The Brussels Post, 1926-10-27, Page 7114,11,1301NAK, ;11,11,
The Red Lam
(Copyright)
by MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
I)' tier. 41'0 teesIts
f
'So far as I know/' ohu said,
"that ear's; only been out twice since
they canes, and that was to take 'rhos
Inas home one night, end me another,
the night of the storin, But it's been
out, just the eagle."
"Wouldn't the old man boar it?"
"He might and he mighte't. Sup-
pose it was rolled along the lane and
started? He wouldn't hear it there,
would he?" .
To support. her contention she
ehowed me a number of marks in
the lane, certainly suspicious but by
110. 111111111/1 ovidential. It is 11 athill un-
usual for motorists to stricht into the
woodland along. the lane, under the
impreseion that it ie a nubile road,
and to be brought up all standing at
the house. .
But tegainst all this, at least as
Pointing to young Gordon all 001'
possible criminal, is what to me is FM
insuperable obstacle. We know that
the crimes are connected with the
killing of the sheep. It is •siot possible
to doubt this. And the sheep were
killed and the altar built before 'Mr.
Bethel brought Gordon into the
neighborhood. Annie Cochran has a
certain support for her contention,
but not enough.
And she dislikes the boy extremely.
Probably she unwittingly revealed
the reason for her attack on him
just before I left.
"There's something wrong about
him," she said. "When a inan'e dis-
honest he thinks eyerybo•dy else is."
"Surely he doesn't sap that about
you." •
"Well, ha's taken to locking his
room and carrying the key about with
him. I never took a thing of any-
body else's in my life,"
As Halliday went to town eaely to-
day, taking the scrap of paper with
the cipher to an expert he knows
there, I have not been able to discuss
this new angle with him. Quite asids
from the discrepancy in dates, how-
ever, Gordon not arriving until after
the reign of terror was well tarter
way, the chief stumbling block is the
attack on the boy himself
Suppose the boy does slip cut at
night, and take the car. He is young
and I imagine pretty much a prisoner
all clay. He takes dictation all morn-
ing, types after luncheon while 141r.
Bethel sleeps, and at four o'clock
again is ready with his book and pen-
cil. The few moments he has spent
with Edith now and then are plainly
stolen.
August Gth.
Halliday's expert was not particul-
arly helpful, I gather. 1,17:1 have this
to our advantage, however, if advan-
tage it be; the 'yping was dins en a
Remington. maehine.
As I had expected, he does not take
Annie Cochran' e story very seriously,
but he bases nis scepticism rather on
the beginning of the terror befoee
the..boy came, .than on tho attack on
the boy hienself.
"After all," he says, "hew do we
know it wasn't the old man himself
who knocked him out I imagine he
has considerable strength in that one
arm of his."
"It's difficult/ but I'll suppose it."
"Suppose the old chap heard 'him
outside,' he went on, "trying. to get
back into the house,' and thought it
was somebody else, The killer, we'll
say, He'd be pretty well juettled In
banging hint on the head with the
poker."
"Granting he could have got there,
which I doubt, how could he nave
tied him "
"One point for you!" lie said.
"And one rnore theory hanged with
its own rope.. Still, you'll admit it's
oo nice iclea to play with; Mr. Bethel
ki/ls a burglar with a .poke, sees ke
his secretary, rings the bell and calls
help, and then gets up to hie rooifl
and pretends to be asleep."
"It was Gordon who rang the bell.'
"Oh well, have it your own way!"
••••••••••••,,,,,wiatismoimalfeyissmasawamisoansosesomer
Letterheads
Envelopes
Billheads
And all kinds of Business
Stationery printed at The
Post Publishing House.
We will do a job that wig
do credit to your 'business.
Look over your stock of
Office Stationeryand if it
requises replenishing call
Us by telephone St
The root Pohlishing House
he said disgustedly. "But it was a
pretty thing while it lasted. And it's
my opinion still that, there 111 I1101V!
it than MOPtS the eye."
Aside from this blind antes. ott
!.which Annie Cochran started ue, WO
are allmore nearly normal than we
have been since the ;tarty days of the
mummer. ehave and Datha and
go to my breakfast, no longer with
„the feeling that it may he, figurative-
ly speaking, -my last.
