e at a funeral. And in the afternoon it was like a funeral, the body coming back by train and being taken from the depot to Mapleshade in one of the Do

. It seemed like every village up and down the line had emptied itself into Longwood. Farmers and laborers and loafers swarmed alon

lway's side door, demanding the telephone girl. But, believe me, I sat tight and said nothing-nothing to them. The police were after me mighty quick, and there was a séance over Corwin's Drug Store when I felt like I was being pu

f of them true. I'd read about places and people I knew as well as my own face in the mirror, and they'd so

liable and who wasn't, I questioned and ferreted and,

her neck. There was a wound-not deep, more like a tearing of the skin, on the lower part of her cheek. It was agreed that she had been struck only once by some heavy implement that had a sharp or jagged edge. Though the woods and fields had been thoroughly searched nothing had been discovered that could have dealt the blow. Whatever he had used the murderer had either successfully hidden it or taken it away wit

nd Hines had trodden the earth about her into a muddy mass, and the

f the screening trees were snapped and bent

e was in the Wayside Arbor. The pearl necklace alone was worth twenty thousand dollars, and just below it, clasping her gown over the chest, was a diamond cross, an old ornament o

he didn't think intended to do so. The Mapleshade people thought differently, all declaring that Sylvia depended on her and took her wherever she went. One of the mysteries about the woman

e Sundays she'd go to town and when she returned say very little about where she'd been. A search of her rooms showed nothing, except that she seemed to have left her clothes behind her. She was last seen at Mapleshade by Nora Magee, who, at half-past five on Sunday,

nly when you were close shut in your own room or walking quiet up a side street that the person with you would whisper the Doctor's name. Nobody dared say it aloud, but there was

st, and we all heard that there were important facts-already

m. The work in the Exchange had piled up so we'd had to send a hurry call for help to headquarters and I left the office

f queer guys that I took to be the jury. Halfway there a gang of reporters passed me, talking loud, and swinging along in their big overcoats. Near the black pine the

y outside was cold and cloudy, and through the French windows that looked out on the lawns, the light came still and gray, making the faces look paler than they already were. It was a gr

g over the back of a chair, and on a little table near them her hat and veil, the one glove she had had on, and the

moments so still you could hear the fire snapping and the scratching of the reporters' pencils. They were just behind me, bunched up at a table in front of the window. When the Doctor came in ever

been found, the position, the surroundings, etc., etc., and then cal

dition of the scalp which had been partially protected by the hat, thick as it was with a plush outside and a heavy interlining. This was held up and then given to the jury to examine. I saw it plainly as they passed it from hand to hand-a small dark automobi

aving been excused. They told what I have already written, one of them making the creeps go down your spine, describi

to the quarrel between Sylvia and the Doctor her voice began to tremble and she could hardly go on. It was pitiful to see but she had to t

er from the table beside him said it was the letter a

are

Fiske, the man I told you about. It'll be a long ride but at the end we'll find happiness waiting for us. D

e. All the eyes turned as if they were on pivots and looked at Jack Reddy-all but mine. I kept

and such questions. And then it came out that nobody-not even Mrs. Fowler-knew exactly what Sylvia had. She was all the time buying new ornaments or having her old ones reset and the only per

iration on his forehead and his big, knotty hands twiddling at his tie and his watch chain; he told his story very clear and straightforward. I think everyone was impressed by it and by Mrs.

