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Show CH.M'TKB VIII THE STOIIY THIS FAK: Roturnins from ft visit with D.vko McKinnon, his nnrlc, Totld McKinnon, C.corKine Wyt'lh ftnd email (lauj;lilt'r. Ilarby. slopped to Tlsit with Mrs. l'eabody. Mrs. l'eabody CHAPTER VIII Georgine Wyeth had indeed been "as mad as hell" for the few minutes min-utes after she turned away from the window. Rescue him, that great galoot? Save him from the "infernal little prancing nymph"? A fat lot of rescuing Todd McKin-oon McKin-oon would ever need! Georgine turned down the street toward the center of the village. She swung along at a fast clip, her temper giving off almost palpable sparks. Might as well patronize the family's fam-ily's business enterprises; the gold letters on the window read, "Burn- ham-Tillsit." Georgine paused a moment at the door, her bad temper tem-per forgotten in a nostalgic delight. de-light. On either side was a glass globe filled with colored water, one green, one purple; in this age as rare a sight as a cigar-store Indian. In-dian. The interior of the shop was "period," too; no soda fountain, no toys or flashlights or magazines; maga-zines; it was that almost forgotten establishment, a real pharmacy. A dark-haired young man in a white coat was at a wall telephone In the rear, and she waited for his conversation to finish, looking about in pleasure. She turned slowly to look behind be-hind the old mahogany counter on her right, and met her own gaze In a mirror. It gave her a slight shock. Dear me, Georgine thought, I'm really looking very healthy this spring; I've gained a little weight; must be love. Love, she thought, and began to spark with fury again ; but this time there was laughter mixed with it. Ti e dark young man finished his telephoning, with a promise to bring something or other over just the minute Horace got in, yes, Ma'am; and slammed up the receiver. re-ceiver. He kept glancing at the telephone as he waited on her, and was so distrait as to get down the wrong brand of toothpaste twice before he hit on the correct one. Georgine could identify the young man: Virdette Bacon's brother-in-law, the one who was expecting twins any time this week. The door from the prescription room was flung open, and Horace Tillsit came in briskly. He was buttoning but-toning a white coat of his own; though so much more fully clothed than when she'd seen him in the hall, he was at once recognizable. "Any news, Mart?" he said, grinning. grin-ning. "Not yet? Oh, well, it's always al-ways slow the first don't hit me! Go on, get out of here and stay at the hospital. Go on, you don't need a hat." As he talked, he had been pushing push-ing Martin Kinter toward the door. The prospective father wobbled blindly out. Horace turned around, met Georgine's eyes, and burst Into laughter. He had Mary Helen's gray eyes behind spectacles which magnified them to a startling size, and the blond hair which had been boyishly tousled when Georgine first saw him now was sleeked back with water. There was a notable confidence in him. His gaze took Georgine in frankly, frank-ly, and he seemed approving nearly to the point of boldness. "Excuse the flurry," he said with another smile; this one was more accustomed, accus-tomed, heartily professional. "We've been having a sort of crisis here." He spoke rapidly, and the breathy softness of his voice made Georgine wish, half Irritably, that he'd put some tone into It. "I know about it," she murmured, mur-mured, picking up her parcel. "Expect you do," said Horace Tillsit. "That Is, If you are the lady In the hall Nell's guest? There aren't many secrets in this town." She turned to go, and he took a step toward her. "Do wait, Mrs. Wyeth. Did Martin manage to wait on you properly?" "Oh, yes, indeed." She turned back irresolutely. "Well could I say for myself that I'm sorry not to've been home for the past few days? You can see why. Here Nell has visitors one of the most charming guests she's ever had, If I may say so and the only Introduction I get Is kind of an embarrav.slnj; one In the up-st.-j;rs hall. Well, Is that fair?" "We did rather wonder where cur fellow-lodger was, all this time." "Working," Horace said. "Keeping "Keep-ing store, anyway. Wo have our burliness In ;:pelln, there'll be a dull Rpot and then a crowd but somebody's some-body's got to be here!" He had maneuvered her toward a hlgh-l''i:i:''d hlgh-l''i:i:''d chair and 'the rtnt down. Inwardly In-wardly arriiirrcd. Anything for company com-pany in fine of tho-.e dull 'rpotn, ulie thought. O'orgine looked up quickly. Horace gave her liin bright, itrrillc. ".".ore," he s.'ild. "Old .''