Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 4 — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

HOW MANY CARDS? McCarty, her eyes had fastened themselves upon the valet, and as he opened his lips to reply the former stepped forward. “You are Mrs. Creveling?” “T am.” Her glance returned to In- spector Druet. ‘‘ May I ask who you are and what you are doing in my house?” ‘‘ Myra, my dear,” Alexander interposed hastily, ‘“‘ you must prepare yourself for a great shock, a great grief! This man is an inspector from the police ucpartnent Eugene was found here. dead!”’ For a moment her wide violet eyes stared | deep into her uncle’s, and there came a sudden tensing of the lines of her beautiful face, but no outcry, no faintness, no other signs of normal emotion. .Then from her stiffened lips there issued one single ques- tion— “ Who killed him?” McCarty glanced inadvertently at his superior. If the supposed maid had tele- phoned to her mistress merely that Crevel- ing had met with some accident, why had his wife on learning that he was dead in- stantly assume that he had been murdered? Inspector Druet, however, did not take up that thread at once. Instead, he ges- tured deprecatingly, but with unmistakable authority to a throne chair which stood be- tween two torch-lamps near where she had halted and asked: “ At what hour did your cook teleprone to you, Mrs. Creveling?”’ Obediently, almost mechanically, the lady seated herself and, loosening her coat, drew off her veil. “ At about five o’clock this morning, a trifle before the hour, I think.” She put one hand to her forehead for a moment, but there was no dazed look to shock in the direct, clear gaze she bent upon her ques- tioner. ‘And that was all the message, that there had been an accident? You asked for no particulars?”’ “IT had no opportunity. That was all the message that was delivered to me. I did not receive it myself, the butler at Broadmead, where I was staying, replied _to the telephone, then awakened my maid, who in turn brought the news to me. I understood that the cook—the only maid- 543 servant left here—had said that I must come home at once, that something had happened to my husband.” At about five! That had been the hour when Alexander first made his appearance at the house, a few minutes after McCarty had concluded his solitary second search of the rooms up-stairs. The agitated elderly gentleman had not thought of sending the wire to his niece until. a good half-hour afterward; it must have been a quarter of Six, at least, when the detective from borough headquarters reached the nearest telegraph office to despatch the message. Why had none of them thought to telephone direct to Broadmead instead? As McCarty asked himself this question he glanced inadvertently at Alexander just in time to intercept a look which flashed between the banker and the valet; a de- liberate motion of command with his eyes toward the room back of him which he had . just left, the room with the disordered supper-table still laid for two. McCarty’s own eyes turnéd to Hill to find him slipping, catlike, toward the door in a movement which the man himself instantly checked. Mrs. Creveling’s testimony was of utmost value at the moment, but NicCarty made up his mind to keep his own attention upon this strangely assorted pair as well. @ ‘You immediately aroused your host?” prompted the inspector. ~ “ My hostess,” Mrs. Creveling corrected him, still in that monotonous, remote tone without obvious display of repression. “ Mr. Waverley was not at Broadmead last night. Inspector, who killed my husband?” Now, indeed, her voice had changed, but with no poignant outburst of pent-up grief. It rang out hard and cold and sharp as Steel, and behind it there was a stern, implacable determination to know the truth. _ “ What makes you think that any one killed him?” the inspector countered swiftly. “Your maid telephoned that an accident had occurred, and your uncle here has merely informed you that Mr. Creveling was found dead.” - She shrugged, and a faint smile, as of scorn, curled her mobile lips for an instant before they settled again in that unyielding line. O) ing ne from THE OH STA E UNIVE! =) mK DOOLK CO