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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1926-11-10, Page 7gar aaseg, ce, .'a e Red L Th (Copyright) by MARY ROP,EBTS RINEIIART �Hrukk,a'i'sfiaiypy.T „d.,�-autt¢ So shaken were niy nerves by all this, my next consecutive thinking found me once more in the gun room really to beat a retreat. But here I managed somehow to pull myself to- gether, and to return to my original the base -board of the hall, neer the errand in the house. Convincer) that den door, the slamming of the door would have Asa matter of fact, the whole see. roused Mr. Bethel—lf indeed any- uence of .events, ending with the shot thing were to 'rouse him again; and had stunned me, I heard Mr. Bethel by this time, shaken as 1 wee, 1•was in his room, calling out, and someone prepared for the woret--t:he main outside shouting from the terrace - staircase was not feasible. Almost immediately . there was a I made my way, therefore, into, the emelt of breaking 'glass in the library passage again to the servants' stair- ea Halliday smashed a window with ense and crept up it, one. stair at a a porch chair, and the next momcni time, with the revolver clutched in was in the house and fumbling' for my hand. • the light switch inside the library I have no idea how long all this door. • took. Possibly ten minutes from the When he ran into the hall e told time T entered the house. Perhaps him what bad happened, and he ane - even more. I was subeenseiousl,y mediately set about his search. As aware, I know, that it was too soon Mr. Bethel was still demanding, be- te look for Halliday's return, and in yond his door, to. know what was a way I was playing -for time. wrong, 1 went back to reassure hint, At the top of the kitchen staircase but it required some time to !tether; was a door, opening onto the main him to unlock his door. Time it was hall, and his I cautiously opened. Halliday who made the rlrst Save for the ticking of the tall gation downstairs. clock on the staircase landing the He is confident no one escaped house was entirely silent. The sil- from the library, unless in that brief once and the closed door gave me time while he waa feeling for a light. back my ebbing -courage, and T ad- But it is to tie remembered that the vanccd a step or two along the hall. floor near the window was covered Here I was close to Gordon'; room, wth broken glass; no ,escape by that and I felt for and tried the knob method could have been noiselcsa. At carefully. It was locked, and listen- the sante 'Eine, any theory of depart- ing outside I could hear no Move- ure by the windows of the. Glen is hn- ment frons within, The relief I possible, since we found all these gathered from this was enormous, windows closed and locked on the and although my position was still inside. unpleasant enough, the fear of- tra- I am convinced that the intruder gedy began to leave me. wash not the secretary. As a matter There remained, I figured, merely of fact, he drove !13 a half hour• liter, to aseertet" that Mr, Bethel's door saw the lights in the house and ham - was closed -and locked, and I could mored for • admission, and surveyed beat a retreat which I felt was by our group in the hall with an amaze - no means ignominious. I made my ment which, under,any other elrctim- way, therefore,. to his door and tried stances, would be humorous. And I it. It was fastened also, and I heard ant also convinced that it was not the Itim move within; the heavy creak of doctor. Mr. Bethel showing signs of his beet -spring, no doubt es he lay un- collapse, Halliday telephoned to Hay - easily awake, waiting for the boy's ward. He replied at once. Ilan be return. been at the house that night lie could I hesitated there, wondering wheth- not have made it. . . or to call to him and tell him he was I have no explanation whateve_' of not alone and helpless, or to retire, the fact that Halliday and Hayward satisfied that he was awake and pre- later on found the gun room winnow pared for 'any trouble that might closed and locked, save that the in- come. But there were no further truster may have entered by it while sounds from beyond the clout, and I I was working my way into the din - turned away and prepared to retrace ing room; and that the cold air, the my steps. crash at the table, and the bursting It was then that I became ton- .open of the door in the hail, wh!rh scious of a light somewhere below. so alarmed me, may have marked his Not a likht, rather, but where