HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1926-10-20, Page 77 BRUSSELS POST
eto
The Red II,
(Copyright)
+vg,ititfe;f".
by MARY ROBERTS RINI?,HART
1:44,‘.104t,,v qt.4,10,1, 40t...k.,401/P
e Voss
the law books which WM to occupy
Halliday's leisuve this summer, ailed
which so far seem to be used chief-
ly .to hold open -his doors on windy
days—the old sea -chest containto
date the four clues which aro our
6010 ammunition in the putative ex-
pedition against Greenough. They
are:
(a) Half of a broken lege Trona a
;air of eye -glasses.
(b) A scrap of paper, eontaining
n cryptic hie of typing in large and
small letters,
(c) The email rap of an other can,
(d) A fragment of white cloth.
Had it not been for Halliday's un-
wittingly placing a weapon in the
enemy's hands we should also have
had:
(e) A very sharp knife, with a
phdri wooden handle and a blade cm
--
proximately six inches long.
August let.
I am now convinced that any at-
tempt to solve these crimesby the
discovery of an underlying .motive is
a mistake. Nor will Greenough's
study of psychology help him here,
-antess he is expert in its psychopathic
developments..
One cannot piece together into a
.rational whole the fragmentary im-
pulses of a lunatic
An incendiary fire was started
be-
noath the boat -house last night, OT
rather: toward morning. An assort-
ment of what was apparently oil -
soaked waste was placed in oneof
the pails front the sloop, and a candle
lighted and pieced in it. Over this
was laid such lumber as was left
from the repair of thepier.
Had Halliday been asleep the en-
tire building might have burned. As
it happened, Ile haul beee in the
woods near whore we found the boat
on a chance that its proprietor might
pay it a .visit. He discovered the
Are from some distance and by hard
running, reached it in time to extin-
guish it.
He notified Greenough early this
morning, but that gentleman was ex-
tremely noncommittal. H sto-od
with his hands in his pockets, kick-
ing over the ashes of the fire.
"What's the big idea, Halli-
day?" be inquired.
"I don't get that," said Halliday
belligerently.
"Don't you?" said Greenough, and
after kicking the ashes once more,
took an unruffled departure.
The best we can make of that is
that the detective believes the whole
thing a clumsy but concerted plan,
on Halliday's part and mine; that we
have endeavored to show that, al-
though his watchers would be table to
e teitify that I had not left the house
last night, the unknown is still at
work.
Nor can I entirely blame him for
that. Whovever built the fire knew
that Halliday was out at the time.
But Halliday could not so state with-
out betraying his knowledge of the
boat, a matter he wishes to keep to
himself as long as possible.
Small wonder thatethe detctive, es-
timating from its charred rethains
the amount of lumber heaped over
the. flame, was sceptical.
"You are a good sleeper, Mr. Hal-
liday!" he observed
A new month begins to -day, and
like ?mays, it behooves OIS to take
stock of myself. In spite of any best
endeavors, some of neSc anxiety has
crept into this record during the last
month; and not always anyiety for
myself. Alone,. I could take off my
coat and fight this thing out, but I
am handicapped by Edith and:Jane. ,
Edith will not go and leave Halli-
day; Jane will not consider abandon-
ing me here, although she has no ideal
of the true situation.
"If you want to go back to town,"
the Says, "I'11 go, too, of eeuree.
But 11 you are talking about staying
here alone for some silly reason, I
Letterheads
Envelopes
Billheads
And all kinds of Business
Stationery printed at The
Post Publishing House.
Wee will do a job that will
do credit to your business.
Look over your etoek of
Office Stationery and if it
requires replenishing call
us by telephone 31.
The Pod Publishing Noose
I won't even consider it. You woub
n't have S. clean shirt after the first
week,"
But even if T felt that no action
Ne01.11il hO preeipit;aell by th
in cnse of such e move, I have a re-
sponsibility I rennet evade. The re-
sponsibility to my tenant.
I have, by a reduced rent and an
!diming advertisement, brought here
in elderly paralytic and his young
eeeretary. And, evade the issue as
I may, the fact remains that the last
two acts of violence have been on
my property. From the beginning,
indeed, the moat -casual survey of the
dtuation shows me that Twill Hollows
has boon a sort of focal point. It
was on this property that Nylie eaW
'he sheep-killor hunt • sanctuary; not
on it, but adjacent to it, is still bid-
den •the boat, and it was .'ram my
mem float that he first eecamed from
Carroway and later killed him; it
was even very possibly his flashlight
that Halliday saw, the night of his
arrival when, finding :the boathouse
occupied, he eyorked his way through
the salt marsh toward 'the sea.
