Evening Star Newspaper, March 18, 1928, Page 69

' The Devil’s Mantle __(Continucd from Yesterda star) “Whether you delieve it or not.” said Peter, a curious indifference in his voice mow, “it is true. I sat in that chair, as it appears now, though I did 0ot realize it at the time, for five hours.” “Good God!" murmured Rand sarcas- teally, He shrugged his thoulders. ““Well, \:: there snythirg else you want say “Yes.” said Peter coldly, ®re quite through.” “I'm te through,” returned Rand curtly. “You have made that rather obvious yourself, haven't vou?” Peter pointed to the blood-stained #heet of paper that Rand still held. That paper,” he said quietly: “your claim is that it was written by Mr. Jaffray “Claim!™ Rand puckered his brows in A puzsled fashion. “Who else could have written it “That is not what I asked vou,” said ter sharply Ah, I sec!” said Rand “The handwriting expert fdea! You di pute the handwriting?" . T had not thought cf that." Peter “Will you answer my is on that paper you have there, but anything at all?” “You've ! t said any- couid ses en you | . {ne he drawled. "1t is a question, how- cver, that, under the circumstances, will probably never be answered except by conjecture. That he did write it, however, is certain, The fact that his statement that you arc Peter Rlake proves to be true, at once givos author- ity to the writing. 8 ive for the murder were Peter B! | wrote on this that you killed and capture. those words 1 matter of c is that ther: How ams to is at simple | plain it. If it was vou who killad him. {you know better than we do whether | the light was left burning or not. It cdoesn’t matt N he murderer | left Jafiray for dead. Jafiray revived | for perhaps a few momcn {hardly have been more. {had been turned out. lelectric switch at the head of | bunk. He could reach that: but had strength to reach the push which was across | the cabin r the door. He couldn’t : he couldn't cry out— there was his fiendishly himself scrawl the few words on this before he could finish, the floor.” hand his ed h sh across o expla simple ¢ believe egainst Turchison—just as the room here believed came, unnerving mposure, driving in sense of his helplessness His mind attempted to aze of {to the ¢ If the light' an g C"THE. SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C. MARCH 18 1328—PART 4. A Mystery Story By FRANK L. PACKARD. “onvrreht 7 by Rrank L Packard parrot obsessed wi knew, the quastion place was he .| wond no question whatever in my mind to his guilt, and I should not hesitate to put him under arrest |amongst 1 for Jaffray’ as Peter Bl by the police son. anyway. a full repor and ask for while, of cour tock and murder in any case; but. ke, he is already wanted t once to the authoriiics nstructions; and mean- @ will keep him under H> stepped fo; You understand, “You will be ed un until we hand you over ot A faint fush dyed Peter's cheeks he made no answer. Ther: was no wer to make. yacht's Turmoil. to the two sailors. “Take him away!" he ordered. CHAPTER XIV. ARION stood at the yacht's rail. She held her face up to the breeze, unconsclous that it tool liberties with truant wisps of hair, and, the new morning, tossed them here an there like little glinting, golden flurries across her forchead and about her ears. She threw her head far back, inviting |brawn of young manhood, dependable murder of Mr. Murchi- | had been Alec Duna. wWe will wircless or radio | Peter Dlake. sl commander nodded |, | | that in tho sunlight of | the coolness of the brecze upon.her bare | throat—it had been stifling in the lounge there, and it had seemed at the last that she could not breathe. She clung to the rail with both her hands, clung to it desperately—and yet the sea was smooth, tranquil this morn- Y had been velled m jof chief inquisitor in there—though 1 ad been gray and | suggested it myself,” he said abruptly. somber; and this morning a ghastly and | “I didn't think you quite approved of inhuman thing had happened. a crime | it, either. I was afrald from your e that vickened the hearls of men, that | pression once or twice that you didn't. crind to God for vengeance, end from I don't think I should have taken it on the sight of which on2 shrank away— [except fer one reason, and I want you and the sun, already well above the|to know—I think you should know— m rim, was mounting blithely to | what that reason was.. It wes on your take its place in a cloudless, perfect [account, Miss Garth ' “On my account Marion sharply in surprise. “I don't know what you mean, Mr. Rand.” e leaned o little toward her, smiling in a sober way. “I wanted to