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The Brussels Post, 1926-11-24, Page 71•,..11101.4,11,•••119•••••••.11.1 THE BRUSSELS POST WEDNESDAY, NOV, 24, 1026. • MVAVAT3044101k e 1 . 4. At tes,,I;ieestf The Red Lam (Copyright) Ti.e.Ter• iintQlselte ;,16 414 1 a by MARY ROBERTS RINEHART ire tile*, Then I heard a crash over the wire, followed by a second and nPal'Or one, and after that a silence; that followire Beet I heard, Elf WO tiW 1 0- iver, the sobbing breath of exhaus- tion, and that immediately after that the nettle -el, went up, and I celled Halliday frentically; and the:, on hie replying, I told hint iny uspicion Celt something wae wrong at the main 'men and to meet me there at once. But there is a discrepancy here which may cause me trouble if they come back to it. A telepltome sueh as our does not ring if one or the receivers is down. And the plain fact is that •our telephone did not ring at all that night. As I have not yet reeordeil the e•vents of that tragic evening in their sequence, I shall do so now. Halliday hacl dined with us, and had been more like himself than for some Urns past. The news that the house was to be given up had seemed to rt,lieve him, for some strange ma.; son, and I •remember hc *aid some- thing which puzzled me at the time. "After all," be said, " we cee't undo what has been done. And it may be the end." After dinner he and Edith sat on the verandah, and going to lows shade I saw that she was holding a match while he drew something on a bit of papen• But the matte went out almost at once, and I would have thought no more of it, hail I not heard Edith say: "And the cabinet was there?" "In the corner," he replied. I am no eaves -dropper. en I drew the shade and turned away. - He left shortie after ten, and Ed. ith joined us. She Was very quiet, and sat watching me play solitaire while Jane sewed industriously. At 'half past ten or thereabouts; lane suddenly said; "Tho telephone is ringing." Both Edith and I lookoe up in amazement; the instrumentwas in the small hall, not ten feet front where I sat; it would have been im- possible for it to ring without our hearing it, and we had heard noth- ing. "You've been asleep, Jane!" Edith accused her. But I glanced at her, and I remember that she WU oddly relaxed in her chair; Inc face ledted. white and her eyes were slightly fixed. "It is ringing," she aid, thiekly. And that Is how I happened to be at the telephone that night And bow, too, I gave the alarm which en- abled the murderer to escape, by calling Halliday. "Get your revolver and meet me at the main house," I said, "The,ye's something wrong there." I know that had I not rung the telephone, had I gone for Halliday instead, we would have caught the criminal. But to ring the one house Was to ring -the other; he may still have been standing there gasping. lie had, for all he knew up to that time, the rest of the night in Which to finish his deadly work; to dispose of the body; to gather up his suit- case, waiting outside, and e;.›,away. But I called Halliday, and he lis- tened. He knew then that instead of hours be had only minutes. Be must have worked \fast, in that ghastly shambles of a room; ,the car was probably already out, in the lane. He may even have etood there at the corner of -the lane, the‘..engine turning over quietly and watched Halliday running up towardthe house. And perhaps ho laugidsgh that secret laugh of his wheel had always rather Chilled me. Then—he simply got into the car and drove away. Coal and crafty to the last. No body, no :wirier. He made for the boat, He loft behind him oniee two reel 'dues; the WI°, _which Amite Coch- Letterheads Envelopes Billheads And all kind; of Business Stationeity printed at The Post Publishing Hoene. We will clo a job that will I e credit to your letueiness. Look over year stock of Office Stationeryand if it require!! replenishing can us by telephOne 31. The Post ehlishing ran identillee as one taken from the kitchen, and his packed sulecese. Not intentional, this last. He meet have neerresteclean linen, And certainly that diary of his, in elohee — he would not want that in the hand1 of the pollee. But what would dm diary