More recently the radius of his ac-
tivity has been narrowed to the pro-
perty itself. The secretary sees him
outside a window; he enter- the house
and attacks him from within, And
it few days later, possibly having
overseen Halliday's discovery of his
boat, he attempts to drive him away
by setting fire to the boat -house.
I am 'tempted to ask Mr. Bethel to
cancel his lease; to return hint his
money, entire, and relieve me of re-
sponsibility.
Whatwould he say, 1 wonder
Aug.uet 2nd.
T. write and read and now and
then make a fugitive excursion int6
Jane's roam, from behind her cur-
tains to watch my watcher at work.
In apite of himself he has achieved
something, and will doublitless go
back to the city somewhat the bet-
ter for an unexpectedly athletic sum-
mer. es
" I have been reading Mrs. Living -
stone's books, and a pretty lot of non-
sense I find them. If there is any-
thing in this question of survival,
surely we cannot expect to fied it
in physical phenomena. Why not
better accept that the nervous force
which actuates the body may, in cer-
tain individuals, extend beyoed the
periphery of that body?
Nevertheless, it is as well that
brought away from th.e other house
the bok I found theee an the desk,
on "Eugenia Riggs and the Oakville
Phenomena." It is no reading for
Mr. Bethel, under the circumstances.
One finds, for instance, that the
small panelled moth which we call
the den was used .For her seances,
That panelling in itsel 1 sounds sus-
picious. But stop! It was not pan-
elled at that time; 1 recall when poor
old Horace found that oak panelling
and gleefully installed it in What had
been the old kitchen of the original
farm house.
An investigation, made jus; now,
has supplemented my- memory. The
photograph (Note: Plate I, "Eugenia
Riggs and the Oakville Phenomena")
shows a plastered wall, and one or
two crude water colors on it. Pos-
sibly the spirit paintings of the text.
ft also shows that the cabinet, so
called, was not a cabinet at all, but
a dark curtain on a heavy pole,
which extends acros a blatik corner.
In the picture these curtains are
thrown beet:, showing a small etand
Oh which are the stage properties .of
"George," a bell, a pan Of something,
a glass; and a small blench of flowers,
On the floor ready for his ghostly
hand, is a guitar. The wall is cer-
tainly plastered.
An inset shows the pan, set on its
edge to allow photography, and with
the title: •"Imprint of hand' in putty,
Notice litck of usual whorls and rid-
ges," But in spiteof this rather
militant caption, I, Orit.1 1 am unims
Pressed. Rather am I wondering
whether somewhere in th.e back-
ground there was not a Mr. Riggs,
with a short broad thumb and a bent
little finger; who was not ignorant of
the lack of the usual whorls and rid-
ges itt a pair of rubber gloves.
But it is no book for Mr, Bethel
Mrs. Rigg meets Markowitz on his
own ground ancl fairly beats hitn.
True, he produces a broad face end
an arm which comes through the soil-
ed stuff of the curtain. But ehe
does that, and more; she shows, un-
der very dint red light—end anyone
Who has tried to see by it•knoWs hew
negligible that is—hands which may
be touched and held.
"The hand," nye one witness,
"came out from the eabinet and ad-
vanced toward inc. r oolc1 soo rio
beelye bait the billowing' ofthe cur -
lath indieeted gene Unearthly prele
once behind
to touch it an
provided I did ,
then took the ]'am:. ' for e
perceptible moment; e nen V seemed
to dissolve away and slip from my
7a(:il)c.,"may be sure It dissolved away!
And that ue speedily as poseiblo,
lut, coneldering that plastered
wail, the entire evidence in the book,
,mthered together, forms a emnrisingi
whole. One mist take off one's hat
is, the Riggs family, provided tlwre
Were two of them, or to whomsoever
assisted the lady, Especially selee
the windows were "shuttered and
bolted, and small strings of bells,
which would ring at the slightest
touch, were hung across them."
One does not wonder, since Annie
Cochran probably had access to the
book, that she found her tea -kettle
moved about, and had her bed cloth-
ing shainelessly taken from her.
August ard.
Halliday, who is an early riser,
burst in on us this morning at the
breakfast table, fairly bristling with
exci temente
"Good morning, everybody!" he
sang out. "And how about a picnic.
to -day? Ginger ale and fried chick-
en, 1 to provide the ginger ale?"
"Sit down, mans'and pull yourself
together," Edith said, eyeing.
"Willie, fetch the aromatic, spirits of
ammonia. He will be all right pres-
en 11'
ee'"What do I receive for a piece of
very • cheering news?" he demanded.