Jane is at the table, feesh in the
erisp ginghams she affects, and which
in tivir turn are no crisper than the
lemon. She must have been sadly
puzzled the last few weeks; she
shows such evident relief now.
Sometime during the meal Edith, who
has been awaiting her turn at our
eolitary tub, breezes into the room
surrounded . by her usualaura, pats
jock,, Isisses•Jane and takes from rne
the society portien of the moping
;taper, after a casual glance 4 the
mail. Any step outside, Thomae pre-
paring to wash the verandah, or the
boy who has taken poor Maggie'.'
place, brings a faint color to her
race. But in ease it turns (Mt 1,0 be
Halliday, she is cavalier in the ex-
treme.
"Morning," she says airily, u tol it
may be adds: "Where on car,a did
you get that shirt?"
ewhat's the matter with this
shirt "
"Nothing at all," the says, reetnn-
ing her breakfast. "I just thohght
maybe someone had given it to you.
Et isn't exactly the sort of shirt one
buys, is it?"
Her glance appeals to me ; I am
for a moment the arbiter •between
them.
"It is a perfectly goodestdre"
say with decision, and am accused of
sex solidarity and poor taste, both
appaerntly equal sins in Edith's eyes.
It is the apotheosis of the trivial;
small things once more Make up our
lives, and we find pleasure in them.
Mall brings In more bacon, catches.
a reflection of our morning cheerful-
ness and smiles with us, and even
Jock, hearing unaccustomed laughter,
joins in with sharp staccato barks.
We are not worried by the Uncer-
tainty of the prospect before us; the
long period ahead of Halliday and
Edith before they can marry; that
next year, and the year after that,
and God knows how many years to
come, I shall be -pouring the priceless
reasures of the English language
into ears that will not hear; that my
vacation is more than half over, and
that its net result so far ls a loss to
me of some odd pounds of weight.
We. are 01160 more safely behind
the drain pipe.
August '1th.
Edith has to -clay received the large
sum of ten dollars for the light -house
Story. Whele she is still far from
the opulence sloe has anticipated,
there has been great excitement here
to -day on receipt of the check.
She has kept a carbon copy, and
has let me reacl it. It is well enough
done, in her breezy fashion, but I
find she ,has used the story of the
so-called ghost at Twin Hollows as
a basis to work from, and tfiht she;
uses my name as the owner of the
property. Quite aside from a dis-
taste for seeing my name in print, I
feel that the mere fact of its publi-
cation will give it a substantiality it
has hitherto lacked.
It is characteristic of the everege
mind often to question what it hears,
but to believe whole-heartedly what
it read. ,
I find that Halliday has been quiet-
ly working along the lines opened up
by Annie Cochran. He is convinced
that Gordon has been going out at
nights, clandestinely, and using the
car to do so.
"I don't blame him for that," he
said to -day. "The ear's there, and
not being used, And --I'm not keen
about Gordon ---bub from such VifliVS
as I have had of Mr. Bethel, as little
of him would go a long way. Gor-
don's discnneethd the speedometer,
by the way. But there's something
else."
He thinks it was Gordon who set
ilre to the boat house. Ho found a
hit of waste outside the garage/hang-
ing on (0 limb of ammo° there, and
a similes' SC/UP on the raised wells
over the marsh to the boatshouse.
' "Of course that isn't evidence,
Skipper,-' he said, "except as a tent
in the milk might, be. „ But the
stuff's there, and it needs Some think.
ing alma."
"But why?" 1 asked. "There hos
to be it reason.'
"I eau go a long way for one," he
said thought -fay, "and intestine he
knows I've ben working gin the OW
and wants to get rid of, nes, But I
grant that's not gesed. ,..elltiretteeselpee
THE BRUSSELS
P OST
WEIRSESKAY, OCT. 2'7, 1)2.1
out wouldn't do that, unless ho tem -
ed I was Inside. Ind that ie to
that he is guilty of .11 rs'e. aid
1 dont' believe that."
But he added, as an tape- '.11 '.11011:
"There's OMt curiae; thing though,
That is,' it may be curious; 1'11 not
elate The machine he's using ie
Remington."
August teth.
Thia has been a nerve-racking day.
MU! 11111 Willing to cry quits to
compromiee with ...rime, and to say,
in effort, that if the murderee leaves
U5 alone we will.not disturb him.
