The Key West citizen., 1940-12-10

and slept. But neither she nor
the other guests If IChdt had
been intended as quiet house,
party hare had much rest A
murderer Is, they are convinced,
still ia the house
Chapter Is
No Answer
WHEN l awakened at little
w after eight o'clock in the
morning / discovered that the
fastening Of one of the window
blinds had come loose in the
night.
This was, no doubt, responsible
for the cold draft which had
blown across me in my dream,
but ! still had an uncomfortable
feeling that the secret of the hid
den room might be somewhere
right under my nose. After all,
this was the room in which the
warning message had been left.
But hurried survey revealed
no clue. Later. I would make a
more thorough examination. Just
now could not hurry fast enough
with my bathing and dressing, so
anxiously was / for the comfort
of Bills nearneSs, his reinsurance
that daylight meant a straighten-
ing out Of at least some of our
difficulties.
The rain had stopped in the
night, but the sky was leaden, as
though a downpour might begin
at any moment. On the way
downstairs | rem IN bered the
matches had lost the night be-
fore somewhere near the landing.
They were easy enough to find
this morning but, except for the
fact that / had automatically
looked for them along the way. !
should have passed unnoticed a
small scrap of rose-colored taffeta
which evidently had been snagged
off by nail projecting from one
Of the rounds supporting the stair
rail. Of course, the nail should
not have been there in the first
place, and it was easy to see that
it had been used in a crude at
tempt to repair split in one of
the delicate rounds.
Some of Thomas's work." ]
told myself. with mental note
to have the repair looked after
properly.
= Thomas had been my grand
mothers gardner and general
handy man for many years, and
as she had grown older he had
grown a bit slovenly. He and
Lindy, his wife, had lived in the
servants quarters back of the
house until month or so ago,
when they had moved to a tenant
house about quarter of a mile
distant.
1t occurred to me now that
might question Thomas along
with Bessie and Andrew about
the secret room.
Thinking of all this, | picked
up the small piece of silk as any
housewife would. noticed that
tiny feathers or down clung to the
cloth and wondered idly where
such a scrap could have come
from. Then | remembered that
Alice had been wearing a rose
quilted robe the night before.
But Alice had said she went
only to the head of the stairs.
I stuffed the matches and the
bit of silk into a pocket of my
red cardigan and hurried on to
the dining room. Bill. usually al
most too bright and cheerful in
the mornings. now looked like
death warmed over. The knot
on his head had gone down. but
the discoloration had spread to
the area around his eye.
Nobody else appeared to be up
and Bill explained that Andrew
had set out on foot for Roswell.
ito spread the alarm" and also to
try to stir Up an electrician and
a wrecker for the cars.
"Of course, it's Sunday. and
everything will probably be shut
up in Roswell" he added. But,
anyway. Andrew can at least find
a telephone"
"1'm glad it is Sunday" / said.
Maybe, we can get everything
cleared UP today and there won't
be a lot Of wild headlines in the
papers"
"Of course, there's the radio"
Bill reminded me. Don't they
have news broadcasts on SUM-
day."
Red Light
WHAT little appetite I had dis
w appeared as l followed this
gloomy trail of thought. but at
Bills insistence I forced down
toast and coffee. At the same time
! related to him the reason for
my trip downstairs in the small
hours of the morning.
Neither Kirk nor / had men,
toned to Bill the fact that the
sheet over Aunt Maggie had been
disturbed. / had purposely omit
ted discussing it and Kirk. am
sure, had refrained out of consid-
Grafton for me.
This ghoulish detail now i'm
pressed Bill where he might
otherwise have been inclined TO
1y to explain away my theory
tlat the secret room was in some
way connected with Aunt Mag
Eie's death. "It's possible you are
right" he admitted. God knows
there must be some reason back
OF 1t all. But why on earth didn't
you let me 90 on this little re-
Eearch expedition"
81 was trying to let you get
come Sleep" ] said. Besides. il all