The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-12-05
:$:: By FREDERIC r. VAN DE WATER

pass. Then saw her at the end of
the gloomily ornate foyer.
She waited beside the elevator
shaft but the car was upstairs.
Wherefore, I was thankful and, at
the same time, wretched. I must
tell her what had happened, here
and now.
She looked so small, in her bro
caded evening wrap-slender as a
flame and unconscious that the wind
of fresh tragedy rose to blow her
about. She heard me coming and
turned.
saw in her smile a trace of the
last words / had blurted. She
thought 1 was lover, returning to
complete a pledge half-spoken. That
made it harder. The world had
changed since had helped her from
the cab.
The elevator might appear; some
one else might intervene, at any Sec
| ond. There was no time for tact.
A dirty job was best done quickly.
1 let her have it all in one breath.
You'll have to take it, my dear.
Everett Ferriter is dead and they
think your brother had something
to do with it.
Vaguely, all that evening, had
wondered how much of her high
color was makeup. knew now.
Her face grew white. Her lips were
gray, but they did not tremble. She
took it standing and never wavered.
Her eyes hurt me. She asked,
What happened?" in level voice,
and l told her what Duke and the
others had told me. She said, "He
didn't do it,
said, as cheerfully as I could:
Reporters think in headlines. It's
probably much less serious than
they say. l only wanted to tell you
before you walked into it."
Where is he?" Her eyes held
mine as though that impersonal
contact kept her up.
said, upstairs, and rang again
for the elevator. After the far shrill
of the bell, I heard the old ma
SAillC1y SlOdll
I stumbled over many things I
wished to say-yet might not, and
at last managed:
give hurt you but it seemed the
only way. I'll leave you here, but
I'll wait. If you, or your aunt, want
me, you can telephone the foyer.
Please" she whispered as the
shaft door slid open, "please come
up with me-"
She stood, stiff and silent, on that
| journey upward. Toward it's end,
she turned as though her neck were
stiff and asked:
GA cigarette?"
lighted it for her and we stepped
from the car. The door changed
behind us. She fumbled in her bag
for her key. The first shock of the
blow was wearing off, Her mouth
worked and her fingers Numbered.
In front of the Ferriter flat, plain
clothes man watched us. He
chewed gum and his derby rocked
with each movement of his Jaws. AL
legra said at last:
please ring the bell. I don't
think" she added with twisted
smile, we're likely to get anyone
out of bed"
Annie, in a rumpled wrapper,
opened the door. Her eyes were
red and her breath came in small
explosions.
"Where is Miss Paget?" Allegro
asked crisply.
'In the Twin room," the woman
faltered and closed the door behind
us.
"And Mr.. Paget?" the girl went
| on.
Annie wept. "Yonder," she walled.
Them cops" She jerked her head
toward the Ferriter apartment and
could say no more. I followed AL
legra down the hall.
Miss Agatha Paget, her body fold
ed precisely in a black silk dress
ing gown, sat in her wheel chair and
smoked. The lids of her keen eyes
were unreddened by tears. Her hair
was drawn back by a thin braid
from the face that had the bold
calm of the hawk.
For an instant, as her niece ran
to her and the old woman looked up
for her kiss, saw the hard features
soften. The girl bent over her a
long instant and then, with one hand
locked in her aunt's, turned to me.
"He didn't want to come up" she
defended. 81 made him. Agatha,
what is it? What's really hap
pened?"
Miss Agatha drew on her ciga-
rette and blew smoke through her
beaked nose. I thought, as she
looked at me, of the figurehead of a
ship, worn and immune to storm.
She asked dryly:
Material for another chapter in
the book, David?"
mo-" I said. 81 had no business
barging in. Only if there is any,
thing can do"
Name something" she broke in.
I stammered:
"Have you thought of lawyer?
I mean"
Long ago." she told me. 81 think
I got Tertius Groesbeck out of bed.
If he doesn't take too long dressing,
he should be here before Shannon
finishes with Grove, across the
hall"
She had lighted another cigarette
while she spoke. I saw her hand
twitch as she uttered her nephew's
name. Allegro asked:
agatha, what happened? Everett
| is dead and"
The old head jerked agreement.
The old voice said without falter:
every dead. In the area, with a