| Show MURDER masquerade by INEZ HAYNES IRWIN copyright inez haynes irwin irwia service FRIDAY continued 20 i I 1 dont know whether the lights were with me or against me on the trip home all I 1 know is that I 1 stop for anything some of our traffic policemen however are silent and in the morning our side roads are empty I 1 have an idea that 1 I sped through red lights as casually as through green perhaps sarah darbe knows the sound of my machine at any rate she is always at the door to help me out to gather up my bundles and to give me the telephone messages that have accumulated during my absence she saw at once that mat something had happened and I 1 saw that she saw but she asked no questions mada no comment I 1 volunteered nothing but I 1 clung to her as we walked through the hall and across the floor of my living room to the door leading onto the piazza there I 1 was confronted by a strange picture seated in one of the hammocks were caro and Hop estill they i sat close bolt upright her hand clasped tightly in Ws his they were looking straight ahead it was obvious that they had not heard the car or my footsteps they started apart and then their hands came together again clasped I 1 tottered through the door they saw at once e that something cataclysmic had happened they leaped to their feet hurried toward me what is it aunt mary hope still asked dear mrs averyl caro quavered what has happened some water sarah sarah appeared with a glass of water I 1 drank it to the last drop usten listen both of you and listen sarah even I 1 myself caught the strange hollow resonance of my voice and dont tell anybody betl I 1 have just come from bruce hex sons camp he shot himself just as I 1 got there hes dead he killed ace blaikie hes left a confession fes sion por for an instant Hop estill said nothing then great godl he muttered caro burst into tears oh how horrible 1 she exclaimed how horrible her voice rounded and deepened with her emotion but as she went on an repeating horrible horrible horrible 1 that emotion went out of her voice and another came in its place relief oh as long as it had to come out dear mrs avery im glad that it has come out now for how I 1 suffered all night longi I 1 have been so afraid that they would arrest my grandfather grandfather told me the whole story last night I 1 know now that my real name is caroline blaikie and that im ace Blai kies daughter but I 1 cannot realize it yet I 1 have scarcely thought about it for last night grandfather told me that I 1 wust aust be prepared at any moment for his arrest he was so exhausted that he went straight to bed I 1 asked him if I 1 could tell Hop estill and he said that I 1 could weve been tal tring it over this whole morning long we could see no way out but what a comfort Hope stills been to me and now in an instant everything 0 is changed grandfather is out of all danger B but it this is horribly selfish is h why did bruce heison kill my father 1 I know no more about it than you do my dear child I 1 answered we shall all know soon however 1 I can walt wait caro commented in a kind of dreamy apathy 1 I want to feel for awhile this release from that awful strain take her for a drive Hop estill I 1 begged for myself I 1 went upstairs to my room I 1 have a vague recollection that sarah darbe helped me to undress when I 1 sank into the cool sheets the midday mid day sun was flaring in the blue sky and then nature reinforced by this second horrifying shock proceeded to take her toll I 1 sank immediately into a coma io so thick it was thourl I 1 had been knocked on the head i at any rate I 1 did not open my eyes until morning sun was streaming into the room bruce Hex sons confession lies before me as I 1 write but not his confession as I 1 shall set it forth here it is on first sight a curious insane document he had poured it out in one night writing against time I 1 had read it and cried over it again and again before I 1 saw in it two entities one is the insane bruce bexson trying illogically to j from the old testament what the sane bruce bexson would never have justified sending an unrepentant man into the presence of his maker sending himself te tc his maker with blood on his hands here I 1 am quoting phrases in the confession itself all these passages have what my husband used to call the rhythm of insanity some are nearly unintelligible some grotesquely incoherent once he be has rn co red pred c a page with strange diagram drawings with the ark ot of covenant and solomons temple in the center but when he is dealing with events and especially when he is trying to produce that effect which is the purpose of this document lie he becomes bruce bexson the logical observing lawyer in my pity for the poor tortured soul I 1 cannot bring myself to make