Evening Star Newspaper, December 1, 1927, Page 34

NEWCOMBE, ex-officer in . who_breaks into society, Shadow V: ure of the une and in charge big steals that have set London akox. "REMARRE. noted French thiet. who the backwaters of who had ‘done some big thefts on his own account, an EHE FOURTH STRAGGLER, who hears the ‘erooks agree (o combine afier the armistice. Sappears A s h rworld G flower * girl, whom has ishin Newcombe dca 1o a f ineuring ool. with the idea of Ts ol the best before nd of of an _eccentric m Mion dollars. > a n half a mi weombe an o Florida on his lova with Polly ontinued from Yesterday's Star.) VOICE an g creepily in a mocking sort of way vou, Polly — Polly “Ig that you, Polly—F Polly Wic —Polly Wickes- ——Vickes— olly Wickes?" i 1t frightened her. 3he felt the blood ? fabb from her checks. There was some thing horribly tamiliar in the voice— but she could not place it. Her hand out to the wall for support —she tried to huld her volce steadily—"ye Who are you came over the wire voice, 1ising and fall- sing-song. fin control, I am Polly W What do you w ! She heard the sound as of a gust of fwind from a door that was suddenly iblown open, the beat of the sea, then fthe slam of a door—and then the ivoice again® I “Polly—Polly Wickes.” The words igremed to be choked now with mali i aughter “Why don’t you dr Polly Wickes—Polly Wickes mother, Polly Wicke: do vou mean?” she cried {frantically, “Who are you? Who are {you? What do you mean?” There was no answer, She kept calling into the phone. ! Nothing! no reply! The voice was &one. She stood there staring rough the darkness. Black mother dead! No, no 4t couldn’t be true! That voice . . iyes, it was like the horrible voice that ‘had called out the other night * * * “I®he_knew now why Terror stricken, the receiver dropped ‘from her hand black, wildly for FRIDAY Remarkable Purchases Greatly Underprice Outstanding Style Details DEEP BORDERS OF RICH FUR Pointed Wolf Beaver Wolf Squirrel Opossum Caracul SMARTEST COMBINATIONS BLACK FUR ON BLACK Mushroom Collars Cossack Cuffs Shawl Collars Flares Ripples Pleats topted and sent io Amer. | ecuting some | learns nad- | I | Deaa: be true! She began t The chair—her | Her hands felt the spatched it up, and stumbled to the the hall to combe’s room mechanically. her. but, the threshold. “Guardy! Guardy! | she sobhed out. | | short while before. night had gone too badly against him, | qui and there was a sa Her mother dead! flung it Captain F And here she knocked | Wi for response, opening the do | stumbling still in a blind wa Aau He thought he heard her catch here breath in o grope around dressing gown zarment. She around her, and along New- door rancis listening and, crossed ithout Oh, guardy!” Captain Francis Newcombe was not [as he answered her asleep. Quite apart from the fact that|I'm coming it was famil-|he nad only got to bed but a very the cards that ze sense of fury It couldn’t THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, By Frank L. Packard thor, of “The Miracle Man,” “Doors of the Night,” “Jimmie Dale,” Etc. Copyright Geo. H Doran Co a quick, sudden half-sob. upon him that would not quiet down And now, as he heard his door open and heard Polly call, he was out of {bed and into a dressing gown in an instant. Polly out there in his sitting | room--at half-p: 4 in the morn. | ing" she as sobbing. She sobbed as he heard her call again: | This at And now was queer—damned queer! His This was quer—damned queer! His | face was suddenly set in the darkness |as he crossed the bedroom floor—but | his_voice was quiet. cool, reassuringz, “Right-o, Polly! He switched on the light as he en- [ terea sitting room. It brought a over the sobs. —I——please turn off the ‘Of course!” he said quietly—and it was dark in the room again. He had caught a glimpse of a little figure crouching just inside the door— a little figure with white, strained face, with great, wondrous masses of hair tumbling about her shoulders, with hands that clasped some filmy drapery {'tightly across her bosom, and small, dainty feet that were bare of covering. And as he moved toward her now across the room, another mood took | precedence over the savagery he had | just been nursing—a mood nc holier. | Tt might be queer, this visit of hers, but that glimpse of her, alluring, inti- mate, of a moment gone, had set his blood afire again—and far more vio- lently than it had on that first oc- casion when he had seen her here on | the island two nights ago. It brought again to the fore the question that, through a cursed night- mare of happenings, had almost since that time lain dormant. Was he going to let Locke have he W he going to keep her for himself? How far had she gone with Locke? They had been lot together. Well, that mattered little—if he wanted her for himself he | would make the way