Newspapers / The Roanoke Beacon and … / Feb. 21, 1913, edition 1 / Page 2
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AW WIS 101 . co Johnston .,BUaMMinB CGfl0wr Illustrations by Yllames SYNOPSIS. Hardiny Kent calls on Louise Farrlsh to propose marriage and finds the house In great excitement over the attempted sut-; clde of her sister Katharine. Kent starts n InveBtlgratlon, and finds that Hugh Crandall, suitor or Katharina, who had been forbidden thf house bv General Farv rish, had talked with Katharine over the telephone Just before she shot herseir. A. torn piece of yellow paper is found, at sight of which General Farrlsh Is stricken with paralysis. Kent discovers that Crandall has left town hurriedly. Andrew Elser, an aged banker, commits suicide about the same time as Katharine attempted her life. A yellow envelope is found in Elser's room. Post Office In spector Davis. Kent's friend, takes up the case. Kent is convinced mat cran dall Is at the bottom of the mystery. Katharine's strange outcry puzzles the detectives. Kent and Davis search Cran dall room and find an address. Lock Box 17. Ardway, N. J. Kent goes to Ard way to Investigate and becomes suspi cious of a "Henry Cook." A woman commits suicide at the Ardway Hotel. A yellow letter also figures In this case. Kent calls Louise on the long distance telephone and finds that she had Just feeen called by Crandall from the same booth. "Cook" disappears. The Ardway Dost master is missing. Inspector Davis ar rives at Ardwav and takes up the inves tigation. He discovers that the dead woman is Sarah Sacket of Bridgeport. Louise telephones Kent imploring him to trop the investigation. CHAPTER IX. A New Mystery. I was up with the dawn the next morning and down-stairs to find a train schedule. The only thought in mytmlnd was that I must go to Lou ise at once. I could not understand her sudden amazing change of front. Why, after pledging me to solve the mystery, should she all at onoe be as Insistent that I should immediately stop all inquiry? I had lain awake the whole night, pondering the situa tion and seeking a solution. What rea son could she have? Who could have influenced her to such action? v"vThe first train, I found, left two minutes before six. I ordered break fast, though in no mood for eating, and went to Davis' room. I felt that I needed his advice. I found him awake, Bmoking a cigarette in bed. Briefly I related 40 b-ioi the amazing telephone conversation I had had with Louise the night before. "What possible reason could have influenced her to make such a strange request?" I concluded. "A woman doesn't have to have a reason," he answered flippantly, It seemed to me. "You don't understand!" I cried. "Louise is not the ordinary flighty girl. She has the finest, best-balanced mind of any woman I ever knew. She never acts on impulse." Davis locked at me with that exas perating smile of his. I "Kent," he replied, "when you have .been married as long as I have, when you know women as well as I do, you will taqIIta ttiA f nil tr rt tvvintr i reasons ror the things women do. Their minds are not governed by rea son, but by impulse. Every sane wom an knew that the hobble skirt was an absurdity, yet when Fashion decided In favor of the hobble skirt it was worn. I doubt very much If Miss Far rlsh herself could tell you why she asked ypu to discontinue your inves tigation. Probably she acted on im pulse. By this time she undoubtedly Is just as eager as she ever was for you to go on." "What would you advise?" "I'd go on," said Davis laconically, ka be lighted another cigarette. For a moment I was almost shaken In my determination to do nothing un til I had Been Louise. It seemed as if Davis might be right. Perhaps she had acted only on impulse. Perhaps her love for me had made her feel that the investigation might lead me Into danger. But I reconsidered. She had given me her love and trust and confidence. She surely was entitled to full confidence from me. I could not honorably continue the investiga tion without first seeing her. "I am going to town on the first train," I Baid decisively. "I shall do nothing until I have seen her." "And I shall go on with the inves tigation," said Davis with that exas perating smile of his. Impatiently I. turned and left him I choked down a cup of coffee and hur ried to the station. The Journey seemed miles and miles long, though the train made few stops. As soon as the ferry landed me in New York I sprang into a taxi and ordered the driver to take me at once to the Far rlsh house. Not until we had turned Into their street did I realize that it was still too early for me to try to see Louise, even on such an urgent mis sion as mine. A few doors away from ttn house I stopped the chauffeur and bade him drive up the avenue to the entrance of Central park. I dismissed him there and strolled aimlessly into the park. I would wait until ten o'clock before I tried to Bee Louise. Still pondering the situation, I atrolled along od of the park walls nnd flung myself on a bench by the lake where the swan boats are. '.' : -. ro was no one about at that early I ;r and I was glad of It I wanted '"-- clone and think. sv long ! sat there I do not know. am I was 'so deep In thought that there was neither sight in my eyes nor hear ing in my ears. Yet' the eyes will not be denied their rights. A feeling came