The Ely miner., 1940-12-26
@ EF. VAN De WATER -
w. ". u. service =;

Horstman. Then he wasn't brother
to Lyon and lone. He may have
been"
begged down.
Brother or something to the
Horstman the blizzard is alleged to
have abolished" Cochrane finished
for me. 'It'n take a genealogist to
figure it out, Ell? And the authority
on the subject broke his neck last
night. That's too bad. We need
him."
mo-" told him, what we really
need is Lyons weakness. That's
what Miss Agatha Paget wants.
l went over my recent talk with
her. Cochrane ate and then forgot
his food to sit listening, apparently
half asleep.
"You know" he said when end
ed, that's pretty unusual crone.
I'd like to meet her."
''Why not?" I asked.
He had been too generous for me
to hold back now. The question shook
him out of his drowsiness.
"Do you mean it?"
"I'l phone and see," I said, ris-
ing. "But you'll have to keep her
out of the papers"
"Oke," Jerry beamed. It'll be
enough of a thrill just to get inside
the Morello."
At the telephone, I told Miss Aga
tha I was bringing Cochrane up to
see her. If had asked permission,
I think she might have forbidden it,
but I followed up with persuasion
and reinsurance until she consented
and promised at my suggestion to
clear our way through the hostile
lobby. She was in the workroom
when we entered. She seemed re-
ieved that Jerry had neither horns
nor tail and welcomed him serenely.
I had grown accustomed to the
spirit that dwelt intact in that Grip
pied body, but Cochrane was a lit
tie dazed.
The tea-wagon, glass and bottle
laden, stood beside the old lady's
wheel chair.
zone of the few perquisites of
age," Miss Agatha told us briskly,
sis liquor. I hope you drink, Mr..
Cochrane?"
'Only," he said solemnly, 'in my
social moments"
Miss Agatha's face changed and
she glanced at me. She picked her
words:
81 had understood that this was
a social call"
''It is," Jerry told her, and she
chuckled as she reached for the
glasses.
We talked and slipped our high
balls. I watched Cochrane's reti-
cence melt, and saw the old lady's
stiff face relax. Presently, with his
doubt completely gone, Jerry was
telling her in a low intimate voice
all he had learned from Henkel and
the Press Fairbanks correspondent,
of Lyons past. Miss Agatha heard
him through, with slowly narrowing
eyes. She surveyed the placard
Cochrane showed her and looked at
it so long that Jerry repeated:
''Ferriter is the second man from
the left"
This seemed to rouse her.
EYES," she said with forced brisk
ness, ''yes, 1 see," and threw off
whatever odd abstraction had held
her. HE and his neighbor look
much alike. So he's the one who
went with his beloved sister to the
Arctic. I don't think I'm over-inhos-
pitable in wishing they'd stayed
there"
SIS she," Cochrane asked sudden
ly, ''his beloved sister'?"
Miss Agatha looked at him hard
before she spoke.
'I've seen no birth certificates"
she replied tartly, 'but there GER
tainly is family resemblance. And
he is utterly devoted to her. If
he were less so, my nephew mightn't
be in jail at the moment"
Because" Cochrane went on, 81
gather from our Fairbanks mani
wish I'd brought along that dispatch
that they quarreled a good deal
while they were living at Tanana
Crossing"
"Pooh," said Miss Agatha, "broth-
ers and sisters always quarrel. She
was good-looking, in region of few
women, and he probably was jeal-
ous."
''Our correspondents idea," Jerry
answered, sis just the opposite. He
wires that Lyon objected because
she wasn't attentive enough to Gus
toners. After Horstman arrived,
there was blow-up. He and Lyon
had a fight That was just before
the three of them went prospecting"
"And Horstman didn't come
back" Miss Agatha thought aloud,
and was silent for an instant.
"Well," she added, pulling herself
together, Lyon and lone probably
murdered him. There's nothing to
compare with murder as solvent
or maker of trouble"
Yet when Cochrane had gone, that
part of his narrative seemed to irri-
tate her. She spoke of it while An
ME rolled away the tea-wagon.
you've seen for yourself" she
appealed to me, as though she need
ed endorsement, "there never was
a more devoted brother than Lyon"
! nodded as the bell rang.
ITO BE CONTINUED