"Who's to judge whether it's cheer-
ing or npt?"
"Well, I leave it to all ef you," he
said. "Greenough's gone. Beuchley
came over yesterday and threw him
off the case. At least, that's what
they say at the.post-office. Thirteen
days he's been fooling around, and
he couldn't get over the hump."
"If only he had stayed a little
longer," Edith said regretfully, "and
somebody had killed him! It's rot-
ten had luck, that's all."
The conversation had little or no
meaning for Jane. She was, I could
ser, puzzled by our excitement and
unable to understand -our relief.
"Surely they have left .somebody,"
she said. "We ought not to be Het
without protection. Who knows when
something will break out again, and
then where are we?"
"Where indeed?" said Halliday,
and he and Edith two-stepepd into
the living. roorn where Edith sat down
at the organ and played execrably
a few bars of "Shall We dathcir at
the River?"
"Latest song bit," she called.
"Words and music here, twenty-five
cents."
"I think you are all a trifle mad,"
Jane said, and went out to do her
morning ordering
The move is a totally unexpected
one. Yesterday, as Halliday said,
the Sheriff came over to the hotel
and was closeted for .an hour or two
with Greenough. A bell boy reports
that,: on carrying some cracked ice
to the room, he found Greenough sit-
ting morosely by a table, and Bench -
ley at the windowestaring out. Half
an hour later the Sheriff left, pase-
Mg out of the hotel without so much
as a. nod to anyone, and within the
hour Greenoughwas paying his bill
in the lobby and ordering a car to
take him to the train.
Our own relief is enormoue, but
there is much grumbling among the
summer folk as web as the natives.
Starr is the usual variety of small-
town constable, and it seems extra-
ordinary that the case should be left
in his care. It is of course possible
that another man is to be sent in
Ggeenough's place, but if so we have
110 inti.mation of it ,
Later: Incredible, the rapidity
with which news circulates here.
Thes immediate result of Greenough's
departure has beee rather to revive
the interest in the situation than
otherwiee. I dare say as long as the
poli -co were on the case the people
more or less lay back and depended
on them; now they are thrown onee
more onto their own resourcee, land
a variety of opinions and eyen of:
cities are .being exchanged at that
central Clearing house, the post -office.
Thus:
This morning the cows of a man
-named Vaughan were feeme huddled •
in, a corner of the field, giving every
evidence of having been run to death
during the night.
(To the -common sense saggestion
of a dog being the culprit, pitying
glances.)
A atranger three days ago tried to
buy a large knife in the hardwaxe
store,
(Later shown to he .the
Livitsg-
stono's new butler seeking a earving
knife.)
The wend keeper at the light-
house has resigned,. dvlaring, the
tower is haunted.
' (This is bus, so far as the resigna-
tion .goes He has, it •appcars, ask-.
ed to be transferred. But Ward •
says •there.bas been no repetition of
the strange affair the night of the .
atm%)
WEDNESDAY, OCT, 20, 1924.
1.4...4.•+•+41+•+41400r++.+•44+.4.
•
•
•
t Highest market prices
4.• 4.
paid.
• see ruP or Phoma No, ee, wee_
• sets, aml 1 win ami get .41
• 3 ou Helm
0
I AC Y flick ;
E PJ •
s
VVANT E D
•••••••,..
A car driven. recklessly and with-
out lights has been seen twice near
the Hillburn Road, both times after
midnight.
(There seems a certain authentic-
ity in this; the car, however, shows
its lights until fairly clue .to another
cer, when it shuts them off entirely.
There may be, of course, some defect
in the dimmers.) . . . .
My own relief is beyond words.
Looking in My shaving mirror to -day,
I .am startled at the change in me
the last few weeks. The Lears are
coming out to dinner to -night. More
power to them.
August 4th.
The party last night was a great
success. Lear had brought me out a
,bottle of claret, and with candles on
the table .and six wine glasses, hastily
borrowed from Annie Cochran c.t the
main house, we took on quits a fes-
tive air. Lear looked a trifle puzzled
when, at Edith's suggestion, she, Hal-
liday and myself, drank to "the ab-
sent one." But otherwise all was
well.
We divided after the meal, Jane
and Helena to talk, Edith and Halli-
day for the boat -house and a canoe,
and Lear and I to pace the drive
with our cigars.
Lear's quiet face and emmeal de-
pendability, and perhaps the need of
a fresh mind on the conditions here,
impelled sem to tell my story, to which
he listened without intemption.
His opinion is that we have to do
with a homicidal maniac, and that
the sheep-kill.ng was: preliminary to
the rest, "a propitiation," he puts it.
