Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 2 — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

oo4 of the same opinion as the medical exam- iner! Don’t let them know but that the case is closed as far as we are concemed, and it might be a nice little diversion for them if you dropped a hint about there be- ~ ing insanity in the family, and our late friend having showed signs of going bugs himself. Don’t put it too strong, sir; a whiff is enough for them news hounds to get on the scent, and ’tis being laid careful for them, and for us, too, if I’m not mis- taken.” | “T get you.” There was a new note in the inspector’s tone. “ Your party will be under way at eight sharp.” An hour later, over a thick steak and very black coffee, McCarty recounted to the eager Dennis all that had taken place since he left him at the firehouse that morning. “And that’s the whole of it!” summed up, waving a greasy knife compre- hensively. ‘‘ Every last one of them bluff- ing and hedging and lying like hell except the O’Rourkes, and not a soul of them knowing that they’re giving themselves away with every stall they make! If it’s all the one thing they’re working together to keep dark, then ’tis better organized they are than Tammany itself was in the old days; but if they’ve each got their own private reasons—outside an aversion to no- toriety—for warding off an investigation, they must be a fine bunch of crooks! There’s something queer about the lot, Denny; something I don’t hem from} I told you the dope I got on them from Jim- mie Ballard; now, leaving out my old friends the O’Rourkes—though God only knows how they come to be mixed in that -crowd—take the Kip woman. She knew well I was no reporter, but she tried to bluff it out and put over the lie that she was asleep in her bed all night, and had hurt her arm by a fall. She didn’t dare deny, though, that ‘twas Waverly sent her the message about what had happened to Creveling because she wasn’t sure of her ground, and when I sprung it on her that ‘twas suicide, it swept her clean off her feet; if she don’t actually know it was mur- der she’s got a mighty strong suspicion, and so have the rest of them.” almost against her will? he’ — Cloak P ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ‘‘"Twas a fool move she made, quarrel- ing with the old dame she’d hired to boost’ her into society,” Dennis commented. “ Knowing the woman had something on her she’d ought to have kidded her along to keep her mouth shut.” McCarty shook his head. ‘ Fool she may be, but she knew that the Frost woman wouldn’t talk unless it was dragged out of her for fear that notoriety would spoil her chances with another suck- er; one hint of scandal and her graft would be gone. As it was, when I put it up to her she cleaned her own skirts by blacken- mg the other woman’s: What was it that took Mrs. Kip out of her house at all hours Blackmail, or something like drink or dope that she couldn’t keep away from? What kind of investments is her money tied up in, that she’s flush one minute and broke the next?” ‘Like a gambler,” Dennis nodded. “Why did she break her dates and run a chance of getting in Dutch with the very people she’d been trying to_know all these years?” pursued McCarty. “Why did she Keep that old leech around her at all if she knew the woman was on to her; for a Of course, if all this has nothing to do with Creveling’s death and her little game, whatever it is, doesn’t came under the statutes I’m wasting time and brains on her, but to-morrow she’ll come across with an alibi for last night or I’ll take her down- town.” ‘ To-morrow will be another day,” Den- nis remarked. ‘‘ What if we had a quiet talk with her now?” “ Because we’ve a little date of our own down-town,” retorted McCarty. “Now, there’s the F ords. She was ready enough to talk until she let that slip about expect- ing to see Creveling at Cutter’s house the night before, and then she looked for a ‘minute as though she could have cut her tongue out. Why? Whatever it was, her husband was afraid of her talking, too.” “IT should think when you heard him ask her if she knew, and then say that they were done for, you would have called jt a day and run him in,” Dennis observed. ' “ When the two of them had a perfectly good alibi that Cutter himself vouches GON GOOo G SS (CO wo