The Springdale news., 1912-09-20
Uopy right 1911, The Bobbs- Merrill Co
(Continued from last week.
CHAPTER VI.
Tho Third Suicide.

SOmethln8 nad happened.
 awoke the next morning with start and sat up in bed listening to the strange confusion in the hotel. h. stinctively recognized that the Aensa- ton Of the unusual that so affected me was something more than the feeling every one experiences on suddenly awaking for the first true in a strange place.
 sprang from the bed and, opening my door, looked out into the hall. could see nothing, for a turn of the corridor shut me off from the main hall. From the floor below came the confused murmur of many voices and the sound of men moving about-many men. My first thought was of fire but there We're no cries and there was no smell of smoke. The memory of my experience in the post-ofice recurred to me. l vaguely wondered if l had been tracked and discovered.
 hastened to dress. If they suspect ed me of robbing the post-office, the sooner l found out the sooner I could plan some method of action. As I put on my collar heard footsteps in the corridor and, coatless as I was, flung open my door. A ehambermaid was passing
 Whats the matter?" asked.
 Haven't you heard about it?" she asked in wonder.
 Heard about what?"
 The suicide in the hotel-in the room right under yours They discoy- cred It hours ago. The coroner's just come and Is getting ready to hold the inquest"
 Who was he?" I asked. was thinking 1t might be Hugh Crandall, dead in some suicide pact with Katha- r1ne. A sense Of disappointment be gan to take hold of me. l felt that If It were Crandall my efforts to clear the mystery would be still more fu- tile. but the woman,s answer quickly dispelled the thought.
 It wasn't a he. It's a woman.
 She hurried on down the corridor and l hastened to finish my dressing. recalling as did so Davis belief that there would be other suicides. It seemed absurd that there could be any connection between the suicide of a woman in a country hotel in an ob- scure New Jersey village and the two suicides the day before in New York, and yet there was at least one link between them. It was Crandall who had telephoned Katharine. Some one had telephoned Elser, too It was In Crandall's rooms that we had found the address of this place where the third suicide In the series had taken place.
 With the triumphant 4eeling that my friend the inspector finally would have to accept my theory of Crandall's guilt, hurried downstairs and forced my way into the room where the coro- her had already begun his inquest.
 On the bed, covered with a sheet. except for the face, lay the lifeless body of woman perhaps fifty, the face still distorted from the death agony. A bit of rope attached to a rod among the rafters of the room showed that she had hung herself The %oman's outer clothing lay neatly piled on chair near the bed. This much l had time to notice before the coroner finished selecting his jury Near the coroner, too, observed the man whom the clerk had called Cook thought he gave quick glance in my direction, but I could not be sure The first witness was called. Mahlon Williams, the proprietor of the hotel
 Mir. Williams" said the coroner do you know this woman?"
 ''I can't say as do"
 What was her name?"
 She was registered here in the ho tel The names on the book. You can see for yourself l don't know ii 1t twas her real name or not"
 Mary Jane Teller, Bridgeport Conn. was the entry in the hotel