Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, April 24, 1910, Page 27

i the murdered WELL, 1 DECLARE! ANOTHER APRIL T 1S GET TING A T '] SHouLD q/_, 1T 1S CLEAR- ING OFF NOW AND (LL BE ALL RIGHT! OH, WHERE AM 12 (Copyright, 1910, by Bobbs-Merrill Co.) CHAPTER XVI—Continued. “Blakeley is a rvegular geyser,” he said. “He never spouts until he reaches the boillng point. And by that same token, al- though he hasn't said much about the lady ! of the wreck, I think he s crazy about her. In fact, I am sure of it. He thinks he has locked his secret in the caves of his soul, but I call you to witress that he has it nailed to his face. Look at him!' 1 squirmed miserably and tried to avoid the startied eyes of the girl across the table. 1 wanted to choke McKnight and t of the party 1 sald as coolly as T could. +1 have my fingers crossed; vou are five slinst one. Ard to think that there on that very train,” broke In the lady in yellow. "It was a perfect crescendo of horrors, wasn't 1t? And what became of man, Mr. Blakeley?” McKnight had the sense to jump the conversation and save my reply “"Fhey say good Pittsburgers go lantie City when they die” he said we ard reasonably certain the gentleman did not go to the s:a shore.” The meal was over at last, and once In the drawing room It was clear we hung heavy on the hostess' hands. “It is 8o ta get people for bridgs In Septem- she walled. “There Is absolutely no body In town. ¥ix is a dreadful number.” “It's & good prker nuraber,” her husband suggested. The matter settled itself, was hopeless, save as & dumm #ald it was too hot for cards a balcony that overlooked ihe Mall With obylous relict Mrs. Dallas had the card table brought, and—I face to face with the minute 1 had dreaded and hope for for a week. Now it had ceme, it was more difficult than 1 had anticipated. 1 do not know if there was a moon, but there was the urban substitute for it—the are Hght. It threw the shadow of the baleony ralling in long black bars against her white gown, and as It swung sometimes her face was In the Ight. 1 drew a chair close so that I could watch her. Do you know no effort at speech more formidable Kown, you?r* The light swung smiling faintly The hat with the said. “1 must take forgotten. “I have mot was a murder into At- So to however 1 Miss West \d went out I sald. when she made that you are & much person tonight, in that than you were the last time I saw on her face; she was back ribbons!" she I had almost forgotten—anything 1 pulled myself up short, This was hardly loyalty to Richey. His voice came through the window just then, and perhaps I was wrong, but I thought she raised her head o listen, ‘Look at thiy band," he wa ing. Regular nllvm you could play it with your feet." ‘Ho's & dear, isn't he™' Allson sald un- expectedly., 'No matier how depressed WIND! 1 CAN HARD- 1Y HoLD THIS THING | ® D 4d WY e ¥ \ CECRRE \ - Vg | MUSTN'T LET THIS T wiL QR : HAN i COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY THE NEW NOT HAVE VENTUR OUT TODAY, BUT, 1 }NJNY T0 GET- g . ED) # 1_§|~ N YORK EVENING TELEGRAM (NEW YORK HERALD CO). Al Rights Reserved. OH! HOW DARK IT 15! MERCY! HOW WILL ) G\ THIS UM~ HAT' UM THE RAIN IS OVE BUT GRACIOU > & Tflts_wpio.k R % OH! WHY DID | EAT THAT RAREBIT LAST NIGHT? T HAS MADE NIGHT HIDEOUS FOR ME! } CANNDT SLEEP OH! HORRORS! E / 4 7.5 / /talr,cas;% vy Z and down-hearted I am, I always cheer up when I see Richey." “He’s more than “that,” 1 returned warmly. “He's the most honorable fellow 1 know. 1t he wasn't so much that way, he would have a career before him. He wanted to put on the doors of our offices, Blakeley ard McKnight, P. B. H., which Is Poor But Honest From my comparative poverty to the wealth of the girl beside me was a single mental leap. From that wealth to the grandfather who was responsible for it was another. “I wonder if you know that I had been to Pittsburg to see your grandfather when I met you?" 1 said “You!" She was surprised “Yes. And you remember the alligator bag that 1 told you was exchanged for the one you cut off my arm?’ She nodded expectantly. “Well, in that valise were the forged Andy Bronson notes, and Mr. e's deposition that they were forged.' She was on her feet in an instant. “In that bag!" she cried. “'Oh, why didn't you tell me that before? Oh. it's so ridiculous, 80—s0 hopeless. Why, I could—" She stopped suddenly and sat down again “1 do not know that 1 am sorry, after all,” she said after a pause. “Mr. Bronson pas a friend of my father's. I—I suppose it was a bad thing for you, losing the papers?” “Well, it was not & good thing,” I con- ceded. “‘While we are on the subject of losing things, do you remember—do you know that I still have your gold purse?” She did not reply at once. The shadow of a column was over her face, but I guessed that she was staring at e, “You have it!” She almost whispered “I pieked it up In the street car,” 1 said. with a cheerfulness T aid not feol. "It looks like a very opulent little purse.' Why didn't she speak about the neck lace? For just a careless word to make me sane again! You!" she repeated, horror stricken. And then I produced the purse and held It out on my palm. “1 should have sent it suppose, but, as you know up since the wreek."” We both saw McKnight at the same mo- ment. He had pulled the curtains asid and was standing looking out at w Th tableau of give and lake was unmistak- able; the gold purse, her outstretched hand my own attitude. 1t was over in a second; then he came out and lounged on the bal- cony railing They've mad at me in there, sald airily, “so 1 came out. 1 suppose the ea son they call it bridge is because ¥o many people get cross over it The heat broke up the card party soon aficr, and they all came cut for the night breeze. | hud no more words alone with Allscn., 1 went back to the Incubator for (he night. We said almost nothing on the way home; therd was & constraint between us for the first time (hat I could remember It was tog early for bed, and so we smoked in the Nving room and tricd to talk of trivial things. After & time even ‘those [ to vou hefore, | I have been laid I failed, and we sat silent. It was McKnight wha finally broached the subject “And so she wasn't at Seal Harbor at a2 Do you know where she was Somewhere near Cresson.’ And that the purse—her with the broken necklace in it? “Yes, It was. You understand, don't you, Rich, that, having given her my word, 1 couldn't tell you? “I understand a lot of things," without bitterness, We sat for gome time and smoked. Richey got up and stretched hin off to bed, old man,” he said help with that game arm of yours™' No, thanks,” 1 returncd I heard him go into his room and lock the door. It was a bad hour for me. The first shadow between us, and the shadow of a girl at that Lollie?" was purse— he said, CHAPTER XV AT THIZ FARM HOL AGAIN. McKnuight. is always & sympathizer the early worm. It was late when he ap peared. Perhaps, like myself, he had not slept well. But ha was apparently cheerful enough, and he made a better breakfast than I did. It was 1 o'clock before we got to Baltimore. After a half hour's wait we took a local for M——, the station near which the cinnematograph picture had been taken Wae passed the scene of the wreck, Me- Knight with curiosity, T with a sickening sense of horror. Back in the tields was the little farm house where Alison West and I had intended getting coffee, and winding away from the track, maple trees shading it on side, the lane where had stopped to and where T had—it ped presumption beyond belief now where 1 had trled to comfort hy pat ting her hand We got out at two or three houses The station was & one-ronmed affaiv, with a railed-off place at the end, where a scale, a telegraph Instrument and a chalr constituted the entire furnishing The station agent was a with a shrewd face. He mering a plece of wood ove floor to ask where wanted to go. We're not going.” said we'r ning. Have a cigar? The agent took it with an glance, first at it and then at us. “We want to ask you a fe began MeKnight, perching him raliing and kicking the chair ‘O, rather, thi Wait a minute, ing through ti in that crate choking her:elf He hack in a winute, and took up his position near a sawdust filled box that di¢ duty as a cuspidor “Now fire away,” h “Ir the first pl remember day was wreeked below ‘Do 11" he said the whale?’ with each was we ont, M-, & and small place eneral store. with young stopped man ham a hole in the we Mcinight Innuiring questions,’ the forw gentleman th me wing was sald I began, the Washington here?” “Did Jonah remember ‘do you the Flier “Were you on the platform here when the first section passed?’ “I was.” “Do you recall seeing a man hanging to the platform of the last car?’ “There was no one hanging there when she passed here, he said with conviction. “I watched her out of sight.' “Did you see anything that morning of a man about my size, carrying a small grip, and wearing dark clothes and a derby hat?" I asked cagerly McKnight was trying to cerned, but I was frankly anxious. clear that the man had jumped s in the mile of track just bevond ‘Well, did.”" The agent cleared his throat “When the smash came the operator at MX sent word along the wire, both ways. 1 got it here, and 1 was pretty near crazy, though I knew it wasn't any fault of mine. “I was standing on the track looking down, for I couldn’t leave the office, when a young fellow with light hair limped up to me and asked me what that smoke was over there. That's what left of the Washinglon Flier, 1 said, ‘and 1 guess there's souls going up in that smoke.' “‘Do you mean the first section?' sald, getting kind of greenish yellow. That's what I mean,’ I said; ‘split to kindling wood because Hafferty, on the sceond section, didn't want to be late.’ “He put his hand out in front of him, and the satchel fell with a bang. My God!' he said, and dropped right on the track in a heap, “I got him Into the station and he came around, but he kept on groaning something awful. He'd sprained his ankle, and when e got a little better T drove him over in Carter's milk wagon to the Carter place, ard I reckon he stayed there a spell.” That's all, it 1 asked, “That's all—or, there's something About noon that day one of the Car- ter twins came down with a note from him askihg me (o send a long distance message to some one in Washington." “To whom?' 1 asked eagerly “1 reckon l've forgot the name, but the message was that this fellow—Sullivan was his name—was at M—, and if the man had escaped from the wreck would he come to see him.” He wouldn't have sent that message to me,” I id to McKnight, rather crest- fallen. “He'd have every object in keep- ing out of my way." “There might be reasons,” served Jjudicially, “He found the papers then.' “Was the name Blakeley?" ‘It might have been—I the man wasn't there, of noise. T couldn’t hear well. Then half an hour down came the other twin to say the gentleman was taking on awful and didu't want the message sent.” “He's gone, of cours Yes. Limped down here about three davs and tpook the noon train for the ecity.” It seemed a certainty now that our man, having hurt himself somewhat in his jump, had stayed quietly at the farm house until he was able to travel. Bul, to be positive, we decided to visit the Carter place, T gave the station agent a five-dollar bill, which he rolled up with a couple of others and stuck in his pocket. 1 turned got to a bend In the road. and he was look curlously after us. It was not untll we had climbed the hill and turned onto the road to the Carter place that 1 realized where we were going. Although we approached it from another direction, T knew the farm house at once It the oge where Allson West and | had breakfasted nine days hefore With the new restraint between us. 1 a'd not tell MeKnight I wondered afterward If he had suspectsd it. 1 saw him looking hard a4t the gate post which had figured In one of our mysteries, but he asked no ques- tons. Afterward he grew aimost taciturn, for him, and let me do mast of the talking. We opened the front gate of the Carter place and went slowly up the walk. Two ragged youngsters, allke even to freckles and squints, were plaving In the yard. s your mother around?” I asked. look uncon- It was mewhere ves, 1 he no, else, McKnight ob- might not have I asked can't say. But and there was a lot in as we wa “In the front room. Walk i swered in identical tones. As we got to the porch we heard volces, and stopped. I knocked, but the people within, engaged in animated, rather one- sided conversation, did not answer ‘““‘In the front room. Walk in,’ McKnight, and did o In the stuffy farm parlor two ,pcople were sitting. One, a pleasant faced woman with a checked apron, rose, somewhat em- barrassed, to meet us. She did not know me, and I was thankful. But our atten- tion was riveted on a little man who was sitting before a table, writing busily. It was Hotchlkiss! He got up when he saw us, and had the grace to look uncomfortable. “Such an interesting:case,” he said ner- vously, “I took the liberty—" “Look here,” said McKnight “did you make any Inquiries at tion?" A few,” He confessed. *T went to the theater last night—I felt the need of a little relaxation—and the slght of a picture there, a cinematograph affair, started a new line of thought. Probably the same clue brought you gentlemen. 