The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-03-10

abruptly.
"Oh, my dear!" he protested.
"Sit down." said frankie. I'm go
ing to tell you lot of things"
She gave him clear and careful
narrative of all that had occurred
since the day Bobby and DR.. Thomas
had found the body. She kept back
only the fact that her accident had
not been genuine. but she let it ap-
pear that she had fingered at Merro-
way Court through her intense de-
sire to get to the bottom of the
mystery.
as this really true?" he demanded.
"All this about the fellow Jones be-
ing poisoned and all that?"
absolute gospel truth"
Sorry for my incredulity-but the
facts do take a bit of swallowing,
don't they?"
He was silent for a minute, frown-
ing.
Look here" he said at last. Fan
tastic though the whole thing
sounds. think you must be right in
your first deduction. This man. Alex
Pritchard, or Alan Carstairs. must
have been murdered. If he wasn't,
there seems no point in the attack
upon Jones. So far that seems sense
but dent see by what process of
reasoning you fix ON Nicholson as
the criminal"
He's such a sinister man. and he's
got a dark-blue Talbot, and he was
away from here on the day that
Bobby was poisoned"
That's all pretty thin as evi
dence."
There are all the things Mrs.
Nicholson told Bobby"
She recited them-and once again
they sounded melodramatic and un-
substantial repeated aloud against
the background of the peaceful
English landscape.
Rogers shrugged his shoulders.
"She thinks he supplies Henry
with the drug-but that's pure con-
lecture. She's not a particle of evil
dence that he does so. She thinks he
wants to get Henry to the Grange as
a patient-well. that's very natural
wish for a doctor to have. A doc
tor wants as many patients as he
can get. She thinks he's in love with
Sylvia. Well, as to that, of course.
| can't say"
There's her belief that he wants
to murder her." urged frankie.
p OGER looked at her quizzically.
- You take that seriously"
She believes it. anyhow"
Roger nodded and lit a cigaret.
1.-THE question is, how much atten.
ton to pay that belief of hers" he
said. ITS a creepy sort of place,
the Grange. full of queer, customers.
Living there would tend to upset a
woman's balance. especially if she
were of the timid. nervous type"
Then you don't think its true?"
Il don't say that She probably be.
lieves quite honestly that he is try
ing to kill her. But is there any foun.
dation in fact for that belief?"
frankie remembered with curious
clearness Moira's saying. ITS just
nerves" And somehow the mere fact
that she had said that seemed to
frankie to point to the fact that it
was not nerves: but she did not
know how to explain her point of
view to Roger.
Meanwhile the young man was
going on:
Mind you. if you could show that
Nicholson had been in Marchbolt ON
the day of the cliff tragedy. that
would be very different-or if we
could find any definite motive link.
ing him with Carstairs. But it seems
to me you're ignoring the real sus-
pects."
What real suspects?"
The-what did you call them
Haymans?"
"Caymans."
That's it. Now. they are undoubt.
edly in 1t up to the hilt. First, there's
the false Identification of the body.
Tnen there's their insistence on the
point Of whether the poor fellow said
anything before he died. And think
it's logical to assume, as you did,
that the Buenos Aires offer came
from them or was arranged for by
them"
OH" cried frankie, "I've lust
thought of something. Up to now,
you see. I've been assuming that the
photograph of Mrs. Cayman was
substituted for the one of MORA
Nicholson"
Il can assure you." said Roger
that have never treasured the
likeness of Mrs. Cayman."
We'll. she was handsome in a
way" admitted frankie. "a sort of
bold coarse. vampish way. But the
point is this: Carstairs must have
had he's photograph on him as well
as Mrs. Nieholson's."
Roger nodded. And you think"
he suggested.
(Coty'fShf I9S;-S5-36. 6gakEa CkyissisI
Events tend darkIy toward traa.