Show air somsy MARV 2 mart 40 BY ch C vc rma a v baj wac r SYNOPSIS mims innes spinster and guardian eu ardlan of gertrude and 11 kalsey alsey established summer mer r headquarters headquarter at sunnyside Sunny alde side arnold was as round shot hot to death in the liall hall gertrude and lier her fiance jack dalley bailey had co conversed in the billiard room shortly before the murder detective jamieson Jam leBon accused atlas innes of 0 h holding ad back evidence cashier batley of 0 paul armstrongs Armst ronea bank defunct was wab arrested tor for embezzlement paul armstrongs death was vias announced halseys Hal fiancee louise louis Arms armstrong tronc told that while she aha still loved him the she was wa to marry another it developed that ur dr walker was wag the man louise was found unconscious at the bottom bottora ot of the tha circular I 1 staircase tair case she said guld cometh something I 1 ir h had ad brushed by her in tho the dark on the stairway and she fainted dailey Is suspected of 0 armstrongs murder thomas tho the er was found dead with ft a note in hla his docket b the nam llly Iu clen wallace ace A eral ladder found 0 aund bamut 0 out of f placa deepens the T otery the stables were burned and in the d dark ark ulas alias innes shot an intruder halsey halicy in dina disappeared P ills ilia auto was waa and found wrecked by a freight train it developed halsey had an argument in the library with a woman before his disappearance dlf appearance new cook disappears a pears viliam nines innes learned halsey was afave alive dr walkers face becomes lie comes livid at t mention odthe of jhb name 0 of nina carrington n evidence was secured from a tramp th that at a man supposedly lup halsey had been bound and gagged an and thrown into an empty box car gertrude was mi missing sIng blunting for her atla innes ran into a man and fainted A confederate of dr walker confessed hla his part in the mystery ile he stat stated ed that the iho carrington woman noman had been killed that walker valker feared ner her and that he believed that paul armstrong had apen killed hilled by a hand guided by walker was found in a distant hop hospital pital paul paid armstrong matronic Ar was not dead MIM innes discovered secret rooms in w which ch the trailers traders bank trea treasure SUrG was be believed deved to be b mrs lira watson dying said she he killed arnold armstrong who before had married her siki ulster r under the tha alias of wallace lucien callae was born of the marriage bliss innes dis discovered a secret panel to the mysterious ou room and an d unwittingly locked herself within during the hunt for her the searchers er ran across paul armstrong armtrong armstrong d forward forgard down the tha circular tal rease breaking his hl neck in the se ecret ro room in was found the traders bank toot loot w which ilch armstrong had taken CHAPTER 1 II 11 I continued As alex and I 1 reached the second floor mr jamieson Jai met us he was grave and quiet and lie he nodded when he be saw the sate safe will you yet come with me for a moment ment bliss innes he asked soberly and on rny my assenting he be led the way to the east wing there were lights moving around below beloi and some of the maids were standing gaping down they screamed when thy they saw me and drew back to let me pass there was a sort ot of hush over the scene alex behind me muttered EOm something ething I 1 could not hear and brushed past me t without ceremony then I 1 realized that a man wits was lying doubled the toot foot of 0 the staircase and that alex was stooping over him As I 1 came slowly down winters stepped back and alex straightened looking at me deross across the body with impenetrable eyes in his hand he be held a shaggy gray wig and before me on the floor lay the man whose headstone stood in casanova churchyard paul Arni arnstrong strong winters told the story in a dozen words in his headlong flight down the circular staircase with winters just behind caul armstrong had pitched forward violently struck his head bead against the door to the east veranda arid and probably broken bro ken his neck ile ho had died as winters reached him As the detective flois finished lied I 1 saw halsey pale and shaken in the doorway and for the first time that night I 1 lost my self control I 1 put my arms around my boy and for a moment ho be had to support me A second later over Hal halseys shoulder I 1 saw something that turned my emotion into other channels for behind him in the shadowy were gertrude and alex the gardener and there Is no use mincing matters he be was kissing hissing herl berl I 1 was to speak twice I 1 opened my mouth month then I 1 turned halsey around and pointed they were quite unconscious of us her bead was on his bis shoulder his face against her hair As it happened it was mr jamieson Jam leson who broke up the tableau ile ho stopped stepped over to alex and touched him q on the arm and now he said q quietly u betly how bow long are you and I 1 to play our little cou comedy ledy mr air bailey Dall eyT CHAPTER the odds and ends end of dr walkers sensational escape that night to south america of tile tho recovery ot of over in cash and securities in the safe from the chimney room the papers have kept the public well informed ot of my share in discovering the