Show I 1 MOON M C I 1 nn MYSTERY V S I 1 tp V I 1 BY kay cleaver strahan Sl ralian v s 0 bir ly in co IQ EPILOGUE 17 sam barn says bitterly Oll terly that the only thing I 1 need to explain ID b the one thing that tan can ever avei be explained how one onesin on eBin girl by chari hanging ging her lies liea and by wit jitshing shing bet face turn a houseful of supposedly sen sensible stale people into a packet of blithering bat biani fools for or a gueriero generous gene rOtS a period ot of time I 1 can explain that flint I 1 think hut but I 1 am going to leave it until lampi and go clear back bach to the second ot or july tile hie day that gabrielle Gabrlel lc m ched the code letter la in tiei bet talk with john juhn john says it was ln in at no sense if confession i flint it w ads nothing but a tuthill for us nil all a final regretless re detless ret less high fling ot of le de flance fiance there in his room during the twenty minutes or so 30 that flint she talked to him before she shot herself bera elt some things which might st still 11 not he dein clear to is were made plain also many of mis bliss pi formed opinions lous were directly or in directly verified miss alar dimaid had said you remember that the murder had been wickedly bated when I 1 read that ietter gabrielle said bald to jolin john and found my eiselt self pen fallass and on a nevada ranch I 1 at once maide made up my mind to danielle Dan lelle the bittle tool fool and take her place how site she persuaded dunny to ac capt the idea of the masquerade and to change clothes iab with her on the fourth of july we do dc no not t positively know that Is tile the I bole fole that miss bliss macdonald mentioned in her puzzle to my mind there Is little doubt that she gained her way very easily by using her own and dla dis appointment as tools with which to remove dannys scruples i and prod her pity I 1 am sure remembering g dannys troubled manner at the time that she consented unwillingly that she thoroughly disliked the idea and that flint slie she was afraid of Us its conse quen ces when the two girls went upstairs together on the afternoon of the fourth of 0 july they must time have gone to elicit effect the transformation perhaps then tor for a brief tri loute or two the hie thing did seem amu amusing ing to ninny danny for I 1 know that I 1 heard beard the kills Is laughing together as I 1 have man dmn tinned when I 1 was vias on an my orrand errand upstairs we do not know when the disguise had been completed by what pretext gabrielle lured danny damy into the attic their trunks were in fit the attic there could be a dozen doyen simple ample reasons why danny might consent to goi go up there with her timing downstairs again gabrielle Gahr lelle cousin caught tier hy by the throat limit and strangled tier her by means ot of the deadly jl jitsu hold slie she hall had learned front from her strangler Sl lover over it Is a hold that requires little strength though trained ringers iii iBers were strong enough but much scientific skill she took the lie earrings from dannys s ears eais or perhaps danny had not yet put them on went to I 1 er own room arranged her makeup make up got into the wrap which complete ij covered dan nys clothes that slie site was vas v as wearing pulled tile the hat bat down over tier eyes to conceal the change la in buird ang and walked through the bilang 11 ing rown tor for us all to see tier her at four when chad went to in the porch TIM her this john found out by lisl stent questioning slie she told him film that nanny danny had left the house earlier by the back way that slie she and dann had arranged a joke on the be rest ot of ab to enliven the dull afternoon find and asked him film to help with ith it by calling in dannys danny cotef to her when lie ho came back into the house chad lid did it that was chy since he was ft as stun standing ding down by the front doors the voice to come from the upper hall had a strained and an unnatural sound round gabrielle hal hai reck med that chad in spite of her request would be too stupid to discover the fails facts probably she thought that lit at any rate she would be able to impose silence upon him it was one of tier her many mistakes we think that he must have known for the remainder of the afternoon that gabrielle Gah ilelle was masquerading as danny ilia his happy mood was caused hy by the fact that gabrielle had bad given him film a conti confidence continence dence and had bad allowed him to perform a small service sen ice tor for her when he saw what had bad hupp happened huppen ened pd and when he realized that the girl whom he had worshipped worshipper wor shipped shipper wits was a murderer lie he killed himself strange that in spite of everything tie he still loved her enough to leave the confessional note to shield her the men think that he be left the note to shield the rest of us ua rather than to shield her I 1 do no not believe it sho she had eluned to go straight 9 around the house anti and reenter re enter it the bade back door marthas oa be las ing by the rabbit hutch butch was something she had bad not counted on it was n as necessary to distract marthas attention and to get her to come at once into the house she gave gao herthe monkey bracelet As she did so BO probably because of the