Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-12-18

!
Western took their places, and, seeing
them, so bright a color sprang to her
white face that the young men knew
they had been recognized.
The girl did not falter for an in
slant, however, but went on nervously,
excitedly, denying that she knew any
thing of the ld-fashioned pistol kept
In her unce's study-beyond hearing
| from Honey that 1t had disappeared
from its place. She did not take 1t;
she had been very unhappy in her
uncle's house; they had not had
quarrel on the night of his death, but
there had been distressing scene.
He called me into his study she
went on, land said cruel things; that
l was careless of his interests; that
was altogether failure, and that
didn't deserve a penny of his money.
| told him if he thought l was staying
for that l would go; if I hadn't hated
to leave him alone in his gloomy house
l would have gone long ago. Then he,
flew into one of his RACES, which al
ways frightened me dreadfully, and
made me believe that he really was a
lunatic, as Honey and his wife used
to say. This was the worst had seen.
Often he had struck-now he threat
ened to kill me- He said rather than
I should leave his house and carry
evil reports he would shoot me. l
rushed out of the room screaming.
for believed he meant to keep his
word, and I believe it still. I didn't
know where to hide from him, for
the lock on my door, as on most Of
the doors, was broken. Then l
thought of the roof-a fiat roof, with
battlements-and ] ran through many
passages till | came to the ladder
like stairway that leads to it. l
climbed up, trembling, for I could
hear my uncle calling my name and
slamming doors At the top I pushed
back the rusty bolt and slipped out.
| expected him to find me, and / had
not been hiding long when l heard
two shots. l supposed he had fired
them to terrify me. After that all
was silent. l decided to wait, If l
were not discovered. till dawn, when
l would slip down. hoping my uncle
might be asleep 1 planned to go to
Weymouth, because it was a big
town, and l knew a girl there who
used to be at school with me in
France. ] didn't realize how weak my
experience had made me. ! meant
to look for her. l never expected to
feel so ill that l should have to go
to hotel or faint in the street. Oh,
that awful railway journey to Wey->
mouth"
This is irrelevant" broke in the
coroner. you walked to more dis
tant railway station than Marine and
caught the first train to Weymouth,
before Sir Digby's fate was known.
But do you mean the jury to under
stand that you remained on the roof
all night without being aware that
your uncle was dead?"
II do answered the girl II dared
not go down. Once, though, l hoped
to be taken away"
while ] was on the roof" she
went on family, in her uneasiness CIV
ing an air of artificiality to her state
ment, soon after dark 1t must have
been, balloon came close to the
house. Two young men were in it,
gentlemen, and I begged them to save
me. Their balloon was caught some
how in a tree, and they were so near
for minute that / hoped they could
take me with them. They must have
seen how frightened l was, and [
think they meant to help, but wind
came and freed the balloon, whirling
it out of sight, so they had no time"
A litter of incredulous laughter
among the onlookers interrupted
her, and was quickly checked. But
it had not died before Western,
ignoring the formalities of coro-
ner's inquest, stepped forward. "They
are here as witnesses" he exclaimed.
eve are the two balloonists, my
friend and l, and we can corroborate
every word Miss Plantagenet has said.
We can prove her innocence: for if
she had murdered her uncle she
would have known that his dead body
lx,i,nr hi pt of win
that we had probably seen it there.
and she would have hidden herself
instead of rushing toward us and beg
cling that we would take her away"
Twice the coroner strove to stop
Western. but the tide of his indignant
eloquence was not to be stemmed.
Margaret Plantagenet, flushed and
grateful, moved aside, and the Amer
lean was sworn as witness
you and your friend never saw
Miss Plantagenet until the night in
question:" the coroner asked
mo"
"Then'-very slowly and distinctly
--"how comes it that you should have
declared, on your visiting card which
you sent in to me, that you were en-
gagged to marry that young lady?'
At this question there was stir in
ern, but he answered, unabashed-
81 didn't say ! was engaged to
her. If YOU will look again, you'll see
that ] said l intended to marry her.
| wrote that so that / might have a
chance to come in and give my evil
dence. But it is true. / do hope to
marry Miss Plantagenet-hopei 1t be-
yond everything ! shall propose to
her on the first opportunity, and tell
her that / fell in love at first sight
with the sweetest, purest, most inno-
cent girl l ever met. That girl a MUIR
deress. My friend and ] would have
been fools even to think of such a.
thing-when we'd seen her face and
heard her voice. l can prove every
word I am going to say about my
balloon, which took us over to Nor q
mandy before we could descend. The
first thing we did was to catch train
back and scour the country in my
friends automobile looking for the
lost girl and the lost house; we
couldn't locate them exactly. We
learned what we wanted to know only
by the paper today. We were never
nearer the house of Abbey Court than
being caught in tree; we didn't de-
scend; the dead body in the window
was a mystery to us. But l would
wager my dearest possession-which
is my balloon-that the pistol you
were talking about dropped out of
the dead mans hand when he had
shot himself in his frenzy. and fell
into the bushes under the window
where he lay. I advise you to send
and look for it."
So frank, so enthusiastic, and SO
handsome was Paul Western, the ia
nous balloonist, whose name nearly
everybody knew, that he carried all
before him. Perhaps it was largely