over me that some part of my brain was trying to tell me something. It came more and more forcefully. My eyes were seeing something which they were trying to compel me to no tice. What was it? I pulled myself together with a start and looked 'about me. With an exclamation of horror T sprang from the bench and gazed Into the lake Just In front of me. Floating on the surface, not fifty feet from where I had been sitting, was the body of a woman. "Other suicides, other suicides" Davis' remark of two days before kept jigging through my brain. Other sui cides! Katharine, Elser, the woman at Ardway his prophecy Bad been right and was this another in the terrible chain? I ran . like a madman toward the park entrance, where I remembered I had passed a policeman. It was with relief that I found him still there. "There's a woman drowned in the lake!" I gasped, pointing over my shoulder. He ran back to the lake with me and together we waded out In the shal low water where the body lay. In my horror at the unexpected sight I had not Btopped to note her appearance, nor could I have told whether she was young or old, dark or fair. I looked at her now with more than interest with a feeling of sorrow, of understanding. The deed of Katha rine Farrlsh t had brought me to a closer sympathy with unfortunate per sons influenced to seek death. As I saw that this poor girl was young and fair I sadly wondered what tragedy had driven her to drowning. Never shall I forget the impression the picture of this suicide made on me! She lay on her back, with long blonde tresses of well-kept hair float ing out on either side of her shapely head. Her eyes were closed, but her shapely brows and long dark lashes made her face comely even in death. Her clothing, I observed, was well made, and though wet and soiled as it was by the water It still gave the im pression of neatness. We grasped the body gently by the arms and drew it in to the bank, where we lifted It to the park bench on which I had been sitting. "I wonder If there is anything about her to identify her by? said the po liceman, and together we looked. Apparently there was nothing. There were no rings on her hands, though the fingers were those of a woman of refinement. The officer turned back the collar of her coat, but the name of the maker had been cut away. "She didn't want nobody to know who she was, I guess," he said after a hasty examination. "They generally try to hide their names." "Yes, I suppose they do," I said apathetically. "I've got to go over to the arsenal and report this and send for the wag on. Will you wait, till I come back? I won't be long." "I'll wait," I said. He disappeared up the path and I was left alone with the body. As I sat there, meditating on the mystery that had caused so many other trag edies, I became conscious of the fact that one of this girl's hands was closed, as if, even in death, she was striving to conceal something. 1 Stooping over, I gently pressed back the stiffening fingers. - An exclamation of horror came to my lips as I saw what had been con cealed there. It was a little scrap of yellow paper. I could hardly believe my eyes. It must be that this poor girl here was another of the victims in the baffling chain of crime I was seeking to un ravel. I held the water-soaked frag ment up to the light, but there was nothing on it not a word. Yet there was no mistaking the color and tex ture of the paper. It was undoubtedly the same that Louise and I had found in Katharine's room after she had tried to kill herself. It was the same that the police had discovered in An drew Elsler's room. There was no question in my mind but that it was the same that the woman in Ardway had torn up before she hanged herself in the little hotel. But what was the tie between them? What could be the mysterious import of this yellow let ter that drove its recipients to death? Here was one fragment. Perhaps I could find other scraps perhaps the whole letter. I ran down to the bank of the lake and began a systematic search of the water along shore. Foot by foot I studied it carefully. For ten minutes I searched unavailingly and then I caught a glimpse of something yellow half hidden by an overhanging tree. Carefully I parted the branches. Sure enough, submerged In six inches of water, were more of the yellow scraps. I waded in and, scooping them op carefully in my hands, laid them on the grass to dry, for they were all but falling apart and I hardly dared handle them. Meanwhile I con tinued my search for other yellow scraps this time, without avaiL If she had carried a torn-up letter with her as she sprang to death, the other pieces had floated away. At last, convinced that there was no possibility of recovering more of them, I gave up my search and re turned to where I had spread the re covered scraps on the grass. One by one I studied them. They were evi dently a part of a type-written letter, but the ink had run bo that 4t was impossible to read a single word on them. From their shape, too, it ap peared that they were not consecutive, so there was little hope of learning anything from them. Just two of the inky smears seemed to have a possible meaning. On one of them I was almost posi tive that I could trace the word "youth." On another scrap was a word that a little stretch of the imagi nation might decipher as "her." "Youth" and "her." They