matter, after all, if he nine:telt es- t•aped ? As tune goes on idicated with the eoets or people to oue eireumstances eider important. For instance, Livingstone'e the one- who bought the knife in Oakville and caused so mneh excite- ment by so doing, has been ovi..r get a. description of Gordon, present- ing an air of mystery which under other circumstances would be wietly entertaining,. Another story concerns ft middle- aged man of highly respectable pearance and of square and heavy build,. who WEIS seen walkins tenter- tninly along the main Toad near the Livingstone place at 1.00 A.M. the night of the murder, A painiee; ear, geeing his state, stopped and aelted if be was in trouble. He replied that he had been struck by a car an hour or so before, and had been lying by the road ever since. His condition bore this out, ae, he was stained with blood and dirt. He accepted the offer or a. lift, and was left at the railroad sta- tion at Martin's Ferry to catch the express there for the city. . There have been many similar meg ; an innuergeble nand, et .1 ple are convinced that they have SPen Gordon, and apparently almost any dapper youth of twenty or se, with what Edith calls patent loathe.. hair and an inveterate cigarette habit, is likely at any time to be tapped on the shoulder and taken to th.• police station. . . . Of clues of other and lesser sorts there has been almost an -embarass- meld. Both the library end that por- tion -of the hall near the telephone have furnished finger prints. But tes Greenough says: "Finger prints do not discover criminals; they identify them." Nevertheless, great pains have been taken to preserve them. On thc white marble mantel a very distinct imprint in blood was phetogrephed Without difficulty; others, less clear, were dusted, with black powder be- fore the camera was used. Detailed pictures were made of library and hall, before any attempt to put them back to order was permitted, and these prints have been enlarged and carefully studied. One of them with a strange result. Greenough, handing it to Inc tot day, said: "This print is defective. Yoe can keep it, if you care to." Bet I wonder if it is defective. There is what Greenough cane a light streak in the lower corner, but it requires very little imagination to give to this misty outline the sem- blance of a form, and to the lower portion of it the faint but recogniz- able appearance of brocade. I have Saki nothing. What cm I say? . . . One thing which riuzzles the pol- ice is the violence of the battle; it 'seems incredible that Bethel could have made thefight for life which he evidently did. At the same time; they have two problems to solve which repeated searching of the house and wide publicity Italie not yet answered. One is the disappearance or the menuscript on which Bethel had worked all ammo. Annie Cochran has testified that this manuseript Wad kept locked in a drawer in the lib- rary desk; when, Halliday and I en- tered the house this drewer was standing open and the, manuscript was missing. It hal not yet been located. But perhaps the most 18 the failure of any. friend or relative ,of Simon Bethel to interest himself in the case. Cameron's not to Leekin before Bethel rented the house ex- pressly dist:kale any previous know- ledge of him.. "Here is a possible tenant Inc Mr. Fortee's house," he wrote, "of whieb he spoke to me some time ago. I have no admairitance witn Mr, Beth- el, save that he ,called on itte a day or so ago, in reference to a state- ment in a book •cif mine, ,1 however, that he would be a qttlet Mid not ttoublesonle -tenant." Halliday brought up this miens situation yesteedey, in one of the rare moments 'he has given ue einte the taterdee. . "yes11 "eeeureeel to.Yoni kipper" he'eald,_ "WO it is etSatige OW no .Auguet 2Oncl, the ease is com- eagernele of all brine.; in extreme- whieh they cop - ene belonging to Mr, .11,-ithel nee iurned up?" "I dare say a P11:11 011, tliVe• '1,114 of his contempura-i •. !no,' ,1 his 'Mende," "He wasn't as old 18 all tiro," ' nd he aeked, apparently irrelevant- ... a moment later: "The two este.