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Show what "nrc .von saying' Not Chad? What was it you said about Chad " "He walked out and shot himself, through the head." I rushed out of the room, away from her. I staggered down the stairs into the kitchen. Sam, Hubert riand, and John all jumped up from their chairs and started toward me. John reached me first, and put an arm around me. "Chad " I began, but I couldn't get any further. "There, there, Mary. Pour her some coffee, dad. Quick! Here, sit here. Turn on that fan, Hand. Get some water " "No, no. Tell me. Mrs. Ricker said It isnU trm. It it can't be true. Not our Chad" Sam answered, gruffly, to keep the choke out of his voice. "It is a d n shame, Mary ; but, it Is true. The CHAPTER VII A Confession. The sheriff, the coroner, the undertaker, under-taker, a newspaper reporter, and another an-other man that the coroner had brought along for a juryman, drove np to the ranch at five o'clock that morning. Sam and the sheriff had been friends for thirty years. Sam's money had paid for the coroner's medical education. They, and the others, were mighty sorry to have to bother us at all, and their sole aim was to make as little trouble as i possible. They interviewed each one of us. alone, but pleasantly and informally, in the dining room; each one. that is. hut Danny the coroner, visiting her as a doctor, said it would never do to DIES E RTF M (C) CLEAVER. x ': jM f SIR ASH AW tvvHfe1 pYRI&HTby DOUBLEDAY DORAN CO. INC. tHWUSERVICE pester tier, in ttie state sue was in and Martha, who was still asleep, and whom they said it was no use to wake. They kept each of ns about ten minutes. They brought In the verdict of died by his own hand, for Chad; and, murdered by person or persona unknown for Gaby. They left, on tiptoe, holding their hats In their hands clear to the end of the driveway. drive-way. The sheriff left, I am all but certain, cer-tain, with the strong conviction that I had committed the murder, and with the resolution that he would not do Sam an 111 turn by depriving him of y-V.Tfr tr1' ....... i...... i- i ... THE STORY nuiPTER I Sam Stanley, wealthy Cof the Desert Moon ranch, In-' In-' " . hla housekeeper, Mary Magin, "I"1 to Is the story, that his former twin daughters, Danielle and "Lri.lle are coming to the ranch to fl their mother berne dead and their ',W Daniel Canneziano, who had 1 the cause of Sam's divorcing his ",'(! in tne penitentiary. Sam has f;Md a boy, John, new grown to Koo4. and a clrl. Martha, twenty-ThTslcally twenty-ThTslcally healthy but wealt-mlnd- i HtI Ollle Ricker. Martha' nurss. ;t, with them.. CHAPTER II Hubert Hand. '"-4.?.r '"-4.?.r and Chadwlelc Caufleld. John's Sl'al bvrfdy. who 1. an expert v. SoQUlst, are the other members of jjl , household. Th girls arrii. CHAPTER III Mrs. Magtln has an .S tollis that there Is Z", In the twins' presence at the K, and ber suspicions axe strenffth-Zi strenffth-Zi by the eirl"' mysterious prowling Inimd the ")lace. John becomes -, eed to Danielle. Caufleld shows a pronounced liking for Gabrielle CHAPTER IV Gabrlelle Beeks to Tin John from her sister, and John. Jousted, tells Mrs. Magin the girl is . trouble maker and he would like to Tknke her. Gabrielle's actions when !Se receives a letter from France grouse and mystity Mrs. Magin. Hanc! had come in,-aiid TTiey" acteB ns If. since we had set out to get news of Gaby, It was a wonder we had not done it. Martha was sobbing because she could not have the fireworks. fire-works. I Sam went and touched a match to I the fire ready to be started In the fireplace. I ran upstairs and closed the bedroom windows. 1 had come downstairs, ready to take my rest, when I remembered the attic, with all its windows wide open to the drenching rain. My corns had been hurting me all day; so, Chad being handy, I nsked him to go and close the attic. He went np the stairs, and almost at once came back to the head of them to call down that the attic door was locked. One of my principles Is, that if you ask a man to do anything about the house for you, you do It twice yourself. your-self. I thought, again, how true that was, as I went on my aching feet up the stairs to prove to him that the boy shot himself, not fifteen minutes after we found her. "Wait," he went on quickly, "before you think anything. any-thing. I want to tell you what I have told the others. It la God's truth. That poor boy is as Innocent of any connection with the murder as I am." "What," I moaned, "are we going I to do?" "We are going to do a lot, Mary," I Sam said. "We are going to keep Chad's name clean. Sure," in answer to my protest, "w all know. But, just the same, I'm mighty thankful that I have his alibis for him, myself. my-self. A suicide looks bad, you know. That Is, it would until we lind Can-nezlnno. Can-nezlnno. This Is his work " "But, Sam," I said, "If he wasn't let out of