UNC
CHAPTER XIV-—Continued
wf Ben
“But she saw my wife on the bed.
Jou've got her testimony to that!"
Harriden's volce had loudened; bel
ligerance rang out of It.
I glanced over at the bed. Mrs.
Harriden lay very small beneath that
sheet, “People see what they expect
to see,” I sald slowly. “Anson saw a
dummy made of a comforter arranged
on that bed. The room was dark-
ened; you let her have a glance
through the half open door, then you
elosed it and went down to dinner.”
No one spoke then. No one moved.
“But you kept worrying about that
Body In the closet. Perhaps you hadn't
taken the diamonds then — perhaps
you had, but you realized you hadn't
made it look enough like a robbery,
Bke an assault from outside, You
began seeing the situation. You
thought of opening the window. So
you went upstairs, halfway through
dinner, and when you were opening
the window, you realized you could
make it look like suicide. So yom
took your wife out of the closet and
thrust her out, down Into the shrub-
bery. Perhaps you had seen the blood
on the floor—"
I stopped. I had a queer feeling
that 1 was wrong. I said, “I think you
hadn't seem it—but you thought fit
wise to lock that closet tili you could
leok It over, later. You locked it and
rame down again to dinner”
I remembered how he had come
flown to dinner. I think we were all
remembering it, Coming down stol-
idly, quietly, saying his wife was still
sleeping. Going on with his meal
Talking to Letty Van Alstyn.
“You were thinking you could make
it seem either accident or sulcide and
after dioner you asked the princess
to go up—you talked of a row be
tween you, of her overwrought state
of mind, of her hysterical threats.
You created the impression of a neu-
rotic, Irresponsible woman, ready for
any rashness. . You didn't want
that closet opened. When Mrs Kaol-
ler had the housekeeper unlock It, you
were quick to enter. ‘You sald there
was nothing there. Then they found
the blood. You realized you had to
make it look like robbery”
My volce grew slower, raggeder. “1
don’t know when you picked up the
@lamonds—perhaps at the beginning
when you meant to make it seem the
work of an outside thief, After you
decided upon suicide you didn't speak
of their disappearance. But when you
saw It had to seem robbery, then you
thought of them again”
It seemed to me that I had been
Ralking forever in that world of shad-
ows. Not a word now out of Har.
viden. Not a sign from him except
that immobile attention.
“I don't know now why you pinned
what chain In my dress that night” 1
maid, and my volce shook over that
"You were furious at me because I
had told of the scene at the window
. but you were hating Alan Deck
even more-—
“Perhaps you saved out the big
pendant intentionally from the first
for him,” I said. “A man might have
hidden a single stone. Your
chance came when yon found his case
lying about. You stuffed the diamond
under the cigarettes, but you couldn't
get it back to him at once. You
couldn't leave It out for him to find
till all the outsiders were gone. Then
you saw that he found it”
I stopped suddenly, utterly spent. 1
was trembling from head to foot; my
blood felt like ice in my veins.
“Are we crazy — to lsten to this
pack of lies?” Harrlden demanded. His
brusk tone seemed to sweep AWARy my
words like a house of cards. “Dona-
hey—I want this girl arrested.”
I felt a terrible despair. No one
would believe, I had no shred of
proof. Nothing but that andiron—and
the blood on It could not speak. Nor
could the dead under the sheet
Mitchell's volce came suddenly,
“Not so fast, Harriden, . . . Dona-
hey, you've heard this story. 1 can
supply a few detalls. That handker-
chief was dried on the radiator In
Mr. Harriden's own bathroom.”
Harriden's volce rumbled out, “That's
another lie! You were listening to
that fool Anson.”
The name fell like a bolt upon me.
I had literally forgotten Anson In my
absorption in this first tragedy. Now
his words, and their implication, was
& shock galvanizing me to life again,
“No lie” Mitchell gave back and
his voice was clear-cut, authoritative
~-hils courtroom volce. “The rust spots
on that handkerchief correspond ex.
actly to the places where the paint
has been flecked off on that particu-
jar radiator—and on no other In the
Mouse. That evidence Is conclusive,”
Mitchell stepped forward, confront.
lng Harriden.
“The first death was accidental,
Dan. Pity you tried to camouflage 1t
~to incriminate others, , . . Anson
was murder.”
*Anson?" he growled. “I never saw
yes you did” 1 flung out.
she brought the fresh towels
Mary Hastings Bradley
Copyright by D. Appleton
Century Co, Ine,
WNU Service
arms full of towels, Lavender for
the prince's room, pink for these two.
She carried them all Into Rancinl's
room, and when she came out she had
forgotten the pink ones—she told me
she had to go back for them. I saw
her go in. . . Afterwards 1 went to
look for those towels. I thought—"
Apologetically my glance sought the
prince. He was standing there with
a stupefied air.
