"UNC ® SYNOPSIS Leila Seton, young and beautiful, and an expert on paintings, is commissioned to go over the collection of paintings in the home of the wealthy Kellers in New York, where a party is In progress, From her window she witnesses a man in another room strike a woman, Short. ly after Mra. Keller sends up word, ask. ing her to join the party at dinner. Leila hastily dresses and goes down. She Is seated between Mr, Deck, a eritic, and Monty Mitchell, a noted lawyer. Introductions follow, There are Mr, Harriden, Miss Letty Van Alstyn, Mrs. Crane, Mrs. Watkins and Prince and Princess Rancini, guests, Leila finds she is taking the place of Nora Harrl- den, Dan Harriden leaves the table, and Mitchell explains he has gone up to see how his wife's headache is. He returns shortly. Deck, saying he must put in a call, leaves. Upon his return, he begs Lella to secretly take & mes- Sage to Nora “to take no steps until I see you" Leila consents, Leila finds the Harriden rooms empty and so in- forms Deck. Coming out she passes Letty. Harriden asks Princess Rancini to run up and see his wife. The prin- €ess reports the absence of Nora. Search is fruitless. Harriden admits that he had a row, and believes she is spite- fuily hiding, Letty tells of seeing Leila come from the room, Lella accuses Har. riden of having struck his wife. This Harriden denies. From the Harridens' window Leila sees what proves to be Nora's lifeless body A ghastly head wound caused death, Dan says she was Iying on her bed when he went to din- mer, and when he ran up later the room was dark. Thinking she was asleep, he loft without seeking her, Mrs, Keller comes upon a pool of blood in the closet, A diamond chaln is miss- ing. CHAPTER III—Continued mle When they went to examine the place where the body had been found, Monty Mitchell threw a coat about me and drew me out with him. Perhaps he wanted my observation, as he sald; perhaps he was simply being kind to me, the outsider among those whis- pering groups. The police had turned the head- lights of thelr car on the shrubbery and every leaf stood out in brilliant detall. There was not a bit of blood to be found anywhere, nor did they find any object which eould have made the wound In her head. The dense bushes had received her body and eased It to the ground. “She was dead before ghe got here,” I heard the inspector say, The ground had been so trampled by the men who had lifted out Mrs. Harriden's body that all footprints were indecipherable, and there were no marks to be found of any ladder, “He must have had one, to get up there,” Donahey muttered, squinting up at the smooth white stone facade, as the spotlight from a car played over Its high austerity, I heard Keller saying that the gar- dener reported that all ladders were safely locked In thelr proper places, “Awkward sort of thing to bring along with him,” the Inspector mused. “But be might have used It on the walls and then here” “And lugged it away with him?” sald Mitchell. “Somehow I don't see a sneak thief trying to lope along in- conspicuously, with a twenty-foot lad der.” Slowly Donahey nodded, still study- Ing the window. “Might have got In somewhere else and used the window for a getaway.” Mitchell debated that. “That's a high drop — he'd have made a heavy landing and smashed the bushes. There isn’t a sign of injury to them except where Mrs. Harriden fell.” There is no use In golng over those hours, moment by moment, those hours in which we sat waiting or milled around, eddying to each report. There were lonely hours for me, for now Monty Mitchell ceased to concern him- self with me and went busliy about with the police, Very thoroughly they went over the place while Donahey interviewed each member of the domestic staff. He In- terviewed them separately, butlers, malds, cooks, laundresses, chauffeurs, the linen woman, the lodge-keeper, the boathouse-keeper, and not one of them had a suspicious thing to communi cate, All their testimony was to the effect that it would be impossible for &ny one to enter or leave the house without being seen, “Well, If it iso’t an outside job It's an loside,” Donahey retorted dispas- slonately. “Somebody got In here somehow,” I could see that Donahey was let ting it stand for what It was worth at the present. Between the Interviews there were constant reports from the men who had been sent out to check up on things and the sum total of those reports was that the lodge-keep- er sald there had been no attempts to enter and that there was no marks of footprints about the base of the walls or any ladder marks, or any signs of disturbance of the glass ce mented on the top of the walls be tween the spikes. There were no footprints, either, In the sands where the side walls ended at the sea, and no indications of a boat having been beached. The tide had been going out since seven and the shore was utter ly untouched except by water marks. “Well, that's fine,” sald Donahey sarcastically. “No way