New Britain herald., 1921-07-23
CRAY DUSK By OCTAVIUS ROY COHEN A Mystery Story With Mysterious Plot

Mysterious

and left the old one. Didn't dare to take the return trip without my spare tire, and when I eventually got back to the lodge it was somewhere around 6:30.
 1T approached the house from the near-the place fronts on a small hill which slopes down to the river. It is the rear which faces the road As soon as I got near the little back porch I saw something was wrong It was MT. Stanford, sir, with the, body of Mrs. Forrest in his arms There was good deal of blood there, sir, and-knowing what it all meant I'm afraid I got very i'll.
 She was quite dead, sir, It was quite evident that she had been stab bed through the neck with an ice pick"
 Why do you say quite evident?' '' Because the pick was lying near her, sir, and it was-was covered with blood. The wound showed that it had been driven in from the rer, in general right-and-left direction. Poor MT. Stanford was almost crazy with grief. He frightened me for a while; I thought he had lost his mind. Then he carried the body by Eimself to the car and put it in the tonneau and he sat there with it on his lap and I drove in-slowly and carefully, sir, sort of feeling that if the car bumped it might hurt Mrs. Forrest; I sort of couldn't make my self believe that she was dead. The suddenness of it, sir-it was terrible. We got into town and went straight to the sheriff's house. He was very kind, sir, and took the body in his own house, and then he arrested MT. Forrest-sort of apologizing for doing it. But he said he had to-" The two detectives were satisfied | with the mans story. It set forth the facts clearly and lucidly. They crossed casually to the court house and joined Sheriff Potter on the veranda.
 What do you know about this man Heston who has been hanging around here for the last couple of | months? ?' Carroll askedH The man who bought the Furness ] place?"
 Yes" l Nothing. He seldom comes tc 1 town and has nothing to say wher he does. Some say he's a scientist l and others say he's a writer. No one | has anything against him, and I've l sort of liked what I've seen of him | Why?"
 | Because" answered Carroll slow | ly, @1 don't mind telling you since you've agreed to help us, that he ha: had no more right to live in the Fur l ness place than you have" | The sheriff puffed meditatively or | his cigar Its right nimble nninc you've got, son.. You'd have made { l good lawyer. Have you wired thi: chap Furness?"
 | Yes" Carroll extended the tele | gram received that morning from | Furness There's one fact estab | lished.''
 Seems to me that I'd wire hin again asking if he has ever heard lof a chap named Conrad .Heston.' l Carroll took a 1oose-leaf notebool from his pocket and scribbled a tel egram to Franklin Furness in Den ver This he handed to Jim Sulli lean. Beat it down to the depot, vii Iyou, Jim, and hang around until the.
 get this wire off" He turned bacl
 to the sheriff. 50 much. for tha suggestion. And now-They tell m | Mart r arndm 1nlSut hllOW SOuloli1l1ls about him."
 They told you right" chucklet Potter.
 You reckon I could hire Farnan
 co drive us around a bit-just so a to pump him dry?"
 Good pay for little work is Far nam's motto" laughed Potter. ''I
 that's all you want him to do he Iyour meat
 i There was little conversation dur ling the first few miles of the bump, drive to Furness lodge. They sat il a large and ancient buggy, a single scatter of such ample proportions a to afford room for the trio.
 Farnam, gaunt, 1anky, self-impor liant, sat on the right, driving <witF his right hand anl using his lief gingerly because, as he explained | two fingers of his left hand had beer ] mashed in a door and he exhibited 'blackened nails to testify te l his assertion.
 k. c.Sa5;..all rallsed -1iNnself The sonn