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Wmasy ^ ^ ROBERTS fy RINEHART UWTWnOHS BY /«« a* Ooooi M/xnu'e* T SYNOPSIS. ... „ Tnnos spinster and guardian of O racle and Halsey established sum r Et ea.lquarters at Sunnyside Arnold fr was found sliot to death in hid Gertrude and her llance, Jaek tSfilev had conversed in the billiard B m shortly before the murder. Drt.r t'imic s.in acc used Miss Innes of bold ' » , - i 1 .•»[(■*•. <’;iKliW»r HhIImv of »*nul le, a'c'n/? bank, defunct, was arrested £? embrtzlcment. Paul Armstrong s f.or,tt, ..ccs announced. Halseys fiancee. i/iciVcce Armstrong, told Hal»e> ticat ... ile *{?“'.ill loved him. She was to marry an *fer It developed that Hr. Walker was ’{" man Louise Was found unconscious if the bottom Of the Circular staircase, r !L ga|,| something had brushed by her in the dark on the stairway and she fairtte.i Hailey is suspected of Ann rtrong's murder. Thomas, the lodgeke. p ii was found dead with a note in his f „;rket bearing the name I.ueb n VAal &e •• \ ladder found out of place deep ens ' the mvstery. The stables were i burned.' and in the dark Miss Innes shot >n intruder Halsey mysteriously dlsap His auto was found wrec ked by a freight train. It developed Halsey had in argument in tlie library witli a woman : before las disappearance. New cook dis annears Miss I i».ies learned Halsey was alive. Hr. Walker's face becomes livid Mention ccf the1 name of Nina t .irring tnn. Kvlclence was secured from a tramp that a man, supposedly Halsey, had been bound and gagged and thrown into an empty box car. Gertrude was missing. Hunting for her. Miss Innes ran into a man and fainted. A confede rate of Hr. Walker confessed his part in tin1 mvs terv He stated that the Harrington wo man had been killed, that Walker feared her. and that he believed that Paul Arm strong had been killed by a hand guide d by Walker. Halsey was found in a dis tant hi spltal. Paul Armstrong was not dead. Miss Innes discovered secret rooms In which the Traders' bank treasure was believed lei be Mrs. Watson, dying, said she killed Arnold Armstrong, who years before had married her sister under the (lias of Wallace. I.ucien Wallace was born of the marriage. CHAPTER XXXIII. At the Foot of the Stairs. As I drove rapidly up to the house from Casanova station in the hack, I saw the detective Burns loitering across the street from the Walker place. So Jamieson was putting the screws on—lightly now. but ready to give them a twist or two, I felt cer tain. very soon. The house was quiet. Two steps of the circular staircase had been pried off without result, and beyond a sec ond message from Gertrude that Hal sey insisted on coming home and they would arrive that night there was nothing new. Mr. Jamieson, having failed to locate the secret room, had gone to the village. I learned after wards that he called at Hr. Walker's, under pretense of an attack of acute Indigestion, and before he left had in quired about tlie evening trains to the city. He snid he had wasted a lot of time on the case, and a good bit of the mystery was in my imagination! The doctor was under the impression that the house was guarded day and night. Well, give a place a reputation like that, and you don't need a guard at all—thus Jamieson. And sure enough, late in the afternoon, the two private detectives, accompanied by Mr Jamieson, walked down the main street of Casanova and took a city bound train. i Mat they got off at the next station and walked back again to Snnnyside at dusk was not known at the time. Personally, I knew nothing of either move; I had other things to absorb me at that time. Lfddy brought me some tea while I rested after my trip, and on the tray was a small book from the Casanova library. It was called "The Unseen World", and had a cheerful cover, on which a half-dozen sheeted figures linked hands around a headstone. At this point in my story. Ilaloey always says: “Trust a woman to add two and two together, and make six." To which I retort that if two and two plus X makes six. then to discover the unknown quantity is the simplest thing in the world. That a houseful of detectives missed it entirely was because they were busy trying to Prove that two and two make four. The depression due to my visit to the hospital left me at the prospect of seeing Halsey again that night. It was about five o'clock when Liddy left me for a nap before dinner, hav ing put me into a gray silk dressing gowr and a pair of slippers. 