Evening star., 1923-08-07
CHAPTER VII.
The Underta X er.

Greg and Hickey dined with Bessie
Bickle. Gregs zest in his adventure
was gone; there was pretty stew of
suspicion and jealousy in his breast.
In his first bitterness he even told
himself that the little red haired girl
was no better than the rest of the
gang. Nevertheless. he had promised
to tell Bessie the story. and he did SO.
Disgusting his changed feelings as
tbld them the main lines of the tale
certain details it seemed more dis
Greet to keep to himself.
The volatile Hickey's sympathies
were completely won. Count on me
to help you aginst them dagoes"' he
said. Bessie. while kind. was less
expansive. One could see that she
was reserving judgment on miss
who flew about town in taxicabs in
the middle of the night dressed in
boys clothes.
After dinner Greg and Hickey
yielded perforce to natures demands
and slept for couple of hours. Later
Greg dispatched Hickey in the fiivver
to pick up some business If he could :;
for the firm shortly would be in need
Of funds. Greg himself started by
trolley car for the morgue. He told
himself self-righteously that, how
ever his friend had deceived him. he
would carry out his part to the letter.
Pressed to tell just in what she had
deceived him he could not have told
but he was sore.
Entering the Imposing little build
ing on the East Side water front his
heart failed him a little. thinking OF
CHASTITY sights awaiting within. But
he was spared all that He saw only
al in
ventional office.
1t appeared that a body such as he
described had indeed been found in
the North river that morning and had
been brought to the morgue in a
police launch. The description tailed
in every detail down to the ring with
the curious red stone. There could
be no mistake. But to Greg's intense
chagrin 1T transpired that. only an
hour or so before. the body had been
pretended to be the dead mans
nephew. Having satisfied the author
| tiles Of his right to receive it. he had
had the body transferred to an under
| takers shop.
The name given had been Alfieri
| The dead man was said to have
| jumped overheard from a ferryboat
while demented. The claimant had
been identified to the satisfaction OF
| the authorities, which suggested to
ITes lndI the gang he ndu 10 uedl
with possessed wide-spreading inf1u-
| ence in the background. The authori-
| ties had been the more easily salts
! fed because there was no mark or
| the body to suggest foul play; and be-
sides the mans jewelry and a con
I found on his person. There was nc
| question of a robbery.
Greg satisfied himself with obtain
| ing the address Of the undertaken
and said nothing here about the facts
/ newspaper Offices must be in close
| touch with the morgue. and he hat
| no desire to explode public sensa
| ton until he was surer of his ground
| The body had not been taken to one
! of the humble establishments in tn,
| neighborhood, but to fine place hal
! way uptown; "mortuarian' read the
| sign. 1t was the first time Greg hat
been in such a place. He found th'
religio- commerce. atmosphere, tn,
, rather oppressive. Why can't un
| dertakers be simply business-l like :?
| he asked himself.
| In the handsome. subdued privat
office of the proprietor he found him
vidual, irreproachably. and sably clad
| whose expression of preternat tura
| woe was lightened in spite Of himsel
by spark of anticipation at tn,
| sight OF, as he thought, new Gus
| toner. Greg disliked him at sight
| Nobody likes an undertaken; not thei
fault, of course; they have painful
| associations for all.
Good afternoon, sir" said the un
| dertaker with an air that seemed t
say further: Il know the sad erran
that has brought you to me, and fee
for you from the bottom of m
heart" Just the same, Greg had tn
feeling that he would have rubbe
his hands had he not been told tha
it was unrefined.
| All this made Greg a little brusque
than he need have been. II under
stand you received a body from tn
morgue this afternoon, said to b
that of Senior Alfieri."
Continued in Tomorrow's Starr