save you from the possi- bility of being asked any questions,” he sald simply. “Questions that I did not think you would care to enswer." Marion’s blue eyes widened—a pucker came between them. She was suddenly i1l at ease, suddenly a little frightencd. “Questions that I wouid not care to answer!” She forced an incredulous smile. “Really, Mr. Rand, that is rather a strange thing to say!" & “I do not like my role now,” he sald gravely. when I say that I em’ thinking only of you. You told me—forgive me, I would not willingly recall enything that would cause you either pain or embarrass- ment—you told me that there—that 25 no one else.” ('fgcw back a step, her face o lit- ast night there had come aboard a man--strangely—out of the very occan— bringing strange stirrings of memories— gs. A man with high head and sun-tannad face, who was biz with the in his strength—a clean man. Today hoe was n wretched weakling, a . leper s fellows, a pariah, a man 5 were dirty with the foulcst murderer! Last night he Today he was whose han of all dirt- Yesterday nature sulked, sullen and morese, unlovely, baleful in her ill- tempored mood. Today, as though the very horror of the night had appeased 14 had coaxed her from her way. wardne: was all smiles and mer- riment. A siep Marion sounded along the deck. anced In that direction—and )!’(H:\il‘ly faced seaward again. It Herman Rand. It was over, then— rable, sordid business in the She did not want to talk te She wished he were not com- ing. She had taken an unreasonable dislike to the man for the part he hod just played. It was unrecsonable, of course. She did not pretend to herself it anything else. Somebody had to ask t questions, and they couldn’'t be considerced questions, nor could consideration be undguly shown to the one to whom they were put. He had reached her side. I saw you come along the deck here, Miss Garth.,” he said quictly, “and 1 thought perhaps you would like to know what the decision has been. Capt. Stone has put Blake under arrest and is hav- ing him locked up somewhere aft.” Marion nodded her head. She did not look up. Rand drummed for a moment on the teakwood rail. 4 “T didn't care particularly for my role W that m ounge. Rend. she had meant the word to come coldly, Ycl'hallb A little forbidding- ly from her lips; it came, instcad, full of a strange suspense. “I was standing beside you when Blake came aboard last night,” Rand sald “I don't think anybody else saw. I am sure nobody else did. But—forgive me again—there was more turned | “But I want you to belleve me | t: than mere recognition i | twéo looked at each other. &he turned her head to « th> soa ngain, gripping the r: | tightly clenched | e 180 had not t 3 | 81~ forced herself to sp: “y she demanded volce was very low a5 he an- “He said his name vos Al Marion did not move now thing of great pain, of great hurt s throbbing in hsr head, b with physical blows, it seemed, 5. Emotions that she ¢ finz came surging upon her, confuzing her. She hated the thought that this man was, as it were, holding somcth: over her; she hated the though her actions: should be misunderstood: ond, strangely, most curiously of 211, £~ hated the thought that this man should have intruded upon something thot, somehow—she could not quite deiin: that either—was a very intimate thing in her life. True it was a broken, shat- ored thing now, a source of intense bitter pain, and bitter am: and horror—but perhaps for tha something that belonged alone. And then anger came, burning, hot. Those last words of his were an ndictment. sccomplice: they accused her of love ior this man who had murdered-— Daddy Tom. “What right have you to ay this to {me?” she cried out sharply. “What right have you to couple that man and my statement in such a way as to inti- mate that it disproves what I said when I told you there was no one else?” The man’'s face was curiously tense, rcason more inviolate in its intimecy, :w! to herself |12 ‘They indicated her as en| blact thotr ing that 1 t you a little upset? to help. 1 tricd to What other answei t? You Dunn, Dunn since reen him e he was Alee Dunn he was Poter nd you k it was Peter BlaZ urdered Mr. Murchison. > been a m, d do yon n, and the cradulity in her « [ from th nded 1a- ort of wild ine- 2l % s Peter Blake, and that—thar ed nim? Do you mean that until it night 1 had ing the 3 my dcar T ¢id so in 5o actual and that T kept his real id coming kno “What else could I Rand leaned forward earncstiy. ase don't be encry, Miss Garth. “I've been mi able cnough over this myself. From ti moment we found poor Jaffray and thai paper I could think of