- Mee yon eltev him and talked to him, eew did he impress you? I 111401, b!S .E/I-t! a mind?" "The last tine, nf eourse, he wee eninkle frightened. He said as much." "And before that?" "Hit didn't say so, but he WEIS more or We on guard. He had his revol- ver. Of course, thoee were rather oarloue times." Ae a matter of fact, tilt case 13 iinythine. but a clear- one against Gordon, as it develops. Greenough has been, all along, as convinced of Gordon's guilt .as he had previouely been of mine. But Benchley is more open to conviction, and a conversa- tion between Halliday and him this Morning, on the lawn near the ter - twee is dill renning in my mind. Halliday had been protesting again:It Greenough's method of "fol- lowing a single idea until it wen: up a blind 'alley and died there." "Of course," he said quietly, "you (tan make a case against Gordon; it's .hem, But you'll have something left over that you won't know what to do with. We know that it was Mr. Bethel who bit Gordon and knocked him out some time ago, but who tied him? Where's the boy's own story about seeing a man at the gun room window? Mr. Porter here later on finds tkat window open, and sees a man in the lower hall. Who was that? The same hated tied the boy that tied Carroway, and Gordon hadn't even seen this plaee at that time. What are you going to do with that?" 'Then where's Gordon now?'; neked, practically enough. "I don't know: Dead, ineylie." Benchley stood thinking. "I think I get the idea," he said. "The fight, you think, was between Mr, Bethel and this unknown of yours; the boy either saw it and got mixed up in it, or knew he'd be sus- pected and beat it. Is that it?" ' "Well, T would say that a man about to commit such a crime doesn't Pack his suitcase, with the idea of escaping with it." A thought which, I admit, hnd nev- er occurred to me until that moment, As a result of this conversation, Berechley has advanced a theory of his own which accounts at least for the failure of any relatives to make inquiry. This is that the old man was in hiding under an aeseumed name; biding, in the most secluded spot he eould find, from some im- placable enemy who had finally caught up with him. How he reconciles this with the Carroway murder and the disappear- ance of Maggie Morrison I do not know, but certain facts seem to bear out this idea. He was, in one 101181, a man of mystery. His accounts were paid in cash t the automobile in whieh he arrived had been bought, at second hand a few days before, by the secretary 'and in the same man- ner. And all identifying marks had been carefully removed from his clothing, In addition to all this, there is the puzzling report on the knife itself. Examination under the microscope shows fibers of linen as web as frag- ments of cellular tissue. But it else reveal:CI-I-dilute particles of tobacco leaf, showing; it had gone through a pocket. But Mr, Bethel was not a smoker. At some time, then, Bethel clearly secured the knife and wounded his aseffilant. Not seriously, evidently, since aftet that he was able to do what he did do, but' sufficiently to torn the minds of the police toward the man who claimed to nave been struck by an automobile, This clue, however, has leveloped nothing. The night was dark, and hie rescuers have mo deseription of him, save of a heavy -set figure end a timid Manner of speeetig They carried him lo Martin's Ferry, but the conductor of the night exercise remember carrying no such passen- ger. . . Greenough to -day showed me Gor- ito»'s diary, rescued from the suit- case. It has at same time. been dropped into water, and ceetain pag- es are not legible. If, indeed that word may be used wheeshv nothing is legible; where eaeh page presents suchjumbles of large and small let- ters a,s the following sentenc.e, which .11cto copied Os a matter of inter. 081'1"Pen g.K. GTRgg Mein' .aot !MGT MotrT." The record is not 11. daily ono, but imparently was used 'for jottisig down odd thoughts or ideas. 11 cone filmes, however, at intervals, for the entise period he stayed at Twin Hol- lows, the lash entry having beery Made ona,Auguet nth, Certain entriee aro neat and methe. ,dka1 Plut ottO 0 u1. 1.1cr • 4 44+44.44 0,114.44 +40+ 40.'0 4+ • N (4' \ WANTED ig b est market prices paid. See me or Phtme Ne ax, Bins. E40•14, and 1 will call and gpr 3'0u • lions, Yolnek • + • •+.01.0+4+41.