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