nothing else. 1 fold you that I forced the role of in- or upon mzself, T know I did not I heaid | how him much mercy. But won't you try and understand me? I do not think for a moment you could love him now or that you loved him last night, or that you loved him from the instant you know he had killed Mr. Murchison: but. that the love that once had been had left in fts train a certain loyalty which n iteeli must have been misery for you t night most miserable of all * ou were suddenly and unex- cctedly {accd with zo brutal a situ- atfon.” =B my father—somebody—would ¥ n that T was acquainted with Dlake vnder such circumstance on said instantly. ded his head In a slow, dis- admitted. lorstand.” " 5aid Marion tersely, “it was affair!” 1 turn=d away for a moment. 25 hoarse when he spoke a veu 2:e hardly fair, are you. srth?" " (Continuzd in Tomorr : P Corpze Has Winning Ticket. as the undertaker's assistants paring to close a coflin in which ths body of a man at Barcelona, pain, hi W observed sticking out of his pocket a fractional lottery tickst. o her surpriss on examining it sh found that it had drawn the third p: in a big lottery, entitling the holder to very “large sum. The man had not rn ‘the suit for soms time previous but. accordinz to ths custom of | country. was dressed in his best cl for bur: 5 “That was what miling. Tranquil! Smiling! There remed to be .«mnrn;mu fhnrrm!y flln~‘ ter = d 10 €0 | congruous in_ that—that_for the first 2. but @ keep on 2sKing, | time since they had left Sydne, the sea at. and repeat over again the | ang all nature should awake in Its mo: In whose place was he | jovous and happy mood. There seem: {0 be a brutal callousness about the gathered to- | frolicking. dancing ripples at play, as | now: he was|they chased each other with carefres hout a glance | abandon. and. like laughter, broke into rom her | tiny crests of purling foam-—for last but his | night they had been ugly, rolling swells some poor | that had swept men to their deathe with the problem, but as ter weariness refused to do 1 been thud- A from almost the first d read the scrawled ne- h to him had scemed o confute itself ev the point of ab- ity, made any impression on any- room except Capt. Mumm s in a sort of pity- and rep WHEELS DEMOUNTABLE RIMS RUNDLETT RIM & WHEEL CO. 1336 14th St. N.W. Public Demand Drives Hupmobil Sales Higher to the Valve-in-Head Six Cylinder Engine! One of Europe’s ro;'al cars—a car priced six or seven times as high as Buick—has recently adopted a Valve- in-Head six-cylinder engine embodying the same princi- ples of design as the world famous Buick power plant. TWICE in recent months, Hup- mobile sales have shattered all previous records. In no uncertain terms, the public has spoken its prefer- ence for the brilliant and individual styles created and inaugurated by Hupmobile in the new Century models. : Hupmobile wiii continue to establish new high sales records in succeeding months, because more com- pletely than any cars in their price class, the new Century Hupmobiles link pride of possession with the finest mechanical and engineering qualities in motordom. Valve-in-Head design was selected by this other fine motor car for the same reasons that it was selected by Buick twenty-four years ago—because it provides an unrivaled combination of power, getaway, smoothness, stamina and day-in-day-out dependability. These are vital reasons why more people buy Buicks than any other fine automobile. They explain why England’s most princely car has followed Buick to the Valve-in-Head six-cylinder engine. Fifty standard and custom-cquipped models in three different wheelbases on the Century Eight and Six chassis now offer a wide range of choice. ‘HUPMOBILE CENTURY EIGHT & SIX DISTRIBUTORS MOTT MOTORS, Incorporated SALES AND SERVICE OPEN EVENINGS 1507 14th St. N.W ranklin 4277 Brosius Bros. & Gormley, Inc, Union Station Garage 8250 Ga. Ave. NJW. and Rockville, Md, SO H St. N.E Jo ML DUNCAN, Alexandria, Va, SEDANS $1195 10 $199% COUPES $1195 10 $1850 ’ SPORT MODELS $1195 to 1525 All pricesf. . b, Eint, Mich,, government tax o be added. The G, M. A, C. finance plan, the most desivable, is available. Buick Mector Co. (Division of General Mators Corpocation) 14th et L Emersen & Orme 17th & M Ste. MW, 15145 & You Stz, NNW. Stanley H. Horner 1615-1017 Jdth St Bury Motor Co., Anacostia, 1. C, Fletcher Motor Co. Alessndris, Ve BETTER Diclkk Murphy, Inc. 1835 14th St, NW, & 604 H St. N.E. Fred N. Windridge, Rosslyn, Va. Ruthe Motor Co., Hyattsville, Md. . C. Waters & Son, Guithershurg, Md. WILL BUILD THEM AUTOMOBILES [ WHEN ARE BUILT...BUJCK