before passage through the room. had been absolute darkness there was At the same time, 110 statement of now something else; a faint illumine. the situation that night should fall to tion which outlined the staircase well point out, loath as I ani to believe. in and which was reddish in color. the supernatural, that for many years (Note: It le worthy of coneidera- this house has had a reputation for tion that when, later on, Halliday, similar phenomena; the bursting open! and I made our experiment with the of the door and the cold wind ere red lamp, lighting it in the. den andmerely repetitions of many similar opening the door into the ttorridor, unexplained occur•r•ences, So also is we secured much the same effect, the reddish color of the light I saw.• save that in the experiment the le, The disappearance of the figure saltin( glow seemed stronger than and the blank darkness which follow - the one recorded here.) ed that disappearance are difficult to And I will swear that a figure was account for, under any natural law standing et the foot of the ,tams, cm - at present known. I am not a spir- parently facing toward me and look- itdst, but it is to be remembtlresd that ing up. ar rather, not a figure, but only a second or so elapsed between a face; the ]iglu was so !aim; that Mr. Halliday's entrance by the book - no portions of the body were visible en window and his turning on of the' I will swear that it moved, not to- ldghts. ward the dining room and a -•possible exit by the window of the gun room, ,e6P4,40' xa "rs,40' 's i?' r f aiming at the figure, If Mr. Green- ough examines the mark left by the bullet, be will find, as Halliday mai I slid, that my bullet went aI'n'i t directly down, and is embedded 1.11 Neither he nqqr I heard in the. in- ns Halliday suggests, but still up- in- terval any =veliient; yet en escape turned, toward the library, and that over the broken glass of rthe, window within a foot or two of that door It would certainly have made some disappeared. sound. As I have, said, the windows I will swear that the red glow per. in the den were found to bo closed silted for a moment 00 s0 ttftiir it and locked on the inside. disappeared and then slowly faded(End of memorandum for Mr. away. And I will also swear that I Greenough.) bad no more intention of tiring, my August lath. revolver at that figure than I had of Up to -day, but not allow,irl out of leaping down the staircase after I. my room. Jocic spends most of his Mr. Greenough would have done no time with 2110, whether from devotion less, in my situation, and mi cit very or interest in the appetiiin ' tray. possibly have done a great deal mere. Jane sends up, I am slightly uncrr- The first knowledge that T had pled twin. the trigger came with the sound of Edith suspects the latter, and has the shot itself. I was cerainly not taken to calling him old clog Tray. She reproaches rine bitterly for my faculty of getting myself int!) situations, and quoted oto me those immortal words of Lewis Car roll, with a small amendment of her own: "'You aro cid .FathOt lY Tliluii,' his young niece said. . 'And your hair has become very white. 'Awl yet you ineessrintly. 'stand• on your head, 'Do You think, at your age, it is right?' " In preparation for the detective's ctive's sills visit she has laid oak lily b,.:41, pajamas, and her to on lint' doing so sounds like herr "No man is really at his best with- out his trousers," silo observed, "Bet there's a sort of moral support About AMC pajotutte, It puts you out of tlse bobs,-blyottkirlg class, anyh0w," "Net at tell," I retorted. "Only .mar. coneyet Letterheads Envelopes Billheads. And all kinds of Business Stationery printed at The` Post Publishing T'Iottse. We will do a lob that will do credit to yam business. Look over' your ,tock 0! Office Stationery and it it requires replenishing axil us by telephone al. The Past Publishing house THE BRUSSELS POST our best house -breakers erre :,;feta then, these slaw," But It shows h, r ar it and Irey weakness, that 1 „u, ;low wee e them Greenough hag COme and gone. What be thinks of things now I can- not say, hut at least I am, as I have had Qee1151011 more than ones to re- cord here, still at liberty. The fart that the revolver I used was Halli- day's, Talli- days, and ITall!day's supporting statement, no doubt are it my favor. At the same time, it is ahem that, although he listened carefully to my preliminary statement relative. to our suspicions against Gordon, be was not greatly