ait act of 0 kindness Und ness martha made one of her bet frequent mistakes and called danny gabrielle told john concerning martha john also questioned her insistently that she then showed martha the poison in the charm and told her that it was a love potion that would malts make chad love her like a lady if she would swallow it and never tell anyone anything about it martha out of the way gaby must have run quickly around to the back of the house and up the back stairway to toss the hat and wrap on tile the body replace tile the earrings scatter tile the pipe ashes ashe over the beaded hag bag 1 I 1 declare to goodness I 1 can more easily think of fit her lulng if ing there in her white silk dressing gown than I 1 can think of tier her brushing those pipe pille ashes up from somewhere in n order to save tamn for that purpose and drop the tatting shuttle there required not more than one or two min utes ot it time imp another tw two 0 or r three ahu to wash tier her face thoroughly roughly inal to douse on some of dannys danny s per furne fume arid and site IMIS coming do downstairs W 1 Is lairs I 1 gain with alth the headache that feces ilta terl the drewi drawing ng it the curt curtains ains to calib tier her safety if a bit safer just nt at first she told john olin lint flint those few min 11 tea when she lie tin had to walk through lie ahe room binl the trip aroun around 1 I the bim house s e find and net get lipsin irs again were file I 1 lie only moments af t fright that she hod had had front from the lie first to tile the last om onic ome e safely established in the role 0 ol 01 I 1 panny danny she said she knew that she had nothing to fear I 1 think however that there were 0 times when she wits afraid I 1 am certain that real fear was there in her room that lay when the en ring dropped from her on 9 ger er though I 1 belfer that her tear fear then was anti ed from sit super per had not from tiny dread that the lie alight differ difference enco between hp een her hands and dannys hands might bp be n I 1 am sure that her fear fur for john I 1 on in the fourth of july was real enough she thew new that euh each minute he was away longer than th time necessary necess iry for the trip was nas a minute lost from tile the perfect tillei she had so mistaken ly tried to arrange for him by sending him awny away from the rauch she nail nad not known that dannys danny s lingers fingers had closed on the stil stalls tvs tread when john bame in the bat bak k way nay she was afraid that flint it would he be remembered later us ais it was wasand aasand and that some one would suslu 0 as hubert hilbert hand did suspect that lolin john nad find carried the body in at that flint time she had counted on her note to danny find and on the flie fact chatas that as dan ny slie she wits was downstairs within ten en or twelve minutes titter after tile the time we had seen gaby walking down the path and had heard dimitis Dnn Dim riis itys voice calling u after tier to prove her own on lullo inno cc cence nee they and the gentleness of dannys disposition did this to perfection tier her original plan had been to prove that sam wis was the murderer with 8 sam am out of the way and with john in possession of nt his fortune she had thought lit I 1 suppose that she would id anve no trouble to in persuading lohn john to I 1 k I 1 W S I 1 gabrielle Gabr lelle caught her by the throat and strangled her leave the desat moon nut but site she was afraid of the file filea lin knowing owIng johns devot devotion lon it to sam she could not reek n with rny ny sureness hw disgrace alsi rare and sorrow might affect lohn john it was too big a risk alak to take unreservedly unreserved 8 so though she ahe picked the quarrel I 1 with lt sam strewed the pipe aslies ashes on the ting bag put the key in the fireplace wrote ft rote on the photograph slie site left loopholes in if the sholes es of the many other false clews it Is only my own notion that if slie bile bad not nor thought the definite acau ndoc of 6 sam am she made during the session on the tha fifth of july wits was necessary to protect lohn john she would have hae hacked backed out by that time and not have matte made it t it Is again only my notion that the request which she pin pill in if her hei note to janny danny to have danni dann take hei bet body to sun san francisco for cremation wits was made because bile ahe thought that it would be desirable for hei be to be able to leave leae tile the ranch at onee peili avs for several weeks mrs airs Itle hikers kers ex pressed suspicion pro probably bobly made tier lier realize tile the wisdom of rp turnIng as rapidly as possible por elble to tile desert moon gabrielle lelle Canne ziano was a born criminal almost all ot of her life bad been spent among criminals she knew their ways and she knew the ways of honest people toward them consequently she was too clever to drop her disguise even tor for a minute in san francisco when on the afternoon of the fourth of july she tied had come downstairs as aa danny she had come resolved from that time forth to be danny lc in thought and in deed up to the level best of her ability that she never doubted her ability to turn from black to white within the space ot of an hur Is a splendid example of miss macdonaldd Mac Donalds conten