The Oklahoma miner. [volume] (Krebs, Okla.) 1912-192?, 1921-07-28
CHAPTER VII.
I Seek Miss Conrad-The Threads Be
come Tangled.


come Tangled
! Erasped the thing in my hand,
holding it up incredulously into what
ever faint light ! could find. There
was no question as to its identity; l
could not doubt. This was the same
peculiar ornament ! had observed that
evening in the girls hat, or else it's
exact mate. l recalled the quaint
shape of the miniature hilt too clearly
to be mistaken. Then this car was the
one in which she had departed with
Gustave Alva two hours before. What
had occurred in the meanwhile? Some
thing serious evidently. The dagger
on the floor would indicate a struggle,
or at least hasty departure from the
vehicle.
| stood staring at it, slowly compre-
hending the probable meaning of those
dark stains on the blade. Their. ma
,ture could not be determined in so
dim a light, yet when l touched them
with my finger it became dscolored.
My God ! could it be blood? Blood it
was blood then this had been scene
of tragedy, of awful crime perhaps.
The discovery sickeneG me. but l had
TO go on. wrenched open the for
ward door and peered fearfully with
in. l could not but know instantly
what | saw--a dim, huddled form
leaning forward across the steering
wheel, one hand yet on the spOkes,
with head dangling helplessly, upheld
only by contact with the windshield.
knew the man was dead before l
touched the cold hand his very pos
ture told that-and how he had died;
instantly, from a stab in the back. |
could not see his features, the dark
ness hid them, but desperation drove
me to pass my hand over the con
cealed face; the upturned mustache,
the exposed teeth, grinninC ironically
in death, left no doubt as to who he
WaS-the Chilean soldier and Ittache,
Captain Alva. The awful horror of it
paralyZed my very brain. She must
have done this That girl must have
killed him But why? for what rea-
son? for what purpose? Could it have
been in answer to insult? Had the
man dared to press his advances once
they were alone? and had she re-
sisted? / would not question his in
clnation, yet this was not possible.
The knife lay on the floor behind him,
just as plucked, blOod-stained, from
the wound The girl, then, was not
even riding beside him; she could not
be to have dealt such a blow-she
must have been alone in the rear seat.
There in the dark, unnOtced by the
man driving, she had leaned forward,
and driven that sharp blade unerring-
~ home to the heart. He had sus-
pected nothing in time to raise even
an arm i'm self-defense. Then, dazed
frightened by her terrible deed, for
getfu even Of the knife i'm her terror,
she had dashed it to the floor and fled
into the darkness, leaving the rear
| door open behind her.
That was the story; that must be
the story. My mind pictured the scene
in all its horror. Yet what could &C.
count for such an act? What cause
could transform this woman, this
smiling faced girl, into muTderess? ?
Her leaving that weapon behind
would seem to proclaim that the deed
was done in haste, on the spur of the
moment; that it had not been in any
way premedltated and planned. 9th
arwise she would have guarded
against such danger of discovery.
| Why, that carelessness alone might
ruin-every hope of escape, might bring
her to the electric chair-lt was
damning evidence.