impressed by it. "How did you and Mr. Halliday reconcile that theory with the sheep - killing?" he asked, when I had finish- ed. "Ho wasn't here, then, was he?" "No, that has puzzled us, of eau rec." "Then again," he went on, eyeing me, "he. himself was knocked down and tied. I don't suppose you accuse him of that, too?" "I've told you," I said impatiently, "that we haven't a ease; it's a theory. That's all. Talce for instance that rope---" "Oh, come now, Mr. Porter! I've slipped out of my room at night over a woodshed; so have you, prob- ably.,, Corning down to the night of the llth, he listened to my written state- ment without comment, save that he smiled somewhat over what he called my "ingenious conclusion." T -Te 'also passed lightly over my picture of what followed; of Halliday's en- trance, of Bethel brought down and sitting huddled in a chair in the lib- rary, somewhat `lazed and showing slgns of collapse. And of Gordon's return and ours sudden realization of my predicament. "Just what predicament?" "1 was in the house because 1 knew Corston had a rope and a knife in his room, If we let him up thele and he did away with them, it left nee in pretty poor shape." "So you kept him downstairs! By force, lie says." "I wouldn't call it force. But we wore three to his one, of course." "In other words, you telehoned to the doctgr•, but you didn't telephone to Starr until Gordon came in and found you there." "If you want to put it that way, yes." "You broke into the house and found somebody there who had ,to business there. But you didn't think of calling on the police." "What I felt we needed 00125 not a poliroman, but a medium." He condescended to smile at that, but he was back to the matter again Bice a needle to, the pole. "Gordon says that fiayward and Halliday went off somewhere, after telephoning Starr, and that you held the gun on him. Ts that col eecl.?" "I still had the revolver. T didn't point it at hint, if that's what you mean. As for Halliday and Hayward they were going through the house. That's all. "And they found the gun room window eloscd and locked'?" ".So they say, I wasn't present." "ITbw do you acocunt for that, if that's the way you entered?" "I don't account for it." 'it suppose you have keys to the house " "I Have." "Great heavens, man!" 1 said im- patiently. "I don't carry those keys with me. I wasn't trying to get into the house. I went in because the window was open: And if you thiels I liked doing it, I'm here to toll you 1 didn't" "You can't account for the window being locked, later?" "1 • cannot. Why should, I have locked it, if that's what you are try- ing to igrtimate? I had to got out again." 'He abandoned that for a time, "The point is this, 1rtr. Porter," he said. "You and Halliday hays( lain consideraple emphasis on that knife. It was because Gordon haat, it that you were in the house, I understand," "Had it and might use it," I am- ended. , "It was, in your opinion, either on him or in the room upstairs, But as it turned out, it was, neitheon Irian 000 in his room. He denies ever owning stich n knife." "Halliday saw it. He's lying:" "It's your belief, then, tha; on this murderous errand of his, which was to' end up at the house, hp disposed of the very weapon' whieb you had expected him, to use?" p` "I haven't said that, but T drink it probable," "Why? � I r. td Why should he II' ,..t home had tie idea the house was to be entered, or Itis room smelled. He carne buck, smoking a cigarette, I understand, to find you and. Halliday in the hall, a window broken and az bullet embedded in the floor. 'rhitt do1sn't sound like a man who has been oat,addittgthe:' eaitleneos .of sial • • • • 0 + • • + • HF WEDNESDAY, NOV, 10, 1020.' WA N TE D Highest market prices paid. Bee ire or Pleurae Nn 2x, lituo- sele, end f will enlf and Ret )0l1' Hens, NI Yollick crimes." icer asked me abruptly after that how tong I had known Halliday, and his relationship to the family. Then he attacked Halliday's statement that he thought ho had seen the 1ie'hts of a ear lig Robinson's Point, and had started for that. "Mr. Halliday," he said, "n.ty; he believed that his car was Mr. Beth- el's and started toward it, giving you his revolver and leaving 70tr aloi,e; that he found no car there, and turn- ed back. To support this statement, he says that a boat, lyin, in the creek hero, had excited his suspicions because the oar -locks were wrapped. Muffled oar -locks are not uncommon things." "The position of the boat was