was raised and pointed to Mapleshade. The cautious people didn't say it plain-especially the shop-keepers wh

arly to Dr. Fowler than to anybody else they pitched on him. All the gossip about the quarreling came out blacker than ever. The papers were full of it and the other worse stories, about Sylvia's allowance and the will of h

and asked them how Virginie could have got word to him that Sylvia was running away, they'd just push that to one side, saying it could be explained som

st or agitator to stand on the postoffice steps and yell that Dr. Fowler ought to

days after the inquest I saw Anne and she said he and Mrs. Fowler hadn't been out of the house-that they were in a st

r through and I wanted the credit of the office kept up, but it's also true that I wanted to be on the job myself and hear all that was passing. Believe me, it was hard to quiet down in my bedroom at night

hanging down to his collar, and Freddy Jasper, who was English and talked with an awful swell dialect, and a sallow-skinned, consumpted-looking guy cal

door I'd forgotten my supper. It wasn't till I saw the Gilt Edge window with a nice pile of apples stacked up round a pumpkin, that I remembe

oapy and Jones and Jasper came in and asked me if they could sit at my table. "Please yourself," said I, "and you'll plea

ut it, I generally picked up some new bits from them. So I went to the extravagance of three cents worth of jelly roll

cause while we all agree you're the belle of Longwood, we've

et it out, and when she'd drawn off to the cashier's desk, they star

inates him. They've dug up his record and though the place he ran wasn't to be reco

itted bag and the jewelry gon

that Virginie Dupont coul

he

on th

of complicating things? If theft was com

got in the village that Fowler and

ed as plain as Cain after he was bra

chap, not as fresh as the others. "Let

d round sideways in his chair, loo

her stepfather lost his home and the money he had been living on, so he tried to stop her from marrying. Saturday night he heard that his efforts had failed. I fancy that on Sunday morning

l of surmise about

him a sco

rfect Dr. Fowler'd be eating his d

esupposing it was she-being on the trai

s-his troublesome stepdaughter, the disturbance of his home and his financial distress. How," he turned and looked solemnly at us, fate played so well into his hands I can't yet exp

is arms on the table, "we come to h

ar from the turnpike as he said. Either he and she had some fierce quarrel and she ran from him in rage or terror, or he may have told the truth and she slipped out at the turn from the Riven Rock Road without his knowledge. Anyway she got away from him and ran for the only light she saw. There she tel

about for a half-h

d her, concealed the

point. Many think it was a farm implement. Did he go across lots to Cresset's and arm him

e Jones, he said as c

ar was nearer to hand. A large-sized auto wrench is a pretty formidable weapon, and a tire w

vidence is all in

it wasn't as full of holes as a sieve. Why, you

example?"

take R

suddenly and staring at them with a pi

elieve I could work up quite a convincing case against Reddy, allowing for a h

abbitts. "Give it t

t. There is no one, therefore, to deny that he may have had Miss Hesketh in the car with him. Instead of

ty. The date in Maple Lane was for seven. Supposing she kept it and was on time-which is a stretch of

d have d

ight? nearly forty-

driving a high-powered racing car.

t as a hole,

se that as that car flew over the miles th

ork-"that's too big a hole. They were lo

. As they neared the Wayside Arbor he told the woman something was wrong with the car and sent her to the place ostensibly to

fooling, but even so I didn't like h

r to telephone to,

d and jerked hi

le belle sounding t

Jasper w

We've only Reddy's word for that message. We don't even know if she got a connection. I telephoned out to the Corona

told Hines she was expecti

e have told Hines-who was curiou

ts's face and Jones's, from being jus

ts, "if this isn't buying the b

r wen

home. Why she sat so long there talking is-I'll admit-a hole, but I said in the beginning there would be some. The end is just like the end of Jones's case. She went back to Re

, "but before we go further I'd li

easier-

I said, sudd

uliar type-a natural born siren. She had made the man jealous, furi

s of?" It was I ag

und and looked a

f the man who made the date you heard on the phone. Don't you see," he said, tur

for me, anyway-it was as if a cloud had settled on the room. Babbitts sat smoking a cigarette and staring at the rings

n I expected, but it's s

ging off his lip and as he said "Good evening" to me it wobbled but clung on. Then he pu

dusting out his car found the gold mesh purse