public even a single example of the insane mood but here are those perfectly sane or relatively sane passages which I 1 consider significant some I 1 give word for word as he wrote them some I 1 have edited a trifle or even rewritten 1 I killed ace blaikle blaikie he was my friend and I 1 killed him I 1 loved him as I 1 have never loved another man and I 1 killed him we were tied together by a thousand associations of war peace fig fighting ahting together drinking together bravel traveling together playing together bat tie sports restaurants dances yet I 1 killed him 1 I met ace blaikie for the first time in 1914 like him the moment war was declared I 1 sailed for france I 1 volunteered to run an ambulance for the french army arm Y I 1 met him when I 1 was clearing the wounded for the foreign legion we became close friends almost at once we have been close friends ever since there was also a professional tie I 1 became his lawyer we have been much together ever since our first meeting in 1914 we both met at a hospital at coucy chucy sur seine a young girl eleanor dacre I 1 did not know her as eleanor dacre or even as eleanor everybody in the hospital called her sister dora and both ace and I 1 followed the habit indeed when last friday afternoon I 1 heard her stepfather refer to her as eleanor I 1 realized that I 1 had entirely forgotten what her real name was sister dora was the most beautiful WOI woman nall I 1 have ever seen in my life she was the best woman I 1 have ever known in my life I 1 fell in love with her the instant I 1 looked at her from that moment no other woman has ever entered my heart she did not love m me e I 1 realized very soon that she would never love me in au all the time I 1 knew her I 1 never even hinted at my love she may have suspected it but no word of hers ever suggested to me that she did it may be that she did not know for from the time she met hmil him I 1 learned last friday she was in love with ace blaikie I 1 did not guess that ace blaikie was in love witcher with her naturally our paris permissions did not always coincide so we did not often see her together I 1 never suspected that when he was on permission ace spent virtually all his time with sister dora 1 I remember very well the last time I 1 saw her but that is a precious memory and has no place in this confession the next thing I 1 knew of her was that she had gone to southern france she came back to paris but left immediately for spain I 1 did not see her then I 1 never saw her again suddenly I 1 got through friends the news of her death in spain it is impossible for me to tell in the haste in which I 1 am writing and with the inadequate powers of expression at ny my command what her death did to me for se several veral weeks I 1 was not myself indeed I 1 may say that I 1 have never been the same man since this I 1 managed to conceal from my friends if I 1 had been tree free I 1 would have gone at once into retirement I 1 think I 1 would have joined some brotherhood or other retired to some remote monastery but we were in a war and I 1 was fighting in it however I 1 found one comfort the bible I 1 had promised my mother that I 1 would always carry her bible with me now I 1 began to read it I 1 read it through since then I 1 have read it through many I 1 times at first it gave me only comfort my comfort came not from the new testament from the old testament presently but this was several years after doras death I 1 saw the light here followed a rather long rambling and insanely illogical account of his conversion I 1 do not quote it for it bears only indirectly on ace Blai Bla kies ikles murder I 1 have read bruce Hex sons confession of faith many times but I 1 always get lost in the and dis assoria tion lion of his expression in brief I 1 gathered that once while reading the old testament a great light he always begins it with a capital suddenly burned in his mind he found that that light was religion a religion compact of ideas gleaned from the psalms job jeremiah and isaiah the light changed my whole life I 1 became an entirely different man I 1 eschewed all my former pleasures L drinking drinkin dancing thea ter going I 1 might say social diversion of every kind first I 1 retired from an active professional life then I 1 retired from the world 1 I retired from the world and I 1 eschewed all my former enjoyment one thing I 1 clung to that was my friendship with ace blaikie I 1 loved ace I 1 loved him for himself but I 1 loved him for another thing he was inextricably next rj connected in my mind with sister dora he was extremely fascinating what with his vitali vitala ty his virility his zest for life and his joy in it his great generosity and kindness of course I 1 knew that he was a weak man mail I 1 did not