÷0-5ox-lo+•4...D4tfrr.4?,",141( ever, after hie injury, is by hand, and shows certain erasures and chan- ges. Once or twice in August the recoed is long, covering more than a page, • while the July entries Rite all brief. On the last page, hon. - ever, and without comment, he has .drawn in, rather carefully, a small circle enclosing a triangle. Greenough, while attaehing a cer- tain interest to it, has not yet sent it in to be deciphered by the oode experts of his department. As a matter of feet, I suspect hi:n of hold- ing it out, with the idea of being able to claim the reward if he finds Gordon. Which reward, by the way, 110W stands ae' ten thousand &Pare. August 23rd. Halliday saw a red light in the house the night Bethel wail killed. He has just told me. He ran out, after_ I telephone'l. him, and from the foot of the -lawn he saw it. It was gone almost at once. He has asked me to experiment with him to -night, using; the lamp from the attic closet. I have given him the keys. Apparently what he wishes to discover is the approximate location of iamb a light. T hay , nn 'Awl of his puree., . . . • I understand that the wearies who have been watching the house. at night have been withdrawn, and that :hereafter only such watch will be kept as will suffice to keep away the curious crowds that still throne!: here in daylight hours. To -day Annie Cochran and Thome as have been putting the house in order, preparatory to its final dos- ing. 1 shall never open it again. Thinnas has already painted the win - dew boards and Pht some of them in place. Let us pray that they keep inside what should be inside, and out- side what should be outl._ August 24th. The strings of small bells, fasten- ed across the closed and sheltered windows, frequently vibrated as though a hand had been drawn across thhm." (From "Eugenia Riggs and Her Phenomena.") Any coherent record Of our last. night's experiment is difficult to -day; not only do last night's alarms al- ways seem absurd in to -day's sun- shine, but I am not at all certain now that I did not build up, out of my recent reading and What I knew about the house, a bugaboo of my °wnn Ad yet—what a night; A man is a fool who, preparing to spend a night in a haunted house, where` a terrible erinte has been re- cently committed, reads during the earlyevening the idiotic imaginings which. other men have %conjured out of their own disordered fancies. Or out of their disordered digestions, ac- cording to the newest theory. Isn't it Wells who has the dyspep- tic Mr. Polly- sitting on a stile ;be- tween two thread -bare looking fields. and hati,ng the world in general and his own home in particular, after a. meal of pork, suet pudding, treacle, cheese, beer and pickles? And Fra- ser Harris who attributes "the tran- scenderit nonsense of the post-impres- tannish!" to the abeintha in their blood!. So, litet night I must needs poison nii; month] digestion in advance; pick up a book which should be suppeces- sod, pi. sold only to large ladies of a lymphatic type, to read with a box of ceremels. And with it •fill my- eielf with elementals, hideous masses .ur matter given temporary life andi strange forms; demons, summoned by the diaboliCal eites of the. Black Mese; and ghosts of foul crimes, come to seek revenge 00 tilde slay- ers! E11311 before 1 started the untinle- ly ringing of Clarets alarm clock, up - stain, set iny nerves to jangling. And then was a certain psychologi- cel preparation for me in the very steps_ I was obliged to take Ik order to get out of ,the house. For 41. man bf my ago to put on his pajama coat and retire into his bed, otherwise hilly dressed., was an ad of decep- tion, toreteeyracking enough in itself. But .when Jane came in aftge land retired, tardily remembering a miss. liig button, and dentetedinie the shirt, Wall atill Wearing, I •broke jute; a: It was with difficulty ditit I got her away, shirtless, and eettled down to wait untel the house wae , Halliday had opened tit,: main 1iou4. and the id lamp wee aleen'y • in the dim, Owing to the faitt that i ihe windows were hearth,' limn the initeltie, • 