Evening Star Newspaper, July 16, 1930, Page 21

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON. Ask No Questions By Beldon Duff Copyright, 1030, by North American Newspaper Alfance, Ine. TWENTIETH INSTALLMENT. L, ROUGHT to their feet by Abby's | again. Gy, of verror, Al Cropeey and illie Prentice e Young Prentice cringed before the yards that lay between the |fury in® the Ovethanging Ease: | rockbound pool and Bride's |ves,” he stuttered, : House in less time than Nurmi could | jeads into the tunnel. I-I been look- have done it at his best. But, wing- |ing for it for months. Digging and— they were, the giant| The gaint controlied himself with an f David was before them. “They saw him | effort. {standing in the doorway as they tore | O, so it's you who's made such a jaround the corner of the house. mess of the garden? I wondered what | Whether he had just come in or was | was going on.” After a moment, ob- ooted though {Jjust going out was not quite clear. }Cropsey would have s>id the Ilatter {But in eithér case, he turned when h caught_sight of them and ran up the short flight of stairs that led to the floor above, calling over his shoulder !for them ‘to follow. ‘The firgt two of the three bed rooms | disclosed nothing out of the ordinary. {Miss West's bed room, an unusually Jarge and spacious apartment running at right angles to the other two, took up the entire south end of the upper floor. It was here they found Abigail Barth. The Scotchwoman lay inside the threshold, so close to the sill that * -David stumbled ever her, a crumpied heap of starched white apron and pa- thetically shapeless flesh. Willie Pren- tice thought she was dead and began to whimper like a sick buppy. editor of the Free Press, too, when ithe candles had been lighted, thought it was death at which they looked. But the other man, pushing them both aside, stooped, and With the ease born of \superstrength, lifted the inert body up and onto the bed. “Only a faint,” he growled. “Get some water.” The Wwater acted like a magic potion. A few drops of it sprinkled on the up- ‘turned face and, without any prelim- inary moaning or groaning, Miss Barth opened her eyes to full consclousnes When she saw who it was Who minis- tered to her, however, she promptly shut them again, squeezing down the lids un- til the flesh at the corners puckered into "long, unintentionally ~humorous lines here's Miss West’s necklace?” she demanded, still with her eyes tight shut. “What have ye done wie it?” In the presence of three men, and with dark- ness banished from the room, it was going to be tremely aykward for a strict Presbyterian to explain why she had yielded to believing in the ghost. The giant to whom the guestion w: addressed scowled ferocious! “Necklace? I don't know what you're talking about. snapped Miss Barth, her stgength sufficiently ored to permit of Trising on one elbow, “Is it there now? I ask Fou. is it?” P it isn't. But I'm not to biame, 80 don’t pick on me.” To Cropsey, this talk of stolen jew els was an unwarrantable digression. There were affairs of sterner moment afoot. He put the dread question: “Some one cried out ‘the Ghost! the Ghos' Was it you? Miss Barth flushed to the roots of Ner iron-gray hair. “Mayhap it was me.” she admitted unwillingly. “I was that outdone I scarce know what I said.” Without further prompting, she gave her version of the happenings at Bride’s House that evening: Miss West' invitation to dine with Mr. Diamond; |red barn is on the other side of the her own and David’s supper of chicken pool, between the house and the’ south and chocolate cake on the kitchen ta- | ble, “He.” she stabbed an accusing fin- | found, after all.” ger in David's direction, “ going out to look after the horses. And all unbeknownst to fear I came up|fissures and fossil deposits. When we § here.” s s less | come to investigate we may find half & tened attentivély, especlally to the part about the woman's sigh and the hand which had appeared from between the _bed curtains. When it was concluded, {he turned sharply to the tall young ! man, who seemed in some strange and inexplainable manner to dominate the scene. L “Just what is your particular role in this household?” he asked. David hesitated. Then, 'm here to help with the outside work. I'm the Rew stable boy.” Miss Barth rose abruptly from the bed and smoothed down her disordered « apparel. “Stable boy!” she sniffed. “More like & hen-roostin’ tramp, if you ask me.” ‘The giant eyed the speaker with a strange mixture of arrogance and con- 'mp! “'Hé didn't ask you. Sohi.:lxeklmy"nd~ { vice and don’t do so much talking. In the silence which followed, Willie Prentice snuffied apprehensively, The { sound drew attention to himself. “Who are you?” asked David. “And what are you doing here?” Cropsey answered for his companion, i and incidentally for himself, that they { were both known to Miss We.t and had ‘Thé'tall young man looked do the fiswer of his height and said, “Miss West won't be back before 11. You can’t see her tonight.” ! There was a | Cropsey took off his spectacle: i methodically wiped the lense with his { handKerchief. “Miss Barth.” he ob- ! served, holding the spectacles to the | light to see if they were clean enough, has accused you of stealing a neck- ! lace of some sort. I would suggest that ! you save that hight-handed talk until you've done more than deny it.” For a perilous moment it seemed as though the sclf-proclaimed stable boy was about to take the managing editor of the Daily Free Press by the neck and wring his