."Of course, I am no psychiatrist,'
he said, "but what other explanation
have you?"
"None at all," I admitted. "Of
course, i.f I'meant to commit it series
of crimes, I might find it useful to
estabfish my insanity first. I doubt
if any jury, once convinced that the
murderer and the sheep -killer are the
same, would doubt his essential lun-
acy." .
"On the other band," Leas' said,
in his cold academic voice, "the matt
who sets out to commit such a series
of crimes as this is unbalanced. He
doesn't have to kill sheep to make a
Plea of that sort. He may present
an entirely rational face to the world
but something has slipped, you can
depend on it"
The supernatural angle of the caso
he put aside with a gesture.
"I won't even argue it," he said.
"There May be something to it;
not denying that. But it's not stuff
to be meddled with; when the Lord
means to open that veil he will de it.
And I am no peeping Tom."
He said further that 'Helena has
taken up the ouija board, and sits for
hours "with anyone she can entrap,"
getting absurd messages which sound
well and mean nothing.
"In your place," he said, "I would
forget it. If you get really to the
point where you think you have
something, send for Cameron and let
him 01. look into it, But keep out of
it yourself, ,Porter, It'e bad medi-
e..
took them to :the eleven o'clock
train, and have only just returned.
But I think it would amuse Lear, in
spite of his hands-off attitude, to
know that as I drove Into the garago
and shut off the lights and ehe engine
in tho very act of getting out of the
ear I heard once more that peculiar
dry cough, the faint slow footfall,
aed smelled again that curious. herbal
.odor which I shall, all the days of
my life, associate with shy Uncle Her-
ctee.
So unexpected was it, cemint on
top of the happiest evening,. of the
summer, that I stood for is moment
immovable. Then I leaped .From the
garage out into the moonlight, and
there confronted young Gordon,
standing outside and quietly smoking,
"Hello e, I satd, when: I could
speak. "Out again, 1see,"
"Yee, net place gels my goat,"
Ii e tolled. "T. guess I'm jumpy,
since 'the other night."
He looked badly, and I aeleed him
if he cared to sit down before Aerie
ing back. But he refused.
"IT get 11c1.1 if lie finds I've haft
the house," he said elegantly.
I turned end walked back with hlm
towaed the house, and seeing him
secretly amused About something,
asked hien what it Waa, whereupon he
said that he was thinking of tlee way
had shot .out Of th garage.
"Put something over on you there,
didn't I?"
"You startled me. What do you
mean?"
"I guess you know," he said, with
his side -long glance. "That cough."
"You alleale, the light -house story?"
"No, I don't mean the lioln-heuse."
he Said, and turning abruptly, struck
lir through the trees.
I eau take fron, ti,isus muell or as
little as I will. Is it possible Clef Ger
don has heard the eee ,.': in the Imam
end asseeiates with 11;. other eounds
of which he has complained to Annie
hran? Or has he merely been
told of it, and with hie porverted idea
of humor, been deliberately alarming
me with it?
If I ant to believe my roe ant read-
ing, -according totradition the di-
es'rnate frequently do, after death,
the things they cl:d most fre.qu.antly
in life; your huntee returns on horse -
beck, and is seen alone on country
reads; ladies of a eel ent time whe
lighted themselves 70 hS(I wt11t ear:-
111(as seem to go on perennially ret1r-
ing to God knows what unearthly
fainteh, with the samo everlasting can -
:Ile in their him&
But to record, in ail sorioueness,
ths possibility that they carry with
them, without the flesh, tho weaknes-
ses of that flesh, is beyond my power
of credulity.
August 1t15.
I returned the wine glasses to An-
nie .Cochran this morning, and as a
result have been attempting to rec-
oncile what she says with the faets
as we know them
Annie Cochran declares that young
Gordon has been in the habit of slip -
Ping out of the ouse at night; that
he comemnced to do it shortly after
his arrival, and has dona it ever
eine° ; that, indeed, he' was not:. eit-
ting on the kitchen steps before he /
was attacked, but had been out in
the car, and was trying to get back
into the house.
She also believes that Mr. Bethel
suspects it, and has been on the alert
especially since the night of the at-
tack..
"There's been bad blood between
them, over since that night," ' she I
said. • "They talk a bit when I'm in
the dining room, but once I'm out of ,
She also suspects Mr. Bethel of ;
it, they're as glum as oysters."
/ being afraid of Gordon. On the
nights when she assistedhim upstairs
while the secretary was still invalided,
ehe always heard him bolt his eVor
. as soon as he WAS inside.