1 learned a good bit from the station agent.” “The son-of-a-gun," said McKnight, “And you paid him, T suppos “I gave him %, was the apologetic an- swer, Mrs. Carter, hearing sounds of strife in the yard, went out, and Hotchkiss folded up his papers. “L think the identity of the man is es- tablished,” he sald. “What number of bat do you wear, Mr. Blakeley?" “Seven and & quarter,” I replied. Well, it's only piling up evidence,” he ald cheerfully. “On the night of the mur- der you wore light gray silk undercloth- ing, with the second button of the shirt missing. Your hat had ‘L. B in gilt let- ters inside, and there was a very minute hole in the toe of one black sock. “"Hush,” McKnight protested. “If word gets to Mre. Klopton that Mr. Blakeley was wrecked, robbed, or whatever it wag, with a button missing and a hole in one, sock, she'll retire to the Old Ladies' Home. I've heard her threaten It." Mr. Hotchkiss was without a sense of humor. He regarded McKnight gravely and went on: “I've been up in the room where the man lay while he waa unable to get away, and there is nothing there. But I founa what may be & possible clue in the dust heap. “Mrs. Carter tells me that in unpacking his grip the other day she shook out of the coat of the pylamas some pleces of 4 telegram. As I figure it, the pyjamas were his own. He probably had them on when lie effected the exchange.” I nodded assent. All I had retained of my own clothing was the sult of pyjumus 1 was wearing and my bath robe “Therefore the telegram yourt. 1 have pleces here, but missing. 1 am not discouraged He spread out some bits of yellow paper, and we bent over them curlously. It was something like this Man with p quoted suddenly, the sta- or was his, not some ave howe Get Br We spelled it out slowly “Now," Hotchkiss announced, "I make it something like this: The ‘D' is one of two things, pistol—you remember the little pearl-handled affair belonging (o the w dered man—or it is pocketbook. [ am in- clined to the latter view, as the pocketbook had been disturbed and the pistol had not." 1 took the piece of paper from the table and scrawled four words on it Now.” 1 sald, rearranging them, it happens. Mr. Hotchkiss, that I found one of these pieces of the telegram un the train, 1 thought it had been dropped by some one else, you see, but that's imma- tertal. Arranged this way it almost makes sense. Fill out that ‘p—' with the rest of the word, as 1 Imagine It, and it makes papers,’ and add this scrap and you have “Man with papers (in) lower ten, car seven. Get (them). McKnight slapped Hotchkiss on the back. “You're a trump”’ he said. “Br— is Bronson, of course. It's almost too easy. You see, Mr, Blakeley here engaged lower ten, but found it occupied by the.man who was later murdered there. The man who did the thing was a friend of Bron- son’s, evidently, and in trying to get the papers we have the motive for the erime.” “There are still some things to be ex- plained.” Mr. Hotehkiss wiped his glasses and put them on. “For one thing, Mr. Blakeley, 1 am puzzled by that bit of chain,” I aid not glance at McKnight. I feit that the hands with which I was gathering up the bits of torn paper were shaking. It seemed to me that this astute little man was going to drag in the girl in spite of me. CHAPTER XVIII, A NEW WORLD, Hotchkiss jotted down the bits of tele- gram and rose, Well,” he =aid, “we've done something. Wae've found where the murderer left the train, we know what day he went to Bal- timore, and, most important of all, have a motive for the ecrime.” It seems the irony of fai ' said Me- Knight, getting up, “that a man should kill another man for certaln papers he is supposed to be carrying, find that he hasn't got them after all, decide to throw suspicion on another man by changing berths and getting out, bag and baggage, and then, by the merest fluke of chance, take with him, in the valise he changed for his own, the very notes he was after. It was & bit of luck for him.” “Then why,” put in Hotchkiss doubt- fully, “why did he collapse when he heard of the wreck? And what about the tele phone message the: station agent You remember they tried to countermand it, and with some excitement.” “We will ask him those questions when we get him,” McKnight said. We were on the unrailed front porch by that time, and Hotehkiss had put away his note book. The mother of the twins followed us to the steps. “Dear me,” she exclaimed volubly, “‘and to think 1 was forgetting to tell you. I put the young man to bed with a splice poultice on his ankle: my mother always was a firm bellever in splice poultices, It's wonderful what they will do in croup, And then I took the children and went down to see the wreck. It was Sunday, and the mister had gone to church; hasn't missed a day since he took the pledge nine years ago. And on the way I met two people, & man and a woman. The looked half dead, so 1 sent them righ here for breakfast and some soap and water. 