might mean much or nothing. They might have some bearing on the great mystery I was trying to solve. They might have none. Per haps they were, after all, merely phrases from a letter that had brought disappointment to a loving woman. In all likelihood this suicide had no connection with the others. But why, then, the yellow paper? So intent was I on my thoughts that I did not observe the return of the policeman until I heard his voice. "What have you got there?" There was suspicion in his tone the natural suspicion of the represen tative of the law. It was on the tip of my, tongue to Bay: "Another yellow letter." For once prudence restrained me. I recalled how my too hasty speech at the coroner's inquest had led me into trouble. I could hardly expect a twelve-hundred-dollar policeman to assist in solving the mystery that was still perplexing Davis. "Just some scraps of paper," I said carelessly. "After you had gone I no titced that she was clutching a bit of paper in one hand. I searched around the lake to see if I could find more. I found these. It is evidently part of a letter, but the ink has run so you can make nothing out of them." "Let's see them." I handed him1 all of them. "This," I explained, "I found in her hand and the others were over there under those bushes." One by one the policeman examined them, turning them carefully over and over. "There's nothing to them," he final ly 'announced. "The wagon will be here in a minute. I don't suppose you'll want to be claiming any credit for finding the body?" I Gently Pressed Bck I had feared that he would insist on my accompanying him to testify to its finding. It was quite a relief to hear him take this view of it. "Of course not," I answered hastily. "Then," said he with utmost can dor, "you might as well beat it. It don't do a cop no good to have other people finding things on his post. If you ain't here when the wagon comes, there ain't nobody to say It wasn't me that found the body. I want to thank ycra though, for coming and telling me about it. ' There's a lot of fools would have gone and telephoned the arsenal and then I'd been on the car pet for not covering my post properly." I was glad indeed of the opportunity to get away. It was hearing ten o'clock. My trousers and shoes were in such condition that I wanted to get to my,, apartments for a change before seeing Louise. I hastened to. the park entrance and hailed a taxi. By the time I left my rooms and reached the Farrlsh home It was ten minutes after ten. As my taxi turned into the street I saw another one stop before the Far rlsh door. At first I thought It must be the doctor or one of his assistants, but as the front door closed behind the tall figure of a man who had been admitted to the house I realized that it was some one I had seen before. There was something reminiscent in the broad shoulders, in the walk. It was some one I knew, or ought to have recognized, yet who it was( or where I had seen him I could not at the moment recall. I was not three minutes behind him in reaching the door. Though the other visitor had been admitted at once, there was no immediaite response to my ring. I waited a while and rang again. It seemed minutes before any one answered, then one of the maids opened the door a trifle and peered out. - "Mr. Kent to see Miss Louise," I said. To my great amazement she did not open the door to me, but still holding it Just barely enough to enable her to talk to me, said: "I'm sorry, but I have orders to admit no one to the house." "Of course, I understand that you have your orders, but please tell Miss Louise that Mr. Kent is here." '(T11 tell her, If you wish," she said doubtfully, carefully closing the door before she went on the mission. The shutting of the door in my face gave me an odd sense of desolation. It seemed as If I were being shut out of the life of the woman I loved. Yet on second thought I smiled at my per turbation. The maid was only carry ing out a necessary order. As soon as Louise knew I was there she would come running to the door herself. In a minute Bhe would be folded in my arms and all misunderstanding would be cleared away. Undoubtedly she would have a good explanation for o'er telephone message of the night before. I told myself that it was only lack of sleep and the incident in the park that had upset my nerves. My misgivings were utterly foolish. At length the door opened slowly. I had expected to see Louise herself be hind it, but it was the same maid. This time she held the dopr hardly as wide as before. "I'm sorry, 'sir, "she said, "but Miss the Stiffening Fingers. Louise says she can not see you now.- "What?" I gasped. She repeated her message while I stood there dazed. There must be some mistake. Louise must have mis understood the name. "Did you tell her it was Mr. Kent?" "Yes, sir, I told her." "What did she say?" "She said she could not see yon m any one else now." (TO BE CONTINUKDl) r8 W$S$& ' Picture Gallery for Church Bazaar. Will you kindly give me BUggestions for a picture gallery to have a church bazaar; also a list of subjects, as Bonaparte crossing the Rhine, etc.? M. O. - I think you can compile a very inter esting gallery from the suggestions below ; the refreshment limit may also aid you: "The Foreigner" A little Japanese doll. "Pick-Wick Papers" A toothpick a lamp wick and some paper, wrapped up in a shoe box.