Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-09-07
long are you and, to play our little
comedy, Mr.. Bailey?"
CHAPTER xxxIv.
The odds and Ends.

tETS III caSh ana security IN lne SAFE
from the chimney roonl-the papers
have kept the public we'll informed.
OF my share in discovering the secret
chamber they have been singularly
silent. The inner history has never
been told. Mr.. Jameson got all kinds
of credit, and some of it he deserved,
but IL Jack Bailey. as Alex. had not
traced Halsey and insisted on the dis
interring of Paul Armstrong; casket,
if he had not suspected the truth from
the start, where would the detective
have been?
When Halsey learned the truth. he
insisted on going the next morning,
weak rs he was. to Louise. and by
night he was at Sunnyside, under
Gertrudes particular care, while her
mother had gone to Barbara Fitz-
hugh's.
What Halsey said TO Mrs. Arm
strong | never knew, but that he was
considerate and chivalrous / feel con-
fident 1t was Halseys way always
with women.
He and Louise had no conversation
together until that night. Gertrude
and Alex-I mean Jack-had gone for
a walk although it was 3 o'clock, and
anybody but pair of young geese
would have known that dew was fall
ing and that it is next to impossible
to get rid of summer cold.
At half after nine, growing weary
of my own company | went down
stairs to find the young people. AT
the door OF the living room l paused
Gertrude and Jack had returned and
oitf
livan, with only one lamp lighted.
They did not see or hear me, and
beat hasty retreat to the library. But
here again was driven back. Louise
was sitting in a deep chair. looking
the happiest | had ever seen her, with
Halsey on the arm of the chair, hold
ing her close.
1t was no place for an elderly
spinster. retired to my upstairs sit
ting room and got out Eliza Kline
felter's lavender slippers All, well,
the foster motherhood would soon
have to be put away in camphor
again.
The next day, by degrees, L got the
whole story.
Paul Armstrong had a besetting evil
the love of money. Common enough,
but he loved money, not for what it
would buy, but for its own sake. An
examination of the books showed no
Irregularities in the past year since
John had been cashier, but before that,
in the time of Anderson the old
cashier who had died, much strange
Juggling had been done with the rec
ords. The railroad in New Mexico had
apparently drained the bankers pri-
yate fortune, and he determined to
retrive it by one stroke. This was
nothing less than the looting of the
banks securities, turning them into
money, and making his escape.
But the law has long arms Paul
Armstrong evidently studied the situa-
ton carefully. Just as the only good
Indian is dead Indian, so the only
safe defaulter is a dead defaulter. He
decided to die, to all appearances. and
when the hue and cry subsidized, he
would be able to enjoy his money al
most anywhere he wished.
The first necessity was an accom-
plice The connivance of Doctor
Walker was suggested by his love for
Louise. The man was INSCRIPTIONS,
and with the girl as a bait, Paul Arm
strong soon had him fast. The plan
was apparently the acme of completely,
small town in the west, an attack
of heart disease, body from a medi-
cal college dissecting room shipped in
trunk to Doctor Walker by col
league in San Francisco, and palmed
off for the supposed dead banker.
What was simpler?
The woman, Nina Darlington, was
the cog that slipped. What she only
suspected, what she really knew, we
never learned She was chamber
maid in the hotel at c., and it was
evidently her intention to blackmail
Doctor Walker. His position at that
time was uncomfortable; to pay the
woman to keep quiet would be confess
sion. He denied the whole thing, and
she went to Halsey.
1t was this that had taken Halsey
| to the doctor the night he disappeared.
He accused the doctor of the decep-
| ton, and, crossing the lawn, had said
something cruel to Louise Then,
furious at her apparent connivance. he
had started for the station. Doctor
! Walker and Paul Armstrong-the lat
/ ter still lame where | had shot him
hurried across to the embankment,
certain only of one thing. Halsey
must not tell the detective what he
suspected until the money had been
removed from the chimney room. They
! stepped into the road in front of the
car to stop it, and fate played into
their hands. The car struck the
train, and they had only TO dispose OF
| the unconscious figure in the road
This they did as | have told Fol
three days Halsey lay in the box car
tied hand and foot, suffering fortunes
of thirst. delirious at times, and dis
! covered ,by tramp at townsville only
! in time to save his life.
To go back TO Paul Armstrong. AT
| the last moment his plans had been
/ frustrated. Sunnyeide, with its hoard
! i'll the chimney room, had been rented
without knowledge! Attempts TO dis
! lodge me having failed. he was driven
to breaking into his own house. The
ladder in the chute. the burning OF the
/ stable and the entrance through the
card room window-all We're in the
course of desperate attempt 10 gel
into the chimney roon