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Show RED HOUSE latugSt MYSTERYppjgp (Continued From our ix-t Issue "I could not stop Mark drinking," Cayley's letter wnt on, "but I kopt him within certain bounds Yes. I kept him outwardly decent; and perhaps now i was becoming like the cannibal who keeps hbi l -Urn In good condition for his own ends. I u.xfvi to Rloat over Murk, thinking how utterly he was rnln to ruin :s i pletuied, financially, morally, whatever way would pl,f me mu.Mt satisfaction, i had but to take my hand away from him and sank But aaln I wns In no hurry. "Then he killed himself. That futile fu-tile little drunkard. eaten up with his own selfishness and vanity offored his beaotll ri i SB to t hf t ruest and purest woman on this rnrth You ha- orn her Mr Oililnchnm, but you never knew Mark Ablett BSven If ho had not been a drunkard, there waa no chance for her of happiness with htm "I had known mm for ninny ronr. but nvor once had I sen him mocd by :inv generous emotion. To have lived with that shrhkled little soul would huve boon hclf for her; and a thousand times worse hell when he began to drink. "So he hod to be killed. I wos the only one left to protect her for her mother waa In league with Mark to bring about her ruin. 1 would hae shot him openly for her sake, and with what gladness, but I had no mind to ra-rlflce myself needlessly. He was In my power, I could persuade per-suade him to almost anything by flattery; surely It would not bn difficult diffi-cult to givf his death the appearance of an accident. "I need not take up your time by telling you of the mnny plans I mode and rejected. Bor some days I Inclined In-clined toward an unfortunate boat-Ins: boat-Ins: accident In the pond Mark, a .ry indifferent swimmer, myself ul-mosl ul-mosl exhausted In a gallant attempt to hold him up. And then he himself Ravo me the Idea he and Msa Norria between them, and so put himself In my hands' without risk of discovery. I should have said, had you not discovered dis-covered me "We were talking about Rhosts. Mnrk had been even more vain, pompous and absurd than usual, and I could see that Miss N'orrls was Irritated Ir-ritated by It After dinner she suggested sug-gested dressing up as a ghost and frightening him I thought It my duty to warn her that Mark took any Joke against himself badly, but she was determined to do It. T g,ve way reluctantly Reluctantly, also, I told her the secret of the passage. "There is an underground passage from the library' to the bowling-green bowling-green Von should exercise your In- . . , iinin.unr., I r ?-elnr tn genuiiv. .nr. uiiiiuuiui 'Tm ' discover it. Mark came upon It by accident a year ago It was a godsend god-send to him; he could drink there in greater secrecy. But he hid to tell mo about 1r He wanted an audience, audi-ence, even for his vices ' I told Miss Norrls. thm, because It was necessary for my plan that Mark should be thoroughly frightened fright-ened Without Hi. passage she could never have got closo enough to the bowling-green to alarm him properly proper-ly and Mark was In just the state of rage and vlndicth ene9s which I required. Miss Norrls you understand. under-stand. Is a professional actress I need not say that to her I appeared to be animated by no other feeling than a boyish desire to bring off a good joke a joke directed as much against the others as against Mark "He came to me that night, as I expected, still quivering with lndig-OBtion. lndig-OBtion. Miss Norrls must never be asked to the house again; I was to make a special note of It; never again It was outrageous Had he not a reputation as a host to keep up, he would pack hor off next morning. morn-ing. "I comforted him. T smoothed down his ruffled feathers. She had behaved very badly, but he wus quite right, he must try not to show-how show-how much he disapproved of her And of course she would ncer come again that was obvious And then suddenly I began to laugh. He looked up at me Indlgnantlv "Is there a Joke? ' he said coldly. I laughed gently again. "I was Just thinking ' I said, 'that It would be rather amusing If you well, had your revenge.' ' 'My rcenge? How do you mean ?' " Well, paid her back In her own coin.' " 'Do you mean try and frighten her? " 'N'o. no; but dressed up and pulled her leg a bit Made her look fnl In fmnl nf the fltllf Pfl ' I laughed to myself again. "Serve her Jully well right.' He jumped up excitedly "By Jove, Cay! he cried. 'If I could' How? You must think of a way ' ' I don't know if Beverley has told you about Mark's acting. He was an amateur of all the arts, and vain of his little talents, but as an actor ho seemed to himself most wonderful. Certainly he had some ability for the stage, so long as ho had the stage to himself and was playing to an admiring audience. As a professional actor In a small part he would have been hopeless, as an amateur playing the leading part, be deserved all that the local papers had ever said about him 'And so the Idea of giving us a private performance, directed ag;.lnst a professional actress who had made fun of him, appealed eaually to his anlty and his desire for retaliation If he. Mark Ablett. by his wonderful acting could make Ruth Norrls look a fool In front of the others, could take her In, and then loin in tho laugh at her afterward, he would Indeed have had a worthy revenge' " How Cay, how0' he said eagerly. ' Well, I haven't really thought it out' I protested. It was Just an Idea.' "He began to think It out for himself him-self "'I might protend to be a manager, come down to see her but I suppose she knows them all. What about an interviewer ?' " 'It's going to be difficult,' I said thoughtfully. 