HASTINGS BRADLEY Copyright by D. Appleton. Century Ce., Inc, WNU Service CHAPTER IX—Continued “Anson wasn't there. Hiding out Somewhere; reluctant to give testl- mony, I suppose.” I told Mitchell about my conversa- tion with her, and her words. “She sald that she'd be sorry enough to have to tell it. That any one might have washed out a han@ikerchief.” “But she didn't say where she saw it?” he sald quickly, and I sald she hadn't “Can't Anson be found?” 1 wanted to know, and he sald that of course she'd be found, He seemed to be thinking of some- thing else as he spoke. “Donahey was allowed to put in all he's got from her ~—about seeing Mrs, Harriden at eight and the probable time she did the room, and its condition then and about seeing Deck In the hall, . . . He'll give Anson hell, though, for evading the law.” Deck came in at last. rectly over to us. “Got a cigarette?” he asked casually of Mitchell, and Mitchell offered his case. I was to remember that after. wards. Then his eyes smiled down at me. “How do you like your first In- quest, Miss Seton?” “I don’t like it at all,” I told him. It seemed ages before the return of that jury. They came at last, filing self-consciously across the stately hall, The dining-room fell silent before their appearance, and even the turbu- lent hall was hushed as the foreman Stepped forward and began reading from a paper. In a very formal voice be intoned, “We, the jury, find that the deceased, Nora Harriden, eame to her death on the thirteenth of October, alneteen thirty-three, between eight and nine-thirty P. M. through shock and hemorrhage, caused by being hit on the head by a sharp Instrument held in the hand of person or persons un- known.” That was all. No names. No recom- mendation of holding any ome to the grand jury, Then Donahey rose. The rustlings that. had begun in the room ceased abruptly, so did the Jubilation In my heart. For he sald, “You have heard the finding of the coroner's Jury. That Jury is now dismissed. This case will remain in the hands of the inspector of police until further evidence war. rants calling In the district attorney of Queen's county, Pending Investiga- tion no witnesses will be allowed, with. out permission, to leave the premises.” He came dl- CHAPTER X Eventually every one quieted down, The sharp outbreak of protests dropped to more considering under. tones at that phrase, “without permis. sion.” 1 overheard the Watkins re. minding each other that they had meant to stay till Monday anyway, and presently Mrs. Crane's voice was audi ble to me, telling them that Dan was staying on too, that he planned to take his wife's body to the cemetery on Monday morning. He wanted only the simplest ceremony at the grave. She sald that she and the Kellers were go- ing with him. When the main hall had been cleared of all the outsiders the guests streamed out into It again. Behind us, in the dining-room, swift-footed efficiency was setting out the paraphernalia of an- other buffet luncheon. Every one reacted from the tensity: laughter kept breaking out, volces ran {ncautiously high, then, remembering, dropped to undertones that were still tively. I never felt lonelier in my life. 1 wanted some one to talk it over with, and I hadn't anybody ; Deck bad van- {shed Into the drawing-room and Mitchell, too, was nowhere to be seen, Then I heard Deck's voice, sharp as the crack of a whip. “Damn it all, Donahey, I told you myself that call hever went through. ... Am I to blame because the village telephone girl doesn’t happen to remember that | asked for a New York number 7" I could see the back of Deck's head: he was confronting Donahey over that table of notes, I saw Letty Van Al styn's brown head, tilted towards him, a little on one side. 1 saw Harriden standing behind her, caught a glimpse of his stony profile, : ¥y stated stolldly, “Bessie Am- ermann's got a very good memory, Mr. Deck. It seems queer to us that a man who goes away from a dinner table to put In a long distance call doesn’t walt to get It—that he goes on upstairs after a lost handkerchief,” I was watching Deck so closely that I saw Clancy the officer touch him, saying something, and Deck, without looking around, drew out a clgarette case from his pocket, the soft brown leather one I had seen before, and passed It back. Then he said, “Come, Mr. Inspector, don't pretend you your. self never got tired walting for a con nection aod went off after something else.” “Well"— mumbled Donahey. “Well?” challenged Deck. “Are we going on with this indefinitely? I'm telling you that I've