Copyright by D. Appleton.
Century Co, Ine,
WNU Service
SYNOPSIS
Lella 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 Mrs. Keller sends up word, ask-
ing her to join the party at dinner.
Lella hastily dresses and goes down.
Bhe Is seated between Mr, Deck, a critic,
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 Harri.
den, Dan Harriden leaves the table,
and MfYchell 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 Leila to secretly take a 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-
cess reports the absence of Nora. Search
is fruitless, Harriden admits that he
had a row, and belleves she is spite-
fully hiding. Letty tells of seeing Leila
come from the room. Leila ac cuses 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
lying on her bed when he went to din-
ner, and when he ran up later the
room was dark. Thinking she was
asleep, he left without seeing her, Mrs
Keller comes upon & pool of blood in
the closet. A diamond chain Is miss-
Ing. Donahey, polices inspector, ques-
tions the guests. Harriden fails to re-
port the row he had with Nora, He
brands Leila's story of seeing a man
strike a woman a lie Anson, a maid,
tells of seeing Deck outside the Har-
riden door, Deck says he passed by
in seeking g lost handkerchief,
CHAPTER IV—Continued
—
“I don't know what time I came up
to hustle to dress. ™ Mitchell reported,
and Keller stated that he had gone
up before the time in question and
had been talking through the open
doors with his wife.
Donahey turned toward Alan Deck.
“You, Mr. Deck?™
Deck answered, “1 went up fairly
early to my room-—though I haven't
any wife to vouch for it.” His sone
was lightly mocking. “After 1 changed
I went to the picture gallery on the
third floor—by the south stairs.” he
mentioned. “My presence there Miss
Seton can certifs- to. We encountered
each other there ™
The inspector's gaze moved back to
me. “Appointment?”
“Accident,” I told him. “We had
never met each other before”
“What were yon doing there?
I reminded him that the pictures
were my business in the house. Alan
Deck said merely, “Time on my hands
—things to think out. Like a big
place to tramp about in"
Donahey made more of his little
notes. Then, as usual, he asked for
the exact time of this encounter and
listened wearily to our uncertainties
that finally decided it had been a lit-
tle before eight. “That's when 1 lost
my handkerchief,” sald Deck.
“Now let me get this straight,” sald
Donahey., “Your rooms are In the
south wing, second floor. Before din.
ner you went up to the gallery on the
second floor, using the stairs on your
side of the house. You met Miss Seton
there, accidentally. You lost your
handkerchief, During dinner you went
Up to call your paper, then you re
membered that you had lost your
handkerchief, probably In the gallery,
and you started out to find it. You
went along the hall that goes across
the length of the house, passing the
door of Mrs. Harriden's room."
“Among others,” interpolated Deck,
“Was that when the maid saw you?"
Deck reflected. “No—when I was
coming back from the gallery, She
was coming from the south, along the
hall toward me.”
"OK. The mald saw you and
thought you might have been coming
out of the room. That's it, lsn't it?
“That's It,” sald Deck In his non-
chalant volce. “I might Just have
stopped, wondering If it was worth
while to try that call again, I didn't
get it, the first time.”
Donahey finished his notes without
comment, then concentrated again up-
on me,
“Now then--about this thing at the
window now"
“Can't you forget that?” Harriden
demanded. “Why do you want to
waste your time"
“Now, now, Mr, Harriden, 1t may
lead to something, It may have been
some outside fellow, somebody who
came here to see her on the QT.
He"
Harriden made a surge forward and
IL thought the veins on his congested
face would burst. He looked almost
at the limit of his self control,
“Are you suggesting that my wife
had a clandestine visitor"
“Not the way you think at all” the
official returned with his unmoved de
tachment. “She might have owed him
money, gambling or something, or he
might have been blackmalling her.
Funny things like that happen. He
may have forced his way In, and she
didn't want to give him away, She
may have hid him In the closet and
faked a headache so they could talk
while you folks were eating. And then
he made a grab at her shiners and
they got to struggling, and he stabbed
her.”
Harriden cursed him for a fool. “Do
you think my wife was ever afraid of
a blackmaller?' he thundered. “Can't
you see this girl 1s just making this
up to get herself some sensational
limelight"
“Well, now, she hasn't any reason
for making It up, has she?”
Harriden gave me a sudden, strange
look,
“How do I know?" he sald wearily.
“I don’t know a damned thing about
her except that she's lying. She cooked
up this story to cover up her golng
into my wife's room.”
“Don't you think, Mr. Donahey,”
came Mrs. Crane's practical volce from
somewhere behind us, “that this in.
vestigation has gone far enough to-
night? It 1s well on into the morn-
ing”
Donahey conceded, “Something in
It, lady. There's guards around the
place and guards inside the house and
nobody is to stir out till we get
through with this.”
