Evening star., 1940-10-16

accompanied Storm back to the ra-.
vine where, with much difficulty,
they finally succeeded in raising
the old mans body
A thorough search of his pock-
cts failed to reveal any clue as to
the information that Coventry had
intended to give him, and when the
coroner finally arrived Storm re-
luctantly allowed him to take the
body away for an autopsy. resigned
to the fact that if the old man had
carried any information with him.
1t had been secured by the assail-
ant before he had pushed the old
miner off the cliff.
But, instead of going back to Hid
den House with Sheriff HumphrieS,
who wished to continue his queS-
tioning of the Swedish maid Storm
Set out in the direction of the old
miners cabin, hoping that there he
might discoved some evidence bear
Ing upon the crime.
Now, as he searched through John
Coventry's scanty possessions, he
was beginning to feel that he was
engaged on a wild goose chase after
all. But Just as he was about to
give up hope his attention was
caught and held by battered leath-
-er jacket hanging on peg behind
the bedroom door. Storm took it
down and went hastily through the
pockets, but without result
A Surprise for Storm.
. He was Just rising to replace the
Jacket on its hook when something
IN the lining bumped against his
knee. Turning the coat inside out,
Storm discovered an inner pocket.
The bottome of it was ripped, and
Storm, cropping through the opening,
found much-used notebook that
had slipped into the lining of the
Jacket.
: As he leafed through it rapidly,
Storm noted that the entries it
contained covered a long period Of
years. But there seemed to be moth
Ing that had any bearing on the
eaSe-nothing, that is, until he dis
covered between two pages of the
book folded newspaper clipping.
The yelloWed paper contained
photograph of three men dressed in
the garb Of quarter century ago.
An eXlanatory caption beneath the
picture indicated that these were
the largest stockholders in the newly
formed Silver Lode Corp Reading
from left to right" the caption con-
GUIDED, ARE Stephen Ballard, Bruce
Cameron and William Watkins"
. Storm looked at the last name
In amazement. Could it be possible
that Myra Watkins had not been
an innocent byStander after all in
the last two tragedies? There was
something so frostily righteous about
her that it had seemed almost i'm
possible to connect her with mur-
der. Now, however, with the hatchet
face of William Watkins staring up
at him, Storm began to perceive
hitherto unsuspected possibilities.
Definitely ,an interview with Myra
Watkins was very much in order.
On the Trail Again.
Storm folled the newspaper clip
ping carefully, slipped it back in
the notebook, and put both articles
In his pocket. A few minutes later
he was out on the trail again. At
the place where he had discovered
John CoventryS body he paused,
mentally trying to reconstruct the
crime in the light of his new dis
covery. AS he stood there thinking,
his foot toyed abSently with clump
of sage brush beside the road. Sud-
denly his eye perceived something
significant. Almost hidden under
one of the grayish-green tufts, he
saw the papery whiteness of half
smoked cigarette.
He stopped swiftly and picked it
op. 1t was no ordinary American
cigarette. 1t was cork tipped and
family lettered near the end was
the English trademark, "CherwelI.
Ltd" With sudden vividness, Storm
remembered Adrian Hunt. on the
first morning of the investigation,