got to be back on the job tomorrow or my paper will want you fellows to say why.” I didn’t notice what was happening until I saw the funny look on Clan- cy's face. He was holding the ciga- rette case In his hands and feeling it with slow, Investigating fingers. Then he pushed up beside Deck In front of the table, He was dumping out the contents of the case. I saw the cigarettes come out, one after the other, and then. with another shake, something else came rolling out. Instantly the heads closed over It; I couldn't see what was there. I heard Donahey say, “By God,” in an Incredulous volce and Clancy, “Will you look at that?" and then somebody cried sharply, “It's the diamond!" and Harlden pushed for ward, We were all pushing forward. Through the confusion Deck's volce came, sharp with anger. “I tell you I only picked the thing up again a few minutes ago—I left It about this morning.” I had reached Mitchell now. “Oh, that's true—don't you remember he asked you for a cigarette this morn. ing?™ I gasped. “Oh, do get in to them and tell them so!" “Steady on,” Mitchell was murmur ing. He put his hand over mine as it gripped his arm. Harriden's voice dominated the con- fusion. He stood over Deck lke a madman; he looked as if it was all he could do to keep his hands off him. “Nora's diamond!” he hurled at him. “The big pendant that was worth the lot. . . . So yon hid it out, eh? You dirty thief! You dirty killer! By God, we've got you — we've got you now I" And then Donahey, trying to make him. self heard, “Mr. Harriden, please" There was no stopping Harriden. All the hatred that had been working In the man, all the festering suspicion seething In him since Elkins’ report of Deck’s threatening words came out now, like pent-up gall. “You hound! You skunk! Chas. Ing after my wife, making her life mis- erable with your importunities. En- treating her to be ‘compassionate’—to take pity on your ‘love - sick sonl'! Soul I” He spat out a vile word “Begging to drown yourself In her eyes} , You'll be drowned In quicklime before I'm through with youl” And Deck, very straight and stif, “You're crazy, Harriden. A man can't resent insults from one In your con dition.” “Your condition 1s what will worry you—when they put you In handcuffs and lead you to the death cell—when they drag you, whining and pulling, to the electric chair!” And then Letty Van Alstyn falnted She dropped like a stone at Har riden’s feet, and he stood there. his fury checked, looking blankly down at her. The faint did not last long; the women kneeling by her were still asking for more alr, for water. for cushions. when I heard her volce say: Ing, rather weakly, but with complete control, "How-—silly! But I didn't eat —much breakfast. I've been feeling ~faint.” She got up very quickly: I saw Harriden go to her side and say some- thing; she gave him a quick upward glance, then moved away. As if he had forgotten Deck he went heavily after. I stood there, shaken through and through. 1 turned to Mitchell but he had left me: he was standing beside the table, picking up the abandoned cigarettes, The inspector was saying, his volce unemotional again “This will take some disproving, you know, Mr. Deck.” And the words sent the quick thought to me that the only way to disprove this about Deck was to prove some. thing else about some one else, I thought of Anson. If that hand. kerchief I was sure she had seen had been In Letty Van Alstyn's room! Letty had fainted. Perhaps she hadn't realized, until that moment. the consequences of throwing that suspi. clon upon Deck. Now, when she was still shaken was the time to confront her with that handkerchief evidence. . , . If only Anson could be found. . . . She must have come out of hiding by now, , , , I ran up the stairs: I took the left. hand branch, so as to pass along the main hall, looking for some maid to question, The door into the prince's room was open and looking in, T saw the mald who did my own room, busied about It. “Have you seen Anson yet?” I sald breathlessly, She stopped on her way to the clos- et with a pair of slippers In her hand. “We haven't seen her, Miss Seton. Not since that time you were talking with her this morning” ! moved away, thinking T had get. ter get hold of Mitchell, Then I heard the mald scream. 