contention tiou concerning the egotism of criminals miss macdonald says that her first real clew was the one I 1 gave cave to her when I 1 said apat that no one line except gaby gab herself who would do such a wicked thing had ever been on the ranch it if she had bad been on the ranch she th might have committed the e murder she hall had all three of the primary motives tor for murder love revenge and greed the unique feature in this case miss bliss Mu cDonald says that each case has its unique feature wils was that t the lie murdered girl bad been a duplicate I 1 win twin the hazy incomplete notion miss macdonald cDonald Mi says had juff come into her mind she had bad not dot begun to noco capt pt it she was only allowing it dim ly to take torn form when I 1 returned to the room that hat day with my hand full fill 01 0 letters written hv by danny hand and writing as surely as fingerprints miss bliss macdonald says sais proves identity identify she asked me straight whether I 1 had so seen en danny writing the cheek cheila and addressing the envelopes velores en I 1 an straight had and positively hint flint I 1 had anil and miss bliss macdonald had warned me that people often though thou lit that they saw things they did not see I 1 had bad not I 1 had seen the person w whom hom I 1 supposed was M vanny writing c hecks becks and addressing envelopes I 1 had turned my back on tier her and had walked to the door when she called after me arid and gave me the envelopes containing the checks danny herself ersell ti had bud written those hecks checks and tind nad addressed those en delopes on the third ol of july owing to all the furore that had been going on in the house that lay day she hart had left tier lier desk before she had torn the checks becks from her checkbook an and d had never gone back to it to finish her task tt it Is possible that gabrielle had bud deliberately arranged that also but I 1 think not at any rate site she imd bad had the hecks checks in her posse possession ESlon find and had waited for a date that flint had a three or an eight in it to produce e them C circumstances and I 1 ped well into her hands that flint lay ilay she had only to insert a one in front firm of the three to make nie me tier cpr fool miss bliss is you have seen blames herself and not me for the mistake she sia says that she alie should have known better than to ti illee me or to quote tier exactly she should have doubted your accuracy ill 0 ob sen atlon but not until the morn ing that we round daniel murdered did it occur to her to doubt it she says that it was nut not clairvoyance not intuition nut not even common sense that it wits was nothing but a mem ory that took her that morning straight back to the iden that gabrielle Oa brielle could be the guilty person oddly the conviction had come to her before we found s b body ay iy sitting across the lie table from on ga brielle briel lr boang poi ln its as da ly flint dial morn ing at she had thought idly ot of the that slie she and danny had had together in tile the dining ear car slip find taken tier aholt that flint morning just as dartly tin had handed the order sit slip for tier her breakfast to the walter waller too vaguely it to tie be certain that it was really a memory she seemed to see that slip of paper covered with writing just juat then with the aroma of coffee in tier her nostrils and with her teed iced grapefruit and rolls in front of her she remembered that it was the same breakfast both she and dauny danny had had that morning would such a small order cover an order slip with handwriting not nol it was certain with the neat band writ ing that had made out those checks and addressed those envelopes tight night then she resolved to lose no more time to get as soon as possible a sample of the handwriting of the girt girl who was sitting across the table from her murder discovered in the next half hour strengthened her cagne suspicions into as much of a certainty as aa she ale ever allowed herself before she bad positive evidence As I 1 have written she spent the following week in efforts to get that evidence at last fearing that she ahe was nas suspected she detailed the task to me you nave have seen how I 1 tailed failed how Un brielle at once saw raw through my trick of attempting to disable my right hand by burning it and bow realizing that she was trapped she bad run ran upstairs first to satisfy her longing to be herself again even for a few brief moments then to tau taunt n I 1 john and finally to take her own life for I 1 think in spite of her dentals denials to john that she killed herself because she knew that slip she was trapped though her vanity and her audacity he hald I 1 d to the end I 1 1 I 1 I knew I 1 should L tave a ve no trouble in making so yon U be believe I 1 le v e that silly doll story she sold said ill 11 II was the truth I 1 knew too that the alek would read the code letter she was so slow about it that I 1 hat had to steal it to make her do it it was time you see for the hie gentle Dan danielles lelles story to be verl veri fled dont farley famy that I 1 had overlooked the matter of the handwriting im not u tool fool I 1 thought of it before I 1 killed the girl there berea dozen ways I 1 could have atten around it could yet net get around it it it if |