The Brussels Post, 1926-10-13, Page 711)
«see
The Red Lam
(Copyright)
THE BRUSSELS POST
by MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
cheektrts;t0, petit -44.'0'4e' •
:rely 28th.
After all, things passed off yeteter-
elay better than I had hoped,- The
detective concedes that while in
daylight it i a simpde matter to
reach the main house from ttill
nin-
1iaI, it is not an easy ono at night.
And I think he was puzzled evhen I
said: ,
"After'all, the real mystery to rne
'et how DoctoigHayward, who. says he
--was passing on the main road in his
ear, could reach the house so soon
after I did."
"He had his car,"
"But he didn't drive in. You left
it outside the Lodge gate, doctor,
didn't you?"
"I didn't know just where the bell
was ringing,"
"But you knew there wag such a
bell on the main house. Everyone
around here knows that. Even..\at
that, you made .very good time. 1
had only had time to light one match
and see the boy, when you turned
your flashlight on me,"
I imagine, and Halliday agrees
with me, that whatever Greenough
had in mind when he came, the now
element thus introduced cnu, 1 him
lo hesitate. And to add r,o his hesi-
tation, the doctor, from ;he breezy
tenctuoueness of his entrance, took to
twitching and gnawing his finger tips.
"1 don't suppose you are intimating
that I knocked the boy down, Por-
ter," he said, "but it sound e like it.
As a matter of fact, 1 didn't even
'know him; never- saw hint, to my
'knowledge, until last night."
"Pm not intimating anything: I'm
in a peculiar positien; that' e ail, And
you have been considerably more
than intimating that I was where
had no business to be last night. I
had, Yon see, exactly as much reason
to, be there as you had. Rather more
I imagine."
I was perhaps a trifle excited, but
heaven knows I had a right to be.
"I know what you have in your
mind, Mr. Greenough, and I'm glad
to have this chance to lay my earde
on the table. Ask my wife why I
was on the float, the night Carroway
was killed in the bay. She'll tell
1.-ou I wag in bed until ehe.reused nia
and sent me down to the beach. Ask
Pet-' Geis where I was at the hour
when Halliday was eattacked; he can
tell you. Ask the newspaper report-
er who told Inc, right here, _about
that culvert under _ the road where
Halliday's ear overturned; and ask
Halliday himself about one exeursion
to examine it, and my losing my foun-
tain pen there. And then ask your-
self if I would open the gun TOOM
window of the main house to make
an entrance when I have in tide desk
a key to every door in the pine'"
Greenough smiled drily.
"That's a pretty strong defense,
considering that you haven't been ac-
cused," he said. "As a matter of
fact, we hadn't found your f turffain
pen, Mr, Porter. I'm afraid we over-
looked something there!" . . .
Since they have gone, I feel,
al-
though he has not said so, at th
Hal-
liday believes I have made a tactical
error. And 1 dare say, in one way,
I may have. 1 have given my defense ,
to the opposition, and not .only that;
realize that my list of witneases„. is
painfully weak; my wife, my niece's
lover, and Peter Geiss!
And Peter Geiss, by local repute,
is, like some of the weak sisteee of
the world, to be bought with a price.
Nevertheless, 1 feel a great sense
of relief. I have at leapt Made a hole.
'In the web of circumstantial evidence
which has seemed to be closing round
rite, and sent the detective scurrying
back to the centre of it again, to
spin- such new threads as he is able.
July 20th.
To -day has been quiet. Those
constant reminderof the latest
tragedy, the boats dragging the bay,
'have disappeared, and once more we
IRO
see gay little picnic partite; chugy iii
acrose the water to Robineon's Pou
or thereabouts, laden with harepers
and, 1 dare say, with flades.