And yet the reason for my moral
surrender does not lie in any .event
to -day on which I Call place my hand.
menet say for this reason, or for
that, I ant through. Discouraged.
Ready to go to the mountains and
Mlle hack front a walk with a with-
ered bunch of flowers held in my
clenched hand, or to sit on some
piazza with thy after-dinner agar
and talk politics in, the presence of
the universe. Or to go back to town.
and help Jane select a neve wall-
paper for my study.
My condition probably •arises from
eheer confusion. For the lif1 of me
1 cannot see who the reeult 1 01.
Halliday's search eau lead ns, nor I
think does he
Edith this •mogning, at Halliday's
request, telephoned to Goedoe and
asked him to lunch with us. He acs
rented, after a brief hesitation, anol..
promptly at one o'clock came down
the drive, clad in white flannel's and
with an additional dose of pomade
on his hair.
Whether he was suspicious or not
we cannot tell. 1 know that, watch-
ing• him from a window, part way
down the drive he came to a dead
stop and then turned, as if he had
some idea of going back on some pre-
text or other. But' he evidently
thought better Of it, lookel at his
watch and came on again.
He made a poor impresein on us,
furtively watcheng Jane's antics ot
fork or spoon and otherwise bestows
ing most of his attention on Edith.
Such attetntion, that is, as he be-
stowe0 upon anybody at the begin-
ning. He was what a novelist loves
to call distrait, although any question
about himself roused him to a faint
enthusiasm. He has, 1 suspece, an
inordinate vanity,
"I'm a sort of wanderer," Ise said
once, apropos of some question or
statement of mine, "I stay in a „sleets
long enough to look about me and
then I get the itch to move on. Rest-
less," he added.
And restless he was. From where
he .at he had his back to the windows
but more than once he managed to
turn and look out. I had the feeling
that the small room enclosed him
too Much; that he felt somehow
trapped. And more than once I
found his eyes on .me, and felt that
he suspected me of 501110 purpose
he was attempting to discover.
His nervousness finally infected
me, and even Jane began toshow
signs of distress.; The small lunch
Party, for some reason or other she
could not understand; was going bad-
ly. Only Edith played up well; she
pushed back her plate at lest, and
with her elbows on the table and her
chin in her hands, said:
"And now, tell us about the night
you were hurt."
do- that," he said, with hi.
twisted smile, "if Mr. Porter will telt
me, how he and the doctor both haps
pened to be such Johnnies on the
spot."
But he called .that no further,
and although the covert insolence or
the speech brought the color to Ed-
ith's face, she continued to smile.
"There iSn't much to tell," he went
on, "The fellow got into the. house
ali right; I turned to go in by the
door and head him off, and. that's all
remember,"
"l3ut you rang the bell first, didn't
you?" ,
Whether beettese he hated to ack-
nowledge that callfor help, or for
some reason none of us can deter.
mine to -night, le hesitteted.
"Yes," he said finally. "I was
pretty well excited, but I euppoee
did."
On the subject of the house itself
he was more fluent, showing a con-
siderable curiosity as to its •history,
and inquiring with more particulerity
than delicacy as to the circtunstannes
surrounding 'Uncle Horaee'e death,
"The Cochran woman has a lisle of
talk about it," he gave as his ex.
'planation, "Seams to think he Wag
done in, or something."
I told him of the doctoe'e verdict
of heart Muse, and he seemed to be
considering that. But almost Wined.
iately he flaked me 1± T had tried
hearing the bell fig far away as the
highroads "with a Islam. otiglne go'
"I don't believe it could be done,"
he said, with his sideways glance at
me. t'He's got good .ears, the doc-
tor." .
He said entailing before hd lett
nbontlooking for another job, es. this
COO 1.0501 .1040 esentining., ifrid the. Old
ogeoe-•••••••••••••+++++•••••
• •
•
•
•
WANTED
* Highest market - prices 4.*
• paid.
•
* See me 01! PlituirA N. ox
-
o sets, and I will mil mei get 4,
sous •
NI. I( flick 47
•
spesteet-seset«esegeseeee.•geseesseteesiso.esssee.
man not pally 10 I iVP "1 only
took it for the summer," he said,
"and Prii about fed up with it. It's
too confining. And he'd let thatt car
of his rot before he'd let me take it
out."
