THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE BKMARY ♦> ROBERTS ❖ RIMTJfUir luiAsmnwj BY tafrac/iT /too by etwaj-m.itu.ifca » SYNOPSIS. Miss lnnes, spinster arid guardian of Gertrude and Halsey, established summer headquarters at Sunnyslde. Amidst n»- merou • ililfl' tiltles the servnnts deserted. As Miss lnnes locked up for the night, she \\;is startled by a dark figure on the veranda. She passed a terrible night, which was filled with unseemly noises. 3n the morning Miss Innes found a link em'f button in a clothes rinmi> r. Oertrude and Ilulsey arrived with Jack Hailey. The house was awak ened by a revolver shot. A strange m:in Mils found shot to death in the ball. 3t proved to be the body of Arnold Arrn- M mtr. whose banker father owned tiie coimtiy house. Miss Innes found II il sey's revolver en tin lawn, lie and Jack Bailey had disappeared. The link cult button mysteriously disappeared. I »«'- tective Jamieson anil the coroner arrived. Gertrude iv\.:ilfd that she was engaged to Jack Bailey, with whom site had talked in tiie billiard room a few mo ments before the murder. Jamieson told Miss 1 nnts that she was hidinu evidence from him. lb' Imprisoned an intruder in h n empty room. The prisoner escaped down • i laundry chute. It developed that th; Intruder was probably a woman. CHAPTER Vll.—Continued. "Liddy," I called, "go through the house at once and see who is missing, or if any one is. We'll have to clear tLis thing at once. Mr. Jamieson, if you will watch here T will goto the lodge and find Warner. Thomas would be of no use. Together you may be able to force the door." "A good idea," he assented. "But — there are windows, of course, and there is nothing to prevent whoever is In there from getting out that way." "Then lock the door at the top of the basement stairs," I suggested, "and patrol the house from the out side." We agreed to this, and 1 had a feeling that the mystery of Sunny side was about to be solved. Iran down the steps and along the drive. Just at the corner Iran full tilt into somebody who seemed to be as much alarmed as I was. It was not until I had recoiled a step or two that I rec ognized Gertrude, and she me. "Good gracious, Aunt Ray," she ex claimed, "what is the matter?" "There's somebody locked in the laundry," I panted. "That is—unless— you didn't see any one crossing the lawn or skulking around the house, did you?" "I think we have mystery on the brain," Gertrude said wearily. "No, I haven't seen any one, except old Thomas, who looked for all the world as if he had been ransacking the pan try. What have you locked in the laundry?" "I can't wait to explain," I replied. "I must get Warner from the lodge. If you came out for air, you'd better put on your overshoes." And then I no ticed that Gertrude was limping—not much, hut sufficiently to make her progress very slow, and seemingly painful. "You have hurt yourself," I said sharply. "I fell over the carriage block," she explained. "I thought perhaps I might see Halsey coming home. He — he ought to be here." I hastened to the lodge. "Where is Warner?" I asked. "I —I think he's in bod, ma'am." "G< t him up," I said, "and for good ness sake open the door, Thomas. I'll wait for Warner." "It's kind o' close in here, ma'am," he said, obeying gingerly, and disclos ing it cool and comfortable-looking in terior. "Perhaps you'd koor to set on the p<>. ::h an' rest you'aeif." It v us so evident that Thomas did not want me inside that I went in. "Ttll Warner lie is needed in a hur ry." ( repeated, and turned into the littt'j sitting room. I could hear Thoi ias going up the stairs, could hi :ir him roust Warner, and the steps of the chauffeur as ! hut-re dly dre«-;.d. I hit my attention *u bitty with the room below (M the center tabb open, was a se. Iskln traveling H was tilled With gold-topped ht.tt It it|id bl i lie ami it breathed opulence, luxury, fem- Ininity from iwry inch <>f urfaee. How did it get there? I was still ask trig m> eii the que Hon when Warner came running down the taint and into the room. lie was completely hut somewhat incongruously dressed, and hi . open, boyi h face looked abashed He w.i a country hoy, absolutely frank and i« ' ; bit , of fair education • lei ife. |h lie. <> 11 (if the -mail arm) Ai •-rlcHii youth who turn a untui.il aptitude tor meei mie into the pet tul Belli 01 the automobile, ami earn koimJ alariek in a congenial ore tip"! t 101 l •AS hat Is It, Mi( lnnes?" he asked anxiously "Theie i» »• me one larked In the laundry I replb d ".Mr JaiaittKon w.,nt* yaw i<» help him break the lock W truer, wl g j, tjjja ' • •id i • pi • ' d to-I to b il b. r« U bag l.this?" !| u, Till »t"< 112 'l if 'be drive To IhitUM \ London bag with ' nomas < not « »• i# bai'w #<«* *!