The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-09-30

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into the chimney room.
Louise and her mother had, from
the first, been the great stumbling
blocks. The plan had been to send
Louise away until it was too late for
ner to interfere, but she came back
10 the hotel at c. Just at the
wrong time. There was a 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 a weak.
ling. but Louise was more difficult to
manage. She had no love for her STEP
fatEer. 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
a 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
Sunnyside. He had a 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
telegram which had been forwarded
to the club for Bailey, from DR.. Walk.
er. 1t was in response to one Bailey
had sent, and it said that Paul Arm.
strong was very i'll.
Bailey was almost desperate. He
decided to go west and find Paul Arm
strong and to force him to disgorge.
But the catastrophe at the bank oc.
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 tho
bank had closed, and. going back. sur.
rendered himself.
John Bailey had known Paul Arm.
strong intimately He did not believe
that the money was gone; in fact, It
was hardly possible in the interval
since the securities had been taken.
Where was it? And from some chance
remark let fell some months earlier
by Arnold Armstrong at dinner,
Bailey felt sure there was a hide 4
room at Sunnyside. He tried to see
the architect OF the building, but, lie
the contractor, If he knew of the
room, he refused any information. It
"Ho iioioOy . iuCd tudl JOuI Bailey
come to the house as a gardener, and
pursue his Investigations as he could.
His smooth upper lip had been suffi-
cient disguise, with his change of
clothes. and a haircut by a country
barber.
So it was Alex, Jack Bailey, who
had been our ghost Not only had he
alarmed I nnica-ond ha
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 unconsciousness by the clothes
chute, and, with Gertrudes help, had
carried me 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
or that story Of Thomas, about see-
| ing Jack Bailey in the footpath be-
! tween the club and Sunnyside, the
night Liddy and 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 a
crash. He was glad enough to get
away without an alarm being raised
and he took the "owl" train to town.
The oldest thing to me was that
Mr.. Jameson had known for some
time that Alex was Jack Bailey. But
the face of the pseudo-gardener was
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?"
III Z. II