The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-05-19
81 MARION Willis
CAST OF CHARACTERS

JOHN HENDRY, mining invest.
ment head.
BOB ANDREWS, Hendry's ju.
Nor partner an dJoan's fiance.
SYBIL HENDRY, soeialite, John
Hendry's niece and Joan's rival in
love.
PHILIP HENDRY, SYPHILIS bro
Their.
DOROTHY STARKE, Joan's
girlhood friend.
CHARLIE NORTON, California
mining promoter.
Yesterday: Sybil visits her un-
ele's home. finds he has been MUIR
dered. Horror-stricken she backs
toward the door, trips, and picks
up Joan Barrett's glove.
CHAPTER XIV
Back at the Downs house, Dor
othy paced the floor with ever in.
creasing anxiety. What was keep.
ing Joan? Surely it had not taken
her more than two hours to tell
her story to Mr.. Hendry.
A strange foreboding possessed
her that Mr.. Hendry may have
been intolerantly harsh, and Joan,
frightened at this turn of events,
had carried out her first impulse
and run away.
She blamed herself for not con-
sidering that eventua!ity before
this. She might have offered to
accompany Joan, or at least to
have waited for her somewhere.
1t was a mistake letting the poor
girl go off alone; she was so NOR
bidly upset by the continual per-
secution that she could no longer
think straight.
But she could not have run
away. Over and over Dorothy
persuaded herself Of this. Where
would she have gone at one
o'clock in the morning, without
any clothes, without any money?
Dorothy knew that Joan had only
small sum Of money in her bag:
"I'll wait another 10 minutes, "
she decided. "Pll wait until two
thirty, and then I'll phone and see
lif she's still there
She continued to pace up and
down the room, stopping every
once in a while to peer out into
the street for some sign of Joan's
return. At two-thirty, she went
to the phone in her aunts room
and called the Hendry house.
She waited, listening to the
steady ring at the other end;
There was no answer. She called
the operator again, to make sure
that she was ringing the right
number She listened again to the
buzzing call signal. Even If Mr.
Hendry were asleep, he'd have
heard the telephone by this time
And if he were asleep, where was
| loan? Five minutes after she
left him, she would have been
home. .,
Dorothy was trembling with a
new fear as she finally replaced
the telephone on its hook.
Something had happened. ,
In frantic haste, she changed
her paiamas for a dres, slipped
on shoes ard stockings and a
heavy coat, and ran from the
house. She, too, sped in the di-
| rection of Mr.. Hendry's little
white cottage.
At every bend in the road, she
stared ahead for some sign OF
Joan. but she saw none. Green
ills still slept in quiet content
ment.
Then. in the next instant, the
air was suddenly split with the
shrill cry of police sirens, and as
Dorothy turned into Mr.. Hendrys
street. a car sped by her, then an
other, and from the opposite d.
rection, two more appeared. -,
She stopped in her tracks, ana
terrible fear chilled her to the
very marrow of her bones. For
each one of the police cars was
drawing up in front Of the Hen
drv cottage, and from within
there came the frantic, hysterical
cries of woman. She recognlz-
ed the voice Of Sybil Hendry E
Seven miles north of Green
Hills lies another suburb - Bur-
lington. A small mill town it is,
lacking the charm and dignity OF
| its neighboring community. NO
main highway connects it with
Green Hills, but one who knows
| the community might find a mar
| row dirt road, lonely and desert.
ed, heading due north out OF
Green Hills and crossing the in
terrifying truck farms to the village
of Burlington. Farmers use the
road. and domestic workers from
Green Hills.
And this night, in blind terror,
loan Barrett stumbled onto the
Burlington road. Where it led to,
She neither knew nor cared. She
followed 1.-THE full seven miles
half running, half walking, but
keeping everlastingly on.
She huddled now, like terri
fled lost kitten, outside the dark
railroad station in Burlington.
Her hair flew around her face in
wild disorder, for the wind had
come up strong. In the light of
The street lamp, her dark eyes
Ioomed large with fear, and her
lips ouivcred. With one hand, she
drew her coat tightly around her,
and the other hand-the one for
which she had lost the glove-she
tucked inside, to keep it warm.
Her black slippers were scratch
cd and soiled, and there was a
long run in her left stocking.
here were dirty marks upon her
noat too. for twice she had STUN