•) ~o u. btlek on; the iloor to the basement, stairs was double-barred, and had a table pushed against It; and beside her ou the table was most of the kitchen par aphernalia. "Did you see if there was any one missing In the house?" I asked, ignor ing the array of sauce pans, rolling pins and the poker of the range. "Rosle is missing," Liddy said with unction. She had objected to Rosie, the parlor maid, from the start. "Mrs. Watson went into her room, and found she had gone without her hat. People that trust themselves a dozen miles from the city, in strange houses, with servants they don't know, needn't be surprised if they wake up some morn ing and find their throats cut." After which carefully veiled sar casm Liddy relapsed into gloom. War ner came In then with a handful of small tools, and Mr. Jamieson went with him to the basement. Oddly enough, I was not alarmed. With all my heart I wished for Halsey, but I was not frightened. At the door he was to force Warner put down his tools and looked at it. Then ho turned the handle. Without the slight est difficulty the door opened, reveal ing the blackness of the drying room beyond! Mr. Jamieson gave an exclamation of disgust. "Gone!" he said. "Con found such careless work! I might have known." It was true enough. We got the lights on finally and looked all through the three rooms that con stituted this wing of the basement. Everything was quiet and empty. An explanation of how the fugitive had escaped injury was found in a heaped up basket of clothes under the chute. Tiie basket had been overturned, but that was all. Mr. Jamieson examined the "But Before We Go On, I Want to Say This." windows; one was unlocked, and of fered nn easy t scape. The window or the door? Which way bad the fugi tlVM i aped? Thf door seemed most probabh , and I hoped it had been so. I could not have borne, just then, to think that it was my poor Gertrude we bad been hounding through the darkn> and yet ! had met Oer trud not far from that very window. 1 went upstairs at last, tired and depr< I Mr*. Wntson and Liddy were making tea in th«» kitchen. In • (tain walk* of life the tea pot is the | refuge in times of stress, trouble or ickii' •«; they give tea to the dying ind tin •. put it in the baby's nursing bottle Mrs WtttKon was fixing a tray a sweetheart. It will b«* a good thing if she has Tha I maids stay much miter whan they have *oiu..thlu, like that to bold them liera." <:«urude hud gone back to her and a bile I wta drinking my i.up ot hot ten, Mr Jatait suu came In VI «■ might take up the i 1 no rustluH a here s» left off an hour and a half «go,"he »aid "Mat bwtor* ae go ott, l want to say this. 'Fte |m r»on aho o»i ,tp« d > tout the laundry aas a aoto 4S a ith a tout ot toud< ratw »U« sad i«|| si* bed. Whs a ore iioi titi.g bat St<** K oil bet right and, Itt sj»it«* of ttM aaluckvd door, sha «#- ' .it" 4 b> lfa> »tftdww »otaimed »hW» Wu»lt lb light mm 112 CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1910. CHAPTER VIII. The Other Half of the Link, "Miss Innes," the detective began, "what is your opinion of the ligure you saw on the east veranda the night you and your maid were in the house alone?" "It was a woman," I said positively. "And yet your maid affirms with equal positiveness that it was a man." "Nonsense," I broke in. "Liddy had her eyes shut —she always shuts them when sho's frightened." "And you never thought then that the intruder who came later that night might be a woman —the woman in fact, whom you saw on the veran da?" "I had reasons for thinking it was a man," I said, remembering the pearl cuff-link. "Now we are getting down to busi ness. What were your reasons for thinking that?" I hesitated. "If you have any reason for believ ing that your midnight guest was Mr. Armstrong, other than his visit here tho next night, you ought to tell me, Miss lnnes. Wo can take nothing for granted. If, for instance, the Intru der who dropped the bar and scratched the staircase —you see, I know about that —if this visitor was a woman, why should not the same woman have come back the following night, met Mr. Armstrong on the cir cular staircase, and in alarm shot him?" "It was a man," I reiterated. And then, because I could think of no oth er reason for my statement, I told him about the pearl cuff-link. He was intensely interested. "Will you give me the link." he said when I finished, "or, at least, let me see it? I consider It a most Impor tant clew." "Won't the description do?" "Not as well as the original." "Well, I'm very sorry," I tald, as calmly as 1 could, "1 the thing I lost. It It must have fallen out of a box on my dressing table." Whatever he thought of my expla i nation, and I knew he doubted It, he made no sign, lie asked ni« to do ] scribe the link accurately, and 1 did HO, while he glanct d at a li t be took from his pocket "One set monogram cuff links," he read, one m t plain pearl links, on set cufflinks, woman's head net with diamond* and emeralds There Is no mention of such a link as you de scribe, and yet. If your theory Is right, Mr. Armstrong must have taken back In hi «• .fT-i one complete cuff link, and a half, perhaps, of the other." The Idea was new to me If It had not b« en the murdered man wbo had entered the bun <» that night, who had It bee a? • There are a numbr of strange things connected with this «.».e," th> detoctlve