The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-03-24
NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY.

TIL THE STORY.
the lower hall. He was too late.
His boat was gone, tub of liver,
pile of wooden platters and all!
We hurried to the room the
Ladley's had occupied. 1t was
empty. From the window, as we
looked out, we could see the boat,
almost a square away. 1t had
stopped where, the street being
higher, doorstep rose above the
flood. On the step was sitting a
forlorn yellow puppy. AS we
stared. Mr.. Ladley stopped the
boat, looked back at us, bent over,
placed a piece of liver on a plat
ter, and reached it over to the
dog. Then. rising in the boat, he
bowed, with his hat over his
heart, in our direction, sat down
calmly, and rowed around the
corner out of sight.
Mr.. Holcombe was in a frenzy
of rage. He jumped up and down,
shaking his fist out the window
after the retreating boat. He ran
down the staircase, only to come
back and look out the window
again. The police boat was not
in sight, but the Mcguire children
had worked their raft around to
the street and were under the
window. He leaned out and call
ed to them.
"A quarter each, boys" he
said, ''if you'll take me on that
raft to the nearest pavement"
Money first" said the oldest
boy, holding his cap.
But Mr.. Holcombe did not wait.
He swung out over the window
sill, holding by his hands, and lit
fairly in the center of the raft.
Don't touch anything in that
room until | come back" he called
to me, and Jerking the pole from
one of the boys, propelled the
raft with amazing speed down the
street.
The liver on the stove was
burning. There was smell of
scorching through the rooms and
a sort of blush haze of smoke. |
hurried back and took 1t off. BY
the time | had cleaned the pan,
Mr.. Holcombe was back again, in
his own boat. He had found ii
at the end of the next street,
where the flood ceased, but nc
sign of Ladley anywhere. He had
not seen the police boat.
Perhaps that is just as WE'LL
he said philosophically. 1--WE can't
go to the police with a wet slip
per and a blood-stained rope and
accuse a man of murder. We
have to have a body"
HE killed her." I said obsti-
nately. "She told me yesterday
he was fiend. He killed her and
threw the body in the water.
Every likely. But he didn't
throw 1t here"
| But in spite of that, he went
over all the lower hall with his
boat, feeling every foot of the
floor with an oar, and finally, at
the back end, he looked up at me
as l stood on the stairs.
There's something here" he
said.
l went cold all over, and had to
clutch the railing. But when
Terry had come, and the two of
them brought the thing to the
surface, 1t was only the dining
room rug, which l had rolled UP
and forgotten to carry upstairs!
At half past one Mr.. Holcombe
wrote a note, and sent 1t off with
Terry, and borrowing my boots,
which had been Mr.. Pitman's, in
vestigated the dining-room and
kitchen from a floating plank
the doors were too narrow to ad-
NIT the boat. But he found
nothing more important than a
rolling-pin. He was not at all
depressed by his failure. He came
back, drenched to the skin, about
three, and asked permission to
search the Ladleys' bedroom.
II have a friend coming pretty
soon, Mrs. Pitman," he said, "a
young newspaper man, named