Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 2 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

CIRCUMSTANCES. before he could approach. There was also in the room a cat that disappeared, and a parrot, almost dead in its cage. The room was in perfect order. Collins had called the acting county physician. — Dr. Brent had found that Mrs. Spalding’s death was due either to natural causes or accident, having struck her head against a table in losing her balance or in dropping from a heart stroke. Pendleton was careful to prevent any hint of his activities reaching the news- papers, which had very nearly forgotten the death of the little old lady in Maple Street after the first day’s story. But if the results had been given out, the above: would have been the sum of public knowl- edge. Only Pendleton and Brent, so far as they were aware, knew Mrs. Spalding’s daughter was Peggy Archer, the actress. She had asked them not to disclose the fact. To the neighbors the girl was known as a “wealthy daughter” who- occasionally came to see Mrs. Spalding. Pendleton and Brent knew also that at seven o’clock in the evening of the Sunday Mrs. Spalding’s death was discovered, the daughter had reported that some money was missing and that she suspected foul play. Later that night, at the cottage, the girl had evaded Prosecutor Pendleton’s ques-- tions, and afterward, at Brent’s home, had completely repudiated the suspicions she had at first confessed. The incident of the man looking in at the window Pendleton put down to some: neighbor’s curiosity: Mrs. West had been broken-hearted when he refused to record her testimony on this point, objecting that it had “no bearing on the case.” Try as she would, Mrs. West had been balked at every turn. She regarded it as very unfair. The next day Mrs. Spalding was buried. Also the finger-print expert reported that if there were any other finger-prints besides those of Elsie Spalding on the glazed brick they were too old to show. But he intended to make a more searching test with a new process. Meanwhile Philip Brent was puzzling over the double identity. of Elsie Spalding. 153, Just to be sure he went back over the health department records, and found filed there the death-certificate he had made out years before for “ Elsie Spalding.”. There was no notation of marriage, and the parents’ names were put down as “ Walter” and ‘““ Emily,” which was correct. Still the Elsie Spalding who was Peggy Archer had said that the girl who died was her sister-in-law. Brent could easily have found out all he wished to know about these confusing af- - fairs by inquiry in the neighborhood. But such a strong distaste for Pendleton and Pendleton’s ways had come over him that he could not make himself go around pry- ing into the problem. Besides, questions would cause talk, talk would reach Pendle- ton—and in the end it would be the girl who suffered. Peggy Archer, after that first night, had left Brent’s house for the Inn at the edge of town. She had withdrawn for two weeks | from the cast of ‘‘ The Distant Shore.” Two days after Mrs. Spalding had been buried Peggy Archer called on Pendleton at the court-house. ‘““T want to apologize to you, Ne Pen- dleton,” she said. Not until then had Pendleton really ap- preciated how beautiful she was. The girl was not wearing mourning, and that im- pressed him favorably, for, he reflected cynically, few women can resist the tempta- tion to wear black. “Tm afraid I’ve been rather boorish,” replied Pendleton, offering to assume the blame. “It has all been so trying,” sighed the girl. ‘And I was so silly to go running to you with that wild alarm about the money being lost.” 7 For just a moment Pendleton looked serious, but the doubt passed as she con- tinued: “I’m sure we'll find it somewhere else in the house—perhaps may never find its: Pendleton, watching her with half-closed eyes, heard little of what she was saying. She began to rise, and suddenly Pendleton realized she was about to go. ‘“You’ve been so very kind,’’ she seniled: ‘It has been very easy to be kind—to you,” said the prosecutor, stepping toward DOOLK C©@