went on. "Miss tkrlrtMli I tine* testified that she heard soma one tumbling Kith the lock, that the door op* ii*t*l, and that almost IntttM di ately «b* shot Mas lir««|. Now, til . Innes, hi re Is (be lit mag* pan of thai Mr. Armstrong bad tin key with blni I'bi fe was MO k* y In the lack, or an tb« Boar In oibei wordi, the w .,i j). , »ruin iiy •f | *»te| (2* rifuti* j lnnes of admitting that uotaf" "Not quite that," he said with his friendly smile. "In fact, Miss Innes, I am quite certain she did not. But as long as I learn only parts of the truth, from both you and her, what can I do? I know you picked up some thing in the flower bed; you refuse to tell me what it was. I know Miss Gertrude went back to the billiard room to get something, she refuses to say what. You suspect what happened to the cuff-link, but you won't tell me. So far, all I am sure of is this: I do not believe Arnold Armstrong was the midnight visitor who so alarmed you by dropping—shall we say, a golf stick? And I believe that when he did come ho was admitted by some one in the house. Who knows —it may have been—Liddy!" I stirred my tea angrily. "L have always heard," I said dry ly, "that undertakers' assistants are jovial young men. A man's sense of humor seems to be in inverse propor tion to the gravity of his profession." "A .man's sense of humor is a bar barous and a cruel thing, Miss Innes," he admitted. "It is to the feminine as the hug of a bear is to the scratch of —well, anything with claws. Is that you, Thomas? Come in." Thomas Johnson stood in the door way He looked alarmed and appre hensive, and suddenly I remembered the sealskin dressing bag in the lodge. Thomas came just inside the door and stood with his head droop ing, his eyes, under their shaggy gray brows, fixed on Mr. Jainieson. "Thomas," said the detective, not unkindly, "I se«t for you to tell us what you told Sam Bohannon at the club, the day before Mr. Arnold was found here, dead. Let me see. You came here Friday night to see Miss Innes, didn't you? And came to work here Saturday morning?" For some unexplained reason Thomas looked relieved. "Yas, sah," he said. "You see it were like this: When Mistah Arm strong and the fain'ly went away, Mis' Watson an' me, we was lef' in charge till the place was rented. Mis' Wat son. she've bin here a good while, an' she warn' skeery. So she slep' in the house. I'd bin havin' tokens—l toi' Mis' Innes some of 'em—an' I slep' in the lodge. Then one day Mis' Wat son, she came to me an' she sez, aez she: 'Thoijias, you'll hev to sleep up in the big house. I'm too nervous to do it any more.' But I jes' reckon to myself that ef it's too skeery fer her, it's too skeery fer me. We had it, then, sho' nuff, and it ended up with Mis' Watson stayin' in the lodge nights an' me lookin' fer work at de club." "Did Mrs. Watson say that any thing had happened to alarm her?" "No, sah. She was Jes' natchally skeered. Well, that wits all, far's I know, until the night ! come over to see Mis' Innes. 1 come across the valley, along the path from the club house, and I goes home that way. Down iu the creek bottom I almost run into a man. He wuz standin' with his back to me, an' he was workin' with one of these yere electric light things that fit in yer pocket. He was havin' trouble —one minute it'd flash out, an' the nex' it'd be gone. I hed a view of 'is white dress shirt an' tie, as I passed. I didn't see his face. But I know it warn't Mr. Arnold. It was a taller man than Mr. Arnold. Besides that. Mr. Arnold was playin' cards wh"n I got to the clubhouse, name'i he'd been doin' all day." "And the next morning you came back along the path,'' pursued Mr. Jumtesoa relwi'lessly. "The nex mornin' i «:ou»« back along tin- path an' down where 1 dun see the mau night befoh, I picked up this here " The old man held out a tiny object and Mr. Jamie on took It. Then he held it on bis extended palm for me tone. It was the other half of the pearl cuff link! Hut .Mr. Jaitiieson was not quite through questioning him. "And so you showed it to Satu, at the club, and asked him if he know any 01 • who owned *ueh a link, and Sam said what?" "Wul, Ham, he' lowed he'd Been unit a pair of tuff buttons in a shirt beloiigin* to .Mi lialley- Mr Jack Balk y, sah." ill keen this link, Thomas, for a whlh," the detective Hani "That's all I wanted to know. Uood night" As Thomas shuttled out. Mi i»iol« uti wat» lu d me sharply Yi. i | l l iii'., he said, "Mr. Halle) insists 011 mixing himself with 1111 tiling If Mr Bailey camu h»ru th.it I'tiday night ■ (peeing tu luoet \ri d Arui. t ng and missed him - If, as 1 say, b« hod don* tki», Mlffet he m>f, 11 • intt him inter the follow In* hi In. h . 1 ruck him down, an he "Httl Ih. Motive?" I nan>«4 I'hera . mild b# moth, proved, I biom »t Arnold niiuo t luto the 1 in- it tnit# I** sit j Il u life itlsUsl Armours j Fertilizers I Increase the yield —Improve the quality —Enrich the soil. Every harvest proves it. Can you afford to risk your wheat? 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