101.0 bad' no re:repine • about lighting it; but although it ens,: better than complete dailtimee it added. very little to the geneetil gni. -; •e. Halliday wee !odes, and somewhat etreined, the liouee itletlf hot and Lir- 1,108, Rad with all outside soueds (tut ilitprt,ssingly still, I 1initir,1 it ruatch and glanced into the library; ! ie wee a ghost of a room, the Omer knee, the furniture and !detente once more swatlessin white. - Only the prisms of the glass. Olen- deliee reflected the not and soemed. it flickered, to he quietly in inot- ic'nHalliday had little to say. . "I would like," he explained, "to reproduce, conditions as weedy as they were the night you Maw the fif.4'. . ere here," He smiled. "I don't sup- pose you really want to go and stand at, the head of that stairceen, Skip- per, but I'm going to ask you to, juet the same." I looked up the staircase nerveue- ly. "If you are going to reproduce the previous conditions," I protested, "you may recall that .1 had a re- volver at the time!" "T also seem to remember that you fired it," he said, and grinned at me. ."It will answer every purpose, and be coneiderably safer, if you will merely point your finger at me and say `crash.' " But no amount of lightness on his part or mine could do more than temporarily lift the gloom; the shad- ow of tragedy hung over everything at which we •looked. Halliday felt it, and suggested that "we get to work and thenget out." The emesion in his ivied. I. 310 WaS tide: 1 had elle& thi;t, a seeend 01 so after the shot and the •disappear- ance of the figure, the red light had died out. in the den, If, as he be- lieved was possible, this glow came from the lamp upstairs, brought down for some reason, or from a similar lamp, this required that the man I saw had' time to go into the den, extinguish the lamp and con- cent it, (since it wasn't in evidence later on) get back to the library and be ready to leave by the broken win- dow before he, Halliday, had turned 011 the light. "We a matter of time," li, eald. wae by tle, termer.: when I hemr.I the shot. I figure it took 111,, t(11 eeeonds te pielt up the chair, run to tie, window and smash it." It was rimier -tile wink 100112: Up th1.1 8.tu5retc.0., but I matiatti it, tuni took iorsitiOn. Fie stood below. fired- -.theOretictilly—tind li di I what the figure had done; novitd to. Witrd tho 11000, si ill ftwitv I/1,, tarn - el atid emelt into Ike fibeary I heard him Moving about and tb...• light went out. Then in the &ea - nese he ran- into the Itimmy ntain where he etruek a match. "Twenty seconds," he called. His voice trailed off; hie eleelow extended through the 'den doorwey into the hall, and as I watched it shows the condition of me nerve,: that it did not seem to be hi; shadow at all, but soinething quite different. For, all the world like an als man in dri•ssing gown. Then th match went out end I heard him coining out into the hell again., "Did you move a minute. ago?" he ask1I said. "I wouldn't move ;(1. 0ve 1,, , for a million dollars. Strike t. light," "Funny," he said. "r thought I heard something." He groped his way bade to the den, and the red lamp looked actual- ly cheerful after tile complete dark- ness. I heard him go into the lib- rary turain and apparently stand there and listen, and very shortly after he reappeared and asked me to change places with hint "See how you can make it, Ship- per," he said. I came down rather more rapidly than 1 ha gone ut,tdeir, n,oi, and iI1.11liday1 er lied any purtiridar sto„itt. :1 r•-•1 the bueiness, and now my one idea was to get it over. I did as Halliday had done, moved to the library door, turned and then, more or less hold- ing my breath, dived into the lib- rary and through it to the den. I brought up there, close to the red lamp, caught my foot in the cord and jerked it from the socket. Instantly eve were in darkness again, and in absolute silence. Halliday, I believe, was still ivaning over the stir -rail, waiting for me to comp!, I- the 1110 vI•ownt, and the suddee piunge into darkness had startled me more than I care to remember. (To Ile Oontinned). BUSINESS GABBS THE. 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