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Show ISABEL O.STRANDEIO j Continued From Our Last ISSUC CHAPTER XII At 10 o'clock, the following morning morn-ing Snn I .' Cm vi smiled peacefully In the golden sunshine. Within the decorously shadsdrawn library of the Tudor house, six persons per-sons were gathered. Mrs. Tudor h-t-I self, her nieco, Fay Captain War ren. Kenneth Clayton, Sheriff Rulse, and Sergeant John Barry. Th" I n ter was sealed at Ihe long magazine table In the center of the room with a sheaf of notes spread otit before him. and It was toward him that all eves were directed None appeared to notice the pasteboard boxes of various va-rious sizes which flanked the notes upon the table, and certain It was that none save the sheriff nnd Barry himself knew that outside the floor two husky constables waited with a big-framed, beetle-browed woman for the signal to add themselves to the K 8 I he ring "The sheriff and I have asked on to meet us all together" began Harry, Har-ry, pleasantly enough "In order that wo may tell you the result of our Investigations In-vestigations of yesterday into the He.ith of Miss Laurel Tudor ti was murder, of course, but It was never Intended. You all know the method by which the crime was committed hut what T think that none of yon know is that the carbon monoxid. wns meant not for her, hut for her cousin, nnd the fact that the two young ladles changed beds during the night was all that saved Miss Fay Tudor from the fate meted out to her although It rebounded upon nn Innocent In-nocent victim Innocent in that she had aroused no enmity In the breast of the murderer. When I said that 'none' of you knew this, I meant none except one. for tho guilty person Is In this room at the present moment'" Fay sat clutching the arms of her chair tightly, hut she made not out ward move and her eyes never left tho face of the detective. Clayton growled a sudden exclamation, but Captain Warren sat immovable, although al-though a slight flush crept upon his I cheek Mrs Tudor started to her j feet with a swift cry. "Please sit down Mrs. Tudor " Ra--ry's tones were sympathetic hut firm "I know how you must he fc-ellng at this moment, but I shall not keep you long In suspense. "Some time between t and 4 o'clock In the morning the murderer started to enter the room where tho two young ladies were asleep, carrying In one hand the receptaclo containing the carbon monoxide, and In the other oth-er an electric torch. This person dared not turn on the lights In tho room for fear of waking one or the other of Its occupants, In spite of th-.-fact that they had both been heavily drugged. On tho threshold, by a miracle mir-acle of fate, perhaps. the electric torch went out' "The low light at the farther end of the hall did not penetrate the room, but the murderer had gone too for to retreat now for already the fumes of the poison gas were escaping from the faulty, hastily constructed container con-tainer Putting It down upon the floor. Just outside the door the container con-tainer had once held oil, .and the mark of It Is still visible on the rug upstairs up-stairs the murderer sped to the room formerly occupied by the young man whom all then believed to be dead, and, obtaining his gas mask returned to the room "There this person went straight to the bed ordinarily occupied by Mise Laurel, touched the hair which ih the dark could not have been detected detect-ed from that of Miss Fay. for both ore of tho 6ame texture and fitted the mask carefully over tho face "You can figure the rest out for yourselves the murderer advance to the other bed; the Insertion of the tube between the Hps of the unconscious uncon-scious girl: the application of a bandage band-age over tho nostrils so that, perforce, per-force, she must breath the deadly gas: the departure from the room for a certain well-calculated period; the return, removal of the mask from one face and handago from the othei and hurried exit with the container "But the murderer had made the fatal mistake of trusting to the sense of touch alone. It was upon tho wrong face that the mask was adjusted, adjust-ed, upon the wrong face that the bandage was placed, and Info tho wrong lips that the tubing was Inserted!" Insert-ed!" 'Stop! I can bear no more!' The ringing cry came from Mrs Tudor's white lips, and she started again from her chair. "Why nof" Barry asked coolly "Does the recital of your own crime bring it back too vividly before your mind!" Woman, you are the murderess of your own daughter!" A swift change had come over the countenance of Mrs. Tud-.r a hideous malevolent change which wiped from it the last semblance of youth and prettiness She sat rigid, her blue eye.; fixed with a sort of mocking mirth upon those of Barry. "There was no thought -f murder in your mind when your meco returned re-turned from Europe" Barry continued. contin-ued. ' You felt secure In your coming happiness, but the min i of a woman In love is more keenly Intuitive than at normal times, and within a few days, you realized something win h your niece did not