San Quentln until yesterday yes-terday morning, he couldn't possibly have got 'way up here that same evening." eve-ning." "We've told Sam that, a thousand times," Hubert Hand said. "All right, all right," Sam said, "But if I ever get that long distance call through, you'll find that Can-neziano Can-neziano was released a day or two early. She met him yesterday " "How'd he get up here, Sam?" I questioned. a good cook. The coroner, and the others, except the reporter, were sure, I think, that one of us was guilty; but were thankful to goodness that they had not found out which one. The undertaker did not leave with the others. He was preparing the bodies to take them to Telko; there to wait the instructions that we could not give until after we had gotten in touch, if possible, with Chad's people, and had come to a decision about Gaby's burial place. All the Nevada newspaper accounts made much of the fact that the fiend, who had committed the terrible mur- CHAPTER V Sam learns Caiineziano It Boon to be released from the peni-entiary peni-entiary and he looks for him to come u the ranch. The household, with the (iception of John, in town for the mail and the twins, together upstairs, are in the living room when Gabrielle comes down and, with. Caufleld, goes Ho the garden. Danielle, from up-sialrs, up-sialrs, calls to her sister. Caufleld tomes back alone. In a few minutes Danielle comes into the living room. CHAPTER VI Continued. Hubert went straight to the tele phone. From his end of the conversation, conversa-tion, we could tell that Twenty hud jot stopped, and that no one was raiting for Twenty-one. Ue looked foolish, when he turned from the telephone, tele-phone, and said, "Take' it all back. John. My mistake." Sam looked, mighty serious. "Well.' tie drawled, "1 don't know but what as t;oprl a plan as any would be U. aoor was not locked, never nau Deen locked, and, likely, never would he. : It was locked. Chad walked off, saying that he would see whether some one downstairs bad locked it and had the key. or, if not, whether he could find another key to fit it. I stood there waiting. I put my hand in my pocket for my handkerchief. handker-chief. There was a key. It fitted the lock. I opened the door. About half way up the steps, Gaby was: lying in a huddle of pink wrap. I spoke to her. She did not answer. I ran up the steps and put an arm around her, trying to lift her. Her head rolled to one side. I saw her throat. It was saffron color, with great blue black bruises at its base. I touched her swollen face. It was cold. For an instant, my only sensation was one of violent nausea. I tried to scream. My throat had elos-ed. I aer on the uesert Moon runcit, uau made a complete escape, without leaving any clews of any sort. No clews 1 Lands alive! The place was positively cluttered with clews; and most of them about as useful, in the end, as clutter generally is. I asked Sam about the contents of Gaby's beaded bag. "It is all on the table In her room," he said, "where I put it for the coroner's coro-ner's jury. Xou can go and see. But, first, read this. It was tucked inside her dress. . The undertaker found it, and gave it to me. I dread giving it to Danny." He handed me a folded sheet of paper. I opened it, and read: "Danny dear: If you ever read this, I shall be dead murdered. Don't have me buried here in this Godforsaken Godfor-saken country. Take me to San "Did you have a passenger up from I Rattail, yesterday, John?" Hand asked. Sam spoke, before John could answer. an-swer. "Son," he said, "did you, by any chance, as a favor to one of the girls, bring that skunk here yesterday?" yester-day?" "I did not, dad." "He got here, then, as I've said all along. Horseback, across the desert3. And he murdered the girl. By G d, he'll hang for it, if it takes my last dollar. He killed Chad, too, as much as if he'd shot him down. We aren't overlooking a couple of murders, not here on the Desert Moon. Not right yet, She went out to meet him yesterday, yes-terday, I tell you. She brought him into the house, for some purpose; through the back way and up into the attic." "Without anybody seeing or .hearing in my lap. "If only," she kept saying, "if only she could have left us in her beauty. Francisco and have my body cremated. cre-mated. I love a flame. I hate the cold earth. "Xou have had much trouble on my account, old dear. Don't blame me for having kept the fear and the dread of this thing, which I felt certain cer-tain was ;;oing to- happen, from you. You, nor no living person, but one, could have saved me. "Remember, Dan, that in spite of all the distress I have caused you, and may still be causing you, I have always, In my own way, loved you. Gaby." "Sam," I said, "I knew she was afraid, yesterday. Oh, why didn't I she tell us? Of course you men could I have saved her. Why did she go out them?" Hubert Hand questioned. j "Nobody was looking nor listening, as I remember. I tell you, he killed her there on the stairs, and he made his get-away " "If you think that," I said. "Why aren't you out hunting him?" "H 1!" Sam exploded. "Why ain't I out hunting last night's lightning? light-ning? The girl had been dead anyway any-way two or three hours more likely longer, when we found her. He had that head start on us. He's gone. He went straight across the deserts, h 1 bent for Sunday. He'll need food. He'll need water, worse, I've telegraphed to every town within two hundred miles of here. They are watching. I've phoned every ranch. I've kept that phQne hot for six solid hours. I've got posses at every water-hole" water-hole" "Listea, Sam," 1 said. "Unless after he murdered her, ha walked downstairs, with none of ns seeing or hearing him, and Into th living room or the kitchen, and put tha key In my pocket, Cannesiano !a not the guilty man." m t.int,nT, KaII rune. must have shut my eyes, tor i remember re-member thinking that, if I did not open them, the dizziness would sweep me off into unconsciousness. I opened them. I saw, there on the red carpet of the steps, something that shocked my reeling senses into sanity. Dropped all over the bright beaded bag," lying there, were the burned tobacco to-bacco and the ashes from Sam's pipe. All of my horror concentrated into a frantic desire to get those ashes cleared away so that no one else could see them. I shook them from the bag to the carpet. I brushed them from the carpet into my handkerchief. hand-kerchief. Just as I got to my feet from my knees, Chad came up. "Call the others," I said. "Gaby Is here murdered." I stuffed the handkerchief filled with ashes Into my pocket, and, for the first and last time In mj life, I fainted dead away. The next thing that I knew 1 was lying on my back listening to someone some-one screamint, above' the voices of Sam and Mrs. Ricker. I realized that those awful sounds were coming from .wiL jwp f l j I Bw i J alone to meet that fiend?" Sam's only answer was a slow shaking of his bowed head, and a deep sigh. "Mary," be said, then, "will yon give this note to Danny, and explain to her how it is?" "How what is?" "T mean Well, sh can't leave the Desert Moon, now, to take the body to 'Frisco. Until w find out fht wirl not a man- my own throat I tneci to siop mem , but I could not I put my hands to my throat to make It stop the nise. Sam's voice eame, clear and strong then real, like a light in the dark. I Chad and Hubert Hand Were to Scout Around the Place on Ponies. UJUluciau " -" jack of us 13 gOinj to leave this place, for any reason. Dar.ny may be as Innocent as she ssenis to be, and she may not She, nor anyone eise, can leave this place until we have gotten to the verr bottom of this thing. That goes. Thli note, In Gaby's handwriting, clears Danny of the crime, if all the other eTidenae didn't, which it does. We know that she did not kill her sister. But, of all the people in this house, she is in the best position to know who did do it Of course, if sho is Involved in this she is involved Innocently. If she put the key in your pocket, while we were out In the car, she did it with no idea of what she was doing. Just tho same, I want her right here tho Dpsert Moon, for a while. I I Hurried to Her and Put My Arms Around Her. She was ae beantlfol, Mary. And : now " Remembering what I bad seen the night before, I knew that I must get her mind Into other channels If her reason was to be saved. I thanked my tars, when I remembered the note. After she had read It she cried harder than ever; but I knew that It was crjin of a suner sort "Will you go with me. Alary?" sho questioned, when she had quieted some. "To San Francisco?" "n-a'll hira tn t : 1 1 Ur to S'.'lITl about Hubert Hand and Johi followed Sam Into tUe living room. stayed where I was. I had to have a minute min-ute to think. The ashea on the bag? The key in my pocket? Sara? If Sam, I thought bad foand It necessary to murder Gabrlelle Can-neziano, Can-neziano, he had probably done it to keep something worse from happening. happen-ing. Sickened at myself, for that thought, I found another way of thinking' not much better. It did seem to me, remembering the pipe ashes on top f the bag, that Sntn must have been there on the stairs at some time after she had been murdered and before I had found her. He must then, be keeping keep-ing some secret concerning the murder. mur-der. It did look ns if, considering his talk, he must be shielding the murderer, with every ounce of his horse-sense and ingenuity, both of which he had in plenty. But whom would he shield to that extent? Chad, alive or dead? No. Martha? Yes. But Martha could not have done it. I sat straight up. ine screams ceased. "What" I managers tho matter?" "Everything on God's earth, that could be," Sam answered. "But here, Mary. Drink this. Get