Edith ceme clown to lunegeon iii
her best pink frock, with a hat to
match, and made shamelees eyes at
during that meal. The mum of
this sudden attention developed biter,
when she took .the ear—and lialliony
—and went to the light-houice. Over
the purpose behind this unexeeetel
display of intereet in our enalt-guard
service she draws a discreet vep,
For the rest of the day, them is
nothing to record. Jane and I took
a brief walk this afternoon, an1 not -
'iced a man clearing the, woode on
Nylie's farm, across the roa I. We
stopped and 'watched him for a time,
and he seemed curiously inexpert at
the job. But perhaps 1 am too ready
to suspect Greenough's fine hand in
everything I see.
I confess, however, to a certain
unholy joy when Jock made a meet
ungentlemanly attach; on him, and
was only called off with real diffi-
culty
Young Gordon. though atill g011fill-
Pd to his room, is up and about a-
gain.
• To -day 1 aeked Hayward, who had
been to see him, if I might visit him,
but he shook his head. •
"He is still in an excitabl e con-
dition," he said. "Better give him
a day or two more."
As, however, Annie Cochran re-
ports him in excellent shape, although
moody and irritable, I can only feel
thet the doctor has his own reasone,
for keepine me away 'Nom him. At
the earae time I must be ear:01.1 not
to allow suspicion to carry tete too
far. Mr. Bethel statee flatly that
the boy has no idea of who attacked
him and himself suggests Thomas!
I My talk with Mr. Bethel last night
was interesting and not without an
unusual quality of its own. -Hi chose
to be civil and rather mom than that.
I felt that the alarm of my entrance
once over, he not; only greeted me
with a sense a relief, but kept -me
as long as possible. And be voiced
something of the sort before 1- left.
"My infirmity cuts me off from
my kind," he said. "I am dependent
on the indulgence of others, • and
that is a poor thing." •
As it was the first time he had re-
ferred to his condition, I vorettrad
to ask bow he managed without Ger
don. It seeMed to Inc that the email
laugh he gave was ironical.
"Paid solicitude!" he eald. "1 can
manage without it. I make heavy
weather of it, but I mangge." My
offer to assist Min upstairs before I
left, however, _met With a decided
negative. He was not going up yet;
when he did, it would be a slow pee -
cess, but hahad done it the last night
or so, "somehow." My last impres-
sion of him is of a helpless and yet
indefinably militant figure in a dim-
ly lighted room, sitting upright in its
chair, one withered hand palm up-
wards, on his knee, and the other not
too far from his revolver. . . .
I am puzzled over that picture, as
I ani over the one which I saw from
the terrace window, as I approached.
He gave the same impressioa then as
he did when I left, of a man waiting
for something'.
As I looked in at him, he WAS fac-
ing toward the hall and the dining
room door, directly acrose, with a
concentration so great that my light
tap at first did not reach his ears,
And during the- entire conversation
which followed, every now and then
I 'was conscious of a siaddee abstrac-
tion on his part, an intent listening,
that made me nervous in spite of my
self.
But the conversation was both in-
teresting and enlightening. He was,
through the secretary and Annie
Cochran, acquainted with the gen-
eral outline of .what has been going
on, and even of the stories rureent
about the heats° itself, especially as
to the red lamp.
"I daresay my _statement that the
eed lamp is locked away," he said
whimsically, "would not greatly as-
sist the situatioa, Ae I understand it
they would simply say that this was
somo 1 urther evidence of its abnor-
mal powers." t
-1 gather that, like young Goetion,
he has- beard ceetie sounds in the
houso. at night, but does not intend
to be stampeded by them, to nse his
own Verde. He hat gome theory of
it disturbanceof molecular ectivity,
by soma closely end iscevered .natural
law, which I could not follow eloseler,
But in the discussion of .superatition
in general which 'followed, if was it
trifl dimoncerted to find _him laying
Much of it te the withe-spread belief
in evil spirits and in sorcery. He
Wont even further, and einesed the
adoration Of :mints as polytheism, and
the tYorship of sacred. robes .as fed-
cralmenuatexasteweaumwestotirierewpswas
Letterheads
Envelopes
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And all kinds of Business
Stationery printed at The
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We will do a joie that will
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Look oVer your stock el
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Tho Post Publishing House
chism.