head from his body; but suddenly he thrust his pow- erful hands into the the pockets of his overalls, where they would be out of temptation’s way, and sat down on the | edge of the bed “Stay if you want t0.” he said, gloom- | fly. “I might have known I couldn’t . h: five minutes to myself on this i place.” o an’t stay,” piped up Willie Pren- tice, who, unlike Cropscy, had not been struck by the significance of that “five i minutes to myself.” “I've got my wife - Final Clearance r-$10 Shoes Regula All short lines of Summer shoes, including White to_think of.” Turning to the editor. | “You promised to go with me into that | hol | " With a spring, David was on his fect ole? You've found the tunnel h-h-hole that | viously spent in putting some unex- piained two and two together. “Well, let me tell you something.” His*warning look took in all three of his audience. | “I fourd that tunnel weeks ago. It's | mine, understand me, mine. If any | one steps foot in the Ted barn before I | say the word— Willie Prentice opened his eyes and mouth in a fishlike expression of be- wilderment. | _“Red barn? I haven't been in the | red_barn.” The giant clenched his big fists and took a menacing step forward. “Don’t lie to me. The mouth of the | tunnel 1s in the celiar of the red barn. Behind the packing cases. Here Cropsey interposed his lean | length between the two men. “It appears you've both stumbled on the sam: discovery but from different | angles. Why not act like rational be- |ings and put your heads together?” | While the giant glared at him he went on to explain about the hole under the rock at the edge of the pool. “It's un- doubtedly part of a natural passage- way which gives in two directions— away from the red barn, let us- say, and toward the house. | " willie, the pacifist, was only 00 |ready to do his bit toward establishing |a working basis. “That's it—a natural passageway,” he cried excitedly. “See, it's all here—on this old map.” Taking a wallet from his back pocket, “Miss Uptegrove loaned me a portfolio full of data about Hales | Crossing and this was among them. Her | erandfather made it for Mr. Ezra Run- nels’ father. He, Mr. Uptegrove, was the town engineer or something.” | The two men and Abby, unable to | keep up her pose of aloofness any lon- | ger, followed to the chest of drawers, | where the map, spread out in the light of the candles, disclosed itself as being a single sheet of drafting paper, so |fragile with age that its folds had | cracked lengthwise and across, sepa- rating it into four parts. It was a crude survey of the Runnels farm done in col- ored “inks and ornamented here and there with drawings of cows and willow trees. The house itself appeared, and | the red barn. The newer white barns were missing. “Here,” said Willle, pointing to a series of fine red lines, “is the tunnel. | It seems, before Revolutionary times, | the family used it to escape from the |indians, but after a while one end |caved in, making it impassable. In | 1859, when this map was made, Mr. Runnels decided, for some reason or other, to have it filled in, but the Civil | War came along and prevented him | from carrying out his plan.” | "It doesn’t lead to the red barn,” | said David, who had been studying the |map_closely. “See, the line runs from | the house, past the pool on the north side and back toward the town. The This can't be the tunnel I Cropsey cut in with, “Connecticut’s full of this sort of thing. Caves and dozen subterranean passages branching away from that hole by the pool.” “And when are we going to inyesti- gate it?” asked Willie Prentice sharply. ; pembcr, this is what I came here See no reason why we shouldn't go now. ‘The managing editor looked at | David. ““How about it?" The big stranger rubbed his hands together with deceptive briskness, but his face had taken on a curious pallor, “One of us must stay here,” he ob. Jected. “It isn't safe to leave her,” nod- ding toward Abby, “alone. There's been a deliberate attempt made to scare her |out of her wits tonight. It may be re- peated.” “True.” Cropsey took a 50-cent piece out of his pocket. ‘“Let's toss. The glant drew a deep breath. “Heads I go,” he said and watched with a feverish intensity while Cropsey lifted his hand from the coin. “It's heads,” chirped Willie Prentice, and to David, “That means you go with {me. Come, let's get started.” On leaden feet the giant followed his diminutive companion to the door. At the threshold he paused and looked over his shoulder at the two who were to remain behind. “If I shouldn’t come back, tell Miss West—" He hesitated. ‘Tell Miss West my dark inheritance has gobbled {me up. Without adding anything | which might explain this extraordinary message, he plunged down the stairs after Willie Prentice and out the front door into the night, (To be Continued. ||SUMMER FARES | TO CALIFORNIA Reduced Summer fares to the Southwest and Pacific Coast are now in efect on the Washington-Sunset Route. It is an economical and comfortable way to go. Passengers save approximately 50% of sleeping {|| car fare by using Tourist sleeping car service, via New Orleans, Hous- ||| ton, San Antonio and El Paso. Cars ||| leave Washington, D. C., daily. Wrlf today for {llustrated booklet “R, time tables and. railroad fares. D. D. COFFMAN, Passenger Agent, WASHINGTON - SUNSET ROUTE Bauare, Washing! Telephone National 5688 | —Advertisement. Kid, Fabrics, Patent and Colored Leathers and Beige Wa- tersnake are reduced for final clearance. 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