We had risen to go out when one
of the policemen came in, bringing a
young man in the livery of an under.
butler,
——————
CHAPTER V
rather a reedy looking
with a cadaverous face,
prominent cheek-bones and deep-set
eyes. He looked excited, and the po-
liceman with him was excited, as he
boomed along to the inspector, Don-
ahey took the affairs into his hands.
“My man says you've admitted know-
ing something. what's your
name?”
“Elkins,” said the man in a strained,
nervous voice,
“You work here?"
“Yes, sir, for three years. And 1
mean no disrespect to my employers
in speaking out about a guest. I un-
derstand my duty to tell any-
thing that I might know.”
“That's your duty,” sald Donahey
grimly, “What do you know?"
Elking was breathing quickly,
“People often forget that servants
can hear,” he said “They talk out
while we're passing things—it's em-
barrassing. 1 was Just behind that
Chinese screen In the lounge when
they were talking. I was taking glasses
off a table
“It was the violence of what was
being sald that caught me,” Elkins
went on. “Not like the ordinary run
of talk of the cocktail hour.”
Donahey only nodded encouragingly.
“But it was savage sounding, sir.
The lady was Mrs Harriden, She
had been drinking with the gentleman,
talking together for some time, And
then, when 1 was behind the screen,
I heard him say In quite a terrible
voice, though very low, ‘If you do,
you'll be the sorriest woman on God's
earth.”
“And what did she say?"
“I didn't catch that. I got the tone
of her voice — it was like she was
laughing sort of sassy." sald Elkins
with a slip into the colloquial. “And
the man said to what she sald, 1
warn you. And then he sald some
thing about lying, he sald, ‘Tq say
you lied ln your teeth, and she said
something again, that I didn't hear.
« « « Her words were all run together
like. And then he said, ‘God, if you
do!—1 warn you.' And then some.
body was asking for another shaker,
and I had to hurry across the room,
+» « And when I heard she was ly-
ing dead downstair-—well, I couldn't
say this had anything to do with it,
but when the officer began asking me
had 1 heard anything of thelr goings
on and was there any bad blood about,
why I'd have done less than my duty,
sir, If 1 had covered the facts.”
“Sure. You had to tell it” Dona.
hey sald evenly, “Now-—about this
fellow. Who was he? You haven't
told us that, yet”
“There, sir. That gentleman there.
Mr. Deck.”
Deck stood there, and his white face,
with his dark, bitter, defiant eyes, sent
a queer terror through me. He was
like a man In a pillory for all the
world to gape at,
And then my eyes went on, and
found the figure of Harriden. He had
stood there, back by the door, during
that time, listening. , . , And now he
looked at Deck.
Donahey’s head was thrusting out
on his thick neck like a turtles,
“Well, Mr. Deck?”
His silence agonized me. And then
he said, “lI don't remember,” and his
lips twitched in a mockery of a smile.
“You don't remember?”
“Not a word. I was quite tight be
fore dinner, . , , I haven't the fainte
est recollection of anything sald down.
stairs”
Donahey ground out, “Yet yon re
member that you went up early to
your room, you sald?”
“Oh, 1 remember that,” Deck sald
Jauntily. “I got to my room all right,”
he went on, “and the cold water re
vived me. But everything that went
on downstairs Is just a total Joss”
“Do you happen to remember,” sald
the inspector with terrible sarcasm,
“any reason why you could have said
the words you have no recollection of
saying to Mrs. Harriden?"
Deck was silent,
“What was between you? Donahey
shot cut.
“Friendship,” sald Deck,
He was
young man,
Now,
it's
I know that I felt I could not bear
to look at Hurriden, and yet I looked
CENTRE
at him and saw him standing, like a
man of stone, his grim, blunt profile
toward that younger man. The sheer
beauty of Deck seemed somehow in
solent and flaunting before that hus
band's haggard eyes, 1 felt a sharp
cleavage of sympathy . . . terror for
Deck and anguish for that bereft
man's palin,
It was the easing of a physical
straln when Harrlden turned and
walked out of the room.
I remember a dull surprise at find.
Ing It was only half-past two “when
I was In my room.
I was so spent emotionally that 1
was consclous of nothing but a crush-
Ing depression. There was no denying
the reality of Elkins’ high - strung
words,
And I had my own corroboration of
Deck's desperate message, Take no
steps.
For all my exhaustion I could not
sleep: my htoughts kept milling about
In confused conjecturing. Had Deck
been the man at the window—had he
followed her up to finish the quarrel
there?
It might have been Deck, 1 thought,
He might have slipped away when he
heard Harriden come in the next room
—she might have promised to meet
him as soon as possible in the gal
lery. Then she did not come. Per
haps her husband had stayed too long
in the room.
