Show ial 6 MARY 5 PINIE MARf 7 AUTHOR ork OF K WE LOWER TEH ETC i afi arf ROSE RINEHART I 1 W CHAPTER X continued 9 something in her thinly drawn voice was familiar 1 I see ward said slowly it was you who telephoned me and then rang off when you say that I 1 am good and tender elinor went on yoa shamo shame roe me I 1 am all that Is bad baa and wicked everything you were to have been robbed tonight I 1 brought you lieke here under false pretense ward was as white as she ills his figure straightened then all the time that I 1 have been telling you 1 I did not hear I 1 was watching the time personal fear ward had none lie ile did not even follow elinore Eli nors eyes as they glanced once more at the clock mrs bryants abryants Br venomous insinuations came back to him all the village talk of the girls strange rearing fearful thoughts flashed into his mind to be dismissed shaken oft off doggedly 1 I shall hall never believe anything that you do not tell me yourself but it Is only fair to me that now at last there be frankness between us there are others elinor said with dry lips your father lie ile is dead I 1 cannot talk of him this much I 1 can tell you the parish house was burned deliberately it was planned and carefully carried out and you sou knew 1 I had forbidden it you had forbidden it he went to her and caught her by the shoulders forcing her to look up into his face you then all this time that you have seen what you must have seen in my eyes ees you have been at the head of a band of thieves elinor said slowly ward released her and turning took a slow survey of the room then I 1 suppose this is a trap lie he said it Is not a trap her voice was dead 1 I opposed this this plan from the start that Is the reason one of the men of my friends suspected that I 1 go on what did lie he suspect that I 1 but that matter ile he burned the parish house and planned all this tonight he meant to get the money from you and I 1 was desperate sperate ile I 1 could think of no other way 11 wards faith in her was slow to die ile he took a step toward ther his hands out then dropped them at ills his sides then the night the parish house burned when I 1 came down in the dawn end and found you sitting there he clenched ills his hands all the time you knew you knewl and I 1 had thought I 1 he went to the table and opening the box bos slipped the notes and money tl it contained into his pocket then he buttoned ills his coat about him elinor watched him stonily you are going back down the hill hil I 1 1 I am going home ile he did not even look at her if you would only go some place else she bhe said pitifully to the club or to mrs ars br abryants bryants ants please believe me whatever I 1 am and I 1 have told you ou the worst I 1 am trying to think of you ou tonight not of myself 1 I am going back to my house said the assistant rector of saint judes ile he got as far as the door on to tho the terrace and there he turned it was as if he dared not look at her as it if he be meant to carry away with him some memory than of this white lipped guilty woman before him if I 1 seem liard hard he said unsteadily d it is because I 1 am suffering you are quite safe of course I 1 shall not go to the police had he car cared 1 ed less he be would have been more merciful old henriette Henr lette watched ills his figure as he went down the garden steps and into the road strange things in this housel house 1 she mumbled shaking her head bead preachers coming and going at all hours and elinor in a church tills this morning strange things hilary kingston since you went away she shuffled along the terrace and into the house her thin black shawl drawn about her shoulders in the library elinor lay face down on the floor old henriette Henr lette bent over her my lamb my pet she soothed her iles hes a fine man but there are many others and when one is young and lovely since elinor made no response but only loaned moaned old henriette Henr lette rose from her knees and shuffled out of the room but cautiously as she passed she took too k from a table drawer old hilares Hi larys revolver and carried it out under her shawl she was very wise was wrinkled henriette Henr lette and she knew the kingston blood ward ahme came down the road rapidly there was a faint moon one part pait of his mind had ceased to work vork his high cr faculties were dormant with misery with the anesthesia anesther an esthes la that jilot comes for a time after great grief or k ilby s lacall je ie ans alert t hi keen been eyes searched each clump of 0 shrubbery before he reached it not that ho he feared attack for himself his cup of life was bitter to his taste that night but lie he carried a trust in ills his pockets that he be would deliver huff was waiting at the foot of the kingston place crouched behind a wall if the boy had been jealous before ho he was maddened now ward had been with elinor huff coming up the hill had heard ills his short goodnight to henriette in the garden had heard him come down the hill there were only two explanations either tile the man was in love with her and had gone up that night of ills his own volition or elinor hassent had sent for him one was as bad as the other ward did not have a chance As lie he came abreast of the wall the boy fired and lie he pitched forward on ills face with the re echoing of the shot among the hills huffs buffs madness died away murder was not his game violent and sudden death perhaps but never before a shot from behind had the wealth of a city been in wards pockets he could not have touched it ile he thrust ills revolver into his pocket and breaking away through the shrubbery commenced a swift but noiseless ascent of the hill the assistant rector of saint judes lay on his face in the road with the morning offering of his congregation safe in ills his pockets CHAPTER XI the chief sent for boroday early tile the next mo morning ining youve turned the trick all right elgh lie he said grimly smiling boroday as immaculate as ever settled his tie yes sit town down said the chief now that you know youre going I 1 suppose youre not in any particular hurry