secret chamber they have been singularly silent the inner history has never been told mr air jamieson Jan ileson got all kinds of credit and some ot of it he deserved but it jack bailey bal icy an alos alex had not traced halsey and insisted on the disinterring disint erring of paul armstrongs casket it he had bad not suspected the truth from the start where would the detective have been when halsey learned learn tid the truth he insisted on going the next morning weak as he be was to louise and by night she was at under gertrudes Gertru dei particular care while her mother had gone to barbara fitz hught what Halsey said sald to mrs aire arm troug I 1 never knew but that he was considerate and chivalrous I 1 feel confident it was waa halseys nala Hal eya way always with women I 1 M M he was kissing her ile he and louise lad bad no conversation together until that night gertrude and alex I 1 mean jack had gone for or a walk although it was nine and anybody but st pair of young geese would have known that dew was falling and that it la Is next to impossible to get rid of a summer cold at half after nine growing weary of my own company I 1 went downstairs to find the young people at the door of the living room I 1 paused gertrude and jack had returned and were there sitting together on a divan with only one lamp lighted they did not see or hear me and I 1 beat a hasty retreat to the library but here heie again I 1 was driven back louise was sitting silting in a dep chair looking the barp handiest hardiest har diest lest I 1 had ever seen her with halsey halscy on the arm of the chair holding her close the next day ly by degrees I 1 got the whole story paul armstrong had a besetting evil the love of 0 money common enough but he oed loved money not for what t would buy but for its own sake an examination of the books showed no irregularities in the past year since john had teen leen enable cashier r but before that in the time of anderson the old cashier who had bad died much strange juggling had bad been done with the records the railroad in new mexico had apparently drained the bankers private fortune and he determined ter mined to retrieve it t by one stroke this was nothing less bess than the looting of the banks securities turning them hem into money and making his escape dut but the law has long arms paul armstrong evidently studied the situation carefully just as the only good indian Is a dead indian so the only safe defaulter Is a dead defaulter ile he decided to die to all appearances and when the hue and cry subsided he wo w quid uld be able to enjoy his money al at most anywhere he wished the first necessity was an accomplice the connivance of 0 dr walker was suggested by hla his love for louise the man was unscrupulous and with the girl as a bilt bait paul armstrong soon eoon had him fast the plan was apparently patently ly the acme of simplicity A small town it the west an attack of heart disease a body from a medical college dissecting room shipped in a trunk to dr walker by a colleague in san francisco and palmed oft off for the supposed dead banker what was simpler the woman nina carrington was the cog that slipped what she eh only suspected what she really knew we never learned she was a chambermaid ma ld in the lie hotel at C and it was ev evidently her intention to blackmail dr walker his position at that time was uncomfortable to pay the woman to keep quiet would be confession lie ile denied the whole thing and she went to halsey it was that that had taken halsey to the doctor the night he be disappeared lie ile accused the doctor of tho the deception and crossing the lawn had said something cruel to louise then furious at her apparent connivance he had started for the station dr alq walker and paul armstrong the latter still lame where I 1 bad shot him hurried across to the embankment certain only of one thing thine halsey must not tell the detective what ho he suspected until the money had been removed from the chimney room they stepped into the road in front of the car to stop it find and fate played into their hands the ne car struck the train and they had only to dispose of the unconscious figure la in the road this they did as I 1 have hare told tor for days halsey lay in the box car tied hand and foot suffering tortures of 0 thirst delirious at times and discovered by a tramp at only in time to save gave his bla life to go back to paul armstrong at the last moment his plans had bad been frustrated Sunny sunnyside side with its hoard in the chimney room had been rented without his knowledge attempts to dislodge me having failed ile he was driven to breaking into ills his own house the ladder in tho the chute the burning of the stable aud and the entrance through the window all were in the course of a desperate attempt to get into the chimney room louise and her mother had from the first been the great stumbling blocks the plan had been to send louise away until it was too late for her to interfere but she came back to the hotel at C just at the wrong time there was a terrible scene the girl was told that something of the kind was necessary that the bank was about to close and her stepfather would either avoid arrest and disgrace in this way or kill himself fanny armstrong was a weakling but louise was more difficult