1 had never heard such blood-curdling shrieks in my life. Shriek after shriek. My legs stumbled under me as I ran back to her, She was backing hysterically away from the closet, her apron over her head, “What is it? What? She moaned, “Oh, In there — fin there!” and began shrieking again. I dashed to the closet; the door was wide and the light from the room fell Into It. Fell upon a pair of shoes, limp, black, low heeled shoes, lying on their sides out from under a man's heavy, furdined overcoat. Anson was In the closet, Slumped In a little beap. She was cold to my tovek, ‘ I did not scream. It seemed to me as if I could never make any sound again, but I did, over my shoulder, to the people crowding now In back of me, “She's dead,” I got out huskily, “An- son's dead.” CHAPTER XI Anson was dead, , , . Choked to death and thrust behind one of the prince's overcoats. Her pretty face was dark and terrible in congestion. She was rigid In death. She had been dead five or six hours they said. The police were already with us; very soon the medical examiner made his appearance, together with Dr. Olliphant, A dazed horror hung over the house. Anson -- dead. The second murder. The thing was inexplicable, “There's a maniac hiding in this house!” the princess declared In ex- citement. “I have felt it! Ecco—Miss Seton heard him in the night—in her room! A miracle she was not mur- dered In her very bed!” It was the first expression of be- llef in my story I had heard from the haughty princess. One of the strangest, most puz- zling things about it to me was that out of Anson's stiff, clenched hand the medical examiner had pried a bright brown crescent, set with glittering stones, Letty Van Alstyn's halr ornament. The broken thing she had thrown away and permitted Anson to Carry off—and then demanded back from her. It didn’t make sense. She couldn't have been murdered for its posses. sion, or the murderer would have tak. en it away. And why had she got it back from Miss Van Alstyn? We were a dreadfully shaken group of people, With drawn revolvers the police tramped through reom after room, peering behind doors, beneath beds, Investigating the basement, the store rooms, the laundries, the wine cel. lar. And there was not a trace of an Invader to be found In that great The Prince Was Most Self.-Possessed. house. There was not a clue except the brown crescent, and not a mark on the closet door except the prints of the maid who found the body. No one had seen Anson alive since the time that I bad talked with ber In the hall Donahey had us herded all togeth- er again in the drawing room, and he barked his questions at us with the manner of a thoroughly belligerent and bewildered man. “And just what time was that, Miss Seton?" he snapped. I hurried to give an approximation of the time. He summed up, “Well, you'd say it was a little before nine when you saw her? And you were the last person that saw her alive ™ “I think the Prince Rancinl was the last person,” I sald quickly, remem. bering. “She left me to go back to his room.” Donahey shot one of his gimlet glances up at Ranecinl, “How about that, prince? The prince was most self-possessed, most affable In his reply. “Miss Seton is mistaken—I left before the poor girl reentered. 1 passed through the apartment of my wife and whea 1 came out they were still talking In the hall™ “How about that, Miss Seton? He Says you were still talking together when he left the premises.” “Well, T didn't see him.” was all I could say, “They were very busy talking,” sald the prince with satisfaction, Donahey looked curiously at me. “What were you talking about?” “I was waiting to ask her about whether she had seen any handker- chief drying on Friday evening. 1 had noticed that she didn't volunteer things directly unless she was asked, and I hadn't heard that asked” “Couldn't you wait for the “After all the things sald about me here I think I bad a gate as much as | real murderer!” ‘He can keep his hands off me'"™ towards Rancinl, Rancinl smiled boldly back. pretty mald—" He shrugged. “Anything else? sald shortly to me, “A plain to the princess, and she sald that the mald was always wrong. Then she sald she'd have to go back for the towels she had forgotten. 1 asked her to walt, and we had the talk about the handkerchief.” “What'd she tell you?” “Not a thing. But I had the very definite Impression that she had some- thing on her mind. She said she'd tell but she didn't like to make trouble— ‘any one might have washed out a handkerchief.’ Then she went back into the room. And I don’t think she thought that Prince Rancin! had come out of It while we were talking,” 1 flung out, “for she looked awfully bothered at having to go In again.” My eyes encountered Donahey's cyn- lcally thoughtful face. I wondered If he was thinking the same thing as I was. Suppose Rancin! had been in the room when Anson returned—sup- pose he had grabbed her and she had started to scream? In his anger and panic he might have choked her and choked harder than he meant. He was a big fellow, jut ticking away, deep down In my mind, was the insistent thought that Anson had known something. Some- thing about a handkerchief drying on & radiator, Something that was si- lenced now forever. The prince had muttered, half an- gry, half soothing, “That {8 nonsense! There was nothing . . .* “All right, prince,” Donahey agreed. “The girl goes back to your room but you aren't there——that's your story, and you stick to it jut now some time after that, any time in the next hour or so, somebody In that room got hold of her and choked her to death. Now where was everybody for that next hour?" It was hard to discover where ev. ery one had been during that hour for they had moved about so much. Ran. cinl sald he had gone downstairs for & time, then up to the Kellers' sit- ting-room on the second floor where he and his wife had walted with the Kellers and Mrs. Crane for the sum- mons to the inquest, The only ones who declared they had stayed definite. ly In their own rooms during the en. tire time were Alan Deck, Harriden and myself. Harriden stated he had been either in his own room or In his wife's room the entire morning, and that he had heard no disturbance of any kind in the Rancinl apartment. “And If I had, I wouldn't have cared !™ Deck sald he had been In his room, but that he had no proof of It. 1 could offer no proof, either, that 1 bad stayed In my room, after the time the maid had gone to deliver my two notes. I had a bad time over those notes. The one to Mitchell was easily ex. plained, but when I admitted that 1 kad written to Alan Deck asking him to come to see me I saw a gleam In Donahey's eyes. “Well, now, Miss Seton, why did You want to see him?" “It was pretty lomely, walting for that Inquest. And since Mr. Harri. den had linked us In his accusations, I felt we had a Jot to talk over” Then he sald to Deck, “You didn't come up this morning. though? “Didn't get the letter till too late. The maid had left it for me on the ta. ble, and 1 didn’t see it In time, “Left 1t Ilying—1 thought you were in your room all that time?” Deck hesitated. Then he sald light. ly, “Practically all. There were a few minttes when I popped into Mitchell's room to get some cigarettes” So It all went on. There was noth. ing else brought out that seemed to matter. At the last the inspector con. centrated on the subject of Deck's cigarette case. when he thought he had lost It, again—Iin the ball, Deck sald, on one of the tables, he couldn't remember exactly where—and then, very sud denly, as If his mind were making it self up, Donahey told the rest of us we were excused and retalned Deck for a more private Investigation Even Mitchell didn't sit In on that He walked out beside me, looking very grave, “Tea, Leila? They were serving tea, The Octo. tains and lighting the lamps. It butlers should be Elkins, Elkins, his unrevealingly, private grief. us tea. Mitchell and I took it in silence; he was preoccupied, and I know I felt in. expressibly forlorn. Oh, If I had only ed by the lost opportunity, by the vi- sion of Anson as I had first seen her down the ball, so pretty in her blac! and white, her arms Ia with those gay colored towels, I t crazily “Colors for each room, room death,” for it was to the rose and to the orchid room t death come, and then something in my mi brought me up short. If 1 could find out—if I were too late I turned what must have a pale and excited face on In beside me. “Oh, walt a moment sald incoherently. “I want to find ou something" I literally ran towards the stairs (TO BE CONTINUED) 20 2 0000 | STAR DUST Movie + Radio %%% By VIRGINIA VALE ETE SMITH of Metro-Gold- wyn-Mayer, who's made 2 name for himself with his short subjects, bought a film made by an amateur on sixteen millimeter film, remade it on thirty-five mil- 2 2 0 6 0 0k 2 00 2 00 3% well that he is putting on a nation wide contest for such subjects. Theater executives and repre sentatives of film-selling companies all over the country will send the best films submitted to them by amateur movie makers to Mr Smith, and he'll pick the winners PEG George Arliss is busy in England making “East Meets West,” anc his brother, Frec H. Andrews, is equally busy at the same studio. He is advising the producers on Orien- tal matters connect ed with the picture It comes easily him because he used to be curator of the Lahore mu