boroday ran his hand band over ills his silky beard 1 I should like to get to a barber 1 there Is no great hurry now said the chief when boroday was comfortably settled and smoking one of his i 1 3 1 I shall tell my confreres contreres Con freres 11 eternal russian cigarettes 1 I wish you would tell me why you disposed of that pearl the way you did it gasn wasn t quite up to our agreement you know it was to be given to me and I 1 w was is t to 0 return it instead of that I 1 had to make a wild goose chase out into t the he country ahl ah sold boroday into the country the chief who was accustomed to reading faces watched boroday closely but if there was a tightening about the russians eyes it was very faint you know blamed well said the chief peevishly just where I 1 had to go to got get that thing and you sou know blamed well also that on sunday afternoon I 1 always play poker it was well inconsiderate to say the least boroday smiled 1 I om cm exceedingly sorry that you were put to any trouble about it he said but as you may understand I 1 have not yet seen my friends and of course ile he shrugged his shoulders the chief was skeptical of his ignorance never the less ile he humored what lie he chose to consider Boro days whim first he gave him tile the note which he had received by special delivery the day lie be fore quick as he was the russian could not quite conceal his astonishment in the alms bixl said the chi chief ef somebody with a sense of humor had bai charge af p this little affair bryant is senior w warden arden it seems in this church it was clever boroday passed tile the letter back to him 1 I shall tell my confreres contreres con freres it Is quite original the chief was smoking a largo large cigar unlike the police chief of fiction and the dramn drama lie he did not speak around the cigar but carefully removed it not out ot of act to lils his vis visitor but out of deference toa to a good cigar now ho he leaned toward boroday either lie he said eald slowly it was clever or it was necessary but the russian had himself well in hand ile he only smiled it has haa occurred to me the chief went on that that little town has been pretty busy lately there was that matter of the country club you know and last thursday night the parish house burned down Y yes es 11 said boroday Bo politely and now something else has happened nud and j suddenly the chief beat ills his desk with ills his alst ji 1 I am pretty sick of it under perfect control as he was at critical moments the russians hands had a way of twitching so now he flicked the ash from his cigarette arid and was politely interested what hat happened last night he be in quiren 1 I think you know if you dont ill III tell you yesterday morning a tremendous collection was taken up at the church of saint judes to build a new parish house in place of the one that eliat burned down the rector has been away the assistant rector took charge of the money 1 I see of course you see what I 1 would like to know is why you fellows boroday spread out ills his hands in his foreign way 1 I fear you give me great credit I 1 do not deserve it 1 why you fellows the chief went on resolutely waited to do this job until the rector who Is old and infirm had gone away anway and left a husky young assistant in his place and that nil all I 1 want to know in any way that I 1 can assist you what the devil do you mean yelled the chief by shooting a man down and then going away an and d leaving the money in ills his pockets its its crude its wasteful I 1 the russians fingers twitched in spite of him the chief saw it and smiled under his heavy mustache do you mean that somebody shot this er assistant you speak of that rather sad was there much money seventy eight thousand dollars said the chief and put his cigar back in his mouth there Is a story I 1 behind it boroday and its that story I 1 am going to get im warning you because youve played pretty square with me I 1 needed that pearl in my bustness business boroday rose alt all right chief he be said 1 I am sorry about young ward I 1 hope he killed he killed hilled 11 replied the chief and I 1 said h his Is na name in e w was a s ward if you had your breakfast yet we might breakfast top together ther I 1 overslept over slept and had time for anything ward came back to consciousness in the great four poster bedstead in which old hilary kingston had lain in state ile he felt very little pain and n no 0 curiosity at all as to his surround surroundings ln 9 91 only an overwhelming lassitude and weariness of life something something that mattered very much had gone out of existence ho he could not remember what it was there was a uniformed nurse by the bed he lind a curious antipathy to asking her anything he had bad made a promise of secrecy to someone about what toward evening he had managed to evolve out of ills his reviving consciousness some faint memory of what had happened to him he remembered that lie he was walking down a hill and that lie he had fallen forward for quite a half hour late in the afternoon he struggled to remember why he had gone down the hill then he got it he had been up at tile the hall to see elinor it was elinor who had gone out of his bis life elinor I 1 elinor I 1 he slept very little during the night and as his fever rose he called the nurse elinor and begged her frantically to tell him that something ras aras not true of course it Is not t true rue said th the nurse who was accustomed to being called various things you did not mean it at all he cy eyed ed her wistfully the nurse was large and plain with a wide flat face you with tile the eyes of a saint said poor ward V ard to try to tell me that you are ard wicked I 1 see that it is impossible I 1 think I 1 can sleep now DOW the nurse put her hand wh which it c h wa was S large and ill shaped but very light and tender on his head bead and so he went to sleep when he was quite settled the nurse went out into the hall where E liner elinor was sitting on a straight chair she had sat there almost all 11 of the time since ward was carried up the night before TO DIU BC CONTINUED |