know that he had become a wicked man this brings me to ao the morning of last F friday the day I 1 killed ace blaikie ile he had invited doctor marden and me to an early luncheon and to play golf with him we played nine holes and then suddenly he suggested that we call on mrs avery we arrived there a little after two miss eames and miss prentiss were there we left at about three I 1 dropped doctor marden at his home on second head brought ace home and then drove above home myself 1 I think I 1 had not been at home more than fifteen minutes when doctor marden called me up on the telephone he said that he had a matter of great importance to talk over with me and asked if he might come to the camp at once of course I 1 said yes yes he arrived as soon as his car could bring him and he told me here followed in detail the whole I 1 story that doctor marden had told i patrick and me this was bruce comment i 1 I have never experienced such a cataclysm since the day I 1 learned of sister doras death it was as though a tornado had been loosed inside my head a tornado with the extra fury of flame it swept and swirled it burned everywhere it touched and yet outwardly I 1 remember I 1 remained perfectly calm ibold doctor marden that I 1 had known sister dora I 1 did not tell him that I 1 loved her I 1 told him only that I 1 had admired and reverenced reveren ced her doctor marden told me that ace blaikie was trying to make miss eames elope with him there was no time to be lost I 1 adv advised isid him to go to ace blaikie and tell him the whole story he asked me if I 1 would accompany corn pany him and I 1 agreed to do so it happened fortunately that ace had not left the house in my presence doctor marden told ace exactly what he had told me I 1 think this was the first time in my life that I 1 ever saw ace blaikie rocked as men put it before doctor docto r marden finished the story his face was ghastly he admitted that it was all true he said that drina demoyne had not divorced her first husband when she went through the ceremony with him that in consequence his marriage with sister dora was legal and that caro was legitimate respect him in one thing he made no attempt to vindicate himself at the end he said briefly what do you expect me to do doctor marden doctor marde marden i said 1 I expect you to make an announcement that my step granddaughter is your child 1 i I will do that ace agreed when doctor marden asked tersely ace said that he would like to take a little time to think the matter over you see it involves changing my will he said how long do you require to think it over doctor marden asked ace thought for a moment or two then he said ill tell you what what ill do doctor marden were going to mrs stows party tonight I 1 have an appointment to meet my bootlegger in mrs averys spinney at 1030 1 I have a little business with him that wont take two minutes suppose you str stroll 0 il 0 over there at about a quart quarter er to ele eleven v X ri let us say and well talk the whole bhole thing over im pretty shaken I 1 by this and I 1 was up most of last night with patients id like to take a little nap I 1 want to sleep on it doctor marden agreed he left immediately but after he had I 1 gone ace said s ddenny that it was no use his trying to sleep that he was too excited he offered to drive me back to the camp after begot he got there he suddenly made up his mind to change his will then and there I 1 was his lawyer I 1 drew up a new will for him it was short I 1 typed it myself he signed it ard and berry and adah served as witnesses you will find that will clipped to this confession then ace went home after he had gone I 1 began to feel uneasy that tornado still and flamed in my mind but some things were clear I 1 realized that here was a heaven sent opportunity to serve sister dora by protecting her child something seemed to tell me that content with the will ace would delay the announcement that miss prentiss was his daughter until after he had married miss eames that story might make a difference in miss eimess feeling for him I 1 liked and admired miss eames I 1 did not want her to undergo an experience that would approximate sister doras but more and more oh steadfastly more and more 1 I wanted to do this last service for the dead lady of my heart all this tore and flared inside me the end of it was that I 1 suggested to the servants that we go up the river to the island camp for the weekend week end adah and berry always enjoyed the island camp and they were delighted with the idea they rowed up the river to the camp I 1 kad had some port wine in the camp and I 1 gave them a bottle that night I 1 knew that after I 1 the long day that would make them sleep and it did they went lo 10 bed early TO ITO BE CONTINUED |