seum. The veteran English character star continues to be a favorite with American movie goers. His pictures have invari ably been interesting and the movie public is looking forward to his version of “East Meets West.” i — Imagine the feelings of one of our foremost movie stars when, as she motored through a small city recently, she saw one of her latest and best pictures advertised on the marquee of a theater—along with another feature, the Louis-Schmel ing fight pictures, and the $550 that was the evening's Bank Night award. “At least,” said she when she'd recovered, ‘“‘they weren't offering people dishes as an inducement to come in and see my film!" nfl Football fans are going to flock to movie theaters when RKO's “The Big Game” is released. Bob by Wilson, All-American quarter. back from Southern Methodist uni- versity, has just been signed for it, and along with him will appear five more star football players, all members of Stanford university's championship eleven of last fall They are Monk Moscrip, Bones Hamilton, Keith Topping and Frank Alustiza. George Arliss all ne Ruth Chatterton loves to fiy her own plane, and does it very capa- bly. But she's been asked not to £9 up in her plane while she's working in Dodsworth’ : valuable property can't be risked, you see. So she went for a whirlwind trip on a motorcycle the other night, and the company had the jitters all over again shen word of it came out. First thing she knows, she'll be requested to do all her riding, if any, in a wheel chair. lf If you are among the many who never fail to tune in on Colonel wondered why they omitted Bopp, one of the most amusing characters on their broadcasts, the first time they substituted for the vacationing Fred Allen. The Colonel had his tonsils out a few days before the broadcast. And he plays Mr. Bopp, which is very hard on the voice. sil cc Mr. Allah’ till Marlene Dietrich came along and got the role. Merle was up- set, and decided to The matter was settled out of court very nicely. Miss Oberon received $10,000 in addition to the $12,000 which she got before she lost the par. And Merle Oberon “It Happened in Holly- $60,000. Not so bad. a Bette Davis has been having her difficulty, and, after she failed to in “God's Country and the Woman" GETTING SOMEWHERE The two tramps were stretched out on the green grass. Above them was the warm sun, beside them was a babbling brook. It was a quiet, restful, peaceful scene. “Boy,” mused the first tramp contentedly, “right now I wouldn't change places with a guy who owns a million bucks!" “How about five million?” asked his companion. “Not even for five drowsed the first tramp. “Well,” persisted his pal, “how about ten million bucks?”’ The first tramp sat up. “That's different,” he admitted. “Now you're talking real dough!” —Mark Hellinger in the New York American. million,” “This boy you graduated is a good advertisement for you, profes- sur.” “How so?" “He acts like he knows every- thing in the world.” The Start A surgeon, an architect and a politician were arguing as tc whose profession was the coldest. Said the surgeon: “Eve was made from Adam's rib, and that surely was a surgical operation.” “Maybe,”” said the architect, “but prior to that, order was cre- ated out of chaos, and that was an architectural job.” “But,” interrupted the politician, “somebody created the chaos first!” Please Move On The meek little man approached the policeman on the street cor- ner, “Excuse me, constable,” he said, “but I've been waiting for my wife for over half an hour. Would you be kind enough to order me to move on?”’—London Tit-Bits Maga- zine. Nothing to Stop It? Mother—Everything 1 say to you goes in one ear and out the other. Betty (innocently)-—Is that why I have two ears, Mummy? A Human Zero “How's that widower you mar- ried turning out as a husband?” the former widow was asked. “A pain in the neck,” she sighed, “the poor fish was so cowed by his first wife there even isn't any pleasure fussing with him." —Cin- cinnati Enquirer. ALL SETTLED J TE a - A Ceti he “Have you decided where you're “Yep! I'm going to whatever place my wife selects.” While Rome Burned Nero had just completed his his- toric solo. “There's no use of trying to up- lift the public,” he said. “Think of a crowd that would rather run to look at a fire than hear me play the violin!" Mental Atti‘ude “I wouldn't marry the best man on earth,” said the irate young “And if you did,” said Miss Cay- enne, “you'd never believe it." Needed More “I'm afraid to
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