The Washington times., 1920-04-18

his motive bef Nothing has been
taken"
very strange. very strange" he
said again, half to himself and half
\ TO me. Il must see this Heasden.
Extraordinarily fine looking young
fellow, Is he not? So, at least. the
constable tells me-"
"Oh, yes" / said, but surely you
cannot think"-
"Oh, no, my dear young lady"
he interrupted. AT this stage OF
a case I never do think-not In
that way. But, still'-
The good looks OF this Jim Heas-
den, bad boy OF the village. poscher
and In all respects ne'er-dowell.
were quite out OF the common. His
gypsy mother had brought him eyes
like sloes, curly black hair, fiorid
coloring and very fine features and
figure.
Aunt Enid, I know, had met him
caught him would rather be the
word for it-trespsssing-almost
certainly poaching-in the shrub
berry itself. But, still-he was q
fellow utterly illiterate, a yoiel!
had no lofty idea of Aunt Ends in
tellect. nor, 1t may be, Of her NOR
ality-but. still!
"You dined alone with. Sir Ralph
that night7"
"Yes," l said.
"And was Sir Ralph in his usual
spirits?"
"He was rather silent-nothing
very remarkable. He was often
silent"
"And you sat together after din
ner?"
Hardly at all. He went almost
directly to the library and sat for
a little in the drawing-room."
"And you did not see him again
that night"
There-it had come-the ques-
ton I had been afraid OF. How
was I to answer? Perhaps I had
better have told the truth. Per-
haps l had better have lied right
out do not know. What | did
was to lie-it amounted to that
in a roundabout fashion-inferen-
TALLY.
81 saw uncle again when Livesay
called us. We met I'm the hall,
while Granger was fumbling at the
door"
But you did not see him be-
fore?" II seemed to me that the
little man was growing wooden,
mechanical again, and his eyes,
which he had of kindness turned
elsewhere, were boring into the
secret places Of my brain once
more.
"Well, to be exact, did see him
before-see his head at least, for
when looked out of the window
to see who was ringing the bell
saw uncle's head below me, out of
his own window
Thus we passed that perilous
corner, and I felt my heart beating
quickly in the reaction from my
anxiety about 1t. I fiattered my
self that i had fenced with the
little man well and rolled him with
out telling an actual lie.
He went on then to elicit from
me other episodes OF the might in
which I had taken a personal
share. and | told him Of my going
to aunt Ends room to inform her
of uncle's being called out-I little
dreaming then why 1t was that
Livesay had called him. told the
sergeant. too, about Celeste, my
aunt's maid, and all the rest Just
as I have written It already.
So, when we had brought all up
to the point at which Sergeant
Crisp had been introduced to me
by the village constable, he said:
"Now that is finished. Miss Carl.
ton, and thank you very much for
answering my questions so fully
and so frankly"-my conscience
smote me a little at that praise.
81 am going to ask you now to
leave me here alone for a little
while. want to look around and
make a thorough examination OF
this arbor-perhaps take a photo
graph or two-and then I shall be
able to relieve you and Sir Ralph
of some of the strain you have
suffered. There will be no reason
after that why the body should not
be carried to the house and prop
erlv cared for"