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"<i »■■>< 112 'l if 'be drive
To IhitUM \ London bag with
' nomas < not « »• i# bai'w #<«*
*!•) ~<i ealt? ««u*'tiitbb * ,iu.i
KM I S* t« «h I
um mm fe- k >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
<io b' l m nt into me, and when I asked
| h« i about Itmio she confirmed her
I absence.
" Shi not hero," she said; 'but I
Mtuld n«»t think much of that, Miss In
iu is Itimni is i* pretty young girl,
md perhaps she ha> 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 <vl
dell* i«it»it aS- uiultly to thl. Mr
W olii H | i„ jb, be ,
I iron* within "
"It H luu«w» ibla," l broke in * Mr,
taut* 1., do you know »b..i > 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
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Clever Joke of Kind King.
King Edward's great nature was il- I
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" 'Oh, let him go,' he eald. 'lf he I
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wouldn't poach." "
The Good Old Times.
There is a lot of talk about the
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"The boy smiled confidently.
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7