.ir.ie I.abare de-,n't buy rn;iny drug-i, but f.lie w.-i-t In here l.-i-it. night to f;t'xk up - and ,'i'-e(enl ly on purpo-.e mentioned men-tioned It. Why, don't look like that; d'you nuppo: I rnlnd? I can told thorn about the death of Adeline Tillsit, from whom her husband, (lilhcrt, inherited their home. They deeided to stay oer Hnd Ret married. Todd wanted to investigate tho death of Adeline Tillsit. see how you'd want to know something some-thing about the family your nephew neph-ew might be joining." "I haven't a nephew. And that isn't really the reason. You can't think how embarrassing it is, Mr. Tillsit, to feel as if you're getting people to talk on false pretenses. Not that Todd's been in the least untruthful about it, they just seem to open up for him, but " "Well, why not?" said Horace reasonably. No use pretending it didn't happen; you've got to face facts. It was damned interesting; and poor Gilbert's made up for his his slip, would you call it? Kind of the way that knights of old used to go on pious pilgrimages after they'd sinned." "That's one way of looking at it," Georgine said, still uncomfortably. uncom-fortably. "So why should we get mad if this brother, or cousin, or whatever what-ever he is of yours, gets the details?" de-tails?" "Todd, you mean? He's my fiance." There was a moment's silence. Horace almost gasped at her before be-fore he said, "You mean that thin, deadpan guy you mean you are going to marry him?" "And why not?" said Georgine, her eyes snapping. She kept forgetting for-getting that too many people, on fiist sight, thought Todd appeared negligibl". Horace actually wanted to talk about his great-aunt's murder; he had brought the conversation back to it, himself. Georgine looked at him in wonder. "Look here; Mr. Tillsit, what I can't see is why everyone's so sure Miss Adeline didn't die naturally! And if there was a doubt, which there seemed to be, why it wasn't all hushed up and forgotten." "Couldn't be," said Horace, sitting sit-ting down again and fiddling with mm Georgine knew at once she had seen th'.: girl before. a jar of ointment. "Thanks to Johnny Crane and Grandfather's housemaid that heard tho remarks about the autopsy, it got all over town. It's just the fact that It was never proved, couldn't be proved; don't you seel It's the mystery that gets us all." "But It's all so vague! Nella said everyone suspected there was poison, poi-son, but what poison?" "Easy." Horace flashed his smile, indulgently. "One of the barbiturates, I thought: Borne-thing Borne-thing to simulate coma, until she was too far gone to bo revived. Luminal, I make It. No obvious signs, so that It left a loophole for the doctor's certilicale oh, he was perfectly justified in signing that, since there was a doubt and the next of kin wouldn't allow a p. m., but we all had our ideas." "You mean you think he left her a bottle of poison and said, take this at two-thirty sharp?" Georgine Georg-ine cave him an incredulous look. "Maybe not just like that. Susie Su-sie was around most of the time; she might have seen Aunt Adeline taking something, and wondered If It bad been prescribed but Suslo left her alone for two hours or no every afternoon. And," said Horace, Hor-ace, licking up tho Jar of ointment and to';';ing It from one hand to another, his eyes carefully upon It, "her diet was watched, too, but Sur.le couldn't keen her ryes on everything the old lady ate. 'Tunny thing." He laughed softly. soft-ly. "I've never been utile to get. up much of an appetite for Nclla's almond panic Kinee, and nho coin-plained coin-plained nnee that. Gilbert bad lost bin la-ite for It, too. I say funny, beeair:e I here wa' M't n t blng wrung Willi Hi') pleri- wd found. Johnny Crane a-J-.ed me to analyze It for They talked with Susan Labarc, nurse of Miss Tillsit, and Ir. Crane, but were nblo to e;:un little Inrormntion on the death of Miss Tillsit. Mary Helen Jefferson Jeffer-son returned to tho l'eabody home. him . . . I've often wondered if anyone else saw me pick it up from behind the mattress, on the frame of the bed." "Dear