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CHAPTER XI "Steady, Millicent. What has hap pened?" asked Bruce. Her throat contracted Her voice was a hoarse whisper. "Joe's dead! Shot!" She covered her eyes with one hand. "You're white as death, Bruce. Don't be sorry for me. I'm free! Free' If you'd only waited." With a stifled exclamation he with drew his ha::d. She crumpled to the floor. ? ? ? Harcourt pickcd his way through the maze of the Eskimo camn and ordered Kadyama to appear at the office at two o'clock for questioning by the Commissioner now on his way. On his way back to the office Har court recaptured the picture of last night in the H house. What had Jan thought of Millicent Hale's frenzied cry: "I'm free! Free! If you'd only waited!" He had been furiously angry at the implication, had opened his lips to refute it when Millicent had crumpled. For an instant he and Janice had stared into one another's eyes, then she had pointed to the woman on the floor. "Bettor put her on the couch. Looks as though she had been wad ing. Her skirt is wet." He had only vaguely noticed that as he lifted her. Shortly afterward. Grant and he had entered the Hale cabin. Joe lay where he had fallen. They had searched for a revolver, had found nothing but Hale's own which hung in its holster, unloaded, clean bar reled. He had sent Tubby for Jim my Chester and two engineers. While he was waiting, he had picked up the dog to shut him out of the room. A blue glass bead had rolled from between his paws. Tatima! Incredible. He put his hand over the breast pocket of his khaki shirt.' The bead was safe in case it was needed in evidence. He had not told the other men of his find. Could it haw hppn Jimmvl He would have a hard row to hoe if his threat to Joe Hale came out at the inquest. Millicent had heard it. Had she confided in anyone but himself? No matter what Jimmy had threatened, he wouldn't shoot Hale. What had he been saying to Janice when he had interrupted their talk at the dance? "He'll nev er send for you again!" Good Lord. "Boy! In the excitement I forgot about that track-laying gang you told me to take out at reveille. Chief," Chester reported. "I've been at the H house with Millicent this morning trying to find out what she wants done about ? things." ' Heard you were all excited day before yesterday because Hale had sent for someone. For whom did he send? Jimmy Chester stared out of the window. "For Miss Trent." "Janice! How did you know?" "Met her coming out of his cabin. Had just been talking with Milli cent at the Waffle Shop, so I knew she wasn't responsible. She wouldn't tell why she had been there, I went at her wrong, I guess, so I just walked in and read the riot act to Joe Hale." The Commissioner and his depu ties were coming by plane, Har court said. "Go up to the field, Chester, and see if you can help in the landing." Harcourt looked after Chester as he hurried away. He liked neither Jimmy's color nor his unsteady voice. Martha Samp hailed him from the steps on the H house. "Any danger to Mrs. Hale in mov ing her?" "Not a mite. I was goin' to speok to you about that. Your cabin's no place for her. You send Pasca along to help and I'll see that she's moved." "And that Janice comes back to the H house?" Little lines crinkled from the cor ners of her eyes like rays drawn to indicate the setting sun. "I'll do my best, but vvhat'd you do to hurt her last night, Mr. Bruce?" "I hurt her?" "She looked white an' still when I went into the H house. When I told her we'd better leave M's. Hale where she was, she kinder sniffed an' said: " 'Of course. I haven't a doubt but she'd like to stay here forever,' an' off she marched. I wag that troubled about her that I kept run nin' over to the Waffle Shop to stand outside her door. There was a light goin' but it was still as death. Sakes alive, don't go so white, Mr. Bruce, or I'll be sorry I told you. You've got so much o" your mind." "Never be sorry that you have told me anything about Janice, Miss Martha. Tell her to come back. If siie refuses, tell her that if she doesn't come I will come after her. j I may have much on my mind, but not too much for that." ? ? ? Janice stepped back to get the ef fect of the red geranium trees in