some sleep. Nothing to be done, now. We'll need you, tomorrow." He shViok a powder Into my mouth. Mrs. Rickar held a glass of water to my Hps- , When 1 opened my eyes again, it was gray dawn. I saw that I was in Mrs Bicker's room. She was sit-tin" sit-tin" by the window tatting. I watched her" for a full minute before memory seized me, and 1 cried out with the pain of it "Sli h-h " she warned me, in a whisper. ' "You'll wake Martha. She Is asleep here on the couch." I felt in my pocket. The ball of hn,lkerchief was still there. I went i all to go out and have a look 'round for her" "Oh!" Danny exclaimed,' sharply. "Uncle Sam, you do think that she ' wet with some mishap V "I think," Sam said, "that she has "rt with another machine and ridden ' 0(f In It. But, better safe than sorry; ll'en we'll be fine and fit for the fire-fo-ks. Eh, Martha?" Martha, who had been drowsy all during nupper, was half asleep on the tovenport, and did not answer. Sam's first plan, after he and Hu-bert Hu-bert lind made a quick ride to the cabn and back with no sight of Gaby, "'s for the two of us to go down the in the sedan. Fortunately, he decided at the last minute to have Jelin come with us to drive. Danny Mle along with John. Chad and llu- Hand were to scout around the p,,l''e on their ponies. Mrs. Ricker Sta-Ted at home with Martha. I Mary, you take the note to her, and explain, in your nice w".y " - "I'll give her the note, Sam," I said "Hut you'll have to do the explaining ex-plaining yourself. I'll tell you why. It isn't right for you to try to protect pro-tect nnvone, not even Martha, to the .-t Vr rofnsin;' to allow one sis- inl0 u,e hall bathroom, washed my f..e and hands, and drained the last that, dear." I said. "I am afraid that Sam wants us nil to st:iy here, for a while. Sam thinks Hint the duty of each one of ns, right now. Is to stay here and help to find the guilty person." "Does Cncle Aim think we will find him here?'' she finest ioncd. "There Isn't anywhere else to try to find him," I s:iid. "Hid you know about the key in my pocket?" She nodded. "I knew about that," she said. "What else did yon know about?" I asked. "Nothing," she said, hurriedly. "Nothing. But Mary, d'.ew't It seem possible to yon that someone, clear frjm the ontside, did It? And gave the key to Chad, and asked him to put It in your pocket? And that for some raawon we probably never shall discover, Chad could not, dared not tell on the person who gave it to him? And that is why he shot UmdlV (To Be Continued) extent ot wumk , ter to cany out the dying request of another sister." ' Sam dropped his pipe. As I saw the tobacco and the ashes scatter, I was more certain than ever that I was acting as a decent woman should The door opened, and Danny came In. She was so pale that her checl;.-had checl;.-had sort of a greenish tinge to then Great dark circles spread far d..vv under her eyes that were red im.-l swollen from crying. I hurried to her. and put my ann-around ann-around her. Sam turned away, as it he could not hear to look at u I took her Into the living room, an.: sat downjn a big chair and held he. John? Not unless mere m .... 'thing' to it that none of us dreamed of. Hubert Hand, or Mrs. liicker? No. Danny? 1 thought not Myself? My-self? I couldn't be sure. The men came back into the kitchen. Sam looked ten years older than he had looked ten minutes before. be-fore. ,. , "It was San Quentin," be said to me. "Canne.-.iano was positively not released from there butil nine o'clock yesterday morning." "That," I said, "lets him out." "And." Hubert Hand said. "le'? every man-jack of us here on the place, in." Habit was too strong for Mm. "'Well in,'" he quoted, with a groan ffe drove to the highway before we tlrned around. We had come back 0l't a mile, when the wind came iliwling up, blowing the sand and dust n uick clouds, jerking and snapping llle sage and the greasewood, chasing ,Di bouncing the tumbleweed balls. John drove fast; but we barely je the ranch before the storm i ,oke. and, just as we reached the 'roi porch, the rain came pouring aown as if all the sky were the noz-, noz-, of a big faucet and someone bad tuel it on, full force. "This will bring her in," Sam said, !,8 we ran up the steps. "She'll be "ere. high and dry, when we get in." --.wns not. Chadand. .Hubert. ,.,.,!, of tobacco down with the water wa-ter out of the washbowl. I washed the handkerchief, scoured the bowl, and weiu back to Mrs. Kicker's room. As I opened the door, she again warned me against waking Martha. "Was the shock too much lor her?" I asked, going and standing beside Mrs. Ricker so that we might talk-In talk-In whispers. "I didn't allow her to go upstairs. She followed Chad out of the house and saw him shoot himself. He died within ten minutes. It was terrible for Martha. I had to hold her, while Sam gave her a narcotic" JS'o, no," I .protested. "What |