dream of that the man you loed and hoped to marry had turned from you. I was not l"a Tudot alone whom you hated then to the point of murder, 't wan 'he common com-mon enemy of all women of middle life youth . . youth' ' You planned to kill her on the j nighi of the dance, planned to stab her I think with the (lnccr from the hall arrangement of WOaponS, which I j found concealed in your room .in hour I ago, anr) to that end you slipped Irito the pantry when Louise1 attention I was engaged elsewhere and pul Into the hot milk, which the young ladles; were to drink, six powders of ihe drug which MisS Fay had brought from Paris for Insomnia, s triple dose for ea h, so that neither v ould awaken if jou entered the room ' You meant the affair to look like a suicide, but during the dance you I learned from the Hps of Professor I Semyonov of an easier method, and OAS practically safe from discovery, ns you thought. You determined Immediately Im-mediately upon Its adoption, and that determination was crystallised by a conversation you o .-r M:i id nii.n the little porch which opens off the breakfast room. You planned it i down to the most minute detail, rvon I to the use of the gas mask to save ' your daughter from harm After your guests had gone, you slipped il--u n here to the hall closet and obtained the keys to the garage from the pocket pock-et of your motor coal which hung there. You found there, quite by accident, ac-cident, n pair of Miss Fay's cast off slipper?, which Louise hoped to ha' stretched for her own use, and you managed to put them on. with a tardy thourht for possible footprints which might be left on the ground. "You committed the crime, making the faLal mistake which I have already al-ready described and which you learned learn-ed of In the morning when you heard tho VOlce of the very girl you thought you had slain. I could find It In my heart to pity you at that moment mo-ment were it not that you planned WITH A SUDDEN STRING SHE Y S ITi i N THE iHBL II EH FINGERS FIN-GERS TIGHTENED WITH MANIACAL MANIAC-AL STRENGTH ABOUT HER THROAT. Immediately to throw the crime upon the shoulders of Miss Fay. You recalled re-called her slippers, which were stlil sopping wet, and you had them concealed con-cealed beneath your negligee when you demanded admittance to the room where your dead tlaughter lay, you thrust them under the bed when you knelt sobbing beside her body "I suspected you firt when you appeared ap-peared to desire to bribe me, but why you should havo murdered your own daughter was beyond me until I learned by accident that she and her COUSln had changed beds with each other during the night. Then all was clear to me " "Yes! I did It!" Mrs Tudor sprang from her chair and pointed wildly at Kenneth Clayton where he sat regarding re-garding her with eyes of unutterable , loathing "That man was mine, and this minx stole him deliberately from j me I meant to iri-t hpr onl nt thn wnv II and then he would come back." There was madness in her eyes, madness In the cry which rang through the room "Laurel Laurel! God knows I would not have harmed you. my baby' But if I have lost all, you shall not h.ie him. Fay' I failed once, but I shall not fail now'" With a sudden spring she was upon the girl, her fingers tightened with maniacal strength about her 'hroat. Barry called to the waiting men outside out-side and leaped forward to the aid of tho sheriff, Clayton and Captain Warren. War-ren. It took their combined strength to tear the crazed woman from her would-be victim. "It's all over," Barry said. ' Take her away, Joe, you and Yarrell and the matron." Late that autumn Sheriff HulSS paid his customary visit to Barry In town and much to the hones country official's embarrassment he ras taken tak-en one evening to call upon the great Professor Semyonov "S'poso you heard. Trofessor, that the Tudor house back in Sandy Co c burned down a month ago.'" lie asked. ask-ed. '.Miss Fay that is Mrs. Warren and the captain were away in California Cali-fornia on their honeymoon and Mr. William Tudor is still In the hospital, where they're curing him of that shell shock or whatever It was happened to nim. nnny now no como to di 1081 and repotted dead, wasn'.t it? ' "Captain Warren saw him fall," replied re-plied the professor and after tho attack went out to what he supposed to be the body of his friend. It must have been the body of some other young American officer." Sergeant Barn, nodded. '1 heard a little about It when I railed at the hospital to see young Tudor." ho remarked. 'He remembers remem-bers that the Germans got him, but ho managed to escape They must have stripped him of his credentials, but left the marks of his rank on him. for he was treated as an officer all tho way through." There was a pause, and then the sheriff observed' "The Tudor woman never recovered her mind before her death." "It doesn't matter." Barry's tone was grave "She escaped trial here but she has tone to a Higher Court before an Infallible Judge, and wo know that her sentence will bo a Just one" THE ENT (Copyright, 1922. NFA Sen Ice) |