1 listened to her retreating footsteps, and us soon as she was safely below stairs 1 went up to the trunkroom. The Place had not been disturbed, and I proceeded at once to try to discover the entrance to the hidden room. The openings on either side, as I have said, showed nothing but perhaps three feet of brick wall. There was no sign of an entrance—no levers, no binges, to give a hint Either the mantel or the roof, 1 decided, and aft er a half-hour at the mantel, produc tive of absolutely no result, 1 decided to try the roof. I am not fond of a height. The few occasions on which I have climbed a step-ladder have always left me dizzy *nd weak in the knees. The top of the Washington monument is as im possible to me as the elevation to the Presidential chair. And yet—1 ollmbed out on the Snnnyside roof without a seconds hesitation. Like a Jog on a scent, like my bear-skin Progenitor, with his spear and his wdld boar, to me now there was the '"at of the chase, the frenzy of pur *"lt, the dust of battle. I got quite a little of the latter on me as I climbed from tile unfinished ballroom out through a window to the roof of the cast w<ng of the building, which was only two stories in height. Once out there, access to the top of main building was rendered easy Isast it looked easy—by a small .. fastened to me wall outside of the ballroom, and per haps 12 feet high. The 12 feet looked short from below, but they were dif ficult to climb. I gathered my silk gown around me, and succeeded final Iv in making the top of the ladder. Once there, however. I was complete ly out of breath. I sat down, my feet on the top rung, and put my hair-pins in more securely, while the wind bel lowed my dressing-gown out like a sail. I had torn a great strip of the silk loose, and now 1 ruthlessly fin ished the destruction of my gown by I jerking it free and tying it around my ; head. Luckily, the roof was fiat, and I j was able to go over every inch of it Hut j the result was disappointing; no trap j door revealed itself, no glass window; | nothing but a couple of pipes two I inches across, and standing perhaps I lk inches high and three feet apart, | with a cap to prevent rain from en i tering and raised to permit the pas I sage of air. 1 picked up a pebble ! from the roof and dropped it down, j listening with my ear at one of the | pipes. I could hear it strike on some ' thing with a sharp, metallic sound, | but it wars impossible for me to tell | how far it had gone. 1 gave up finally and went down the ladder again, getting in through the ballroom window without being ob served. 1 went back at once to the trunkroom, and, sitting down on a box, gave my mind, as consistently as I could, to the problem before me. If the pipes in the roof were ventilators to the secret room, and there was no trapdoor above, the entrance was probably in one of the two rooms be tween which it lay—unless, indeed, i the room had been built, andtheopen ing closed with a brick and mortar | wall. 1 he mantel fascinated me. Made of wood and carved, the more I looked the more I wondered that I had not noticed before the absurdity of such a mantel in such a place. It was cov ered with scrolls and panels, and fin ally. by the merest accident, I pushed one of the panels at the side. It moved easily, revealing a small brass \ knob. it is not necessary to detail the fluctuations of hope and despair, and ■ not a little fear of what lay beyond, with which I twisted and turned the knob. It moved, but nothing seemed to happen, and then I discovered the trouble. I pushed the knob vigorouB ly to one side, and the whole mantel ! swung loose from the wall almost a foot, revealing a cavernous space be yond. I took a long breath, closed the door from the trunkroom into the hall —thank heaven, I did not lock it—and pulling the mantel-door wide open. I stepped into the chimney room. I had time to get a hazy view of a small portable safe, a common wooden table and a chair—then the mantel door swung to, and clicked behind me. 1 stood quite still for a moment, in the darkness, unable to comprehend what had happened. Then 1 turned and beat furiously at the door with my fists. It was closed and locked again, and my lingers in the darkness slid over a smooth wooden surface without a sign of a knob. I was furiously angry—at myself, at ! the mantel-door, at everything. I did not fear suffocation; before the thought had come to me 1 had already seen a gleam of light from the two small ventilating pipes in the roof. They supplied air, but nothing else. The room itself was shrouded in blackness 1 must have dozed off. 1 am sure I did not faint. 1 was never more composed in my life. I remember planning, if i were not discovered, who would have my things. 