The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-01-24
CHAPTER XIII
New Clews.

had been in half day. She didn't
ask questions. She didn't say where
is this, and how do you do that? She
pitched in as If she had been work
ing In that kitchen with me for the
past twenty years. How she knew
where | kept the potatoes, where the
best pairing knife lived, and the par.
ticular kettle that was best for cook
ing the potatoes in, | don't know, and
never shall know. Most mystery
stories, especially of Late, have an ele-
ment of the supernatural In them. ]
tell you, that girls knowledge of my
ways, anG the manner In which she
took hold In the kitchen, are as su-
pernatural as anything ever brought
to my notice The first thing | knew,
she was peeling the potatoes. and
peeling them thin and clean. She
didn't ask how many would be enough.
When sne got them peeled and
washed, she put them on, In boiling
water, with no inquiry as to where
i Kept the salt She did not talk as
she worked. vas glad of that; for,
ton, l needed, badly, silent space.
1 wanted to think. Those last words
of hers, utter nonsense" In answer
to Sans statement, kept ringing In
my ears.
tried to think whether there was
any way a person could get upstairs
without coming through the house. We
had no fire escapes There were no
trees close enough to the house that
anyone could swing to an upstairs
window from one of them. There
were no vines growing on the house.
Without about twenty foot ladder,
which we didn't have on the place,
and which would De hard to 60 con-
veying about, to say nothing of dis
posing of it afterward, there was not
any possible way for anyone to get
to the second floor of our house, ex-
front stairway.
Since Gaby had been killed on the
attic stairway, and since all who knew
about that sort Of thing agreed that
she had been dead at least two hours
when We found her, she must have
returned to the house sometime be-
tween four and five O'clock, and have
stolen upstairs with none of US see
ing her. Since she could do that,
there was no reason to suppose that
someone else could not have done the
same thing; either coming In with her
at the time. or coming before or after
she did. l had to conclude that an.
other person certainly had done Just
that; had entered the house and had
gone upstairs during that hour. Who?
The person whom she had been fear
ing? Not one of us. that seemed
certainty. And yet, Miss Macdonald
had said, nonsense"
remembered, again, her strange,
mad actions Immediately after she
had received the code letter. | re-
membered how she had looked In the
hall that day. when had told John
that | thought | had seen the ghost
of Sin. In Gaby's rote to Danny she
had written that she had purposely
kept her fears and her danger q Sc
cret from Danny. Undoubtedly, the
secret was written In the code letter.
Had she told Danny partly the truth
about the contents of that letter. or
had she told her falsehoods from be-
ginning to end? Or had Danny told
US only a part of the truth? Why
did we all keep forgetting how Danny
had tried to call Gaby back, when
Gaby had started on that fatal walk?
/ have said before. and say again,
] knew that Danielle Canneziano had
not murdered her sister. But | knew,
too, that If she had some reason,
some better reason than | could con-
ceive, for keeping quiet, for not tell
ing everything she knew, Danny was
capable of so doing. l remembered
our talk in her room on the morning
of the fifth of July. | rememered
how she had acted when her engage
ment ring had slipped from her fin
ger-and | tried to turn my thoughts
into different channels.
There was Chad's suicide and his
confession. It could be possible that
he had killed himself because he had
loved Gaby. But that would not ac-
count for his confession to the crime.
1t could mean but one thing-a de-
sire to shield some one. Would be
have cared about shielding some I'M
known scoundrel who had crept into
the house and killed the girl whom
Chad loved? Had Chad. then. mistak-
enly suspected Martha, or Sam, or
John, and killed himself and left the
note to aid one of them? Not likely.
Men do not kill themselves, leaving a
written confession to crime of which
they are innocent, because Of some
mere suspicion.
| remembered my conversation with
Hubert Hand In the hall that morn
ing. What was IT that he had thought
had overheard In the cabin and had
bribed me not to tell? 1t was rea-
sonable enough to suppose that, at
that time. he had hoped to keep his
entire story, his prison records. his
reason for coming to the Desert
Moon, his relations with Mrs. Kicker
and Martha, secret: just as ! had
hoped to keep the fact of finding
Sans pipe ashes secret
Sans pipe ashes, again. 1t some
one had put them there, In an effort
20 impiicate Sam, ii would have had