to manage she had no love for her stepfather but her devotion to her mother was entire self sacrificing forced into acquiescence by her mothers appeals overwhelmed by the situation the girl consented and fled from somewhere in colorado she sent an anonymous telegram to jack bailey at tile the traders bank trapped as she was vas she did not want to see an innocent man arrested the telegram received on thursday had sent the cashier to the bank that night in a frenzy louise arrived at Sunny sunnyside side and found the house rented not knowing what to do she sent for arnold at the greenwood club and told him a little not all she told him that there something wrong and that the bank was about to close that his father was responsible of the conspiracy she said bald nothing to her ter surprise arnold already know knew through halley bailey that night that things were not right moreover he suspected what louise did not that the money was hidden at Sunny sunnyside sIde ile he had bad a scrap of paper that indicated a concealed room somewhere ills his inherited cupidity was aroused eager to get halsey and jack bailey out of the house he went up to the east entry and in the billiard room gave the cashier cas liler what he had refused earlier in the evening the address of paul armstrong in california and a telegram which had been forwarded to the club for bailey from dr walker it was in response to one bailey had sent and it said raid that paul armstrong fi was very ill bailey was almost desperate he decided to so go west and find paul armstrong and to force him to disgorge but the catastrophe at the bank occurred sooner than he had expected on the moment of starting west sit at andrews andrew station where mr jamieson had located the car he read that the bank had bad closed and going back surrendered ron dered himself john bailey bad known paul arm strong intimately ile he did not believe that the money was gone in fact it was hardly possible in the interval since the securities had bad been taken where was it and from some chance remark let fall some months earlier by arnold armstrong at a biniker dl di niker bailey felt sure burs there was a hidden room at sunnyside Sunn SunnY yelde side ile he tried to see bee the architect odthe of the building but like the contractor it if he be knew of the room loom be refused any information it was halseys Hal iden idea that john come to the house as aa a gardener and pursue puisne hla his investigations as lie could ills his smooth upper lip had been clont clent disguise with hla hir change of clothes find a haircut h by a country barber so 60 it was alex jack natley bailey who hid had been our ghost not only had ho he alarmed louise and himself be li admitted on the circular staircase tut but he had lug dug the hole in the trun kroom wall and later sent E ellza ilza into hysteria the note liddy had found in gertrudes gertrude a scrap basket was vas from him and it was he who had startled me into unconsciousness by the clothes chute and with gertrudes help hell had carried me to louises room gertrude I 1 learned had watched nil all night beside me in an extremity of anxiety about me that old thomas had seen ills his master and thought he had seen the sun still ghost there here could be no doubt of that story of thomas about seeing jack bailey in the footpath between the club and Sunn the night liddy and I 1 heard tho the noise on the circular staircase that too was right on the night before arnold armstrong was vas murdered jack dalley had made an attempt to search for the secret room lie he secured arnolds keys from his room at the club and got into the house armed with a golf stick for sounding the walls ile he ran against the hamper at the head of the stairs caught ills hl cufflink cud link in it and dropped the golf stick with a crash ile he was glad enough tr to get away without an alarm being raised and he took the owl train to town the oddest thing to roe me was that mr air jamieson Jsn ileson had known for some time that alex was jack bailey but the face of the pseudo gardener was very queer indeed when that tha t night in the the detective turned to him and said how few long are you and I 1 going to play our little comedy mr air bailey well it Is all over now paul arm strong rests in casanova churchyard and this time there is no mistake I 1 went to the funeral because I 1 wanted to be sure ho he was really burled and I 1 looked at tile the step of the shaft where I 1 had sat that night and wondered it if it was all real Sunny sunnyside side la is for sale no I 1 shall not buy it little duchen armstrong Is living with ble bin s tap grand grandmother mother who la Is recovering gradually gili dually from troubles that had ex tended over the entire entile period of her second marriage anne watson iles not far from the man she killed and who as surely caused her deith death thomas the fourth victim of tile the con coil sp iracy Is hurled burled on tho the hill with nna nina carrington five lives were sac in the course of this grim con sp Iracy there will be two weddings before long and liddy lias has asked for my illy heliotrope poplin to wear to tile the church I 1 knew she would she has wanted it for three years and seq was quite ugly tho the time I 1 spilled cof too fee on oil it we are very |