The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1938-12-14
Chapter Is :
On The Wrong Track

eyes.
''Well? I'm listening"
''Why, was in the reading
room, here, this afternoon, polio.
ing up for the party. I'd come ovei
to make sure there were enough
dishes for the ice cream. That stuff
must be melted to soup by now
They were to deliver it at eleven
The balloon dance was to have
been the last before the intermis-
sion"
Adam made a gesture of i'm
patience.
Get on with it. What time were
you over here?"
Fright after the polo game
Must have been between FIVE
thirty and six. There's usually
two or three soldiers in the read
ing room, but they'd cleared out
The place was empty as a tomb:
He paused, shivered. Tomb is
right. -.
sWell, as I said, was policing
I'D a bit in here when ] heard
what / took to be a pistol shot.
tore to the reading room door-it
was shut--and 1pened it.
Barney was standing in the en-
tryway with a box of colored light
bulbs in one hand and the pieces
of one at his feet. said, What was
that noise?'
"He said, sort of weak, Tt did
make a noise, didn't it? Must be
the arched roof. ] dropped bulb
"But when / got up to him ]
could see his face was white and
he was shaking so the bulbs all
danced and ratified. And could
smell burnt powder.
'eWell, that was his story, and he
stuck to it. But / think somebody
was cunning for him and he knew
it. And that would mean
"That somebody got the wrong
person tonight. Did you see any,
one? Outside, mean?"
IT never noticed. There were
cars passing-the polo game was
just over. As ] say, ] never no
ticed."
'.He would have been an easy
mark there in the doorway"
Adam unused; sshe was all in white"
Suddenly ! remembered some
thing that turned me cold. What
mean doubt was filing my mind
with pictures of Elizabeth? Eliza
beth, determinedly alone, leaving
the club before Taps; Elizabeth,
an hour ago, standing in her own
front door looking sick with
what? Horror? Disappointment?
Fear? And now-Elizabeth taking
me tactfully but firmly home from
the polo game, leaving me there
and propelling her shiny little car
back past the long row of officers
quarters, past the Service Club,
past the chapel. past the Post Ex-
change, and so out of sight among
the small, orderly row OF quar-
tiers known as Noncoms' Row.
And Shaw had said there were
cars passing. Passing the Service
Club.
/ wanted to deny those sus-
picions. / did deny them. ! was
ashamed of them. / despise people
who are always looking for evil
where only good appears.
Yet the recurring pictures were
important; they had real signifi-
canoe il / could have puzzled il
out. But I didn't know them well
enough - the principals in that
nights tragedy. And even Adam,
when, toward morning. / told him
all the things that were troubling
me, was slow to see where they
pointed.
Horrible Understanding
I TURNED my thoughts resolute-
4 ly in new direction. There
was still Shaw, the man who had
tried TO spoil Swede's beauty.
hadn't been able to fit that in with
the murder of Barney's fiancee,
But suppose the killer had intend
ed the bullet for Barney?
We had only Shaw's word tina,
he had been in the reading room
that afternoon when the first shot
was fired if il was shot
Couldn't he have fired at Barney
from in front of the building, run
around the side and in at the door
of the reading room? It would be
a smart move to tell the story
first, before Adam could hear il
from Barney's lips.
II was easy to discount his
wife's story Of refusing to marry
Barney. No girl in her sense:
would have made such q choice
between the two men. A more
likely Suru.iSe would be that she
had made a desperate play fol
Barney. only to find that he hae
been amusing himself at her ex,
pense-and Shaw's. She was prob,
ably still in love with him: tina
would account for her turainI