nail-kegs on either side of the Waf fle Shop door. Gorgeous against the background of weather-bleached log walls. She looked thoughtfully at the Hale cabin. Not yet twenty-four hours since Joe Hale had gone. An hour or more ago the Commission er and two deputies had landed on the flying-field. She had not seen Brucc sine* lie Imd iiiieti Miiiiceiu Hale from the floor and laid her on the couch. With a hurried, "Call the Samp girls," he had dashed out. As she had worked over the unconscious woman, she had tried to crush back the memory of her frenzied wail, "I'm free! Kree! If you'd only wait ed!" The Samp sisters had spent the night at the H house, had sent Janice back to her cabin at the Waf fle Shop. She had dropped to the edge of the stripped cot. Rigid and still, had sat there listening for Bruce's footsteps, waiting for him to come and tell her that Millicent Hale's insinuation was false. He had not come. Toward morn ing she had dozed fitfully. Head down, hands thrust hard in his pockets. Tubby Grant ap proached along the board walk. "I walked In and read the riot act to Hale." Tong paced with magisterial dig nity behind him, muscles rippling under his tawny coat. Grant over turned an empty nail-keg. Seated on it he took one knee into his em brace. "Who do you think did it? Kady ama?" "I wouldn't put it past him. He's talked long and loud and red against Hale, but that doesn't prove any thing. The Pekinese must have been among those present when it hap pened. He would have scented the Indian, would have warned Hale with his bark." "Whom are they questioning?" "Haven't begun yet, they've been busy in the Hale cabin. They want you in the office after lunch to take testimony." "Will they question me?" "Why not? You were in the H house when Millicent Hale burst in with the news, weren't you?" Something flashed in Janice's mind. "Tubby! I never have thanked you for that gorgeous mandarin coat. I wore it to the H house, had just taken it off when Millicent Hale burst in on us and I haven't thought of it since. You're a dear!" "Says you. Sorry to hand back the bouquet, but I didn't buy it." "You didn't! Who did?" "Your boy friend." "Bruce? How did he know about it?" "I told him that you'd almost cried your eyes out wanting it." "Tubby! You should not have let him spend all that money on me when you knew? you knew what a fake that marriage was, that Bruce sacrificed himself to help me." "Mebbe so. Mebbe so." His face lost its usual expression of cherubic serenity. The pupils of his green eyes contracted as he inquired light ly, "Lady, has it ever occurred to you that you might be a million light-years behind the times?" The zoom of a plane drowned his words. The motor thrummed deaf eningly as it climbed. It circled like a great bee to get its bear ings before it snot Tor i"r r??i. Its wings became shadowy and spec tral, its hum a mere vibration. Jan ice clutched Grant's irm, watched the great bird from hand-shaded eyes till it seemed as small as a fly on an enormous blue wir.dow pane. "Who, w-who was it. Tubby?" He patted her hand. "Don't get all excited. I got a jolt at first, as the Commissioner has forbidden anyone to leave headquarters. Then I remembered that he told Parks, one of the deputies, to fly back to the city for an expert he wanted." "My stars, ain't them blooms pretty?" Martha Samp sat on the nailkeg Grant had abandoned. Pulled | pain as she flexed twisted toes in their white cotton stocking. "Feet ache like the toothache. I never'd know I had a body if it wasn't for them." Janice gently massaged the cramped toes. 'You do too much. Miss Martha. I would have been glad to take care of Mrs. Hale last night." "It wasn't the place for you. That feels fine. You've got what my mother used to call, healin' hands. Mary an* I can take care of her *asy. Pasca's goin* to bring her to the cabin you had so she'll be near. You pack up the rest of your things an' he'll carry them to the H house Mr. Bruce wants you there." "He wants me!" "Sakes alive, anything surprisin' about that? Those officials are after him every minute. He's takin' the tragedy awful hard. Anyone' d think 'twas his fault it happened." "Why not let Mrs. Hale stay where she is?" "Don't talk like a child, Janice, an* you