"And the nights In, stap 1 down,"
she added, "lw had me bring down
that revolyer of his. Hp laid it te
the fellow who got in by ilea gun
room window, but I've got my own
ideas about it."
Her reasons for .not teaser the de-
tective are peculiarly femidine. Ho
had antagonized her early be, ..-ome
high-handed method of his own, and
"lie was getting paid for fandalg
things out.. I wasn't."
But her other reason is curious,
and shows a depth of loyalty to ine
whieh is unexpected and rather
touching.
"I didn't see the use of deagging
this place in," she says. "It's got a
bad enough name already. And
there's it lot of talk going on; some
of it makes me sick."
From the way ehe avoidad my eyes
and rattled at her stove, 1 am left
to conjecture that my wood -cutter --
who by the way la missing to -day.--.
has not passed unnoticed, and that
possibly either :Starr or Nylie hes
been talking. Probably Ny7le. In
any event, Annie Cochran, and very
likely the entire vicinity, has evident-
ly known that I have been under
surveillance; *a miserable thought,
only relieved by Annie's loyalty.
"What makes you think Ise hod
been off the place the night he was
hurt?"
"He said he couldn't sleep, didn't
-
he? And he got up and went down-
stairs to get something to eat, and
then went outside?"
"So he said." -
"Well, as far as I can en eke out,
Pc was dressed from top to toe. He
didn't need to do that .to get down
to the pantry.'
And we had missed that! Heyward
Greenough and I had elso,
1< -
that story, according to ma: saveral
abilities, and had never noticed that
discrepancy. "I sent his clothes to ,
be cleaned the next day," she said, i
"and I noticed it then."
But her real contribution, if I may
call it that, lay in the garage, and ,
after tip -toeing to the hall and lis-
tening to the sound of Mr. Bethel's
dictation from within, she drew me
onside,
(Note: The small garage Inc the
main house sits behind the kitchen,
and not Inc from the kitthen door.
There are two methods of accees to
it, one by the drive past the Lodge,
which curves around the nouse, and
the other by what we knew as "the
lane," a dirt road leading Hu•Ougle
the woodland, which extends toward
ltubineon's Point, and which strikes
the macadam highway further on.)
(To Lie (Jontinued).
BUSINESS GARUS
..T.HE Industrial Mortgage and
Savings Gorr pany, of Sarnia.
Ontario, are prop,red to 8(11,1111011 money on
Aic•rtgagel.dia go,c1 lands Parties (lowing
fll 1,11 fern, mortgages will please apply to
cowrie. eeaforth, Ont., Who Will ttsr
rash rate.. 1111,1 other particulars.
"o "1%. a":„fr,tfr.M.p..y
C. C. RAMAGE, D.D.S., L.D.S.
BRUSSELS, ONT.
Graduate Royal College of Dental
Surgeons and Honor Graduate ihti-
versity of Toronto. Dentistry in all
its branches.
Office Over Standard Bank,
Phone 200
dzzam kthymwe
AGENT FOR
Fire, Automobile and Mnd Ins.
:COMPANIES
For Brussels and vicinity Phone 647
JAMES M' FADZEAN
Agent Hoick Mutual Fire Insurance Company
Also
Hartford Windstorm and Tornado Insurance
Phone 41 Box 1 Turnberry Street Brussels
MO. SUTHERLAND & SON
LiMITED
INSUB-4^0MR
COVOZP.0, ON'S:1,010
D. M., SCOTT
klageVSKS ake'VTIOXEMe
PRICES MODERATE
V°711faevree'oVii=cnitt, RuY persgionT°112sSale'
T. T. M'RAE
M. S., M. 0. P., S. 0.
M. 0. H., Village of Brussels,
Physician, Surgeon, Aeocnieheur
Moe at residence. opposite Melville Marsh,
William street.
ainry-n-Inl'olniF16100, ciablEtatiniC4Or
LED
L141
5
(.1
a ' latailaelCiiii)
10.
.4)
!'wb;
11-0
Worth Selling,
is
Worth, Telling
Adve e
Advertise what you are doing.
Advertise what you expect to do.
Advertise your old goods and move them.
Advertise your new goods and sell them
b4ore they get old,
Advertise to hold olditrade.
Advertise to get new trade.
Advertise when business is good to make
it better.
Advertise when business is poor to keep
it from getting worse.
Advertising is not a "cure-all,"
Advertising is a preventative.
Advertising does not push, it pulls.
Advertising to pay Must be consistent and
persistent.
05 '9
THE
I COIL.
• e
ereetegreeekege
HIS POST
shwomtplVA "
tfrOkfrolf m'csi
ANC
e