'You've got rather a characteristic face, you know And your beard ' " 'I'd shave It off,' he snapped. " 'My dear Mark!' "He looked away, and mumbled I'vo been thinking of taking It off. anyhow. And besides. If I'm going to do tho thing, I'm going to do It properly ' " 'Yes. you always were an artist,' I said, looking at him admiringly. "He purred. To be called an artist was what he longed for most Now I knew that I had him "'All tho same,' 1 went on, 'even without your benrd and mustache you might bo recognizable. Lnles3, of course ' I broke off. " 'Unless what ?' " 'Yo pretend to be Robert' I began to laugh to myself again 'By Jove'' I said, 'that's not bad Idea- "Is there n joke?" he asked coldly. ' Pretend to be Robert, the wastri i brother, and make yourself objectionable objec-tionable to Miss Norrls Borrow money from her, and that sort of tiling ' " 'Robert,' he said. 'Yes How shall we work It ' "There was really x Robert Mr. GlIllnKhain, as I have no doubt you and the Inspector both discovered. And he was a wastrel and ho went I to Australia. But he never came j to the Red House on Tuesday afternoon. after-noon. He couldn't have, because he I died (unlamented) three years ago. But there was nobody who knew this, save Mark and myself, for Mark was the only one of the family-left, family-left, his sister having died last year. Though I doubt, anvhow. if sho knew whether Robert was alive or ead. He was not talked about. "For the next two days Mark and I worked out our plans. You understand under-stand by now that our alms were not Identical. Mark's endeavor was that his deception should Inst for. say a couple of hours; mine that it should go to the grave with him. He had onl to deceive Miss N'orris end the other guests; I had to deceive the world. "When he was dressed up as I Robert. I was going to kill him. I Robert would then be dead. Mark (of course) missing. What could anybody any-body think but that Mark had killed I Robert '.' BUt you see how Important It was for Mark to enter fully Into Ms latest (and in-t) unperson'.tlon !l i'f-mens irr i 1. fa'..'! "You will say that It was Impossible Impos-sible to do the thing thoroughly-enough. thoroughly-enough. I answer again that you never knew Mark. lb was be"lng what he w ished most to be an ar- tlst No Othello ever blacked himself I nil over with such enthusiasm us did Mnrk. His beard was going anyhow possibly a chance remar k of Miss Newbury's helped here She did not like beards. But It was important for' me that the dead man's hands should not be the hands of a manicured gentleman gen-tleman Five minutes plaUng upon the vanity of the artist sottled his hinds He let the nails grow and then cut them raggedly 'Miss Morris would notice your hands at once,' I had said. 'Besides, as an artist "So With bis underclothes. It was hardly necessary to warn him that his ponts might show above the i erlfj. of his socks; as an artist he had already decided upon Robertlan pnnts. I bought them. and other things. In London for him Even If I had not cut out all trace of the maker's name, he would have instinctively in-stinctively have done it. As an Australian Aus-tralian and an artist, he could not have n Bast London address on his underclothes. Yes, we were doing the thing thoroughly, both of us; he' as an artist. I as a well, you may say murderer, lr you like I shall not mind now. ' Our plans were settled I went to London on th' Monday and wroto him a letter from Robert (The artistic artis-tic touch again.) I also bought a re-! VOlver. On the Tuesday morning he announced the arrival of Robert at the breakfast table. Robert was now; allv( we had six witnesses to prove i it u(- nHinvanq whn knf-w thnt Ha was coming that afternoon Our private plan was that Robert should present himself at three o'clock, In readiness for the return Of the golfing party shortlj afterward "The mali would go to look for Mark, and having frilled to find him, come back to the office to find me entertaining Robert In Mark's absence ab-sence I would explain that Mark must have gone out somewhere, and would myself Introduce the wastr -I brother to the tea-table. Mark s absence ab-sence would not excite any comment, for It would be generalU felt indeed Robert wcild suggest It that he had been afraid of meeting his brother Then Robert would maki I himself amusingly offensive to the' ! guests particularly, of course Miss I Norrls, until he thought that the Joke had gone far enough "That was our private plan. Per-! haps I should say tha' it was Mark's private plan. My own was dlfferenL , (Continued In Our Next Issue) |