Strangely enough, I had at
.moment one of thoee•
tions whieh I have lamed
len a failure of the two
'brain to synchronize.
(Note: Lear, who has read thie, ad -
vine met that this is now an explod-
ed idea, and that only met etch of the
humeri brain funetions at all.)
I had the feeling that sometime,
sennewheve, eons ago, I had sat in a
dimle lighted room and heard -those
-gime words. And that 1 had had
the ,nme inetinceive revolt from thrum
But the impresison was .ffeeting,
awl seeing perhaps that our views
did not coincide, he added that I
rnust not believe that he disregarded
the spiritual aide of the inefividual,
er of the universe. And he quoted
Virgil's Spiritus inter alit with it cer-
tain unction.
• "Soul animating matter!" he said.
"11 is a great thought, Mr. Porter,
And I have reached that time in life
when what is to come le ameuming,
more importance than that which has
gone."
Then he dismissed the subject, and
went back again to the local situa-
tion, this time taking up the crimee
themselves, He sees no necessarY
connection- between the disappearanee
of Maggie Morrison and the tragedy
of Carroway, and on this 1 did not
-enlighten hitn. On his saying, how-
ever, that in my place he would not
feud safe in keeping Jane and Edith
here, I told him at some length of my
own involvement, and this brought
about a discussion of Greenough and
his methods,
He smiled drily over my account
of the -detective's psychological at-
titude.
"Psychology," he said, "the study
of men and motives, is it science in
itself. With all due respect to the
gentleman in question, I imagine
his chief psychological resource
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price4.
It is distinetly possible that the herb-
al, aromatic odor I noticed at the
end of the experience was clue to
the leaves he collected yesterday, and
which I find have smouldered through
out the night. . .
It was after midnight when, jut
as I was dozing off, Jane came to
my room and asked me if I would
mind sleeping in her room.
"I can ex you a bed on the cc -each,"
she sabl, avoiding my eyes. "Ihn
nervous to -night, for some reason."
I went at once, trailing my bedding
with me, and while she prepared the
couch 1 observed her. She was very
white, and I saw that her hands were
shaking, but she refused my offer of
some brandy -with her umal evasive
-answer.
"Pm all right," She said. "I just
don't like being alone."
She fell asleep almost at once, hke
one exhausted, but the c.hange of
brats had fully roused me, and I lay
for some time staring into the dark-
ness. I do not know when it Was
that I began to have the feeling- that
we were not alone in the room, but
I imagine fully half an hour had
passed.
I saw nothing, but 1 had the sen-
sation of 'being stealthily wacchede
would be that putt:on of tied with •• •
er than of fear. I was rigid with it.
Then something seemed to tug at my'
coverings, and the next moment they
had slid to the floor. Almost immed-
iately after that there came a rush
of air through the room, a curtain
billowed Over mg face, and the door
into, the hall swung open. Then all
was silent,save for a low whine
from Jock, outside in the hall.
How. much of this to -day to allot
to my nerves I do not know. Un-
doubtedly Jane's nervousneas had af-
fected me; equally undoubtedly bed
clothing has a tendency to stip from
.a couch. I have quietly experiment-
ed to -day. A gale of wind eyelike
blow out a curtain and open an un-
latched door.
' On the other hand, I am as certain
to -day as I have been certain of any-
thing recently, that bad bolted the
door when I entered the room, But
it was not bolted in the morning.
If I have indeed actually had a
pschie experience, it seems einguiarly
purposeless. Up to this time I have
imagined, correctly or not, that these
inexplicable occurrences have had a
concealed but definite objective, if
such a 'phrase may be used. But in
this case there is apparently noth-
ing.
Otherwise the night Wilsi eulet,
without new developments. Green-
ough continues hie work, handicap-
ped by the usual difficulty besetting
a detective in the country, that his
every move is known and watched.
Jane herself wakened this morning,
after a quiet sleep, and although she
is languid, the present intense heat
may easily account for that.
We have had, however, a develop-
ment of our Own, and this from Ed-
ith!