What was thelr quarrel about, I
wondered, my temples throbbing heavy
lly against the pillow. Was she threat
ening to leave him—was he mad with
Jealousy? The sorriest woman on God's
earth. . . . Had he gone up from din.
ner to carry out his wild threat?
Oh, no, no, no! Only to see her, to
plead with her. For he had sent me
up later to try to get word to her, to
urge her to take no steps. . . .
Oh, fool that I had been not to
speak out before! Then my story
might have carried conviction, but
now it would seem a lame invention
of mine to save him.
Or had his sending me on that er.
rand been merely a ruse on his part,
to make It appear that he still be
lieved her In her room, when all the
time he kpew that room was unten
anted and her poor body shrouded in
the shrubbery below?
I did not know what to belleve, My
mind went round and round In the
mazes of its doubt, . «. He had been
so long away from that table. . .
But that had been because he was
trying to reach her, my defensive
heart instantly declared. He had told
me that her room phone did not an-
swer—of course, he had gone to her
door and knocked — perhaps even
tried it
I wondered if he had peeped In and
found darkness and ghostly curtains
blowing In the wind. Or If he had
found the door locked-—locked by an
unknown assassin who was still Inside.
I determined to try to make Deck
confide in me, Since I salready knew
80 much, since I had proved stanch,
surely he would tell me the truth,
sut If his sending me had been a ruse
~-T My mind wearled from dil this
wondering. At last 1 slept,
I woke very suddenly. 1 woke to
the Instant impression that some one
was in my room. I lay there with my
REPORTER,
“People Often Forget That Serv.
ants Can Hear™
eyes shut, not daring to open them,
trying to feign sleep, feeling in every
nerve that something was there
something just within the door. There
had been some sound, some indefin-
able sound that had waked me,
Every Instant the feeling grew more
terrible; I knew then that fear could
be paralyzing, for I lay there literally
unable to move or speak, simply help-
less and terrified, waiting for some.
thing horrible to happen.
Then there was a creak at the door
and soft, muffied steps down the hall,
I knew I was not imagining those steps ;
I heard them, though my own thump-
ing heart beats sounded louder to
me. I suppose it was only a moment
or two, really, that I lay In the grip
of that helplessness, then motion and
sense came back to me, and I reached
out and managed to flasi
Then "I jumped up
door,
1 forced myself to look
the blackness of that hall, I saw noth.
ing. I heard nothing, I did not go ou
and look down the stairs; 1
back and shut and locked my
Should I eall some one on
phone? 1 moved toward it
tated, caught back by the fear
thing hysterical and panicky,
*
out down
easy for overwrought nerves to play
tricks and in my half-asleep condition
within my door. The steps, though,
had been real. But the steps could
easily be accounted for,
m
room was occupled,
I persuaded myself that this was so.
What else could it be? Confidence had
revived with the lighted room and |
chair by the door. My very excess of
other direction, for 1 did not phone.
It was not easy to get to sleep agaln
but I did, ultimately, and it was
streaming across the dark, polished
on the rose-red of the deep-cushioned
chalr, But no sun could lift the de.
pression of that past night or banish
the pletures moving before my eyes—
Nora Harriden's limp, gold-clad body
in her husband's arms . . that hus-
band's face, rigid, grief-smitten .
Deck’s defiant, high-held head and his
bitter, tormented eyes,
I must get fo Deck, I thought ex-
citedly, and hurried into a cold show-
er, wondering what was done about
breakfast in that house, I phoned the
question and was Informed that break-
fast would be up.
Coffee was my chief need, black
and hot, and 1 welcomed it all the
more since the mald who brought the
tray told me that the inspector would
like to see me as soon possible, |
took a last look at myself In the glass,
then went downstairs,
The halls were empty ; so, too, was
the big entrance hail, except for a po-
lHceman at the front door. in the
drawing-room Donahey was behind
his usual table, He nodded in response
to my good morning, then jerked his
bead toward a couple of young men
at & table at the far end of the room
and sent me to have my fingerprints
taken,
That was to be expected, | thought,
and certainly 1 had nothing to worry
about, except that I was rather Inter.
ested In the process of print taking,
for I knew something about the work,
80 1 fell Into chat with the two young
men. It was just a formality, they
said; there was nothing to be gained
from all this print taking unless they
g0t the print of some insider, for all
the household had been over the room.
“Except Deck,” said & heavy voice
beside us,
1 started, and found Harriden star.
ing down at us out of red-rimmed
eyes, man's face looked as if
years of hours had passed ;
he deep lines in it were accentuated
til they seemed like seams, and the
flesh was sparer and tighter over the
hard-angied bones.
