Show MURDER masquerade by INEZ HAYNES IRWIN copyright inez haynes irwin service THURSDAY continued 18 19 im afraid doctor marden harden patrick said his last word 1 I shall have to ask you not to leave the read head until I 1 give you permission 1 I give you my word I 1 shall not leave it ap well mary patrick said in a weary tone it all makes sense here we have a perfect design torriano first margaret next then harden no one of them seems to have told anything but the truth all dying to tell the truth if somebody would only lie maybe I 1 could get the answer of course margaret said she thought she heard something stirring in the bushes marden apparently noticed nothing like that now there may have been another person involved or any number for that matter margaret fairweather may have returned and oh I 1 dont know who killed ace blaikie im no nearer knowing than I 1 was saturday chos that vaguely in the back of my mi mind nd I 1 had heard doctor marden drive off in the back of my mind I 1 heard a second motor turn into the drive it stopped presently a light swift step came through the hall end and into the living room a light I 1 swift step strangely stifle stiffened ned by determination ive come back to tell you the rest ot of my story mr obrien said eaid myron Marde ii i 1 I told you all of it yet betl involuntarily we all three sat down 1 I will vill begin it by telling you doctor marden took up the story in the quietest voice I 1 had ever heard from him something that will I 1 think come as a great surprise to you ile he paused as though to summon his strength for the revelation ace blaikie is the father of my granddaughter caro prentiss he paused again as though for a question or comment from us but neither partick nor I 1 spoke we did not stir his statement had worked too great a paralysis for us either to speak or move ill have to go back of course to tell you how it came about I 1 will begin with my own marriage my wife was a new york woman when I 1 met her about forty years ago she was a widow she had been widowed twice and both times under tragic conditions her first husband theodore prentiss also a new yorker was thrown from his horse a month after their marriage he died instantly she became the mother of his posthumous child a boy theodore prentiss five years later she married again addison dacre he too was a new yorker while they were traveling in F france r ance he died in paris of a case of a pneumonia she was pregnant at the time and the shock brought on the premature birth of a little girl who was to be narried named eleanor dacre I 1 was established as a physician in paris and I 1 was called an on the case this was immedi i lately after the funeral I 1 never met addison dacre mrs dacre was a beautiful I 1 woman a very lovely woman I 1 belt that if the child died her very teason reason would go I 1 threw myself heart and soul into saving that premature little wait waif and I 1 did save her I 1 took care of her for months of course that constant attendance brought mrs dacre and me very close by the time eleanor was a year old we realized that life meant nothing to either of us without the other six months later we were married quietly in paris my practice was there and we have lived in paris except for our holidays ever since my wife die died d two years ago and after I 1 had a little recovered from my grief I 1 decided to return to america but I 1 am running ahead of my story I 1 must go back to eleanor there could not possibly ever have lived a more lovely child th than an eleanor and when I 1 use the word lovely I 1 use it advisedly she was lovely in face and figure lovely in heart and spirit I 1 adored her A beautiful child eleanor grew to be a beautiful woman I 1 do not think that this is prejudice everywhere her appearance made a sensation that was not entirely due to her beauty perhaps it was partly her coloring it was the most delicate blonde I 1 have ever seen ethereal often mrs marden and 1 I discussed the proper adjective to apply to eleanor she was not angelic nor seraphic nor cherubic aishe was too tall to be fairylike fairy like she was sprite like her hair was the palest gold her features what we used to call mignonne her eyes violet the french always stared at sie ir r and in spain and italy she created ted such a sensation that she did not like to go out on the street lalone alone she had courage enough but she hated the little incidents which occurred here and there along the way I 1 will not say that eleanor was an angel although she was a kind of modern angel she was too vigorous to suggest that sort of thing but she was honest she was sweet she was kind we worshiped her my wife and I 1 doctor marden came to a full stop he put his hand over his eyes and sank back into the past presently with a deep sigh he emerged into the present again when the war came I 1 enlisted as a volunteer in the french medical service I 1 will say here that we are a medical family so to speak before the war was over there were a half dozen bardens working in france when the united states came in I 1 was transferred to the american service lie he paused and looked inquiringly at patrick patrick nodded he did not speak I 1 knew that no more than I 1 would he have interrupted the flow of that story doctor marden went on my wife threw herself into war work too for four years she worked daily at the thet American ambulance in neuilly eleanor perhaps now I 1 had better tell you about eleanor eleanor was a natural nurse she never took a course in nursing but I 1 taught her everything I 1 knew she volunteered when I 1 did and the french sent her to the hospital at courcy sur seine she stayed there for about a year I 1 saw her only at irregular intervals I 1 had an occasional permission from the front and then she and my wife and I 1 would try to manage a reunion at our home in paris but I 1 did not see much of eleanor during the first months of the war I 1 went through what many husbands were going through in france then I 1 saw my wife getting more and more fatigued nervously exhausted but eleanor stood up to it marvelously but every time I 1 saw her it seemed to me that she had become more of a woman more and more beautiful then ace blaikie appeared in her life again doctor marden came to a pause and now he did not cover his face with his hands he presented y A A 7 then he took up Ms story again unscreened the hard bitter eyes the tight shut lips the of every line and curve 1 I know that you mrs avery are acquainted with the factors of ace Blai kies war experience because jve ive heard you discuss them so often and besides I 1 reminded