Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-02-15
THE BREAKING POINT
BY mary ROBERTS RINEHART

yet and unless we get oil here 1t wont De-
1.-THE brother inherited, Ell? DO you
know the brothers. manner"
David, 1 think He was doctor back
east somewhere
'Then this Henry Livingstone wasn't
married? Or at least had no ch1ldren?"
"He wasn't married He was sort OF
hermit. He'd been dead two days before
any one knew it. My wife went out when
they found him and got him ready Tor the
funeral. He.was buried before the Drotner
got here He glanced at Bassett shrewdly:
The place has been prospected tor on; anu
there's dry hole on the next rancn.
Bassett's last scruple had fled. me story
was there, ready for the gathering. 30
! ready, indeed, that he was almost suspl-
cious of his luck. 49,
coming too easy persisted through MS IN
teryiew with the storekeepers WIFE, III tne
small house behind the store. "a .uyaJ
"Henry Livingstone" she SAID. wen,
should say so. went oue pa tbnre
when we got the word he was dead anu liners
7 STAYED until it was all over. guess KNOW
as much about him as any one arounu mere
does, for had to go over the papers 70 niiu
out who his people were
| The papers, it seemed had not peen veIy
Interesting cancelled checks and recelpted
bills and large bundle of letters, all OF tnem
! from brother named David and SISTER VINO
signed herself Lucy. There naa 3e 15i,,s =
sealed one. too, addressed to David Living
stone with instructions that 1t was not 70
be opened until after his death.
| She had had her husband telegraph 10
David" and he had come out just as quickly
as he could but he was too late Tor the
| funeral.
"Do you happen to remember when this
was?"
''Let me see Henry Livingstone died
aobut month before the murder at the Clark
ranch. We date most everything around mere
from the time that happened"
"How long did David stay?" Bassett had
tried to keep his tone carefully conversation
| al but he saw that it was not necessary. She
was glad of chance to talk ~
"Well, I'd say about three or four weeks
He hadn't his brother for years,
and 1 guess there was no love LOST.
He sold everything as quick as he could, and
went back east" She paused and glanced a.
| the clock. "The mister will be in soon Tor
dinner. I'd be glad to have you stay ana
have meal with us.
! The reporter thanked her and declined.
| "It's an interesting story" he said. II
Henry Livingstone who came to this srapS
! didn't tell your husband, for wasn't sure,I
was on the right trail But the David ann
Lucy business eliminates this man. There's
a piece of property waiting in the east for
a Henry Livingstone who came to this stats
in the 'S0s, or for his heirs You can say
positively that this Henry Livingstone was
not married."
mo. He didn't like women Never nau
one on the place. Two ranch hands that are
still at the Wassons, and himself, that was
all. The Wassons are the folks who bought
the ranch"
No housekeeper then, and no SON born
out of wedock, so far as any evidence went.
All that glib lying in the doctors office, all
that apparent openness and franknesS gone
by the board The man in the cabin, report
ed by Maggie Donaldson, had been David
Livingstone. Somehow, some way, he had
got Judson Clark out of the country anu
spirited him east. Not that that mattered
just yet. The essential fact was there that
| David Livingstone had been in this part of
the country at the time Maggie Donaldson
had been nursing Judson Clark in the noun
tains. 49,
There was TO be no gap, then, no ten years
to fill in 1t all fitted together so closely
that knife blade could not find the Joint,
even to David's inheriting the ranch and
Henry Livingstone's lack of living issue.
He prepared to go. ~
"You say this David went east when
he had sold out the place. Do you by any
chance remember where he lived?" =
"Some town in eastern Pennsylvania, I've
forgotten the name"
Give got to be sure I'm wrong, and then
go ahead" he said. as he got his hat. I'm
see those men at the ranch, and then be or
my way. How far is it?"
1t was about ten miles, along a bad road
which kept him too much occupied for any
connected thought. But his sense of exul-
tation persisted. He had found Judson Clark.
Continued in the Next Iss1e)
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