sus- picious." us- picious." "Perhaps," he said. "But that was a matter for me to Jeterminc, not Mr, Halliday. As to the strips he maintains were wrapped around the oar -locks, I am not saying they were not there; but I am saying that they were gone when I went over the next morning to examine the boat." What he had hoped to gain by that I do not know. He shifted rapidly, perhaps in the hope of somehovr trap- ping me; our reasons for hoping to wisest ronin" ,'•i'h erir.1 s. •'nes one of them had taken pane- b -.f, re his arrival; when I had first missed my fountain pen; exactly where I was standing when the revolver was fired; when I had taken off the safety catch; where I was when Halliday broke the window. And from that, without a pause, back to the gun room window and had me repeat my story about finding it open, and en- tering by it. "Yet you thought," he said, "that this boy, whom you consider a de- generate and a murderer, was inside. In a few minutes you expected Halli- day back, but you dial not wait for him. Is that right " "It is." "Then you thought, in all prob- ability, that the boy had this knife with him." "I didn't think about it at all," I said. "If I had, I'm not sure I would have gone in." "But later on the boy returns, and you won't let him upstairs, because the knife is there. Is that right?" Looking back over interview, he seemed to be anxious to break down my story, rather than to he follow- ing any idea of his own. Halliday stated it fairly well when I reported the examination to him. "He's got nothing," he said. "Noth- ing but you. And that's wher.i his system breaks down; it might work, if you were guilty, but it isn't worth a tinker's dam, since you're not." One rather curious thing .he added, however, in view of Grernough's questions about the knife. (Note: I was not present when Starr followed by Gordon, Halliday and Doctor Hayward, went upstairs to examine Gordon's room, During the interval of waiting for the constable I had been conscious of an approaching nerve is chill, the be- ginning of the illness which laic' me tip for the following three days,) "Gordon was as surprised as I was," he says," when Starr didn't find the. knife.. It was too good to be true; he could hardly believe it August lath Downstairs to -day for the fleet tinge. As 1 had expected, Mr. Bethel in- tends to give up the house. He has NO notified Thomas and Annie Coch- ran, and has sent me a torn making me to see him to -night. The note was left by Gordon, tuna— as l happened to be in the hall, it was 1 who received it. He stiffened when. he saw use, it being our first encounter since the other night, "Mr. Bethel sent this," he said briefly, and started to go. On the, verandah, however, he stopped and turned arqund. "Pretty dirty work the other night," ho said, watching me. "And I'm not forgetting its' He wnitcd, appsuently expecting a reply. On receiving stone 1}e stood fstudyiag me for a moment, --a moat nnc0mfortable moment for me. Then lie sailed, his curious sneeriltg sntdlr, "I'm not afraid, you Itaote," he said. "T cat take tare of myself. Thr tot worrying." He thrust his hands into his pock- ets and turned, not toward the other house, but toward he roast, Near the gates he began to whistle, alta thus theatri Illy assuring me that he was rat his ewe,- started toward Oahe vine. T Mary(' learned to -day that he is leaving Mr. Bethel, and has gone to the• city 10 loots for another poeitien. The boy puzzles me, tier' I am, mere or less a specialist +.n boys; for more years than I care to remember I have known them, a olleeciv sly area individually, but here is a new typo. Hs is weak; compared to -that p00- nnatltous portion of Halliday's fare, -for instanee, he has no lower jaw. lTe completely lacks personality; ?re could, according to soin hrule's (10- seriptinn of a similar type, be stood up against a whitewashed wall and erased with a good rubber. Ile is, 0211• would say, almost too weak to be vicious. But nature apparently VRAIti to these otherwise defenseless er,::anres of here a sort of low eUnnur ' with which to protect themselves. He Ir.s that cunning. He is not in love with Edith, I think, although that vain young wom- an probably believes that he i:'. He is interested in her, as the only young and feminine creature within his pre- sent milieu; for the same teases he hates Halliday, quite apart from the other night, as representing what he is not and would like to be. At the same time he hates the world, be- cause he feels himself incapable of coping with it. house along with the broken lens, the bit or Gordon's ei)ihi'r and the Mall screw cap of On ether can - Our lovers otos their n 1 rhnary duties with an eye -out as one may say, each for the other. Vague as the future is, they have each (stile er, and only this morning j sant Edith with a basket of m nclierg, front which•looked forth what great- ly resembled a masculine underaar- ntent in need of buttons. Shades of twenty years tato, when each s- 11 pol- itely assumed that the othee went, so to speak, underaarmentl las! 