to get her, Locke {and hell combined to the contrary! | The woman—against her potent value as somebody else’s wife! Damn it, that was the wonder ‘f her—th: | she could even hold her own when | weighed on such scales. There were i lots of ‘romen. He had reached her now, and | touched her, found her hand and taken {1t in his own. “What is it. Polly?” he asked gently. “What's the mat- ter? STt S mother,” she whispered | brokenly. “The telephone in my room rang a few minutes ago, and some one—a man—and, oh, guardy, I'm sure it was the same voice that we heard when we were in the woods | the night before last—asked me why |1 idn’t wear black for my mother. It—it couldn't mean anything else | but—but that mother is dead. Oh, zuardy guardy! How could he know, guardy? How could he know?" | Captain Francis Newcombe made no | movement, save to place his arm ~round the thinly clad shoulders, and draw the little figure closer to him. It was dark here, she could not have seen his face anyway, but it was com- posed, calm, tranquil. Perhaps the lips straightened a little at the corners —nothing more. But the brain of the man was working at lightning speed. Here was disaster, ruin, exposure if he made the slightest slip. Again, eh? This was the fourth time this devil from the pit had shown his hand! The reckoning would be adequate! But how was he to answer Polly? Quick! She must not notice any hesitation. Tell her that Mrs. Wickes was dead? He she falteredhad a ready explanation on his tongue, We Cash Christmas Savings Checks - J:E Cunningham Co "FRIDAY Ndle Decided Savings Made Possible by’ @L‘PI.ICA\TES of Raris successes! Fur - trimmed Coats of such quality that the fur alone might be worth the cost of the Coat. Coats of such exquisite tai- loring and superb styling that you could not equal them anywhere at this, as- tonishing price! Here are stunning Coats for all occa- sions, made in such style as to meet the needs of a com- bined sports and dress wrap. At a price decidedly lower than all regular quo- tations! Cunningham’s again provides values which are record breaking! Misses—Women—Larger Sizes , E. CUNNINGHAM CO. D. formulated days ago, to accoufit for having withheld that inforndation. Seize this opportunity to tell her that Mrs. Wickes was not her mother? No! Impossible! He had meant to use all this to his advantage, and in his own good time It was too late now. He was left holding the hag! If he ad- mitted that Mrs. Wickes was dead, he admitted that there was some one on this island whose mysterious presence, whose mysterious knowledge, must ause a furore, a search, with possible results that at any hazard he dared | not risk. Polly would tell Locke— Dora—everybody. It was impossible! But against this, sooner or later, Pclly must know of Mrs, Wickes' death, and—Bah! Was he to become a child, the old cunning gone? He would keep her for a while from England—travel —anything—and, months on, the word would come that Mrs. Wickes was dead. and found in the old hag's ef- fects would be Polly’'s papers. The one srfe play, the only play, was not alone to reassure the girl now, but to keep her mouth shut. keep her mouth shut! But—-how? How? Yes! He had it now soul began to laugh in unholy glee. His voice was grave, earnest, tender, sympathelic. “He couldn't have known, Polly,” he said. “That is at once evident on of it. How could any one little out-of-the-way island ibly know a thing like that when | who am the only one who could know, and who have just come direct from KEngland, know it to be untrue. Don't vou seg, Polly?” He had drawn her head against his shoulder, stroking back the hair from her forchead. She raised it now quickly. Yes, guard. she sald eagerly. “I—I see; and I'm so glad I came to you at once. But—but it is so strange, and—and it still frightens me terribly. I don't understand. I—I can’t under- stand. Why should any one ring the telephone in my room at this hour, and —and tell me a thing like that it it were not true?” “Or even if it were true—at such an lour, or in such a manner,” he in- jected quietly. *“Tell me exactly what happened, Polly.” “I think I've told you everything," she said. *1 don’t think there was anything else. When I answered the phone, the voice asked if I were Polly . _C, THURSDAY, DE Above all to| His | CEMBER 1, 1927. Wickes, and kept of repeating my name over and over again in a hor- rible, crazy, sing-songy way, and then I heard a sound as though a door had been blown open by thé wind, and I could hear the waves pounding, and then the door was evidently slammed shut agair, and the voice said what I—I have told you about wearing black for my mother. And then I couldn’t hear anything more, and I couldn't get any answer, though I called again and again into the phone. Oh, guardy, I can’t understand! I— I'm sure it was the' same that