Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-09-02

tOE uuU Ueeu UlBLuHL Auu COuSIEdl1lcu
for years, yet the Judges widow was
next Of kin. With the usual delay
characteristic Of the easy going doctor,
4 he had delayed making out the legal
adoption papers for Esther. He had
only insisted that she be called Esther
Lee. What her real name was the pc.
lite Virginians had not asked, but 1t
was whispered that 1t was Harding.
When questioned by the puzzled
sheriff as to what procedure he should
follow after the Identification Of the
broken guitar, found by the footprints
in the flower beds, the judges widow
had coldly replied, do your dutyy'
! and the sheriff, with hts deputy, set
out FOR Stanley hall to apprehend
Arthur Stanley 2d on suspicion Of the
murder Of DR.. Henry Lee.
At their parting there had been one
gift Of Hagar's that Esther had since
lovingly cherished. 1t was a pair of
carrier pigeons.
Take these, my dear daughter"
Hagar had said. If you are ever in
trouble and need me send a message
by the birds. Their homtng place is
our gypsy rendezvous In the Blue
ridge. Even II I am not there when
the message comes, some Of our tribe
will be. They will know where I am
and fetch me the word"
So Esther, under the open espionage
Of Blair's mother, had taken one Of
the pigeons from its cage on the porch
and had hastily written the message
to send by this aerial carrier to Hagar.
The message read briefly, "Come at
once, dear mother; / need yon." She
simply signed 1t Esther" Z
From her lattice window she releas-
ed her feathered messenger. It flew
swiftly to the west, straight as the
arrow flies. {
The sheriff and his deputy We're not
long in reaching Stanley hall. They
alighted with a businesslike clatter,
and the sheriff dumped up the steps
and across the wide, hospitable portico
and made the great iron knocker wake
the echoes Of the silent mansion. With
an indicative gesture OF his thumb he
had sent his deputy to guard the rear.
Joe, the natty and worldly wise col
ored nan servant Of the until recently
wild young master of Stanley hall, was
wondering at the impudent urgency Of
the clamor that had aroused him as he
reached the bottom Of the staircase,
when he stood stock still, shaken for
once out Of his usual superior airs and
self possession, to behold his young
master, wild eyed and disheveled, rush
from the library and seize him, ex-
claiming as he did so: Don't open that
door! l have Killed a man, and they
are after me"
With chattering teeth and shaking
knees the erstwhile dandy darby chung
for support in the weakness Of his
fright to the pedestal of the balustrade
at, the foot Of the old colonial stair
case.
Still the sheriff hammered at the
door, crying s:entoriously, "Open in the
name Of the law" and still the fright
ened darby chung to the balustrade, di.
vided in his terror between the awful
authority of the law that he was dis
obeying and in fear Of the fate this till
now sophisticated servitor had felt for
his young master.
One glance from the low French win
dows that looked from the library upon
the grounds at the back Of Stanley hall
and Arthur was aware Of the watchfHl
deputy, with drawn pistol.
At this juncture the automobile
agent from Richmond came with honk-
ing horn up the driveway with one of
the first automobiles that had ever es-
sayed the roads of Fairfax. With the
agent, who proudly drove the red
French racer, was an oily and grimy
garage mechanic driving a low, old but
powerful n seated garage handy car
battered and SCARED from much hard
service, but still strong, speedy and
dependable.
The sheriff hammered and kicked
unavailingly at the stout, great white
door as these "newfangled contrap-
TONS" as he called them, drove up to
the portico steps. II am the sheriff"
he explained to the wondering auto
mobile nan II am after a man for
murder, and I summon you to MD me-"
The taciturn garage mechanic brought
q heavy iron jack from his battered old
car, and he and the sheriff soon had
the stout oak door shattering beneath
the battering ram blows they dealt it
with this heavy instrument of iron.
AS the door gave way Arthur darted
from the library, past the still quaking
negro in the hallway and into the din
ing room. He passed through the din
ing room into the conservatory at its
back that overlooked, as did the libra
~, the grounds at the rear Of Stan
ley hall. But here his way was block
ed by iron and glass, there was no
egress from the conservatory save
through the dining room.
As he turned to retrace his steps the
sheriff, with the frightened automobile
man at his back, appeared at the door
Of the conservatory with leveled re-
volver and demanded Arthul's sur
render. .Arthur's reply was to seize
a heavy rustic chair and with one
swinging, sweeping blow thrust aside
the leveled revolver and then smash