- . "Along the Line" Two clothespins In a candy box. "When Knighthood Was in Flower" A nightcap wrapped In a flowered napkin. "A Pleasant Reflection" A small looking glass in a pill box. "A Place for Reflection" A small mirror. "Darkest Africa" A negro doll. "Sweet Sixteen" Sixteen bon bons. "In Silk Attire" A Email doll dressed in silk. "Nothing But Leaves" A tablet of writing paper. "Lovers" Two spoons. "An Absorbing Subject" A blotter. "The . Home of Burns" A toy flat iron. "Common Sense" A few pennies. "A Woman's Weapon" A toy broom. "Things Thjt End in Smoke" Cigars. This way of serving refreshments will cause much iherrimentv- Have a paper bag for each one which contains two sandwiches, a cookey, a sugared doughnut done up in waxed paper, and a banana; coffee to be passed on a tray In tin cups. . Entertainment for Bachelor Girls. I am to be married in April and must pay the penalty by giving some sort of a party to ten girls who belong o our "Single Blessedness" club. Tell me what to do. ' I have received al ready many wedding gifts and am in the house "we" are to occupy. SUE. I should conduct tho affair with the idea that your former club fellows were "green" with envy and consumed with jealously; therefore, keep the color scheme yellow and green. Decorate the table with steel knitting needles stacked like bayonets, tied with green and yellow baby ribbon. If you can get black cat candy boxes use them for favors with the name card tied around the neck.- Appropriate lamp shades may be made of transparent paper with cats cut out and pasted on. For the table centerpiece have a pretty brass teakettle filled with flowers. Of fer your guests a cup of tea for con solation as soon as they arrive. Then Evening Gown of Embroidered Ivory Satin Richly Adorned W If m s 1 fpj&J&$p2 -?&-' :t;w . - -'' mmm , IP r I A gown of embroidered ivory Batin with chiffon corsage and tunic of royal blue velvet. The girdle is laced with broad velvet ribbon ending ia tassela. ' serve the nicest supper you are capable of, with all your dainty wedding gifts. I am sure your company will really be inclined to let the little demons, "en vy" and "jealousy," creep in just a wee bit, for in her heart of hearts I think every woman loves a home and the protection of a good man's name. To Celebrate a March Birthday. Mother's natal day comes the1 last of March ; please give me ideas for entertainment,-' flowers (for the month), table decorations, etc. Daughter. Violets are ' appropriate to this month, and it would be lovely to have a bunch for each guest. Then for oth er decorations use any of the spring blossoms in pots or arranged in flow er holders; all of the bulb flowers are especially effective used in this way. Ask the guests to bring their work and also ask them to tell stories of . their grandchildren, taking it for granted that most of them may claim these wonderful adjuncts to eternal youth, for what grandmother does not live over her own and her children's lives in the wee mortals who again bring 'back the bygone days with so much sweetness? Most women play cards, and if your guests are among the number I would arrange for sev eral rubbers with perhaps favors for all and no prizes. If you like, use this appropriate verse on the place cards, or you could have it on the invitations : In March the earliest bluebird came And caroled from the orchard tree ) His little tremulous songs to me, And called upon the- summer's name, And made old summers in my heart All sweet with flowers and sun again. : William Dean Howells. An Entertaining Problem. I have several young men friends whom I would like to ask to dinner. Do you think It would be wise to ask them all at the same time, and invite other girls for the different fellows, or would you ask them at different times t It would save much time and trouble to have them all together. Please give me your advice. What would be the proper hour? Do you think Sunday evening would be as suitable as any other? Many, many thanks. Vexed. Personally, I think it is a fine thing to ask young men to a Sunday evening meal, especially if they are not for tunate enough to be in homes of their families, and I am sure it would add interest to ask the girls. How would you like asking two couples for Sun day nights until you have them all in vited? Sunday evening teas or sup pers may be very informal and enjoy able. Rose's Queries. Please tell me the name of a good book of etiquette. . I'm placed in an awkward position and will greatly ap preciate your help. I met a young lady this summer who afterwards called on me. I returned the call, then reived an invitation to her wedding. Of course, I will send a present, but shall I call again before this takes place? Rose. In answer to your first question, I 1 must sak you to send me a self-addressed stamped envelope, as I cannot give names or addresses in the depart ment. You need make no call until after the wedding, when a call will be due her mother or whoever issued the invitation, and a call upon the bride on her at-home day. MADAME MERRI. tmmmmmm :1E W3M p::ilii :wmmmm m r :W-::::'---K-W:-' ... iiim'.?ii. s ti tJ liif L H 1 J 7 J
The Roanoke Beacon and Washington County News (Plymouth, N.C.)
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Feb. 21, 1913, edition 1
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