Charlevoix county herald., 1918-04-05

knowledge gained through Kodani.
from my own observations and de-
ductive imagination, ! portrayed the
happenings of Tuesday afternoon in
the st. Dunstan apartments Numbers
629 and $50, the northwest corner OF
the sixth floor. from the time Marnee
: Taafe knocked at its door at some
thing like four o'clock.
Kodani opened for her; the duke, or
James Freel as he was known there.
was not in, but would be back shortly
Kodani said; she was to wait. Then
he left her alone.
She looked about the room, proba-
bly, Strengthening it up as women will
when opportunity comes to help bet
ter a bachelors quarters, and she took
off her hat to be more at ease. Then
she stood at the window, looking out
at the steel frame of the great struc-
ture, twelve stories high, which was
building next door, watching the riv-
eters handle the hot iron rivets, deaf
ened by the sharp staccato of the pneu-
matte hammers; and from above her
through the opened window-left pur-
posely open-came the bullet to her
heart, and the pistols discharge was
soundless in the greater din OF the
changing riveters.
Brought to the st. Dunstan by a
trick similar to the one which lured
Marnee to her death, the grand duke
met. his fate as he stood over the low
cd body, and Captain Belgrag, who
had planned the murder, and Ignatz
Gregr, who fired the shots, had but to
cemove the bodies from the building
to some place remote enough to avoid
iuspicion.
had interrupted their endeavoe of
TUESDAY night-or Wednesday morn
ing early-after Gregr had placed
Marnee's corpse in the lift, and Bel.
gag, below, had brought it down.
had driven them away by signaling
the elevator before Belgrag could re-
move the body. and there was Of
course no other opportunity.
The fact that Franz Pallfys, the
dukes confdant, was still alive was
a menace to the murderers. so he was
lured there Thursday and was done
away in the same manner which had
proved so effective before; shot
from the steel skeleton, covered by
the racket of the riveters. And Franz
Pallfys's shadowing of me, the uncle
of the girl he knew the duke was to
wed, was unquestionably with hope
that / would lead him to his missing
master
When the discovery of Marnee's
dead body made certain that suspicion
would be directed to some occupant
of the sixth floor. was selected to
stand as the murderer, quite natural
ly, because | was Marnee's uncle and
might have motive for the crime;
and Kodani was bribed to build evil
dence against me, discharging one
cylinder of my revolver and placing
the hatpin in my handkerchief box;
then to give Gregr the key to my
room when Belgrag took the Jap on
the Sakuntala. Ii was Gregr who re-
stole the hatpin from my trunk and
changed the set of the alarm-clock.
Whether Gregr or Belgrag wrote
the purple-ribboned notes to the de-
tective department, l did not know,
but they were to give impetus to the
suspicion against me, just as the note
to Isabelle was to ward off inquiry
which might lead to discovery. Either
might have typed them; which did SO
was unimportant.
Only the motive for this series OF
crimes was lacking now, and my brain
ached trying to find an explanation
for this conspiracy of murder. 1t was
planned long in advance, for Gregr
had taken his apartment In the st.
Dunstan a month before the murders,
almost as soon as the elopement was
planned in Igeria, half across the
world; and, unless / was greatly mis-
taken, Gregr had secured employment
as a rivet-driver on the steel con-
struction for the express purpose Of
these crimes.
He must have been laborer there
to fire the shots; but why this elder
ly, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS man should
do such atrocities / could not imagine.
Would monarchial objection to this
marriage go to such extremes in its
prevention? Could a political oppo-
sition to the duke be excuse for the
murders? l might only surmise. for
the truth was locked in the stolid
mind of Belgrag. in the reticent Gregr
and in the heart Of a country still as
medieval as the Dark Ages, the
Grand Duchy of Igeria.
Sonora Reade," / said to Isabelle's
mother, you may have seen-guessed
that love your daughter"
She looked up from an embroidery
frame, and her eyes smiled so like
Isabelle's that l was sure she would
not be harsh to my request. 1t was
the afternoon of my first day IN Du-
range, and we sat in the cool shade
of the patio at the senora's hacienda
in the hills.
"Yes, senor," said Isabelle's moth
er, which was non-committal and
fi,to