him my husband was in france well weh then I 1 will merely say that it was while he was in the foreign legion that he met eleanor it seemed to have been a case of love at first sight certainly with eleanor and as she afterward told me doctor blaikie said it was so with him but when it comes to doctor blaikie and love P the expression on doctor mar dens face deepened so horribly that it was as though the blood behind the flesh had turned to ink for a moment the term my husband used to use in regard to boxing and boxers came into my mind fighting face he did not know really what love was on that side he was not man but beast at any rate they met as often as his permissions and hers allowed what happened of course was that ace BI blaikie aikle discovered that in order to possess my daughter he must otter offer her marriage understand doctor mar dens voice shot to us a peremptory order understand that this was not a subject that eleanor would discuss with any man he had to learn leam that to sense it and he was apparently extremely acute in sensing the reactions of the other sex at any rate they were married secretly that was before the united states came in it was in the summer of 1915 1 I will not go into all the ins and outs of this I 1 will say only that marriage in france is a very complicated matter ace blaikle blaikie had made friends with a french officer who had a long pull he fixed it so that ace and eleanor were married secretly presently eleanor found herself pregnant she told me afterward that there was nothing in the world she wanted so much as td to bear a child it was several months after this discovery before she saw ace Bla blaikie ikic at their first meeting she told him that she was going to make their marriage public she could see as she told me subsequently quent ly that ace blaikie was appalled at this discovery he tried to get her to withdraw from the hospital and go to america and if not to america to italy or spain eleanor steadily refused finally she told him if he gave her no help she must apply to me that the marriage must be announced thereupon he told her that she was in reality not married at all that a few years before he had secretly married in the united states an actress by the name of drina demoyne 11 drina Dem demoyne oynel I 1 interrupted ive seen drina demoyne why what was it I 1 read about her just the other day she died recently yes doctor marden answered her death has a great bearing on this story that revelation of ace Blai kies was really eleanors death warrant she never saw him again but she communicated with me once I 1 got a permission and came back from the front she told me the whole story my wife and I 1 had but one idea to save eleanors reputation now it happened that my cifes son by her first marriage theodore prentiss was living during the war in a remote village in southern france ile he volunteered volunteered for both the french and american armies but he had always been an invalid and could not be used either as a soldier or in any civilian capacity he was married and his wife was pregnant I 1 sent eleanor to them my step sons wife died bringing a dead child into the world theodore survived her only six months in the meantime eleanor bore a perfectly healthy baby wh wham she named caroline after my wife this was the caro whom you know before he died theodore suggested a plan we carried it out we registered her in the marie of lairry as caroline blaikie we registered her under that name as an american citizen with the consul of marseilles se illes I 1 can show you that she bears that name on her passport but we told all ah her friends in paris and have told them ever since that she was theodores child As soon as I 1 could get leave I 1 took my wife and daughter to spain he paused for an instant lie he bit his lower lip as though to fang out of it the emotion which made it tremble there my daughter killed herself neither patrick nor I 1 made comment he himself made no further comment when we returned to paris however there was never any question of eleanors not being theodore Prentis prentisse ss child C gasoline prentiss and so she brew up she has no more idea of her relationship to ace than you had before I 1 told you this story As she is a minor I 1 got her passport she has never seen it concealing her real name from caro has been one of the minor troubles of my life but ive accomplished complis hed it I 1 brought her up in paris as you know but as she grew older I 1 wondered about her forbears in america I 1 knew that people thought of ace blaikie as a rich man I 1 knew that he had property in massachi Mass massachusetts achu I 1 began to wonder if as he grew older he would not want his only child if only child she were to inherit that property at first I 1 put this thought out of my mind but it kept recurring it troubled me I 1 finally found it was keeping me awake nights sleepless nights began begal to recur a little too often I 1 made inquiries and found that ace blaikie was not only accepted as a bachelor but that nobody knew that he had ever been married ultimately intimately I 1 decided to come to the united states to establish myself at it made things easy for me because I 1 had never met ace blaikie in the war somebody started calling eleanor sister dora after an old novel the heroine of which was a nurse I 1 confess I 1 have never read it ace blaikie never called her anything but sister dora although eleanors name was dacre the name of marden might of course linger in ace Blai kies mind still as I 1 said before there had been at least half a dozen physicians named marden working in paris during the war last spring as you both know I 1 came here to I 1 m met et ac ace e blaikle blaikie socially of course although I 1 made no effort to meet him caros name was neither his nor mine if the coincidence of a physician asician from paris by the name of marden gave him pa ise he did not let me know it he may have thought of me only as one of the marden connection in paris in the meantime I 1 studied my man I 1 found that he was engaged to be married to a beautiful charming and estimable young girl that girl became caros most devoted friend I 1 confess to you I 1 did not know what to do if he married ace blaikle blaikie was likely to leave children in the matter of inheritance his legitimate heirs would of course take precedence over caro and the last thing in the world I 1 wanted for caros sake was a scandal I 1 let the summer drift by in a welter of indecision he paused again and seemed reminiscently to survey that long direful period then lie he took up hi story again TO BE CONTINUED |