it a fact mr innes that yoo took sir air balley bailey away from the clubhouse because you were afraid there then would be blows the situation was wag unpleasant halsey said evasively at that time had you any suspicion that the traders bank had bad been wrecked no what occurred next mr bailey and I 1 talked in the billiard room until and mr arnold armstrong Armst ronit came cam there while you were talking 1 yes yea ile he came about half balf past two lie ile rapped at the east door and I 1 admitted him the silence in the room wag intense mr Jam Jami lesona esons eyes never left halseys Hal face will you tell us ua the nature of 0 hla his errand ile he brought a telegram that had h ad come to the club for or mr bailey ile he was sober perfectly at that time not cartter was not his apparent friendliness a change from his former attitude yes I 1 did not understand it how long did he stay about five minutes then he left by the east entrance what occurred then we talked for or a few minutes dlo bussing cussing a plan mr air dalle bailey had in mind then I 1 |