Omaha daily bee., 1919-10-10
WhatLillian Underwood Said When
Madge Told Her Story.


Madge Told Her Story.
Nov, tell me al about it," Lillian
commanded, when we had reached
my own room and she had turned
4 precautionary key in the lock.
"All about what" / evaded, fool
ishly enough, for / had been longing
to confde in Their.
This mess out at Bayview," Lii
liam retorted. "I've been watching it
from the papers, and I tell you it's
dynamite. The ramihcations of
such 4 thing are endless, and some
of them might hit you or any other
innocent bystander. I've been wait
for you to tell me something about
it, but I've come to the conclusion
that you don't realize the gravity Of
the thing or how it may affect you"
do you think so?" I asked signi-
fcantly.
She whirled on me.
Then there is something" she
declared. II felt it in my bones"
"Your bones are prophetic" I re-
torted.' II was just on the point Of
coming to see you when you arriv-
ed"
II knew itr she declared trium-
phantly. "Now you sit down there,
and, a. the lawyers say, refresh
your memory. l want everything
from the very beginning, and-please
don't leave out anything, no matter
how trivial"
I felt Z sudden lifting Of the heavy
burden Of anxiety I had been carry
ing concerning the complications
surrounding Milly Stoekbridges
death. Lillian's trained mind. her
boundless energy, her loving heart,
were all enlisted in my behalf. 1t
would be 4 malevolent fate, indeed,
which could thwart her.
l did not need to refresh my
memory" as she had requested.
Every incident not only surrounding
but leading up to the stragedy was
etched indelibly up my brain. And
I had really marshalled them into
corrected story for Lillian's hear
ing, when after the appearance Of
the pseudo-lawyer / had decided to
appeal to her for aid in unraveling
the tangle in which I seemed to be
enmeshed.
Lillian cupped her chin in her
hands with her elbows on her knees,
almost at my first word. The old
familiar attitude would have in itself
treasured me if her words had not
already done so. 1t spelled Lillian
in action, definitely "on the job as
Dicky would say.
I began my story with Kenneth
Stockbridge odd behavior when he
had first asked me to take the posi-
ton of assistant in the Bayview
high school, and traced the chain
Of events conscientiously down to
the mysterious death of the princi-
pals wife. At two points she inter
rupted me, but without looking up
or changing at all from her tense
attitude.
Go On"
"Say that again." she command
ed, when / was describing the dra-
matte moment when Kenneth Stock
bridge had dashed from his wife's
hands the glass of fruit punch" in
tended for me.
"H-m!" she commented when l
had gone over the incident again.
"She knew where to lay her hands
on the poison, all right, and he knew
that she knew. It ssows one thing
that she had the Borgia type of
mind. no straightforward villainly
for hers"
/ knew better than to make any
comment upon her monologue.
Lillian always soliloquizes when she
is intent upon a problem. and moth
ing 80 enrages her as to have any
one interrupt her train OF thought.
Therefore l said nothing until Lii
lian, still without raising her face
from he hands, said CURLY:
GO on"
Her second interruption came
when l was relating the seemingly
eolorless incident of the luncheon
which Milly Stockbridge had shared
with the teachers upon the first day
of the principals absence. In
blind obedience to Lillian's COM
mand / omitted nothing in the re-
cital, even describing the packets of
the tea which / had taken to the
school. some which had / given to