It appears that this morning, see-
ing Docter Hayword pass on his
round of Morning calls, she went to
his office and, on his housekeeper re-
porting him out, asked permission to
go into his office and there leave
him a note.
"A note?" I inquired. "What
sort of a llotel"
"Any sort of note," said Edith.
"As it happens, I asked him ee tea
to -morrow. It wee all could. think
of."
But what she really did wan to
type a few lines on hist typewriter
tear the paper out and plat it in the
small vanity case which is as mitch
part of her as the nose she 'powders
from it '
(As a net result of which audac-
ious performance Halliday now in -
foveae me that the ciphee woede
were not written on . the doctor'e
machine.)
A eareful comparison under a
magnifying glass shows this so that,
even I can recognize it. So there
we are again,
If we are to le-elfeve that the chalk
which marked my car was brought
in that paper, we must grant that
the doctor did not mark the •car. Or
in other words, that our oontra-ot-
feneive is not to he Munched, as yet,
and that our only cours0. is to eon -
Onto rather ignowdnously in our
trenches.
'July Isl„
Hank* has found the boat .
degree which consists in knocking
man unconscious, and than obtaining
his ionfesison before he has entirely
recovered his senses. I would tether
trust your young friend Mc the boat-
house. At least he appears to he us-
ing a certain independence of
thought."
He broke off there, as he had once
or twice before, and seemed agate
to be listening. But in a moment he
picked up the talk again. The men-
tion of unconsciousness. had brought
Gordon to my mind, and his firet
words- on recovering. It was then
that I inquired if the secretary had
recognized, or thought he recognized,
his assailant that night, and that Mr.
Bethel replied in the negative. -
"Al least," he said, "he has not
said so to me. But he is a queer
boy; moody and sometimes sullen. A
good secretary, but an indifferent
companion."
As to the strange effeteof the
attack en Gordon, he himself with
Annie Cochran's assistance, -examin-
ed the gun room the next morning.
The lock of the window was broken,
but he fancied that was a matte,: of
old_standing. He was having it re-
paired.
"The boy's story seems to oe borne
out by the facts," he said. "Theve
evetee indications, as you nrobally
know, that someone hail. entered by
the window. But what strikes me
as strange IS that whoever did so
should have known his way so well.
Gordon says no light was turned on,
yet this fellow puts his hand OD the
-only weapon about, the- poker, with-
out difficulty." we turned and glane-
ed at me.. "How long have you
known Thothas, the gardener " he
asked.
"Too long to think he would de a
thing like that," I said, rather warm-
ly.
"I dare say, And, although
think Thomas is not fond of Gordon,
that 'would be carrying a distaste
rather far, I imagine."
He has no anxiety for himself, or
at least so he said; I am nereonally
not so certain. For as I looked back
from the terrace on my way out, he
was once more facing toward the hall•
and --I somehow felt ---watching it.
July 30th.
• have to -day borrowed some of
Mrs. Livingstone's books on psychic
research, and intend to go into them
thoroughly, lf there is any proof in
a mass of evidence, it is eel -Utility
here. •
On the other- hand, _one muet re-
member that the hope ofsurvival is
the strongest desire, of the human
heat. How many, it they felt that
this life was all, would care to -go
on -with it;
Analyzing my last night'sexpel--
ience, however, I can find nothing in
my mind before 1 wont to sloop, to
account for it. 1 ate .a light dinner,
and spent the evening after J'ano
tired, with this Journal. The night
wtte quiet; cued my last , malting
thought was conceening the,wood-
0511101' across the road, who seems eo
singularly inactive except when
someone leaves the Lodge, or 'Moat's
•at one of its widow,
One, thing 1 have Vatted, however,' 1
At _lead • he has found a boat
which answers Jane's description.
To -day he took Inc to see it.
11 lies in the small creek which
ektends through the marsh half a
mile north of the bont-house, and
just beyond Itobinson's Point.