me," said Georgine. "Let me get this straight. Nella Pea-body Pea-body used to make almond paste, and you think Gilbert smuggled some of it in to Miss Tillsit in the morning?" "Uh-huh. Aunt Adeline liked it. Anyway, there was this piece, half-eaten. half-eaten. The fact that there wasn't a trace of luminal in it needn't have meant that well, there could have been other pieces in the batch." "Inconclusive, you said. I think that's the word, and it makes me wonder why your mind, or anyone's, any-one's, should have leapt to Gilbert. I still can't see that, or imagine him going on for years, seemingly fond of his aunt, and then suddenly sudden-ly breaking all at once and committing com-mitting a crime." "I wonder if it seemed like a crime to him," said Horace, once more juggling with the small porcelain por-celain pot. "I wonder. Times, you can convince yourself that if a thing's expedient, and you have the materials at hand . . . You see there was Serena." j "Who's she?" she asked after a j moment. Her lower lip folded over the upper, and her brows drew together. to-gether. "Who was she, you mean. I I guess it's not my place to say anything any-thing about that. There may not have been anything in it, and if ever a thing could have been condoned con-doned no, you'd better ask someone some-one else." "Ask whom? Nella?" "That's an idea." Horace smiled at her again. "You've been getting just bare facts from her, haven't you? That's all she'll give you on this; and that might be as well, then anything you may think would be all in your own mind. Anyone else might color it for you, and as I said nobody could be sure " "Georgine," said Todd's voice from the sitting room. She stopped in the hall and gave him a bright, incurious glance. "Y'es, dear?" she said. "Do come in a moment, won't you? Dear Georgine, I owe you an abject apology." Ho drew her in and closed the door. "Did you make anything of what I was trying to convey through the window? Unforgivable Un-forgivable of me. asking for a rescue res-cue party and then discovering 1 couldn't afford to be " Todd leaned a shoulder against the golden-oak mantel, and seemed to be reflecting. The silence persisted; per-sisted; and after a moment he yielded visibly to temptation. To Georgine's incredulous joy he said, "Well, I've often wondered myself. What do you?" She looked down at the handbag. hand-bag. "I told him and it's true, of course that a widow with a child has a terrible time finding someone to support her, and if someone comes along who doesn't seem to mind . . ." Todd straightened, and put his hands in his pockets. His eyes were almost colorless in their hardness, and there was not a trace of expression ex-pression in his face. "So that's it," he said quietly, heavily. "Funny way to find out, Isn't it? But I'd better know now than go on hoping hop-ing " He walked past her toward the door, so quickly that she felt a whiff of breeze as he passed. Georgine's lips parted slowly, and her eyelids stretched. He could not have taken that seriously? Not Todd, who ought to know . . . She swung round, In actual panic, and began, "Todd! You don't Oh!" Mr. McKinnon had executed a neat flanking attack, and had taken tak-en her, by no means gently, In his arms. A moment later ho said, with some grimness, "I hope that'll cure you of lying to Infatuated young men." She leaned back against Ills hands. When she got breath enough to speak, sho sounded almost al-most angry. "I didn't toll him that, he's not infatuated, and If I'd told him tho truth It would have burned his ears off. No, you wolf, that's plenty. Do you want Barby to turn up In church with a shotgun?" shot-gun?" "That's something I'd give a lot to see," said Todd equably, and tightened his grasp. Nella l'eabody was In the kitchen. kitch-en. She was In the very first stages of some cooking project, getting out eggs and gelatin from a cupboard. cup-board. The cool north light fell through gingham curtains onto the yellow mixing bowls, arid on Nclla's faro bending over them. She was bumming bum-ming an airy III tie tune, she seemed much 11s usual, yet Georgine Georg-ine wondered If there wasn't sum"-thing sum"-thing closed and secret about her expression. "Ileie," Georgine said, "please let mo Iwlp n bit. I can t least whip egg-v. blles! I low do you want them, f I iv or niil v f;t I IT ?" iV'i Hi1: cn;jv"irn) |