Into the grounds and no way into the house. Except by the front door” CHAPTER IV It was our turn then. A bizarre scene, 1 thought, to be taking place In that pale gray drawing room, the heavy Inspector in bls dark uniform seated formally behind that Incongry. ously fragile inlaid table, the strained Mary Hastings Bradley Copyright by D. Appleton Century Co, Ine, WNU Service group of men and women in evening dress, and the ring of policemen fringing the borders of the Aubusson carpet. Donahey’s notes and papers were spread out on the table before him and among them was a list of the guests the Kellers must have provided, that he consulted now carefully, checking us off one by one. There were ten of us present now, beside the Kellers, for Deck had reappeared from the se- clusion he seemed to have been keep- Ing, and Harriden himself had come down and stood, grim and expression less, on the other side of that little table, What Donahey wanted first was an account of the last time Mrs, Harri den had been seen alive, Every one had seen her at late afternooon cock- talls, then Harriden reported that they had gone upstairs to dress, a little be- fore seven-thirty, he thought, that lat- er he had gone into his wife's reom and she had sald she had a headache and would not go down. “About what time was that?" Harriden considered. “About eight, I'd say. I know it was time to go down, I'd already dressed.” Not a word did he say about any other conversation between them. though earlier in the evening he had blurted out that there had been a row, and that he'd been afrald of what his wife might do, In hysteria or drama. tics, Well, I did not blame him for holding that back. He was not called upon to offer up that secret bitter ness to the public. . . . He must have felt sure that his friends would be careful not to repeat it; there was a solidarity that knit these people's In- terests together. He went on, “The mald saw her at that time, too.” “Anson,” mentioned Mrs. Keller, and Donahey's peénci! moved, “I rang for her just as I was leaving the room, and I told her Mrs. Harri den did not want to be disturbed or have any dinner brought up. No one was to come till she rang. 1 belleve Mrs. Harriden told her this. No,” he amended, “I remember the mald sald Mrs, Harrlden did not speak to her. Anson merely saw her” “What was Mrs, Harriden doling then?" “Lying on the bed™ He added “The room was darkened, and she sald she wanted to go to sleep.™ “What happened next?” “1 went down and told Mrs. Keller. She did not want her table unbalanced so she sent for some one in the house” “During dioner,” he stolidly con. tinued, “I went up to see how Mra Harriden was. The room was still dark, and 1 closed the door without speaking, believing her asleep.” “She was still on the bed— Harriden hesitated. “I thought she was—] took It for granted that she was. I can not swear to It since the room was dark” "At what time would you place your visit? “Oh, sometime during dinner™ he Jerked out, with his first betrayal of impatience at the ordeal. “Early In the meal, I think, for there was time for some one elise to leave the table for quite an Interval after 1 returned.” Donahey made a quick note of that “Then what happened?” “Nothing. We finished dinner, Aft erwards, before they began on bridge I asked the Princess Ranciol to run up and see how my wife was, It was her visit that discovered Mrs. Marri. den’s absence from the room-—though | Closed the Door Without Speak. ing. we have been told that some one else bad already discovered ii, without mentioning it.” “Who was that?” Harriden’s head jerked towards me. “1 think the pame is Seton” My heart began to race as Donahey looked toward me; he could not fall to be struck, I theunght, by something purposefully slighting, almost econ. temptuons, In Harriden's reference, but, though bis pencil made a quick, side notation, he did pot question me then, After a moment, Harriden continued, very deliberately, “1 sent the princess because | thought Mrs. Harriden might want a little attention from another wonian-~women siways keow what to do for a headache. The princess came down and told me she was not in her room.” I knew then why he had chosen to glve his testimony before all of us, re- fusing privacy. He wanted the Prin. cess Rancin! to hear what he had to say and be guided by It. “And that Is all you can tell us, Mr, Harrlden?” “That Is all I know.” “What was your surmise when she was first missing?” “lI didn't have any. might be walking off a headache, went out to look.” "You didn't see any reason to sum- mon the police — didn't fear she had been kidpaped?” Harriden growled, “No.” “You've no knowledge of any threat. ening letters she may have recelved, or any previous susplcious circum- stances?” Harriden grunted a negative. “Now what time was it when the Princess went to Mrs, Harriden's room?” “Just after dinner” “And what time was that? *Coulda't say.” “Oh, a little after nine-thirty,” Mr. Keller