'They cannot turn the clock nn. But there are times when there as a sort of despair in Halliday's face, and sometinma 1 see Edith sitting alone, ]ter 11;111(15 folded, lookr11 three or four years ahead With 0 51rt of tragic patience. So much, eh' cams to think, may happen in three or four years. She asked hien, the other lay. out of a clear sky, if he had been gone oeer by a doctor recently. And the reward, on which she bad so blithely counted, seems dp, far away as ever. As far away as Imo dreams of earning a fortune with her pen. She has had another rejection et two, and the hurt has gone out of• her. But she has had her moment.. Mail still continues to come in. Which re- minds me that she received a curious letter yesterday. Because it may be construed to have a bearin-o on our situation I record it here, hut as a matter of fact, one must make ers- tain allowances; Edith's articles used my name in full, and a small amount i A firm foundation is essential in. any business undertaking, and yet those that fad are sometimes describe ed as being "on the, rocks." NOSINESS GA9llib al•HE Industrial Mortgage anti Savings Oompany, of Sarnia, Outman art prepared to advance stoney no 3rortgag,a "„ goad (x,112, Pother, doalrleO looney 00 farm Is,.,'tgapea will plerow apply to Jeune:+ 1'0% ..elm th Ont , whu wilt tar high arr I '-1 hot ( liraau•s. The Industrial Mortgage and Savrngs Company C. C. RAMAGE, D.D.S., L.D.S. BRUSSELS, ONT. Graduate Royal College of Dental Surgeons and Honor Graduate Uni- versity of Toronto. Dentistry in all' its branches. Office Over Standard Bank, Phone 200 AGENT FOR fire, Automobile and Wind los. COMPANIES for Brussels and vicinity Phone 647 JAMES NT'FADZEAN Agent Hawick Mutual Etre Insurance Comment Also Hartford Windstorm and Tornado Insurance Phone 42 Box 1 Turuberry Street. Brnseet MO. SUTHERLAND & SON LIMITED VireSaattUreill of investigation by the professional -- — But just how far does he carry this secret longing of his to escape mediumistic underground would sup- D. M. SOOTr his own inferiority? To the length f ply some of the remainder. The Jane, (rer Mda Jg verfaAwess o£ crime? Granted the desire so to , for example i • quite easily account - PRICES MODERATE escape it, has he the ability? Can "el fOr• For references consult any person whops galea:r he make his possible dreart of. being But the remainder taxi,` me con- Ihaveo95ointedat. Phone ;fees a master criminal come true? I siderably puzzled. The mat, for in- T. T. AI!'RAE stance. And that strange condition think not sur a it. 0. P e. S. 0. of "Ir,— a` thee.mi. 11 hex i h '' i ri `l `fin"' tt7 On nmeh : it n"' , 59 O H„ Cil1,,tr• of Br uaaela, naiwal alzparentiy faille,- h1;1, at' I Physician, Surgeon, Accoucheur that he would have fallen had he not I Offioeot residence. opposite Melville Chnrc ih, been caught. For all the world as i William street. though—but I must pull myself to- gether. The letter from Salem was not authentic; why should I believe' this? (To Be Continued). Greenough after three .lai,,a o nh further discoveries has gone again. The situation at the main house the other night has, thank Gad, net reached the press. The boat, with the mufliings gone from the 'oar -lock: still lies in the creek beyond Robin- son's Point, and the sole proof of shch muffling, if the point 'is even brought up again, lies in the boat- t'LOOK AT THE LABEL Tr. X. Simacaurgi BARRISTER, SOLICITOR, CONVEYANCER. NOTARY PUBi;r!IC LEOKIE BLOCK - BRUSSELS; OR, WAROLAW Honor graduate of the Ontario Vetere inert' a Ocnege. Dav and night calls. Office opt' osite Floor 35111• EtheL 'e - 'tri, .:'. *Ma X0 rth Selling is r t � � save 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 before they get old. Advertise to hold old trade, Advertise to get new trade, Advertise when business is good to stake it better, Advertise when business is poor to Skeep it front 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. 11itf,� v.„a� s r; L