(Note: This creek /A really a nar-
row estuary from the bay, almost
entirely .overgrown and its entranee
hidden by reedit, and is only a few
hundred feet in length, At its up-
per end, where the boat lay, the
ewamp ends and woodland commenc-
es. Although on ;mother estate, the
woodland is a continuation of our
own.)
The boat, evidently an old and ab-
andoned one, gives some evidence of
recent use. That is, although it
contains some water, there is very
little, whereas, as Halliday ' says,
itf-
ter the recent rains it might well be
full.
The oar-loeks are wrapped with
dingy white cotton cloth, and to pre
vont their being stolen, or the boat !
taken away, the oars had beetskill-
fully hidden in the marsh. HaffidaY
located them, but left them as they
were; but with his pen -knife hc cut
away a small bit of the muffling on
the oar -lock for later possible identi-
fivation.
During the search for the Morri-
son girl undoubtedly this boat WAS
discovered and examined; there are
numerous. foot prints on the bank
which. effectually prevent any clue
being discovered among them. But
the discovery of an entirely sea -wor-
thy boat, in so remote a location,
with only the light -house in sight
and that at a coneiderable dielance,
is in itself suspicious.
It was in this boat, Halliday be-
lieves that the murderer fled onto
the bay from our slip the night Car-
roway discovered him, and from it
too that he later climbed into Car-
roway's launch and attacked him. ,
set hard as he examined it.
Yet, for one must find some hum-
or nowadays or go mad, there was
something humorous in the careful
indirection by which we reached it.
We made rather ostentatious prep-
arations to go fishing, Halliday,
working with hooks and sinkers, and
I hopelessly entangeld in coilof
WEDNESDAY, OCT. LI,' i024,
Later, we rowed acras sthe bay
tend anchored by the whistle buoy,
Iwhere we &hod aesiclueuely for
some time. Our approach to the
mouth of the creek WaS 111,?I'efOrv of
'01 most deeultory sort, bee once
around Robirecon's Point, we aban-
doned caution and rowed rapidly.
The mouth of the ereek wee well
eloeed with water weele hui we
poled the boat through them and
over a shoal, into th• deeper •water
beyond, Then, with a look eround,
eve eettled to the °are again
Had Greenou,gh heten i1 to eee
us from start to finsh, he would havc'
had some beets for suspicion of me.
Whether Halliday'e later lieeevery
has any significance or not we are
not certain. Believing that, en the
night of the girl's murder she was
brought in the truck to the water
front, and ..coupling, this with tht.
finding of the boat, he left 18. 011,1-
.
tQl.eil from observation inthe wood-
land and started through it 'inward
the main road,
In half an hour or o he came
bock again, and reported that he
had found the track of wheel.; driv-
en through the woods, and that in
on., place a barbed wire tone.t had
been taken down and boards elneed
over it, to permit the pasmge of a
car across it.
This is, I imagine, fair prealio-
tive evidence, although it brings ue
no nearer the identity of the crim-
inal than We were before. And it
has this dieadvaniage, that the vil-
lagers hav'e always exerted a right
of pre-emption over the fallen tim-
ber in the woods hereaboute, as
know to my cost and that the trail
may be nothing more nor less than
that of some thrifty individual, seek-
ing fuel for his cooking stove.
One thing, however, may be valu-
able. Edith, who knows a -number
eruinstirete,i hen ,ey•ir,i,th
-
the oar -locks are of a fine grade of
material.
Look for somebody,* see says,
"who uses linen sheets en his bed, Slatagaza
and doesn't care that the g eeee BARRISTER, SOLICITOR,
twenty-five dollars a oair nowa-
00NMEYANCER, NOTARY puBLIO
days." LECKIE BLOCK - BRUSSELS
From which I gather, among oth-
DR. WARDLAW
el' things, that our little Edith bas Honor r duat of th 0 t
home
To -night that old see:chest which
in the haat-house hut& on its top
(To Be Continued),
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C. C. RAMAGE, D.D.S., L.D.S.
BRUSSELS, ONT.
Graduate Royal College of Dental
Surgeons and Honor Graduate Uni-
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its branches.
Office Over Standard Bank,
Phone 200
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