Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-15


IGHTCN'S worst enemy could
not have accused him OF
nerves-and yet there was
~ something strangely Lncanny
about that lonely vigil in Cor
hits room, surrounded by the personal
belongings of a man who had passed
ont so recently and with such tragic
EuddenneSs.
He sat. with chair drawn up to the
cheerful, glow of the electric radiator
irving in the light of the reading lamp
To memoriza the data Taverner hao
given him. waiting for the whirrlng note
Of the buz3er that never came. HIS
gaze kept wandering away from tne
typewriter sheets to pair OF feit sup
pers propoed against the brass fender
rail. a trouser press Corlitt had rested
against the wall, folded palamas. win
bold blue stripes, lying on the single bed.
where a maid had turned back the
clothes.
A faint odor hung about the room
the smell of some toilet article the sec
retary had been in the habit of en-
blowing: hairwash. perhaps. Away there
in the slaa dows beyond the radius of the
lamps rays were collars, ties. pile OF
handkerchiefs-littl intimate things
that made it difficult to realize Corlitt
would never use them again.
He rose suddenly and switched on
the other light.
Presently he began pacing the room,
with his hands claSped behind MN,
nausing every now and again for the
sound of Taverner's key in the ooor-
anything, in fact, that would serve to
break the depressing silence.
He looked at his watch. Taverner
had been gone an hour. 1t was quarter
past 10. And just more than three
hours ago he had been iostled by the
mob clustering for banquet! II seemed
incredible.
Pictures piled themselves in his mem
ory: of an officious submanager at
Donati's directing him to the cloakroom,
of his first meeting with Greta, cock
tails and the walk along Oxford street.
Other pictures followed; Jarrett'S white
face at the entrance. a cigar burning
hole in a carpet and the CHASTITY heap
in that ray-Shaped patch of blue.
A voice echoed in his BRAIN so wildly
that it might have been addressing him
only a second back:
Are you still game for adventure,
MFR Dighton?"
He smiled grinlIy over the stem of an
empty pipe.
We'll, the adventure Tl3Q begun! Al
most before he knew where he was he
was up to his neck In it! War. grim
mer than he had ever known 1t, was
being waged all around him. Nations
that talked of peace at Geneva were
struggling for the possession OF the
latest device for human destruction.
A door closed suddenly. He thought
It was Jarrett in the other wing.
Almost without warning he found
himself struggling with an overwhelming
desire to go back to the study. A second
inspection of the chamber of death
might reveal new facts. clues that would
throw fresh light on the identity OF Cor
lifts assailant. The desire became an
obsession Ten minutes later he had
drawn the larger key from his pocket
and was holding it to the light. Another
five minutes and he had made up his
mind.
He took the travelling rug from the
foot of the bed and went softly out into
the passage.
He could hear the clock in the room
opposite ticking away merrily the dull
rumbling of traffic in the road outside.
Listening outside the study, he could
detect Jarrett's voice from the far end
of the paSsage-Jarrett, little Steadier
now, giving the cook the benefit OF his
experience in the worlds affairs!
He turned the key and went in.
The fire had gone out He knew that
before his fingers had found the switch.