The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1910-09-08

open, to be ready for emergency.
These arrangements were carefully
KEEP from the servants, who were only
commencing TO sleep at night. and
VINO retired, n and all, with barred
doors and lamps that burned full until
morning.
The house was quiet again Wednes.
DAY night. II was almost a week since
Louise had encountered some one on
the stairs. and it was four days since
the discovery of the hole in the trunk
room wall. Arnold Armstrong and
MS father rested side by side in the
Casanova churchyard, and at the Zion
African church, on the hill. a new
mound marked the last resting place
OF poor Thomas.
Louise was with her mother In
town, and, beyond a polite note of
thanks 10 me, we had heard nothing
from her. DR.. Walker had taken up
his practice again, and we saw him
now II then flying along the road,
always at top speed. The murder OF
Arnold Armstrong was still unavenged,
and remained Arm in the position l
had taken-to stay at ~Sunnyside until
the thing was at least partly cleared.
And yet, for all its quiet, 1t vas on
Wednesday night that perhaps the
boldest attempt was made to enter
the house. On Thursday afternoon
the laundress sem word she would
like to speak to me, and saw her in
| M priuafa cittfpn rann a Cv,oll rnnr,
beyond the dressing room.
Mary Anne was embarrassed. She
had rolled down her sleeves and tried
4 white apron around her waist, and
she stood making folds in it with fn-
gers that were red and shiny from her
soap-suds.
Well, Mary" I said encouragingly,
whats the matter? Don't dare to
tell me the soap Is out"
mo, ma'am, Miss Innes." She had
a nervous habit Of looking first at M
one eye and then at the other, her
W optics shifting ceaselessly. right
eye, left eye, right eye, until I found
myself doing the same thing. mo,
ma'am. l was askin' did you want the
ladder left up the clothes chute?"
The what?" l screeched, and was
sorry the next minute. Seeing her
suspicious were verified, Mary Anne
had gone white, and stood with her
eyes shifting more wildly than ever
There's a ladder up the clothes
chute, Miss %Innes," she said. IT'S
up that tight I can't move it, and l
didn't like to ask for help until I spoke
to you"
1t was useless to ~dissemble; Mary
Anne knew now as well as | did that
the ladder had no business to be
there. I did the best | could. how
ever. I put her on the defensive at
once.
Then you didn't lock the laundry
last night"
Il locked it tight. and put the key
in the kitchen on it's nail"
Very well, then you forgot a win
dow"
Mary Anne h~esitated.
"Yes'm," she said at last. 81 thought
I locked them all, but there was one
open this morning"
/ went out of the room and down
the hall, followed by Mary Anne. The
door into the clothes chute was Sc
| saw the evidence of the woman's
story. A pruning ladder had been
brought from where It had lain
against the stable and now stood up
right in the clothes shaft, it's end rest
ing against the wall between the first
and second floors.
| turned to Mary.
This is due to your carelessness,"
| said. IF we had all been murdered
in our beds it would have been your
fault" She shivered. Now, not a
word of this through the house, and
send Alex to me-"
The effect on Alex was 10 make him
apoplectic with rage, and with it all /
fancied there was an element Of salts
faction. AS I look back, so many
things are plain to me that I wonder
| could not see at the time. 1t Is all
known now, and yet the whole thing
was so remarkable that perhaps my
stupidity was eXcusable.
Alex leaned down the chute and ex-
amined the ladder carefully.
1T is caught" he said with a grim
smile. THE fools, to have left a
warning like that, The only trouble
is, Miss lines, they won't be apt to
come back for a while"
II shouldn't regard that in the light
of a calamity" l replied.
Until late that evening Halsey and
Alex worked at the chute. They
forced down the ladder at last, and
put a new bolt on the door. AS for
myself, | sat and wondered If I had
a deadly enemy, intent on my destruc-
ton.
was growing more and more nerv-
Gus Liddy had given up all pretense
at bravery, and slept regularly in my
dressing room on the couch, with q
prayer-book and a game knife from
the kitchen under her pillow, thus pre-
pairing for both the natural and the
supernatural. That was the way
things stood that Thursday night,