I murmured, “I thought that—that
If Anson had been killed there, at
that time, then the pink towels would
still be there. But they were not, and
the mald who had taken over the
room, on Anson's disappearance, sald
she had found none, So I knew that
Anson had taken her towels and
gone." I raised my eyes again to Har-
riden. “I knew the pink towels® were
for these rooms, So I asked the mald
to look In here—you were downstairs
then—and she did. She sald the fresh
towels were distributed in both bath-
rooms ‘but that Anson hadn't taken
away the soiled ones. I thought that
Anson might have been so nervous in
these rooms that she had hurried away
forgetfully, and gone, for some rea-
son, again Into the prince's room,
where she met her death, . . But
that wasn't so.
“Anson never left the room alive,
She began to talk to you about some-
thing she had to tell at the Inquest.
There was something on her mind, a
hankderchlef she had seen drying on
a radiator. » The corner was not torn
off—you didn't tear that off till you
came to pin the diamonds In it. She
knew she had to tell about it, but she
didn't want to, She told me that any
one might have washed out a hand.
kerchief. She tried to explain it to
you.”
Harrlden's eyes
ilghtning upon me.
“She told you about it. She may
have sald, too, that she couldn't swear
that Mrs. Harriden was on her bed
when she had looked In at eight. She
Was a very simple-minded girl, anx.
fous to be truthful. You lost your
head—you may have tried to bribe
her as you did me upstalirs—youn gave
your alarm away. And then yon
Jumped for her. Yon choked the life
out of her. You locked up and down
the hall. it was empty. You had only
a step or two to take to Rancinl's
door. You saw his room was empty.
It was a desperate chance but yon
had to take it. You got her In the
room, you thrust her In the closet
You wiped your prints off the door.
You went back to your room, and no
one saw you coming out, that—yon—
knew"
My volce trailed out the words an.
tomatically. It was the look In Kel
ler's eyes that prompted them, that
uneasy, worrying, disquietude., Tom
Keller knew something. Perhaps he
had seen Harriden leaving the room.
Perhaps he had seen him In the hall
I knew it with the strange wrought.
up divination that possessed me; 1
knew it so surely that T would have
cried It aloud but Mitchel] intervened
“You remembered to wipe the door
knob, Dan, but you forgot Deck's
taste In cigarettes. Luckles. When
you found his case there weren't but
two cigarettes in It, not enough to
hold a stone in place, so you crammed
it full of your own, making sure to
keep the diamond at the bottom.
That's where you slipped — nobody
here smokes Macedonias but you. The
case was full of Macedonias™
“And you call that evidence?” Har.
riden sneered. The man was gath.
ering his power again, full of deflant
challenge, “You've turned agalnst
your friends, have you, for the sake
of —*
“For the sake of a girl you tried to
blacken and a man you tried to hang
your own guilt on” Mitchell flashed
back, his eyes as full of war as Har.
riden’s.
“Evidence — you bet I'll make It
stick as evidence. You walted tin)
they were all around Deck, you
prompted Letty to ask Clancy for his
case, and Deck handed it over. Do
you think a jury will belleve a man
would do that If he had a dlamond
hidden in (t—a stone that would cost
his neck? . . . He'd have taken ont
some cigarettes and passed them back.
But Deck just handed It over. Just
like that. And Clancy gave it to Let
ty, and you whispered her to feel ft,
to tell Clancy to feel 1.”
He swung away from Harriden. He
spoke sharply to a white face. “Why
didn’t you ask Dan for a smoke? You
like his brand — you were smoking
them tonight. You'll have to testify
he prompted you.”
“Oh, Dan, Dan, it lan't so!® Letty
Van Alstyn's voice, overwrought,
breaking with hysterical strain, sobbed
out at him. “You dido't ask me to
Sp Anytiing.
ou shut up!” sald Harriden harsh-
ly. “Shut up and keep shut up, d'you
hear? Let them talk thelr heads off.
That's all there is to {t—talk.”
“No one will belleve it, Dan” she
cried half erying. “No one will blame
you for anything. We'll aM forget It
~you'll forget It. Nora wasn't worth
nn"
“Wasn't worth ft?" He gave a
dreadful glare at her, then strode to
were like sheet
CENTRE HALL, PA.
Then, for one unforgettable second,
it seemed as if the dead had moved,
and chill terror gripped us, but it was
the soft, dark halr stirring In the alr
from the withdrawn sheet,
“Not worth 1t?” the man thundered.
“She was worth the whole damned lot
of you! I'd rather have her little fin-
ger than any woman's body, If I
can't have her--"
His volce cracked, recovered. *I'll
never get over her. And I'll take this
out of the hide of every one of you.
