Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 4 — page 36: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JOU by Isabel Ostrander Author of “ Ashes to As ”” © Twenty-Six Gives,” “ Suspense,” ete. PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD X-ROUNDSMAN TIMOTHY McCARTY avenue. When the man entered the Creveling agvowed a suspicious-looking figure along the ouse, McCarty hid in the areaway. A moment later the second-story man leaped from a window and the ex-officer collared him. Clancy, the officer on the beat, answered his call for assistance, but the young burglar insisted he was not responsible for what they would find inside. On the library floor they found a gentleman in evening clothes shot through the heart. An army .44 lay close to his hand. Off the library was a breakfast-room with the remains of a late - supper. From the rug McCarty picked up a bit of broken amber, part of a cigarette-holder. Clancy notified borough headquarters, and McCarty sent for his friend, Inspecter Druet. The house was empty of servants, but on the third floor two of the servants’ rooms were littered with clothes. While the ex-roundsman and the inspector were looking over this floor of the house, McCarty thought he first heard, then saw a fleeting form as he looked over the stairs to the floor below. Then the bell rang and McCarty admitted a dapper gentleman, who explained he had arrived in answer to an urgent telephone message, which insisted that he come at once. He stated he was George Alexander, Mrs. Creveling’s uncle, and her husband’s business partner. The inspector’s examination of Alexander failed to reveal any leads. The dead man’s partner was as guarded in his answers as Frank Hill, Creveling’s valet, who next arrived on the scene. The valet testified he had taken a bag of clean linen to his master at the club on the previous night at eleven o'clock, after arranging for the supper at the house. Rollins, the butler, and his wife, the cook, had been given a holiday, and the other servants had been dismissed when Mrs. Creveling set out on her round of visits. McCarty in the meantime unearthed another lead; under the table-cover in the library he found a playing card, the nine of diamonds, blood-stained and torn. The ex-roundsman was pressing the valet to explain his whereabout from eleven o’clock of. the night before until his arrival on the scene, when Mrs. Creveling arrived and demanded: ‘ What has happened to my husband ?”’ : CHAPTER VII. “ WHO KILLED HIM?” HE woman’s tones were low and well | modulated, but they seemed to soar to the topmost reaches of the gal- leried rotunda in the momentousness of their question, and as they died away in a quivering silence,Peven the matter-of-fact McCarty felt a cold shiver of apprehension. It seemed an age before George Alexan- der, with a little nervous clearing -of his throat, advanced to meet her. ““My dear Myra!” There was mingled astonishment and dismay in his voice, and beneath it McCarty detected that same under note as of caution with which the banker had previously addressed the valet. “‘ How could my telegram have reached you so quickly? I—we didn’t expect—” ‘“T know nothing of any telegram, Uncle George.” Myra Creveling’s voice still seemed strangely remote. ‘‘ The cook tele- phoned out to me—at least I believe it was Sarah—that some accident had happened to Eugene. But who are these men? Frank, where is Mr. Creveling?” After a brief glance at the inspector and This story began in the Argosy-Allstery Weekly for July 24. 542 cloOOkS @ Original froma aaa eines ae 2 ClO} |)