1 knew kiddy would want my heliotrope pop lin. and she's a fright in lavender. Once or twice 1 heard mice In the par titions, and so I sat on the table, with my feet on the chair. I imagined I could hear the search going on through the house, and once some one came into the trunkroom; 1 could distinctly hear footsteps. "In the chimney! In the chimney!” 1 called with all my might, and was rewarded by a piercing shriek from kiddy and the slain of the trunkroom door. I felt easier after that, although the room was oppressively hot and enervating. 1 had no doubt the search for me would now come in the right din ction, and after a little, I dropped into a doze. How long I slept 1 do not know. It must have been several hours, for I had been tired from a busy day, and 1 waked stiff from my awkward position. I could not remember where I was for a few minutes, and my head felt heavy and congested. Gradually I roused to my surround ings. and to the fact that in spite of ventilators, Hip air was had and grow ing worse. I was breathing long, gasping respirations, and my face was damp and clammy. 1 must have been there a long time, and the searchers wpre probably hunting outside the house, dredging the creek, or beating the woodland. 1 knew that another hour or two would find me uncon scious, and with my inability to cry out would go my only chance of res cue. It was the combination of had air and heat, probably, for some inade quate ventilation was coming through the pipes. I tried to retain my con sciousness by walking the length of the room and hack, over and over, hut j 1 had not the strength to keep it up. \ 8U 1 Bill UVJYt It «*il I 11X muir- (IhUUl. back against the wall. The house was very still. Once my straining ears seemed to catch a foot fall beneath me, possibly in my own room. 1 groped for the chair from the table, and pounde^ with it frantic ally on the floor. Hut nothing hap pened; I realized bitterly that if the sound was heard at all. no doubt it was classed with the other rappings that had so alarmed us recently. And then—I heard sounds from be low me, in the house. There was a peculiar throbbing, vibrating noise that I felt rather than heard, much like tiie pulsing beat of fire engines in the city. For one awful moment 1 thought the house was on fire, and every drop of blood in my body gath ered around my heart; then I knew. It was the engine of the automobile, and Halsey had come back. Hope sprang up afresh. Halsey's clear head and Gertrude’s intuition might do what Giddy's hysteria and three detectives had failed in. After a time 1 thought I had been right. There was certainly something going on down below; doors were slamming, people were hurrying through the halls, and certain high notes of excited voices penetrated to me shrilly. I hoped they were coming closer, but after a time the sounds died away below, and I was left to the silence and heat, to the weight of the darkness, to the oppression of walls that seemed to close in on me and stifle me. The first warning I had was a stealthy fumbling at the lock of the mantel door. With my mouth open to scream, 1 stopped. Perhaps the sit uation had rendered me acute, per haps it was instinctive. Whatever it was, I sat without moving, and some one outside, in absolute stillness, ran his fingers over the carving of the No Tm^Ooor Rovtaltd ItMlf. 1 mantel and—found the panel. Now the sounds below redoubled; from the clatter and jarring I knew that several people were running up the stairs, and as the sounds ap proached, 1 could even hear what they said. "Watch the end staircases!" Jamie- , son shouted. Damnation there's no light here'" And then a second later. ' "All together now. One — two - j three—" The door into the trunkroom had been locked from the inside. At the ■ second that it gave, opening against ; the wall with a crash and evidently j tumbling somebody into the room, the j stealthy lingers beyond the mantel door gave the knob the proper ire- ! petus, and—-the door swung open, and , closed again. Only—and Liddy al j ways screams **id puts her fingers lu her ears at thti point—only now I | was not alone in the chimney room. There was some omt else in the dark j ness, some one who breathed hard, i and who was so c!c«'i I could hav-5 touched him with my Mod. I was in a paralysis cf terror. Out side there were excited oV’ces and in credulous oaths. The trucks were being jerked around in a frantic search,. the windows were throw n open, only to show a sheer drop of 40 feet. And the man in the room with me leaned against the mantel-door