Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-19

it empty, he again searched the
fiat throughout, and no one but FL
he was in it. and no one had gone "a
out through the front door; for FL
there stood his barricade of table,
chair, and hat stand, just as he
had left it.
This seemed surely to show that
he had to do with that which is
beyond and above natural. Yet
there were points against that
view, too. There was, first of all,
the spot of blood; for in the pas
sage between the servants room
and the kitchen he saw what
seemed to be a spot of blood.
The carpet was a brown pattern
on pink ground, and in one place
the brown looked redder than else
where-that was all If it was s.
blood then the bullet shot by him,
which he now found imbedded in
the frame of the kitchen-door,
may have passed through some
part of man; but he could not
assert to himself that it was blood.
There were, however the pic
lures. Unless he was dancing mad.
the fact was certain that he had
left only three of them with their
backs undone, and now there were
that he was indeed moonstruck.
So then, man had been in the
fat, since no ghost could material
ize to the extent of picking tacks
out of picture frames. And, if
there had been a man, that man ~
was van Hupfeldt, and no other.
Van Hupfeldt's motive would
be clear enough Miss LEstrange n
had told van Hupfeldt that the 81
certificates had fallen out of the
back of picture. David him =
self had had the rashness in his
rage at the loss of the certifi-
Gates, to say over the door of
van Hupfeldt's landau that there might
things" where the certificates came fro
Grover had been seen that afternoon talk
of being bribed and won over to the en-
may have told how David had had all tt
taken down and was at work on them, a.
was to be out at an annual dinner that r
may possibly have handed over to van
the key of the fiat, and van Hupfeldt,
terror lest anything should be found by
the pictures, may have come into the fla,
for himself.
All this seemed plausible enough
how had van Hupfeldt got away? Had
machine? Was he griffin? Were ther
the wall?
But if, as matter of fact, he or some
been in the fiat, and had someway got
than by the front door, here was new
that Gwendoline Mordaunt NAV not, afte
committed suicide. Suicide had been
simply because of the locked and bolted
But how if there existed some other I
exit from the fiat? In that case she might
done to death-by Strauss-by van H
van Hupfeldt was Strauss
David, no doubt, was all too ready to
of this man. Nevertheless, the question
him. Why, he asked himself should G
have committed suicide? She was a MARI
the certificate, seen by Miss L'Estran,
that. True, Gwendoline had received sor
letter four days before her death, as h
had told David, and she had said to thu
am not married. You think that l am !;
not" Still, doubt rose now as to h
Her sister Violet did not believe in tt
Nothing was certain.
However, this new theory of the tr;
David upon writing to Violet the first
the morning. Vague as was his doubt
set-off against his shame of defeat in the
the certificates. 1t was something with
face her. He resolved to tell her at on
was in his mind, even his shocking
Copyright. 1905 by Edward j. Clode Entered