suggested, “After nine thirty,” he repeated, “And the deceased was last seen alive at eight o'clock—by Mr. Harriden and the mald Anson—possibly alive at eight forty-five, , Now one thing more, Harriden. How was the win. dow when you left the room at eight o'clock? Wass It open?” “Couldn't say,” Harriden told him. “Probably closed or I'd have felt a draft” “And when you came up from din- ner “Didn't notice any cold air” “It was the mald who found the window open, Mr. Donahey,” Mrs Kel- ler suddenly interjected, as if she could bear no more of this tedlous verifying of what we were all by now familiar with, but Donabey was not to he hurried, “I'm coming to the mald., . . First I'd like to hear what the Princess Rancinl has to say about the room.” He turned directly to the princess who was seated pow a little away from the table. “Was the window open when you went In after dinner?" “I think not” sald the princess. *I noticed nothing unusual. The room was simply ready for the night” “Where's this Miss Seton that was up In the room before you?" “I'm Miss Seton,” I sald, my heart knocking. “When did you go up to the room?” I told him, “Just after dinner. Just before the Princess Rancinl went™ “How did you happen to go? Friend of Mrs. Harriden's™ “I bad never met her,” 1 answered “I am a stranger bere,” and I went on to tell him why 1 had come and what my work waa “How'd you happen to go up? he asked me, There was no help for it; T bad to £0 on with the story I had told them before. Aside from my feeling of not betraying Deck—and that was strangely strong — I knew that he would hear my first story, sooner or later, and round upon me for untruth I sald, very slowly, “1 went, because I thought | knew what had happened. I thought Mrs. Harriden had a hurt check she wanted to hide and that I could help her cover it up. In my work I bad pigments and stalns with me.” “How did you know she bad a hurt cheek 7” “Because, from my window, before dressing for dinner, I saw some man in her room slap her. I can’t be sure it was she” I stumbled on, “but It was In her room, the first big win- dow at the north, on the front of the house, and I saw the figures of a man and a& woman there, against the light.” “You mean you saw a man hit her?” Harriden tried to intervene, “Look here, inspector—" but Donahey waved him away, his eyes steadily oa me, “He didn't exactly hit her” 1 sald. “He just slapped her. Then she went away from the window, and he seemed to follow and then one of them came and pulled the curtains across. Any- way I couldn't see any more” “And what time was that?” “Some time before dinner, seven-thirty—a little after.” ‘Who was the man?” “I don't know.” “You know what he looked like, don’t you? Big or little, tall or short? You say you saw him." “I saw the outline of a man” was all 1 could tell him. “There wasn't anything to compare him with until she came into sight and then I was so startled by what he did that 1 wasn't really attending to what he looked like” “Well, was he taller than she was or shorter?” “Why, I'd say taller, but I couldn't be sure,” 1 stammered. “Oh, you couldn't be sure!” His tone was distinctly fronical. "Seems to me, young lady,” he commented, “you haven't got a very good detecting eye, “A man might be a very good de tector of counterfeit notes,” I retort. ed, heartened by my anger at him, “and not be able to describe people glimpsed at a windowing silhouette, They were Just shadows against the —— How about this, Mr. Harel Harriden's look turned towards me, and | could feel the heuvy hatred ln § Thought she We About it, like a weight u blame him, seeker—or worse.” your rooms a thirty “Thereabouts, I dla.” room?” “That's it.” “When did you go to your wife's room?” “I told you. To see If she was ready.” “And you didn't hear anybody in the room before that?” Donahey consulted a rough drawing he had already made of the arrange- ment of the rooms. “Door shut be- tween your rooms?” Harriden appeared to reflect. was,” he said firmly. “And your dressing-room and bath were at the north end of her's, 1 see, Couldn't you have been there—and so not heard anything?’ “I was all over the place, dressing.” sald Harriden very positively, “and there wasn't anything to hear.” “We—ell," sald the inspector, con slderingly, with ag attempt at a sooth- Ing inflection, “we have to look Into it, anyhow, you know.” “You'd better spend your time,” ex- ploded Harriden, “in asking Alan Deck what he was doing when he left the dinner-table after I did. The mald saw him outside Mrs. Harriden's room." "All right,” sald Donahey, “Where's Mr. Deck?" Alan Deck's tall figure came forward. “When did you go up- stairs, Mr. Deck? Alan Deck answered slowly, “About nine o'clock or a little before, I'd say. I went to put In a call to my paper. I was outside Mrs. Harrlden's door.” went on Deck, In a drawling, almost amused volce, “because I went past to the picture gallery on the third floor after a handkerchief I'd left