and listened, llis pursuers were plain ly battled; I heard him draw a long breath, and turn to grope his way through the blacknecs. Then—he touched my hand, cold, clammy, death like. A hand in an empty room: Me drew in his breath, the sbarp intaking 'Jf horror that fills lungs suddenly cbl lapsed. Beyond jerking his hand awry instantly, lie made no movement. I think absolute terror had bin. by the throat. Then he stepped back, with out turning, retreating foot b'r foot from The Dread in the corner, and I do not think he breathed. Then, with the relief of space be tween us. I screamed, ear-splittingly, madly, and they heard me outside. “In the chimney!" I shrieked. “Be hind the mantel! The mantel!” With an oath the figure hurled Itself across the room at me, and I screamed again. In his blind fury he had missed me: 1 heard him strike the wall. That one lime 1 eluded him; I was across the room, and 1 tad got th“ chair. He stood for a second, listening, then—he made another rush and I struck out with my weapon. I think it stunned bio., for I and a sec ond’s respite when I could hear him breathing, and some one shouted out side: "We—can’t—get—in. I low—does—It open?” But the man ifi the room had changed his tactics. 1 knew he was creeping on me, inch by inch, and 1 could not tell from where. And then —ho caught me. He held his hand over my mouth, and 1 hit him. I was helpless, strangling—and some one was trying to break in the mantel from outside. It began to yield some where. for a thin wedge of yellowish light was reflected on the opposite wall When he saw that, my assailant dropped me with a curse; this—the opposite wall swung open noiselessly, closed again without a sound, and 1 was alone. The intruder was gone. “In the next room'" I called wildly. "The next room!" But the sound of blows on the mantel drowned my voice. By the time I had made them understand, a couple of minutes had elapsed. The pursuit was taken up then, by all except Alex, who was de termined to liberate me. When 1 stepped out into the trunkroom a fret* woman again 1 could hear the chase far below. 1 must say, for all Alex's anxiety to set me free, he paid little enough at tention to my plight He jumped through the opening into the secret room and picked up the portable safe. ”1 am going to put this in Mr. Hal sey s room. Miss Innes,” he said, "and I shall send one of the detectives tc guard it." 1 hardly heard him. I wanted to laugh and cry in the same breath — to crawl into bed and have a cup of tea. and scold Diddy, and do any of the thousand natural things that 1 had never expected to do again. And the air! The touch of the cool night air on my face! (TO UK CONTIM'KI) ) Worried Over His Trousers. The humors and tragedies of New York Hast side life are delineated by Frank Marshall White in an article in Harper's Weekly. Master Jacob Ros enberg, eleven or twelve years ot age, was suffering from a broken leg "His supreme agony came, however, when Dr. M. ripped up one side of the Juvenile trousers with a pair of scissors to make room for bandages. My new pants! My new pants! He's cutting my new pants!* Jacob shrieked, and almost wriggled himself out of the grasp of the policeman and the driver in his efforts to prevent the mutilation of his raiment. All the way to his home In the ambulance the boy bewailed bis mangled trousers more than be did his broken leg. We think that preachers ought to say more about bell fire and brim stone; people are feeling aJtogaUiM too easy about tbeuiaeitoa. REAL MEAN Hoax—My wife is going to wait for me at the gates of heaven, if she's the first to go. Joax—Yon shouldn't be so mean as to make her wait through all eternity, just because she made you wait occa sionally. BELIEVES IN DREAMS Pat —Do yez belnvc in dreams. Moike? Moike—Sure I do; wasn't it jist last week thot I dreamed that Oi lost some money and the next day the judge lined me foive dollars. NOW AND THE FUTURE I Jack—I could follow your footsteps all my life long, dearest. Grace—Oh! yes, you say thnt, but when wo are married! no doubt you'll walk about ten feet ahead of me, Just like all other husbands. AGAINST HER PRINCIPLES. 'Mr*. Alimony contemplate* another divorce.” •Tin not *urprl*ed. She won't let any husband become permanently Iden tified with her.” A GOOD SOLID REASON “Why don’t you believe In the apell og reform?" “It ia too much trouUe to learn an other dialect” i I HE heart should give charity win u the hand cannot, anil truth will get uppermost nt last. An ounce of mother Is worth a pound of clergy. —Joseph Parker. Small Cakes for Various Occasion*. Tho following recipes are appropri ate to serve with frozen dishes or with tea or chocolate. Many delicious little cakes and cookies may he bought: but no matter how attractive they .ire, one likes the touch of Indi viduality which Is shown In cakes of home manufacture: Chocolate Nut Cake.