face and little twinkling eyes, and she sure was a sight, bulging out of a black cloth suit that was the fashion when Columbus landed. On her head was a fancy straw hat with one mangy

e her testimony very well and she told something that

t to her room but couldn't sleep b

out near her cheek, "it was out so f

ache," said the Corone

doesn't make me to wake?" she asked,

giggle, and I heard one of those fr

the comic

noises-what k

ream,"

ard a s

Hines is come upstairs I go down to the kitchen to make--" she stopped, looking up in the air-"

mean a p

d all over

t water on the gas, and the

ime was

ock says ten mi

did yo

ked sur

u know the nam

and investigate-e

t of good-humored laugh as if she

en the automobiles be pass-up and down all night, often drunken and making noise

ou go

icine for my swole up

ear any mo

t sleep ever all night. All I hear is automobiles-many automobiles pas

t Hines' movements, and her answers, if you could get over t

as a cat, holding his hat in his hands and twisting it round like a plate he was

rst see this woma

the train came in. She came do

ar it was Mi

ee her face plain, it being covered with a figured bl

ou think i

r anywhere. And when I spoke to her and said: 'Good evening, Miss Hesketh, going to

ny more convers

then. She got in and I handed he

id he hadn't noticed it except that it was a

d the one glove. He thought they were the same but it was hard to tell, the platform being so dark-anyway, it was them sort

the train and at the Junction. Sands particularly noticed the gold mesh purse because she took her tick

cried and poor old David kept hesitating and looking at Mr. Reddy, but the stamp of tr

rs. And there wasn't a soul in Longwood that didn't grieve for him, plunged down at the moment when he thought he was most happy into such an awful tragedy

or he kept crossing and uncrossing his knees, and he didn't give his evidence nearly so clear and continued as the newspape

married by his friend Fiske, an Episcopal clergyman. The Coroner asked him if Fiske expected th

e Coroner asked and he answered lo

stepfather on Saturday morning. It was not till after

he time what that

a dull red an

in a letter she wrote me

e elopement. That letter he had destroyed. He answered it the next morning, she having directed him to bring it in himself and d

d "Don't disappoint me-don't do what you did the other

o elope once before a

u know

entional. When it came to the scan

quarrel with Dr. Fowler mad

othing ab

ehill, coming into Longwood

er. I drew up to one side of the road and waited. During the time I waited-half an hour-I neith

't go to

t the house. She had to

it of seeing her som

you could see he had to mak

at Mapleshade, I saw her at intervals. Once or twice we went for walks in the woods, and a fe

ter nine. The place was empty and he went up to his room. He didn't know how long

ng to give it word for word. You coul

t to question h

too quick and I w

ression that she was

sive and I thought she'd done some foolhardy thing and ha

ou mean by

ug and threw

I didn't think of any definite thing. I ran to the garage and got out my car and went northward up the Firehill Road. It was terrible traveling, and I

as I turned into the pike. But she wasn't there. I slowed up and waited, looking up and down, for I'd no idea which way she was coming, but there wasn't a

in the underbrush-foots

I made longer runs up and down, looking along both side

f the farms or cottage

he'd cautioned me against letting anyone know. After I'd searched the main road thoroughly f

mean foo

think of it, it was nearly impossible for her to reach in that space of time. It seemed the only reasonable explanation-and it was the sort of thing she migh

thought of how he must be feeling, remembering his rage agains

ng much what I did, I let the car out and went up and dow

was half-past four when y

I didn't not

m 9:30 to 4:3

es

going up and down the turnpik

ted-for half hours at a

most people as if he was telling the absolute truth and wanted to impress it. But when a girl feels about a man as I did about him, she can see below the surf

home and falling asleep on the sofa,

hen he asked me where his daughter was I was startled as I realized she wasn't at home. But, even then,

for it. By that time I was sure she'd got into some silly scrape and I wasn't going to have her stepfather finding out a

they've said. I was paralyzed. I don't know what I said. I only felt she'd been in

face in the room was turned to him but mine. I couldn't look at him but sat like a dummy, picking at my gl

chap! that

with her stepfather. You could see he was careful in his answers. According to what he said s

e Coroner. He looked at it, then, as Mr. Reddy was moving away, asked him to wait a minute; the

ed back and sa

n extra drum

used

es

you do wit

e bushes somewher

know the

of smile and

d the tank. When it was done I pitched the drum b

But the real sensation of the day was the Doctor