The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-03-23
Mary Roberts
Rinehart

"The theater is asking where
Mrs. Ladley is"
"Tell them | don't know" he
snarled, and shut the door. ]
took his message to the tele-
phone.
Whoever It was swore and hung
up the receiver.
All the morning / was uneasy
Il hardly knew why. Peter felt
1t as / did. There was no sound
from the Ladley's room. and the
house was quiet, except for the
tapping water on the stairs and
the police patrol going back and
forth.
At eleven o'clock a boy in the
neighborhood, padding on a raft,
fell into the water and was
drowned. watched the police
boat go past, carrying his little
cold body, and after that I was
good for nothing. l went and sat
with Peter on the stairs. The dogs
conduct had been strange all
morning. He had sat Just above
the water, looking at 1t and within.
pering. Perhaps he was expect.
ing another kitten or
1t is hard to say how ideas first
enter ones mind. But the no.
tion that Mr.. Ladley had killed
his wife and thrown her body into
the water came to me as | sal
there. All at once I seemed ia
see it all: the quarreling the day
before, the night trip In the
boat, the water-soaked slipper, his
haggard face that morning-even
the way the spaniel sat and
stared at the flood.
Terry brought the boat back
at half past eleven, towing 1t be-
hind another.
WELL" l said, from the stairs
II hope you've had a pleasant
morning."
What doing?" he asked, not
looking at me.
Rowing about the streets
You've had that boat for hours"
He tied it up without a word to
me, but he spoke to the dog.
Good morning, Peter" he said.
ITS nice weather-for fishes,
amt it,"
He picked out a bit of floating
wood from the water, and show
ing 1t to the dog, flung it into
the parlor. Peter went after II
with splash. He was pretty fat,
and when he came back | heard
him wheeling. But what he
brought back was not the stick of
wood. 1t was the knife l use for
cutting bread. 1t had been on a
shelf in the room where | had
slept the night before, and now
Peter brought 1t out of the flood
where its wooden handle had kept
1t afloat. The blade was broken
off short.
1t is not unusual to find ones
household goods floating around
during flood-time. More than
once I've lost a chair or two, and
seen 1t after the water had gone
down, new scrubbed and painted,
in Molly Maguire's kitchen next
door. And perhaps now and then
a bit of luck would come to me-
a dog kennel or chicken house,
or a kitchen table, or even, as
happened once, month-old baby
In a wooden cradle, that lodged
against my back fence, and had
come forty miles, as 1t turned out
with no worse mishap than cold
in its head.
But the knife was different. ]
had put 1t on the mantel over the
stove l was using upstairs the
night before, and hadn't touched
it since. AS / sat staring at i'll
Terry took 1t from Peter and
handed it to me.
Better give me penny, Mrs.
Pitman," he said in his impudent
Irish way. II hate to give you
a knife. 1t may cut our friend
ship"
l reached over to hit him q
clout on the head, but l did not
The sunlight was coming in
through the window at the top oil
the stairs, and shining ON the
rope that was tied to the banis-
ter. The end of the rope was
covered with stains, brown, with
q CLINT of red in them.
/ | got up shivering. you can
get the meat at the butchers,
Terry" l said, land come back
for me in a halI-hour." Then I
turned and went upstairs, weak
In the knees, to put on my hat and
coat. had made up my mind
that there had been murder done.
CHAPTER iii.
l looked at my clock as | went
downstairs. II was Just twelve
thirty. l thought OF telephoninl