With which clumsy attempt to ali-
bi himself regarding the car, he took
hie departure. Edith believes grit
in some manner he knows that; the
car has, been examined, and she may
be right
Halliday's investigation of his
room during his absence proceeded
without difficulty. With my lseye anti
Annie Cochran's connivance he made
an easy entry, Mr. Bethel having re-
tired for lois afterThindheon siesta.
At first glance the room offered
nothing, and leaving Annie Cochran
on guard outside, under pretense of
cleaning the passage, Haig/lass made
e more intensive search: The bed
disclosed nothing, nor elid the closet;
his suit -ease was loeked, and over it
Halliday spent more time than was
entirely safe.
"Toward the end," he says, "I was
pretty shaky, I kept thinking. I
heard him, and of course the more I
hurried the more I bungled the
thing."
Fie, got it open at last without,
breaking the leek, mei foitid 1i;
the note -book.
(Note: I find I have given no de-
scription of the note -book in the
original Journal.' As it played 0 con-
siderable part in the approaching
tragedy, it desreves Some attention.
It was a small compact volume of
the loose-leaf type, a sort of diary
but not regularly kept. Most of the
entries, due to -the complication of
the cipher, were very brief. One or
Iwo, however, occupied almost a page
and all of them had been typed.
Needless to say, the cipher was
the one Nve had found on the scrap of
paper picked up in my garage.)
The discovery of the note -book
with its cipher sent his excitement to
:fever pitch. He ran through it for
the code word, but was unable to
find it. Then, replacing, the book
and leaving the suitcase as he hod
fond it, he set to work more care-
fully on the room itself.
• The coil of rope and the. 'knife
were behind a VOW of books on the
bookshelf, a packet of typing paper
and a box of carbon she3ts thrown
over them with apparent casualness,
to conceal them still further.
. So closely had he calculated the
time that he had barely restored them
'to their places when Gordon. slammed
the entrance door downstatrs, and
he says:.
"If he had come straight up we'd
heve been caught. 1 could have got
out, but I don't believe I could have
locked the door. But he stopped
there a 'second or two, and I just
made it."
Ile had not time to make the back
staircase, however. Annie Cochran
opened the linen -closet door, and he
bolted in there. He heard Gordon
unlock his room and enter it and al-
most immediately resappeae and de-
mand of Annie Cochran if she had
been in it during his absence. An
angry dispute followed, within it foot
or two of the linen -closet, not the
leSs acrimonius because of its lower-
ed voices, and of an almost hysterical
quality in Gordon's.
Every particle of his veneer had
dropped from him, and the threats
he made if 1w should find she had
been in his room are not even to be
recorded here
And 11001, once again, where are
we? .We haye, as against Gordon:
(a) The knife and the cog of rope.
(b) Our belief that he used the car
clandestinely, at nights ,
(c) At least an indiction that he
set the fire ender the boat -house,
(d) The cipher, found in my gar-
-ages
(e) The not -book in the same
cipher. .A man does not mend his
thoughts in this manner, urilees 110
Wishes to keep them hidden.
(f) The linen strips mufiling the
oar-locke, and suggested to Helliday
to -day by his place of concealments
The inventory of •the main house
Shows a certain ember of linen
sheets, If one is missing it wig prove
to strong factor in camectin,1 11101
with the boat.
(g) • The locking of his bedroom.
(h) Lest and mit least, an unpins-
entepersouelity,. Halliday ttecie the
.W•rd. "(lege:1'10(0e betel, ant.not pre.
pared to go so far.
As against all this, however, we
have:
, -
(a) The attack on him at the pit -
(hen door, and the manner in which
flo Wad tiorl, coresponding to the rope
ahout (arrOWliy.
b) Th' sheep -killing and murder
of Carroway, taking Wave as they
did before his aigival;
f el The feet the!: Halliday (entree
identify hien as the man he pielgel
tip in his (11r.
(d) The diteinguishing• mark by
whieh the teigninal hae sig led his
crimes, eo to speak, id the cirele 10(1,1
triangle, rirewn in ehalk; while this
is 111 vital, Hallidey fnund no chalk
in the room
have put to Halliday the boy's
inguthy about the doctor. It
impossible Inc us to experiment
with the bell, but he thinks it could
he distinctly leased from the mein
road.
