Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 2 — page 121: what you’re looking at

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

THE SICKLE OF The group of women at the other end of the room drew together whispering. They suddenly suspected some background to the stark fact of the murder, and their faces peering through the twilight were sharp with curiosity. The minister turned away. He saw Hetty Ives come down the back stairs and cross the kitchen with her apron over her head and a bundle of sewing in her hand. Joel Benton was waiting for her by the door- step and they walked together just as he had seen them: walk away from prayer- meeting every Thursday evening for some years. A moment later he heard a shuffling of feet in the front hall as the men there stepped back before some new arrival. A hearty voice boomed out: “ Well, I got here as soon as I could—yes, all day mend- ing fence up in the hill pasture—where is her”—and he knew that Jim Amsden, the constable, had come. He must have gone at once into the study, for the people who were looking in the dining-room windows disappeared, moving away toward the other side. of the house. Mrs. Grant got up from her knees and joined her husband in the kitchen door- way. “I want to get a towel and more water to bathe Flora’s face. She hasn’t fainted. If she just rests there quietly she'll be all right in a little while. Arthur— They moved farther away to be out of hearing of those in the sitting-room. “What did you find out from them? What does she say?”’ “She doesn’t say anything, and her mother just repeats over and over the same stupid falsehood—she says Flora didn’t come down here this afternoon.” “Yet they were willing to come back with you!” “They didn’t dare to refuse—they’re too frightened to think. Perhaps later they'll answer the questions the constable asks them.” ~ “ Qughtn’t you to see him first?” “I’m going to have a talk with him now —as soon as he comes out of the study. But I didn’t want to go in there again.” He rubbed his hand over his eyes as if F ATE. 303 trying to blot ug thé picture of that figure on the hearth-ru Already voices could be heard asking for the minister in the hall. The group of men by the door drew aside to let him pass. He- found Jim Amsden, the constable, standing on the study threshold. ‘‘ They tell me you’re the one knows most about this, Mr. Grant,” he said. The minister told his story then with all the neighbors listening. He tried to make it as colorless as he could, and yet to omit none of the details, for he realized that on this first version stubborn opinions would be formed. The constable heard him through with- gut interrupting. ‘When you found the body there, you saw no weapon?” é¢ No. 9 “Nor any other clue?” The minister put his hand in his pocket and brought-out the pieces of jewelry. “I picked these up from the floor. They had been trampled under foot. The setting of the ring is bent and the clasp of one of the bracelets broken.” ‘ This was all you noticed?” “Yes, except that the flowers scattered on the carpet were pink roses I had seen in the bride’s bouquet.” “Was any one else in the house at the time?”’ “ Hetty Ives was here sewing for my wife up in the kitchen bedroom and Joel Ben- ton was at work on the lawn. them heard anything.” “Where is Flora Winslow now?” “She and her mother are in the sitting- ‘“ What does she say?” “That’s the strangest part of it. She doesn’t say anything. But her mother says for her—that she hasn’t been down to the parsonage this afternoon.” “Yet you talked with her!” - “Yes. Mrs. Winslow—for her own rea- sons-—is saying what I think she knows to be untrue.” Jim Amsden stared about him over the heads of the other men. “Let me see them,” he demanded. They’ve got to tell us what they know.” COUMIUC Neither of ° AOOLK COlini