Out of you, you Interloper,” be shot
at me, “looking In at windows, and
out of you,” and he thrust his mot-
tled face towards Deck, “runniug aft.
er another man's wife, writing your
damned rot to her beauty—"
He burst out. “She didn’t want you,
She was playing with you—trylng to
plague me. You couldn't have
held her for a week. . , . She was my
girl, mine! And you leave me with
her. Clear out, all of you. Leave me
alone with her while I've got her.
« » « Clear out. Clear out.”
CHAPTER XV
We went. Incomprehensible as It
may seem, that terrible, that extraor.
dinary scene ended with our stream.
Ing out of the room, like dismissed
children. We left Harriden alone with
his dead.
The world seemed to go to pleces
about me after that. I was as weak as
&a rag. The tears on my face were
tears of tiredness, Unseeingly I blun-
dered through the group at the head
of the stairs; I heard a volce.
“Miss Seton—" It was Donsahey.
He sald slowly, “About that and-
iron—how do you know—"
“The cat licked it. You can have
it tested, but I'm sure. You heard
him say, ‘If you know--that—you did
it”
“The cat—the cat put you on to It?
He stared at me again. “I'll have to
get that andiron,” he added glumily,
“at once”
I got away from them then. I went
downstairs where a knot of police.
men in a huddle told me that the ex-
cltement above had been having Its
repercussions here. 1 let them stare;
PE
YE. gh
at
fast ’
“What Do They Want Me For
Now
I walked through the glass doors un.
der the branching stairs, into the
lounge behind the hall and there I
curled up In a corner of a huge di
van and soaked a pillow very thor.
oughly with my tears.
I didn't hear any one coming till a
volce sald, “Here she 18.” and 1 looked
up to see Monty Mitchell and Alan
Deck standing beside me. 1 sat up
and brushed the hair out of my eyes
I said helplessly, “I haven't any pow.
der,” and Mitchell sald cheerfully,
“Neither have 1.” but Deck told me to
look In the drawer of a writing table,
and 1 went over to It. There was per.
fect field equipment In that drawer.
I needed It; 1 looked to myself as If
I had been left out in the rain a long
time,
“Keep your powder dry,” Deck ad
vised gally. “We never know when
the shooting may begin again” He
seemed In high spirits. :
“What do they want me for now"
I was beginning and he sald blithely,
“They don’t want you--we want you."
“What you want Is coffee” Monty
Mitchell cut In, “and wg'll have some
if any of the impeccable staff of this
establishment are about.” Briskly he
went to the wall and rang a bell dan-
gling In a tassel at the end of an old
embroidered P»
“Grant,” remarked, as that fune
tionary appeared, his white-vested per.
fection rebuking our everyday attire,
“Grant, is there any coffees to be had?”
“There will be, sir, In just ten min.
utes.”
reach even to his exhilaration.
ing accusation"
ters?”
kept 1t.”
“I'm glad.”
Harrlden's sake. Hard encugh to
had been thrown aside, repudiated.
But when I saw the case there, 1 op-
ened It to look for those letters for
you. He eaught me at it"
His arm which had been lying along
the top dropped about my shoulders
with a quick caress. “Yon darling 1”
I didn't feel like a darling. 1 didn't
know that I even wanted to be his
darling. His arm dropped so readily
about shoulders—it had about Letty
Van Alstyn when he wanted her to
coax Dan down from his room.
But his volce had taken on a new
gravity. “I've never met any one like
you, Lella Seton. I'd be a better man
If IT bad. You're all loyalty, all eour-
age, I told you you looked like a fair
saint when I met you In that gallery,
and I'm taking you as my saint. My
bright saint.”
Mitchell came out, carrying three
tumblers of amber liquid on a tray.
I saw his quick eyes taking us in, but
if his expression changed, his volce
was cheerfully unheeding. “Here you
are. Hot toddies. Sugar? Lemon?
“I'm telling her what a wonderful
girl she 18." sald Deck gaily,
Mitchell put the tray carefully on
a little table before the sofa and sat
down on the other side of me. “She's
a thorough fool of a girl, to trail into
that room after a eat—to open that case
for your letters—for I suppose that
she was looking for your letters?
Knowing all the time how grave the
evidence was against her. . , . A thor
ough - going fool,” he insisted firmly,
“but—an endearing one, I grant you
that”
I smiled over the top of my glass at
him. “Mercy, not justice, Your Honor i
“I hope you never have to say ‘Your
Honor,'™ he replied, soberly,
Deck leaned forward, across me,
“How do you think It stands, Monty?
You've just been talking with those
fellows. Is there enough of a case?”
“To hold him — yes. To make it
stick—no, Not unless something more
turns up. Unless he makes more of
an admission than he has done. . . .
