Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-10-25

TO the hotel at C. Just at the
wrong time. There was terrible
scene. The girl was told that some
thing Of the Kind was necessary; that
the bank was about to close and her
stepfather would either avoid arrest
and disgrace in this way, or kill him
self. Fanny Armstrong was weak
ling. but Louise was more difficult to
manage. She had no love for her STEP
father, but her devotion to her moth.
er was entire, self-sacrificing. Forced
into acquiescence by her mothers ap-
peals. overwhelmed by the situation,
the girl consented and fed.
From somewhere in Colorado she
sent an anonymous telegram to- Jack
Bailey at the Traders bank Trapped
as she was, she did not want to see
an innocent man arrested. The tele-
gram, received on Thursday, had sent
the cashier to the bank that night in
frenzy.
Louise arrived at Sunnyside and
found the house rented. Not knowing
what to do, she sent for Arnold at the
Greenwood club, and told him a little,
not all. She told him that there was
something wrong. and that the bank
was about to close. That his father
was responsible. OF the conspiracy
she said nothing. To her surprise,
Arnold already knew, through Bailey
that night, that things were not right.
Moreover, he suspected what Louise
did not that the money was hidden at
SunnyAde. He had scrap of paper
that indicated concealed room some.
where.
His inherited cupidity was aroused.
Eager to get Halsey and Jack Bailey
out Of the house, he went up to the
east entry, and in the billiard room
gave the cashier what he had refused
earlier in the evening-the address of
Paul Armstrong in California and a
telegram which had been forwarded
to the club for Bailey, from DR.. Walk
or. 1t was in response to one Bailey
had sent, and it said that Paul Arm
strong was very ill.
Bailey was almost desperate. He
decided to 60 west and find Paul Arm
strong and to force him to disgorge.
But the catastrophe at the bank &C.
CURED sooner than he had expected.
On the moment Of starting west, at
Andrews station, where Mr.. Jameson
had located the car. he read that the
bank had closed, and, going back, sur
rendered himself.
T John Bailey had known Paul Arm.
strong Intimately. He did not believe
that the money was gone; In fact, 1t
was hardly possible in. the interval
since the securities had been taken.
Where was it? And from some chance
remark let fall some months earlier
by Arnold Armstrong at dinner,
Bailey felt sure there was 4 hidden
room at Sunnyside. He tried to see
the architect OF the building, but, like
the contractor, If he knew of the
room, he refused any information. Il
was Halsey's idea that John Bailey
come to the house as gardener, and
pursue his investigations as he could.
His smooth upper lip had been suffi-
Gent disguise, with his change of
clothes, and a haircut by country
barber.
So it was Alex, Jack Bailey, who
had been our ghost. Not only had he
alarmed Louisiana himself, he adj
mitted-on the circular staircase, but
he had dug the hole in the trunkroom
wall, and later sent Eliza into hysteria.
The note Liddy had found in Ger
trude's scrap-basket was from him,
and it was he who had startled me
into Inconsistencies by the clothes
chute. and, with Gertrude's help, had
carried nae to Louise's room. Ger
trude, learned, had watched all
night beside me, in an extremity of
anxiety about me.
That old Thomas had seen his mas
ter, and thought he had seen the Sun
nyside ghost, there could be no doubt.
OF that story of Thomas, about see
ing Jack Bailey in the footpath be-
tween the club and Sunnyside, the
night Liddy and I heard the noise on
the circular staircase-that, too, was
right. On the night before Arnold
Armstrong was murdered, Jack Bailey
had made an attempt to search for
the secret room. He secured Arnold's
keys from his room at the club and
got into the house, armed with golf
stick for sounding the walls. He ran
against the hamper at the head of
the stairs, caught his cuff-link in it.
and dropped the golf-stick with q
crash. He was glad enough to get
| away without an alarm being raised
and he took the "owl' tpain to town.
The oldest thing to me was that
Nj. Jameson had known for some
time that Alex was Jack Bailey. But
the face of the pseudogardener wa.
very queer indeed when, that night
| in the cardroom, the detective turned
to him and said:
How long are you and going to
play our little comedy, Mr.. Bailey?"
j, Well, it is all over now. Paul Arm
| strong rests in Casanova churchyard
and this time there is no mistake. j
went to the funeral, because / wanted
to be sure he was really buried, and
looked at the step of the shaft
where l had sat that night, and won
dered If it was all real. Sunnyside il
for sale-no. shah not buy it. Little
Lucien Armstrong is living with his
step-grandmother, who is recovering
gradually from troubles that had ex
tended over the entire period of hel
second marriage. Anne Watson lies
not far from the man she killed, and
who as surely caused her death
Thomas. the fourth victim Of the con
spiracy, is buried on the hill. With