Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-05-22
THE CURVED BLADES
By CAROLYN WELLS, Author 81 .vely Van. Etc.

tense thought and. doubtless, by most
brilliant and clever deduction from
hints not facts, from ideas. not visible
clues. To work, then! To the work
that MUST bring success!
Leaving the window seat, Stone
walked round the ROOM, and finally
drew up in front of the mirror the
easy chair in which Miss Darlington
had sat when she received the blow
given by Bates. Whether she had sat
here while taking the poison, no n
she had not.
BY referring to the photographs
taken Of Miss Darlington after her
DEATH Stone was able to reconstruct
the scene correctly.
He placed the easy chair just rs it
had been when h sat in it. He as
sumed the position she showed in the
photographs, and gazed at himself in
the mirror, as she must necessarily
have done.
Slowly. he went over that CONVERSE
ton reported by Anita Frayne. Never
truth Of that report. He was sure
Miss Darlington had really said all
the things Anita repeated, and the
clear and indubitable explanation of
those remarks would mean, he was
sue, the solution of the mystery.
By way of interviewing his silent
witnesses, he endeavored to recon-
movements that night. Pauline and
Anita had left her, all three of them
angry, at a little after twelve. Later,
Estelle had left her,-that was about
quarter to one. Then she had on
her embroidered robe and some jew
els. She was not then sitting at the
dressing-table. MOI had she then,
presumably, taken the poison. Fol-
the doctors insisted that she had
swallowed the poison very near the
hour of one, but after it rather than
before, and had placed the hour Of
her death at two. So, Stone reasoned,
Miss Darlington must have taken that
Anita heard her talking. 1t seemed
to Stone incredable that there could
have been a person present to whom
Miss Darlington could have addressed
those remarks, and who could have
! given or allowed her to take the
deadly draught.
The idea Pauline could have been
this person was not among Fleming
| Stones catalogue of possibilities.
Moreover, the fact of the n voice
strongly impressed him. Another
voice, however low, must have at
p. some point of the conversation risen
to an audible sound to a listener with
normal hearing. Also, Anita had as
serted hat the speeches of Miss Car
rington did sound as If addressed to
different persons. 1t was not likely
there were two or more intruders or
! visitors there at nee and slowly but
! surely Fleming Stone decided, once
for all, that Miss Darlington was
alone in that roo at that time. This
meant, not exactly soliloquy, the
mode of address contradicted that,
h,,t - ranonf IN hiVo of 1ooof tho ohio
was addressing some inanimate OBJ
ject or objects as il they were senti-
lent.
His ask was to discover those OBJ
jects. His first thought was, as he
sat in the easy chair before the mir
ror, that the lady had spoken to her
own reflection. But the speeches, of
: cluded this hypothesis. She would
not say to herself you are so fond OF
pearls" or you have a beautiful
face"
Abandoning that superstition, Stone
m~ethodically searched for something
that might have been addressed.
Clearly,-that is, il he were on the
right track.-thc words Henri, you
are the mark 1 aim att" could have
which she held in her hand. In the
same vein, assuming that the glove,
to her, represented the Count himself,
might have beer said the speech
about the ten thousand dollars. and
the remark that he loved pearls.
Accepting these possibilities as
facts, Stone went on to discover more.
His method was to repeat to himself
her very words and strive to see or
sense something to which they might
have been addressed.
You have the most beautiful face
I ever saw" he quoted softly and
then, scanning the room, went on: II
only wish min were as beautiful"
His eyes lighted on the picture of
Cleopatra, which hung above the mir
ror of the dressing-table.
That's it," he cried, with instant
conviction. "She looked at that beau
tiful face and hen in the mirror, at
her plain features. and she involun-
tarily cried out for the beauty denied
her! Poo woman, to live all her
lonely, hungry life, surfeited with
wealth yet unable to buy the fairness
she craved!" ~
Not doubling for an instant the
truth of his conclusion, Stone checked
off that speech and passed On to the
next on the list. II he could account
for them all, he would be sure Lucy
Darlington met her death alone, and
therefore by her own hand. OF
course, she did not knowingly poison
herself, but If persuaded that the
prepared draught was some innocent
remedy-oh, we'll. that was aside the
point for the moment.
But. quoting the phrase, ''Tomor-
row I shall be forever free from this
curse Of a plain face,-tomorrow
these Jewels may all be yours
even his ingenuity could suggest no
meaning but a foreknowledge of ap-
preaching death. What else could
free her from he. hated lack of
beauty? What, but death could trans
fer her fortune Of jewels to another?
OF course it might be that marriage
with her would give the jewels to
Count Charlier.' but the two speeches
were consecutive. and the implication
was all toward the fate that was ever
then almost upon her.
The remark about ten thousand
dollars was unimportant, as she had
recently willed hat sum to five diff
ferent people. and the reference to a
change in her will that should cut out
Pauline might have been merely q
burst Of temper. At any rate, Stone
ascribed little importance to it then.
He felt hat he had learned enough
to assume positively that Miss Car
rtngton was not talking to a human
being when Anita Frayne heard her
voice. Then, he c~onjectured, as the
maid was free of all suspicion on the
poisoning matter, and as the two girls
had left the room at little after
twelve, the weight of evidence was
in favor Of the poison being self-ad-
ministered, no matter for what reaso
be some trace of the container Of the
acnn}fe hofore ~ WAS tn1acod in the