Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-08-17

east entrance: had apparently gone
his way unhindered through the house,
and gone out again as he had entered.
| Had this unknown visitor been there
third time, the night Arnold Arm
strong was murdered? Or a fourth,
the time Mr.. Jameson had locked
some one in the clothes chute?
Sleep was impossible, think, for
any of us. We dispersed finally to
battle and dress, leaving Louise little
the worse for her experience. But
determined that before the day was
over she must know the true state Of
affairs Another decision l made, and
after breakfast. had one of the un-
used bedrooms in the east wing, back
along the small corridor prepared for
occupancy, and from that time on,
Alex, the gardner, slept there. One
man in that barn OF a house was an
absurdity, with things happening all
the time, and must say that Alex was
an unobiectionablea as any one could
possibly have been.
The next morning, also, Halsey and
made an exhaustive examination Of
the circular staircase, the small entry
at its foot, and the card-room opening
from it. There was no evidence of
anything unusual the night before, and
had we not ourselves heard the rap
ping noises, should have felt that
Louise's imagination had run away
with her. The outer door was closed
and locked, and the staircase curved
above Us, for all the world like any
other staircase.
Halsey, who had never taken seri-
ously my account OF the night Liddy
and | were there alone, was grave
enough now. He examined the panel
Ing of the wainscoting above and be-
low the stairs, evidently looking for a
secret door and suddenly there fash
ed into my mind the recollection of a
scrap of paper that Mr.. Jameson had
found among Arnold Armstrong; eff
fects. AS nearly as possible | repeat
ed its contents to him. while Halsey
took them down in a notebook.
Il wish you he'd told me that be-
fore" he said, as he put the memoran-
dun carefully away. We found moth
ing at all in the house, and expected
little from any examination of the
porch and grounds. But as we open
ed the outer door something fell into
the entry with a clatter. 1t was a
cue from the billiard-room.
Halsey picked it up with an excla-
nation
That's careless enough" he said.
Some of the servants have been
amusing themselves
/ was far from convinced Not one
of the servants would go into that
wing at night unless driven by dire
necessity. And billiard cue! AS a
weapon of either offense or defense it
was an absurdity, unless one accepted
Liddy's hypothesis of ghost, and
even then, as Halsey pointed out, a
billiard-playing ghost would be very
modern evolution of an ancient insti-
tuition
That afternoon we, Gertrude, Hat
sey and /, attended the coroner's in
quest in town Doctor Stewart had
been summoned also, 1t transpiring
that in that early Sunday morning,
when Gertrude and l had gone to our
rooms, he had been called to view
the body. We went, the four of us,
in the machine, prefering the ex-
ecrable roads to the matinee train.
with half Of Casanova staring at us.
And on the way We decided to say
nothing Of Louise and her interview
with her sterhrother the night he died.
The girl was in trouble enough as it
was.