a married woman. Even if it wasn't hard for Mary an' me to ? be trotting there from here, a man's cabin is no place for a widow." j She cautiously twisted her foot j free of the comforting hands. Grim aced as she pulled on her stout j shoe. "Want M's. Hale settled be- | fore lunch time. Those officials be ing here make more work, but don't they make life thrilling?" Her eyes I snapped, her cheeks flaunted red jnrtp a# excitement. "Who do you think did it, Miss Martha?" "They haven't asked me yet. P'raps they think because my joints are stiff the arteries of my brain are hardening, but they're not. I'm not sayin' anything till I can say it before the right parties. Did you hear that plane go out? They've sent for a finger-print expert. Expert! They'd ought to have questioned me first." "When I heard the airplane zoom, I thought the criminal was escap ing." "That would be confessing, wouldn't it? The party who snuffed out Joe Hale is too scared or too clever to confess. I haven't made up my mind yet which. I haven't read the newspapers for years with out learning something." Her voice prickled with excitement. In her own cabin, gazing out at the Stars and Stripes floating high and strong in the clear air, Janice faced two alternatives. She could allow Millicent Hale's "I'm free! Free! If you'd only waited!" to fes ter in her memory until she became a hateful, unhappy person who would be sent out on the next boat amidst a silent chorus of "Thank God she's gone!" ? it was human na ture to dodge a person with a griev ance ? or she could take up her life from the time Bruce had said, "I'll get your sandals," ? go on from there as though the rest of that eve ning never had happened. It would take a big inside resistance to with stand the bitter pressure of Milli cent's implication. Could she do it? She must. It was not surprising that the Commissioner had given Miss Mar tha an impression of inefficiency, Janice concluded as after the mid day meal she entered the office. He was the antithesis of all the prose cuting officials she had seen on the screen. He was bland and fair. His eyes met hers. Steel drills. The deputy beside him was small and wiry. Janice glanced surreptitiously at Harcourt. Two little lines cut deep between his eyes as he bent a sup ple ivory letter-opener back and forth with his strong fingers. Tubby Grant opened the door to the wood-shed. Kadyama shuffled into the room. In obedience to a curt word from the Commissioner, he perched on the edge of a chair. "You've threatened to get Hale, haven't you?" Evidently the official believed in the attack direct. "Ump. I say that one, two, p'raps tree time." "Why?" The Indian's eyes, beady as a trapped rat's, shifted to the Com miotioner's face. "He steal Tati ma." (TO BE CONTINVtUJ I'ltra Modern? Realtor ? I know, we have just the house you want? without a (law. Prospect? But what will we walk on? Patience Plus Traffic Policeman? You've been sitting here in your car for three hours, and you say you're just waiting for a man. Motorist? Yes, officer, I'm wait ing for either of the gentlemen who own the car in front of me or the car behind me. How It Is Bim? Oh. you mustn't blame ' me for my ancestors. Tim? I don't. I blame them for you. | A worm will turn, but what's the odds ? it's the same on both ends. lie Got It! Friend ? That wasn't a r try bifi a c i count of your daughter's uedding in | the /mi per 3. Daddy ? V<>; the fun account uas sent [ to me. Your 1942 Income Tax Guide YOUR INCOME TAX Weekly Income TAX iawixmj Single Married $15 25 30 35 45 55 $ 1 46 68 89 134 183 8 0 0 3 22 67 112 Our 32-pai:e booklet explains simply Just how to ficure your new income tax. wheth er on the new or the eld form. deductions and exemptions, gives exam pies of correctly worked-out forms. Has information for business and professional men. farmers, single and married people. Send your order to: READER-HOME SERVICE 635 Sixth Avenue New York City Enclose 15 cents In coins for your copy of YOUR 1912 INCOME TAX GUIDE. Name . . 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The Cherokee Scout (Murphy, N.C.)
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Feb. 12, 1942, edition 1
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