The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1915-01-21

/ MARY ROBERTS RNfhART +
I Copyright. 1918. by the Bobbs- 4.
Z Merrill Company Z
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SYNOPSIS
Jennie Brice and her husband. Ladley.
quarrel. She disappears from Mrs. Pit
mans boarding house during Pittsburgh
food.
mrs. f1tman tells Holcombe. an amateur
detective, that she believes Ladley has
killed Jennie Brice
Holcombe finds discriminating evidence
In Ladleys room. An onyx clock Is miss
Ing. Mrs. Pitmans knife has been stolen
and h-nkan.
Mrs. Pitman recalls that Howell, a re-
porter. was with Jennie Brice and Ladley
shortly before Jennie disappeared.
Ladley is arrested. but as no pody mas
been found he Is released for lack Of EVIL
dence.
Holcombe believes Ladley Is guilty.
Ladley returns to Mrs. Pitman's. Ho-
combe watches him through the ceiling.
A woman's headless body is found.
Howell was seen with yelled woman re-
sembling Jennie Brice the night she dis
appeared
No one can identify the headiess body,
which has an odd scar on the breast.
Ladley is rearrested.
Apparently Jennie Brice was alive three
days after her disappearance, and this
fact Is known by Howell. Ladley's trial
begina-
Alice Murray. a stenographer, with
whom Ladley is infatuated, has disap-
peared from her home. The evidence IA
vors Ladley.
HoIcombe appears with a mysterious
witness. Howell testifies that he took
Jennie Brina alive away from Pittsburgh.
CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK }
1 sat down across from him and
tried to mend a tablecloth, but | could
not sew. kept seeing those two
young things, each sick for sight of
the other, and. from wishing they
could have minute together, got to
planning 1t for them.
Perhaps" l said finally, IF you
want 1t very mucn-
"Very much!'
"And IL you will sit quiet and stop
tapping your fingers together until you
drive me crazy might contrive it for
you. For five minutes" l said. mot
a second longer"
He came right over and put his arms
around me.
"Who are you, anyhow he said.
''You who turn to the world the frozen
mask of a Union street boarding house
landlady, who are a gentlewoman by
every instinct and training and a girl
at heart? Who are your
"I'll tell you what l am" l said.
Pm a romantic old fool, and you'd
better let me do this quickly before
change my mind"
He freed me at that. but he followed
to the telephone and stood by while !
got Ida. He was in perfect frenzy
of anxiety, turning red and white by
turns. and in the middle of the con-
yersation taking the receiver bodily
from me and holding it to his own ear.
She said she thought she could get
away; she spoke guardedly as II Alma
were near, but gathered that she
would come as soon as she could, and
from the way her voice broke, knew
she was as excited as the boy be-
SIDE me.
She came, heavily coated and yelled,
at quarter after 10 that night. and l
took her back to the dining ROOM
where he was waiting. He did not
make a move toward her, but stood
there with his very lips white, looking
at her. And at first she did not make
a move either, but stood and gazed ut
him, thin and white, a wreck of him.
self. Then:
"Ellw she cried. and ran around the
table to him as he held out his arms,
The schoolteacher was out. l went
into the parlor bedroom and sat in the
| cozy corner in the dark. l had done
wrong thing, and 1 was glad OF it.
And, sitting there in the darkness,
went over my life again. After all. II
had been my own life; had lived it.
no one else had shaped it for me. And
IL 1t was cheerless and colorless now
It had had its big moments. Life is
measured by big moments.
If l let the two children in the din
ing room have fifteen big moments In
stead of five who can blame me?
The next day. was the sensational
one of the trial. We went through
every phase of conviction: Jennie
Brice was living. Jennie Brice was
dead. The body found at Sewickley
could not be Jennie Brice's. The body
found at Sewickley was Jennie Brice's
And so it went on.
The defense did an unexpected thing
In putting Mr. Ladley on the stand
That day, for the first time, he showed
the wear and tear of the ordeal. He
| had no flower in his buttonhole. and
the rims Of his eyes were red. But he
was quite cool. His stage training had
taught him not only to endure the eyes
of the crowd, but to find in its gaze o
sort Of stimulant. He made good
| witness must admit
He replied to the usual questions
easily. After five minutes or SO Mr.
Llewellyn got down to work.