—Orenm three fourths of a cupful of butter, add one and a half cupfuls of sugar gradually, then alternate a half cupful of milk with two and a quarter cups of flour sifted with three teaspoonfuls of ba king powder several times to Insure a thorough mixing, then add three squares of grated chocolate, a cupful of broken pecan meats, a teaspoonful of vanilla and the whites of eight eggs beaten stiff. A little salt Is an Im provement. Hake In gem pans about twenty minutes. Bachelor's Buttons.—Rub together four tablespoonfuls of butter and ten tablespoonfuls of flour. Add five ta blespoonfuls of sugar to the flour mix ture and live to two well-beaten eggs, flavor with anise nnd combine tho two mixtures. Make In smnll balls and bake. Dip In melted rondant and sprinkle with nuts. Fondant.—This Is the foundation for French candles and Is used for cake frostings. Use four cupfuls of sugar, one cup of water and a table spoonful of glucose. Boll until a little dropped In water will make a soft, waxy ball. Cool and stir until white and creamy. It will keep for weeks and always be fresh for use by heat ing over hot water. Keep the fondant In a dish covered with a waxed paper and tightly covered, or It will dry and crumuje. Orange ,Cakes.—Cream a quarter of a cupful of butter, add a half cupful of sugar gradually, the grated rind of an orange and a tablespoonful of the juice, the yolks of two eggs well beat en. Sift one and two-thirds cups of flour and half a teaspoonful of cream if tartar and a quarter of a tenspoon ful of soda, a pinch of salt. Fold In tho whites of two eggs beaten stilt. Rake in patty tins and ice with frost lug flavored with orange Juice Wafers ('ream a half cup of butter, add a cup of powdered sugar and a cup and three-fourths of flour, a little suit and a teaspoonful of vanilla and a half cup of milk Rake on a baking sheet and cut in squares. Roll imme diately, before they harden. T IS bad enough lor an at tractive young mis* to be un able to make a loaf of bread, or broil a steak, or use a needle; but the limit la passed when a rollrice makes her such u little Idiot as to think It smart to boriPt nf it.” Similar remarks we hear every day,, blaming the college education for the foolishness of a few When we ar*r looking for results from college train lug let us take the average girl, to ho fair A man who Is selling apples docs not show tho worst ho has In stock, hut the best. It is true we meet women occasion ally who consider a lack of knowledge or household affairs something to boast of. but let uh ho thankful that they are rare, and they mako them pelves a laughing slock among goodf people. It takes brains to ram a bouse and provide for a family and the woman who does the former Is as much a business partner of the one who does the latter as tho business partner down town. Egg Plant. Egg plant Ih such a pretty vogetablo tn look at. that it always attracts the eye In the market windows. II is not as commonly used as It should ho, nor Is It widely grown tn our climate.. Mere arc a few good ways to servo the plant: Egg Plant With Potatoes - Peel a raw egg plant and cut It up In cube* about an Inch In size Cut an equal portion of raw potatoes Jr* slnijlar cubes. Put the two together tn a saucepan In which two tabh-spoonfuls ef butter have been melted, add a pinch of ginger, cloves, nutmeg, al spice, turmeric, cinnamon, half a tea spoonful of red pepper and salt to taste. Cover tho pan closely ami let the vegetables cook tn the water gen erated from their own steam. If all the moisture Is evaporated h< fore they are quite done turn tn a half cupful of boiling water and finish cooking. at Egg plant Is good sliced abd put under a weight to remove tho Juice then dipped tn batter and fried. Stuffed egg plant is also another fa vorlte dish. Egg Plant Salad.—Take a good sized, firm egg plant and cut fn title* slices, lay them in cold water, with a tablespoon of salt and a piece of lee; leave for ten minutes; then put over the fire with boiling water and » half tablespoonful of vinegar boll for ten minutes, drain, chill and out lt> dice. Mix with this an equal quantity of finely cut celery and two hard cooked eggs chopped fine Puilf, •»»«’«" this a quarter of a cupful of Fh'tttb dressing Serve garnished w 1th green pepper rings. 7iueu~