1 slways say ®oap is better than lauor after a shock.” Hotchkiss was listening absent!y: , Me- Knight was whistling under his hreath staring down across the field to where a break in the woods showed a half do: telegraph poles, the line of the raiiroad “It must have been 12 o'cloek mvhen got back; 1 wanted the children overything because It len't likely ever see Another wreck llke that of—" About what the “The young she went on, like all possessed. the outside She sensation. “I would like to see¢ that kiss sald promptl but the woman demurred 1 key down, sald and When she returned she held out an ordi- nary door key of the pest variety “We had to break the lock,” she volur teered, “and the key dldn't turn up for two Gays. Then one of the twins found the turkey gobbler trying to swallow It It has been washed since,” she hastened to assure Hotchkiss, who showed an incling tion to drop it “You don't think he locked the door we sent? 10 see they'll Rows clock, 1 broke in and man upstaire was and hammering at And 1t was paused awake, hix door ked on to enjoy her lock," will ai Hoteh reason bring ppeared sh himself and threw the key out of the window?"" the little man asked. “The windows are covered quito netting, nailed on. The mister blamed it on the children, and it might have been Obadiah. He's the quiet kind, and you never know what's he's about.” “He's about to strangle, isn't he, Mo- Knight remarked lazily, “or is that Oba- diah? Mrs. Carter picked the boy up and in- verted him, talking amiably all the time. “Ha's always doing IL," she said, giving him a shake. “Whenever we miss any- thing we look to see if Obadiah's black In the face.” She gave another shake, and the quarter 1 had given him shot out as it blown from a gun. Then we prepared to go back to the station. From where I stood I could look into the cheery farm Kkitchen, where Alison West and 1 had eaten our al fresco break- fast. 1 looked at the table with mixed emotions, and then, gradually, the mean- ing of something penetrated my mind. Still in its papers, evidently just opened, was & hat box, and protruding over the edge of the box was a streamer of vivid green ribhon. On the plea that I wished to ask Mrs. Carter & few more questions, I let the others go on. I watched them down the flagstone walk; saw McKnight stop and examine the gate posts and saw, too, the quick glance he threw back at the house. Then I turned to Mrs. Carter. “I would like to speak to the young lady upstairs,” T sald She threw up her hands with a quick gesture of surrender. “I've done all I could,” she exclaimed. “She won't like it very well,"but—ghe's in the room over the parlor.” 1 went eagerly up the ladder-like stairs, to the rag-carpeted hall. Two doors were open, showing interiors of four poster beds and high bureaus. The door over the parlor was almost hesitated in the hallway: after all, what right had I to intrude on her? But she settled my difficulty by throwing open the door and facing me. “I-1 beg pardon, Miss West,” I stammered. “It has just occurred to me that I am unpardonably rude. I saw the hat downstalrs and I—1 guessed—" “The hat’ she sald. “I might have known. Does Richey know I am here?" “I don’t think 0.” I turned to go down the stairs again. Then I halted. ‘The fact 15, I said, in an attempt at Justitic tion, “I'm In rather & mess these days, and I'm apt to do irresponsible things. It is not impossible that 1 shall be arrested, in a day or so, for the murder of Simon Harrington she drew with mos- of the room closed, I your her breath In sharply. der!” she echoed. you, after alit” 1 don't regard it (han—er—inconveniént,” 1 can’t conviet me, the witnosses are dead She was not deceived and the “Mur- Toen they have found as anything. lied know. more “They you Almost all for a moment. Nhe stood, both hands stair know just sald quietly, My leave one stone un- ible—terrible. Into my eyes as stalrs—"the time can help yon want to; I'm a Blakeley. But--f came over (o me on the rall of how grave It i grandfather will turned, and he But'—she 1 stood by she not an b oked directly ow her on the may eome when 1 U afraid 1 shall not dreadful coward, My Wil 8he tried to smile, 1 wish would “let me help you,” I ald unsteadily. “Let us make it a bar. n—cach help the other The girl shook her iead 'with a sad littie smile. “I a happy as 1 de- And when I pro- took & step toward her retreated, with her hands out before her. w don’t you ask me all the questions you are thinking?' she demanded, with a cateh in her voice. “Oh, I know them. Or are you afraid to ask?’ (To § she sald. as 1 tested and ontinued.) Persistent advertising is the road to Big Returns.