there before dinner.” “And Mrs, Harriden's door closed ™ “1 think so. All the doors along the hall were closed, I'm sure” “And you didn't go into the room?” “Mra, Harriden's room? sald Deck with that same half-amusement which grated so on my tense nerves. “No, Mr. Inspector, 1 did pot go into any room but my own. And the gallery.” “All right. Now let's have In the mald,” sald the Inspector. “She must have gone into the room, since It was all fixed up for the night" They didn’t have to walt long for Anson. In she soon came, the pretty, rosy<cheeked girl 1 bad seen before Donahey asked her a few preliminary questions, and she repeated what she had already told of her coming to the door at eight o'clock and Mr, Harri den's telling her not to disturb Mrs. Harriden, and of what the room had been ilke when she came to arrange it later, the bed mussed, as If some one had been on it without taking off the cov- ers, a comforter was disarranged and the window was wide open. She had closed and locked It “Any signs of a struggle? Donahey wanted to know and Anson looked quite shocked. "Oh, Do,” she sald primly. She could not fix the time of her en- try very positively but the room was her last, and she thought it was just before the end of dinner. “There hadn't been any nolse yet in the hall” she sald innocently, Then Harriden barked out a sudden Question at her. “What made you go in after I'd told you to keep out?” “It was her, I thought he might have been In, and right for me" “What we already knew. cated Alan Deck. she sald relucsantly. lery,” sald Deck briefly. he sald, dismissing her with a curt nod, before dinner.” savage bitterness. stant, were all you gentlemen about seven thirty 7" “The Prince Rancinl was in his apartment,” sald the princess haught. ily. “So was my husband” sald Mra touch of humor I'd seen in him. (TO BE CONTINUED) Longest City in World PATTERN 1153 Dark and light lilaes, tied with a flourish into the loveliest of floral sprays, Is far and awsy the nicest and easlest—flowery touch one can give a bedroom. Even an amateur will find the large spray easy to em- broider on a bedspread with four smaller sprays on the bolster, or scarf ends. The flowers are entirely formed of lazy-dalsy stitch and French knots, the leaves of blanket stitch——the rest is In outline. With cotton or rayon Hoss (he designs are seemingly done in no time, in shades of lllae, orchid, or palest yellow. Pattern 1152 comes to you with a transfer pattern of a motif 18 by 21 inches and two reverse motifs 4 by 034 Inches. Color suggestions; illus When making cinnamon toast cut bananas in thin slices, arrange on toast, sprinkle with sugar and ecin- namon and brown under the broller. * » % and will not run out, » * » half a Julce, clous drink, lemon and fill with A tablespoon of lemon juice added to the egg In which fish Is dipped be fore frying gives it a delicious flavor. - - ® Before polishing mahogany furan ture wash well with warm water and white soap and dry thoroughly. * * . Fruit julces and ginger ale may be frozen Into cubes In a mechanical refrigerator and used for iced drinks, * » * To remove mildew from a leather bag, rub with petroleum ointment and allow it to remain on bag until mildew comes off easly. - * * Rhubarb may be diced, put in cow ered baking pans, sprinkled with sugar and cooked in a moderate oven until done. Cooked in this way its color is retained, © Associated Newspapers. — WNU Service, trations of all stitches needed ; mate rial requirements. Send 15 cents in colns or stamps (coins preferred) to The Sewing Circle, Needlecraft Dept., 82 Eighth Ave., New York, N. Y. Write plainly pattern number, your name and ad- dress, The Restless Mind The restless mind of man cannot but press a principle to the real Him- it of its application, even though cen- turies should intervene between the premises and the conclusien.—ILid- don, psc 3 TT: EEL Eh hI —— Coleman is . unisaraiate | RO N All you have to dole turn & valve, strike ind 18 Hats instantly. You don’t have to inserts the inside the iron-—no burned y The Coleman bests in & jiffy: is quick! for use, Entire front ah 3 the hottest, M even for hry PE: PE-KO EDGE JAR RINGS KEEP EVERY BIT OF DELICIOUS FLAVOR LOCKED. IN ...AND THEIR IPS TAKE ALLT ORK OUT OF MAKING THE SEAL AND BREAKING THE SEAL KO: DON'T ACCEPT ANY- THING “JUST AS,.GOOD". GENUINE PEKO EDGE JAR RINGS ARE REALLY WORTH INSISTING ON! RUBBE UNITED STATES RUBBER COMPANY Balted Stim Budde Prodects, ne. GIRL MEASURE OIL VALUE After you drain and refill your crankcase, how far do you go before you have to add the first quart? If you don't know, it's worth checking. This simple test gives you the real measure of oil economy and of oil quality, too. Because the oil that stands up best between refills is giving your motor the best lubrication. Try the “First Quart” Test with Quaker State. See if you don't go farther than you ever did with any other
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers