Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-12-03
CHAPTER XIII
The Turning of the Body.

While Graham and the doctor
walked to the back of the hail to
telephone, Katherine, an anxious
| figure, a secretive one, beckoned
Bobby to the library. He went
with her, wondering what she
could want.
1t was quite dark in the library.
AS Bobby fumbled with the lamp
and prepared to strike match
he was iware of the girls provo
catively near presence. He resisted
warm impulse to reacl. out AMI
touch her hand. He desired to tell
her all that was in his heart of the
division that had increased between
them the last few months. Yet to
follow that impulse would, he
realized, place>a portion of his bur-
den on her shoulders; would also,
in a sense, be disloyal to Graham,
for he no longer questioned that
the two had reached a definite
sentimental understanding. So he
sighed and struck the match. Even
before the lamp was lighted Kath-
crime was speakig with a feverish
haste:
Before the police come-you've
a chance, Bobby-the last chance.
You must do before the police arrive
whatever is to be done"
He replaced the shade and
glanced at her, astonished by her in
tensity, by the forcefui gesture with
which she grasped his arm. For the
first time since Silas Blackburn's
murder all of her vitality had come
back to her.
What do you mean?" :
She pointed to the door of the
private staircase.
Gust what Howells told you be-
fore he went up there to his death"
Bobby understood. He reacted
excitedly to her attitude of conspsr-
ator.
He said" she went on, that
the criminal had nothing to lose.
That it would be to his advantage
to have him out of the way,~to des-
troy the evidence"
Il thought of it," Bobby answer
ed, "just before 1 went to sleep"
Don't you see?" she said. IF
you had killed him you would have
taken the cast and the handker-
chief and destroyed them? Hart
ley has told me everything, and l
could see his coat for myself. The
cast and the handkerchief are still
in Howell's pocket"
why should l have killed him if
not to destroy those?" Bobby took
her up with quick hope.
"You didn't" she cride. Nothing
would ever make me believe that
you killed him, but you will be
charged with it unless the evidence
disappears, you'll have no de-
Tense"
Bobby drew back a little.
You want me to go there-and
and take from his pocket those
things?"
She nodded.
"You remember he suggested
that he hadn't sent his report. That
may be there, too"
Bobby shook his head. "He must
have said that as a bait"
AT the worst" she urged. "a
report without evidence could only
turn suspicion against you. 1t
wouldn't convict you as those other
things may. You must get them.
You must destroy them"
Graham slipped quietly in and
closed the door.
THE district attorney is coming
himself with another detective" he
said. II can guess what Katherine
has been talking about. She's
right, Pm a lawyer, and I know
the penalty of tampering with evil
dence. But ! don't belive you're a
murderer, and | tell you as long
as that evidence exists they can
convict you. They can send you to
the chair. They may arrest you
and try you anyway on his report,
but | don't believe they can con-
vict you on it alone. You're justi-
fed in protecting yourself, Bobby,
in the only way you can. No one
will see you go in the room. Well
arrange it so that no one can testi-
fly against you"
Bobby felt himself at a cross
roads. During the commission of
those crimes he had been uncon-
scious. If he had, in fact, had any
thing to do with them, his person.
ality, his real self, had known moth
ing, had done no wrong. His body
had merely reacted to hideous
promptings whose source lurked at
the bottom of the black pit. To
tamper with evidence would be a
conscious crime. All the more. be-
cause of his doubt of himself, he
shrank from that. Katherine Saw
his hesitation.
ITS matter of your life or
DEATH"
! But although Katherine decided
him it wasn't with that. She came
closer. She looked straight at him,
and her eyes were full of an affeec-
ton that stirred him profoundly:
For my sake, Bobby"
He studied the dead ashes of the
fire which a little while ago had
played on Howelis, vital and an
tagonistic, by the door of the pri-
vate staircase. The man had chal-
lenged him to do just the thing
from which he shrank. But How
ellis was no longer vital or antago-