Lella, here, just did a brilliant bit of
guesswork, it was overwhelming
when she poured It all out—and ft
fits. But how much of It ean be
proved"
He broke off, taking a drink. “About
that scene at the window,” he re
sumed. “Dan probably thinks Leila
Is prepared to swear to him now-—but
are you? he asked of me suddenly.
I shook my head, perplexed. “I can
Swear to myself that I know it is so
~but I couldn't swear to a court that
I recognized him.”
“But don't say that yet to Dona.
hey,” Monty counseled, “Our hope now
is for some admission.” , . . He went
ing on estimates about that gruesome
have taken to form.
was why 1 was a little unexcited
about Rancinl or Letty —1 couldn't
persuade myself that either of them
had had time enough for that Now
He sald, “That
bad just a little more time"
“Thanks for nothing” sald Deck
warily.
Grant came, bearing a silver tray
with coffee pot and cups. Behind him
was Graff with another tray of sand.
wiches,
“Splendid! sald Mitchell
ingly. “I'll pour the coffee,
gulf this cheese sandwich.
another girl already.”
“The bacon sandwiches will
ready In a moment, Mr, Mitchell”
That food was marvelous. The ba-
con sandwiches, when they came, were
crisp and appetizing. We all ate as if
we were famished, and under the stim-
ulus of food and drink the talk went
eagerly back and forth
Mitchell went on to tell what else
he had been working on-—the time it
took rust stains to form. The ra.
diator had not been rusted: there had
been tiny flecks in the paint on which
the linen had touched unstained met.
al; and for rust to form, In those
conditions, required more time than
the Interval in which Deck had ab-
sented himself from the table.
Leila, en.
You look
be
ahey all along,” he sald. “You couldn't
have left the handkerchief and re-
trieved It afterwards for you weren't
in Harriden's room afterwards. Only
on the threshold of Nora's. Your ab-
sence gave time for radiator marks
but not for rust. And Leila found
rust in her tests ™
Deck raised his coffee cup. “To
Lella~my salvation.”
“Oh, you aren't saved yet” sald
Mitchell drily.
if
§Es8
HEH
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STAR
DUST
Movie « Radio
2000 2 2 0 2 2 4
OE E. BROWN has been hav-
ing a grand time for himself
With his latest picture,
“Earthworm Tractor,” welcomed
by the public as one of the funni-
est he's ever made, he started off
on a vacation.
Being a rabid baseball fan, he
took in a few games when he
reached the East enroute to Eu
rope. In New York he went to a
double-header between the Yankees
and the St. Louis Browns, and pre
sented to that sensational new
Yankee outfielder, Joe DiMaggio,
the award for being the most valu-
able player in the Coast league in
1935.
fl —
William Powell has sold his or-
nate home with the gold door knobs
pler quarters. Those
rumors of a ro-
mance between him
and Jean Harlow
still persist — but
apparently every-
body who's unat-
tached wants to
marry him nowa-
days, and that
cludes girls who've
never even seen
him, except on the
screen. Incidental-
ly, Powell is re-
garded by actors everywhere as
one of the most skillful and talent-
ed members of the profession—a
tribute which is justly deserved.
en
Apparently nobody's happy any
more until they've seen Holly-
wood. Young John Jacob Astor and
his wife are the latest recruits of
note; they are on their way to the
film metropolis in a private car.
' =
Bob Burns (don't tell me you
haven't heard him and his bazooka
on the Bing Crosby broadcasts!)
is having honors heaped upon him.
He worked in “Rhythm on the
Range” with Bing, so the picture's
premiere was staged in Little Rock,
Ark., because Bob hails from the
Ozarks.
113-
a
William
Powell
lf
were the most popular quartette on
the air. From time to time one of
the sweet singers would drop out
and make a name for himself all
alone—Jimmy Melton was one who
did it, Frank Luther was another—
but somebody else would step in
and the result would still be swell
You don't hear so much about
them as you used to, but they're
still on the air, at 6:35 afternoons—
and they're still one of the best
oo
Cowboys have for years been
known as devoted fans when West-
ern pictures are shown, a fact
executive s0 much that he ques-
He
because the pictures were so much
“Oh, no, they ain't like our life
There'll be excitement on the alr
action at the same time as the
“Showboat” broadcasts. Nobody's
ers-in are
feurs, and others claim that
“Showboat” has been sailing too
dln
“San Francisco” is a grand pic-
ture, and is making money every-
where it's shown,
especially in San
Francisco. Yet the
Chamber of Com-
merce of that city
is still trying to get
Metro to take out
the earthquake
scenes! Very wise-
ly, Metro is refus-
ing — lots of people
ture especially to
see them. e pic- Clark
ture has added to apie
the popular Clark Gabie's following
and has demonstrated again that
he has a great deal of versatility
as an actor,
wil
oDDS, IND, NDS . ‘big Remember
“Baby 's a i
making comeback
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