On the other hand, the artival
Hayward on the scene almoet as soon
as I had got there ie extromety twe-
eting.. We have to -night naced off
the distance, in view of my state-
ment that I had lighted only one
mateh when the doctor's flash -light
was turned on me.
There . seine to be no touht that
Hayward was on the property that
eight, But Ido not accept thcs possi-
bility, suggested by Halliday, that as
he was in Greenough's confidence he
had been watching me. 4. Mall i10.23
not, 1 imagine, go out on such en
errand with his medical bag in his
hand, and the doctor had carried hie
bag. I recall distinctly his taking
from it the dressings for Gortion's
head.
August Oth.
Leonarda Da Vinci said: "Patience
serves as a protection against wrongs
as clothes do against cold. For if
you put on more cloth as the cold in-
creases it will have no power to hurt
yntl."
But I have put on all the extra
patience I can find in my mental dos.
et, and I am still uncomfortable.
Whether Jane has noticed our os-
tracism I do not know, but I have,
and so I think has Edith. So mark-
ed has it become that to -day I greet-
ed Mrs. Livingstone with a warmth
that slightly puzzled her.
Nothing edse new to -day. Halli-
day watched the main house last
night, but no 9110 left it. Annie
Cochran reports that Mr. Bet•leil is
suspleious of Gordon, and that the
feud between them still .ettetinues.
Ife declines the secretary's•aesistaniet
arl =eh as pOddiblf!,
That he is not certain, however, is
shown by the ear, with Wee he now .
has the lenge. locked up -at MOIL
"fle welts in tho libriPA"
eaye, "uutil 1 7ve loeked all the doors
anti WilldoWs. T/PM 1 brin t: him tbo.
keys, except the one to th; kitchen
door. Ile 1,4s me have that to get -
in with in the morning."
11. is showing- conAirivrabl,,, 001.
01.10, to my mind.
Mrs. Livingstone wae slightly gef-
fest en her arrival. It appear; she
had tried to leaVo her cards and LAT-
1110i.a.0110'13 on the old p•ptlemaa at the
1110111 house, but was finally compell-
ed to rut them under the door, al-
thou:eh Pile could hear voisies in the
library.
But she recovemd eufficientle to
tell CA a 11010' story, illuetrative of
the gi•ne.ral state of the 'ocal mind.
She says that three nights ago HadlY,
who keeps the hardware store in
OakVilles, when passing, the r,inutory
where Carroway is buried, saw a
figure walking slowly past the. grave.
It stopped, looked at the mound and
then moved on, fading into nothing
at the clump of evergreens beyond
it.
Hadly seems to have intele no fur-
ther -investigation! •
It is unfortunate, however, that
Edith's story appeared to -day, evi-
dently syndicated and receiving wide
publication. The confirmation is suf-
ficient to send off most of the sum-
mer visitors, looking back ever their
shoulders, like Hadly, as, they run.
Auguet 10th.
At midnight last night Hellidav
wet mei me he throwing pelt -beet
against the screen of my window.
He was standing close underneath,
and asked me to put on something
and work my way quietly toward the
other house.
"What's wrong," I asked
"He's getting ready to ga out,
think. He put his light out a elev-
en, and turned It on again .a few
minutes ago."
Halliday moved away and at, quick-
ly ae possible I dressed and followed
hint. He was under the trees, wait-
ingi when I joined him, and r
we worked quietly across the gartiee
and toward the 'garage, 0010110; out
beyond it, toward the Jane. HOD',
while eoneealed ourselves, we had to
full view of the house, but the light
W11.' out again anel for a tirne it look-
ed as though nothing more were to
Imppon.
(To Ile Continued).
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For Brussels and viclnIty Phone 64?
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Also
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Phone 40 Box 1 Turnberry Street Brussel.
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For refereonos consult any Porma whose sales
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•
QM -MK&
Worth Selling
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Advertise
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 oldjtrade.
Advertise to get new trade,
Advertise when business is good to make
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Advertise when business is poor to skeep
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,
ct.
ICKOICA,
THE 13 NOELS POST
"44:41. Ptr;\
Ca. 011iaU illtlanrsc)