The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-05-12
THE CLUB
by CAROLYN WELLS


eeeeeeoeeoooooooeeo eoooooeeeeoeeee6S help"
 And turned on the lights?"
 "I pushed several electric buttons. not knowing which were lights and which bells; my principal idea was to arouse the inmates of the house at once.''
 ''Who first appeared in answer to your call?"
 Miss Dupuy came running down. stairs at once, followed by Miss Van Norman's maid"
 And then you pointed to the pa CT that lay on the table near Miss Norman's hand"
 "Yes; could not speak, and l thought that would tell Miss Dupuy that Miss Van Norman had taken her own life.''
 "You thought, then that Miss Van Norman wrote the message?"
 "I thought so then-and think so now"
 This. of course, produced a sensa- tion, but it was only evidenced by a deeper silence on the part of the startled audience.
 "But Miss Dupuy asserts that she wrote it, said the coroner.
 To this Schuyler Carleton merely gave slight bow of his handsome head, but it said as plainly as words that his belief was not altered by Miss Dupuy's assertion.
 Granting for the moment, then,'' went on MT. Benson, ''that Miss Van Norman did write it, is the message intelligible to your"
 ''Intelligible. yes"; said Carleton, "but, as I have said before, inex- plicable."
 \ This ambiguous speech meant lit tie to most of the listeners, but it seemed to give Robert Fessenden food for thought, and he looked at Carleton with a new wonder in his eyes.
 INT. Carleton" said the coroner,
 
 with note of gravity in his voice. "I think it my duty to tell you that your own interests require you to state the nature of your errand to this house last night" T decline to do so." ''Then, will you state exactly as you can the hour at which you entered the front door?''
 1T don't know precisely. But Miss Dupuy has testified that she came downstairs in response to my call al ha1f-past eleven. I came into the house a-a few moments before.'' That is all," said the coroner ab- rupt'y. MT. Hunt, if you please." The man from headquarters, who had guarded the present room through the night, came in from the doorway where he had been standing. twill you tell what you know con- corning MT. Carleton's entrance last night?" said the coroner briefly. "I was on guard in the present | room from nine o'clock on,'' said MT | Hunt. ''Of course I was on the watch-out for anything unusual, and alert to hear any sound. I heard the company go away at ten o'clock, | heard most of the people in the house heard and I also saw Miss Dupuy SC down to the library after that, and return to her room about half-pas l ten. I noticed all these things be. cause that is my business, but they made no special impression on me as they were but the natural pro. | ceedings of the people who belonged here. Of course I was only on tht 1 lookout for intruders. I heard thu sound of latch-key and heard tht front door open at exactly quarter after eleven. I stepped out in tht hall, and, looking downstairs, I saw MT. Carleton enter. l also saw Mis-: | Dupuy in the upper hadd looking over the banister. She, too, mus have seen MT. Carleton. But as al | of this was none of my business, ant as nobody had entered who hadn' right to, I simply returned to m. I post. At half-past eleven heart MT. Carleton's cry, and saw thu lights go up all over the house. Any thing more. sir?"
 Mot at present, MT. Hunt. Mis- Dupuy, did you hear MT. Carleto, come in?"
 Cicely Dupuy turned an angry fac, toward MT. Hunt and fairly glared a the mild-mannered man. She waited a moment before answering the cor oner's question, and then as if witl sudden resolve she spoke a sharp quick "Yes."
 And that was at quarter afte eleven?"
 "It was later,'' declared Cicely "For MT. Carleton told you himsel that he went directly into the nbrar. as soon as he came into the house and as I heard his cry at half-pas eleven he must have entered only f1r hnf