other night. Guardy, what should we do? could it be A door blown open by the wind! The pound of the waves! Where was there a telephone that would measure up to those requirements? Not in the house! Captain Francis Newcombe smiled grimly in the darkness. The private installation was restricted to the house and its immediate surroundings. Therefore the boathouse! The boat- house had a phone connection. And there w: still an hour or more to daybr But first to shut Polly’s | mouth* | “Polly,” he said gravely. measuring his words “I ven't the slightest doubt that it g the same voice we heard in the woods; in fact, I'm | quite sure of it. And I'm equally sure | now that I know who it is ‘Who |startled way. “But, guardy, | someone cat- g to—" | *“Yes: I know,” he interrupted seri- |ously. “But I did not tell you what | s really suspicious of all along. With what I had to 10 on then, it did not seem that I had any right to do so. ou said it was only |ever, after what's happened tonight.” “Yes?” she prompted anxiously. “There can be only two possible ex- | planations,” he said. work of an unhinged mind, an ir- rational act, a phase of insanity ‘ilhfll—" | “Cuaray! {“You mean— ves,” he said steadily; “I do, V. And there can really be no | question about it at all. Can you imagine any one doing such a thing merely from a perverted sense of 'humor?—any one of us heré?—for it he cried out BRAND NEW 88-NOTE ¢ Player Piano Special Srirrice S298 Pay ' Special Xmas $2 Per Week * voice as| What does it mean? | She drew back from him in a quick, It's quite a different matter now, how- | sharply. Grand Piano Club Price Pay $3 Per Week must have been one of us who is con- nected with the household in order to have access to a telephone. Tt Is unthinkable, absurd, isn't it? On the other hand, the hour, the irresponsible words, their ‘crazy’ mode of expres sion, as you vourself said, the motive- less declaration of a palpable untruth, all stamp it as the work of one who is not accountable for his actions—of one who is literally insane, And then the fact that you recognized the voice as the one we heard two nights ago i additional proof, if such were needed which it very obviously is not. You remember that we had seen Mr. Mar. lin in his dressing gown disappear un- der the veranda a few minutes before | we heard the calls and cries and wild insane laughter. My first thought then | was that it was Mr. Marlin, and I was {afraid that either harm had, or might, | come to him. 1 sent you at once back i to the house, and T ran into the wood {to look for him. 1 did not find him: |and, therefore, as there was always | the possibility then that I had heen | mistaken. I felt that I should not alarm_any of you here. 1 5 Marlin. by s condition was decidedly worse than even it was supposed to be. | | 1= it quite plain, Polly? T do not think | we have very far to look for the one | who telephoned you tonight.” He could just see her in the dar ness, a little white, shadowy form, she stood slightly away from him now. | One of her hands was pressed in an agitated way to her | other still held tightly to the throat of | her dressing gown. | “Oh, yes, it's plain, | whispered, miserably. t's too | plain. Poor, poor, Mr. Marlin! What |are we to do? It would hurt Dora ter- if she knew her father had done an't tell her. you can't Francis Nowcombe gravely. guard she | ribl “Your po- ““Tither some | sjtion is even more delicate than mine | one is playing a cruel hoax; or it is the | wug the other night. I do not see that | you can do anything—except to say | nothing about it to any one for the | present.” “Yes.” she agreed numbly. She hegan to move toward the door. cely to happen again,” Newcombe reassur- , you can make st leaving the re- Do that, Polly. “But you're not id Capt. Franci ¢. “and, anyw sure it won't by ceiver off the hook. Ahd then, solicitously Il‘l 1% 1 il 9l pY BRAN $485 Club Price 7 N\ AN\ Five Good Reqsons for Joining Our $1 Club Now! Easy Club Terms Big Saving in Price Free Music Lessons Free Delivery Within 10 Mil es of Our Store ace and eyes: the | said Capt. | frightened any more. now,ares you, Polly? _A _raystery explained loses fts terror, ‘doesa’t it?/ And. besides, the main ‘thing ‘was to know that your mother was all right.” | “My mother—" | ‘He thought he heard her catch her | breath in a quick, sudden half sob “It's _all right, Polly,” he sald, hastily.” “Don't think of that part of |it any more. Everything's all right.” “Yes: I—know.” Her voice was very low. “It's—all right. I—good-night. rdy. he had opened the door, L'll see you to your roof,” he said. “No,” ghe answered; “I'm not frightened a more. Good—good- | night, guardy. | lGood-night, Polly,” he said. | The door closed |, Capt. Francis Newcombe stood in {the darkness. 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