“Deck wasn't in the room after the
murder—and don't you forget that”
he admonished grimly,
I was Impatient to see Deck. 1
thought of phoning to his room, then
I remembered that a policeman might
be listening In-—1 thought of getting
in touch with Monty Mitchell and
trusting him with a message. But Don.
ahey detained me then with more
questions, and I bad to go over what
I bad said before and tell him more
about myself and bow I happened
to be there at all. At the end he told
me I must appear at the inquest oun
Sunday morning.
I went out in the ball and wandered
about a little irresolutely, thinking
that If I kept out in sight | might en.
counter either Alan Deck or Monty
Mitchell without having to phone and
betray my eagerness to the officials.
AS a pretext for lingering 1 read the
papers over and over,
The headlines were sensational—
Society Beauty Murdered — and the
first pages were filled with stories of
Nora's life, and there was one account
of the famous yellow diamond chain
The pendant on it, it was stated, was
a flawless jewel which had been worn
on the turbans of a royal Turkish
family, for generations: the last hel:
had given It to Mrs. Harriden Instant.
ly upon her expression of admiratior
~a costly gesture which her husband
had paid for, later, by persistent losses
at cards. The chain, so the paper sald |
had been assembled by Mr. Harriden
to match the pendant.
My eyes raced through the accounts
of the guests: there was no reference
to Alan Deck except as "a favorite In
the Long Island set” No reporter, 1
was sure, had been able to get In the
house ; the papers had had to take the
facts that Donahey had given out, ang
the list of guests and do what they
could with their Imagination,
After the inquest, I supposed, Deck's
threats could no longer be kept se |
cret; the papers would make what
they could of that. Luckily he would |
have his own paper to give a favors. !
ble version. Bpt he would have to |
give an explanation of his words—and :
I hoped fervently that the night had |
brought him counsel and Inspiration, |
Restiessly I wondered where he was
keeping himself.
I began to think that all of the
guests were upstairs, gathered Int).
mately In the Kellers' private sitting.
room talking things over by them.
selves; I feit so alone in that house
that it was a comfort to see the Prince
Rancinl coming out from the long
lounge just behind this entrance hall,
He looked at me with the Latin's quick
interest in his big, brown eyes-a stal.
wart, handsome fellow, with white
teeth flashing In his brown face as he
smiled at me. I smiled back at him,
and he came up to me.
“A terrible business,” he sald, roll
Ing out his rs Very fervently 1
agreed,
(TO BE CONTINUED)
he
instead
No, 1859.8
isn't excited about the
milder width th
new
wider she at tends to
sienderize the waistline?
Note the nu
bodice lines the
, and kick
OF TEREST 10
TH HOUSEWIFE
skins
Wash
windy day.
clothesline
out chamois
and the wind will
the skins so they will be
CAD, one
rcasionally
When mulching perennials
The
using too
Fy munich
of
heavy a pur.
the mulch
‘a xl)
piants cool, not
is to
warm.
pose
- ee »
If this is done trays will not
and may be easily removed.
- . -
“ ad
pleats that contribute dash and ease,
The natty collar is just right to take
& pin, clip or posy. The frock is
quickly fashioned and costs so little
to make,
Barbara Bell Pattern No, 1880.8 in
avallable In sizes 14, 16, 18, 20; 40
and 42. Corresponding bust measure-
ments 32, 34, 36, 88, 40 and 42. Size
18 requires 4% yards of 29-inch ma-
terial. Send fifteen cents In coin for
the pattern,
The
taining
Summer Pattern Book con-
100 Jarbara wll well
planned, easy-to-make patterns is
ready. Send 15 cents in coln for
your copy.
Send your order to The Sewing
Circle Pattern Dept, 247 W, Forty-
third 8t., Néw York, N. Y.
© Bell Syndicate ~~-WNU Service.
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PE: IT CER.
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CANNING
RIGHT,
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ROOM AND PRIVATE BATH
$2.50 swmour $3.50 vows
* *
HOTEL sa ee
WOODSTOCK
TIMES SQUARE N.Y
SI TI EY
ally will keep it sweet.
a * *
served if a pinch of soda is added to
the water In which It is boiled
- - *
a beautiful garden flower.
from late July to October.
* - *
Those little tile tables which are
such a help in summer entertaining
ire now so reasonably priced that
You can easily indulge In two or
more. Those made of tiles dre es.
* »
Mushrooms added to brown gravy
served with a roast give it a de
licious flavor,
* . »
Coral beads may be cleaned by dis-
solving a teaspoonful of borax in a
pint of warm water, Dip the coral,
and when clean, put through tepid
water,
- . »
When making jam, if fruit is boiled
for about ten minutes before sugar is
added, less sugar will be used.
© Associated Newspapers. WNU Service,
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