The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-12-05
@ EF. VAN og WATER
W. ". v. service

out WHY Tie SlII CIlSu, dllO
her aunt answered the anguish in
her voice without waiting for more
words.
"My dear, there was struggle of
some sort before he-fell. I heard
it. So did everyone else whose win
dows open on the area-bumping
and voices and then a yell and
fall"
Her thin shoulders drew together
in the least possible shudder.
Grove" said Miss Agatha, quite
calmly, twas in the Ferriter apart
ment. They caught him coming out.
You know he had a latchkey?"
She looked up sharply at her
niece.
YES" the girl admitted.
Miss Agatha patted Allegra's
hand
81 wonder" she unused aloud, eff
there aren't limits beyond which
loyalty is no virtue. We both knew
and yet"
The bell rang and we heard Annie
shuttle to the door.
Because" the girl began, but
her aunt took the thought away from
her.
Because Grove is such a stub
born young devil that we were
afraid if we protested it would only
drive him further. We were wrong,
my dear. Marriage with lone is
better than the murder of her broth
er."
''He didn't" Allegro exclaimed.
Miss Agatha nodded and bit
through an invisible thread.
"You know it." she answered. 81
know it. I don't think Captain Shan
non who has kept Grove"-she
glanced at the clock on the mantel
for almost an hour now, is so GER
tain. There is that struggle, which
everyone heard, which turns sui
eide theory rather sour"
The calm in which they endured
their wretchedness was too much
for me. / said:
Zone might fight to prevent a
suicide, as well as to commit a
murder"
Miss Agatha looked at me hard.
Every now and then, David"
she told me, 81 admire your mind.
1t is so much like mine. Obviously,
that's what happened. I doubt
whether the police will accept our
explanation.
Captain Shannon entered. At once,
Miss Agatha and her niece drew
down, over their emotion, the opaque
shades of utter calm. Shannon
ducked his head toward them and
looked hard at me. Inwardly, he
fumed. Anger or bewilderment had
Redeemed his face and blurred its
freckles. Outwardly he was calm
and his voice was regretful.
"Miss Paget," said he, "I'm sor-
ry, but we'll have to take him in"
I heard Allegro catch her breath.
Miss Agatha's face did not stir. She
asked:
"Then he, my nephew, has i'm
plicated himself?"
Shannon's evaporation got away
from him. He rumpled his reddish
gray hair.
We'll have to take him in" he
repeated, ''for obstructing justice, if
nothing else. Implicated himself!
The facts implicate him, Miss Pag-
ct. We can get nothing out of him.
He'll not say a word, beyond that
he tried to stop this Ferriter from
jumping"
Tiny lines about Miss Agatha's
eyes deepened with satisfaction.
'My own explanation" she said.
Shannon shook his head like a
worrying terrier.
Unfortunately" he told her,
that's not all of it. Why was he in
that fiat? He won't say. How came
he to have a latchkey? He won't
say. Why, having one, didn't he
admit it when the first murder was
committed? Same answer. Where
was he the afternoon this Black
beard was stabbed? He was walking
uptown"
His grunt was thick with disgust.
I stuck my oar in.
"Mr. Paget came in a full hour
aftef that killing. saw him.
They all looked at me. There was
no friendliness in Shannon's regard.
Sure" he snorted. Didn't ev-
erybody? Nobody could have killed
Blackboard, but his corpse is still in
the morgue, isn't it? I'm thinking
this second murderer whatever
is going to solve the first"
Anger pushed him beyond discre-
ton. He fished in his pocket and
drew forth folded sheet of type
writer paper.
among the things that your
nephew won't TELL" he said to Miss
Agatha, els why he wrote this note
we found in his pocket"
/ could have choked him for the
pleased voice in which he read
aloud:
My dear: I have failed as usual
and can stand no more. When an
other death may settle everything,
I do not hesitate
He seemed disappointed at the
wornan's lack of expression and
thrust the paper back into his pock-
ct, muttering. I had peered over
his shoulder as he read and now
said to Miss Agatha:
Typewriter and unsigned. It
proves nothing"
Shannon wheeled and glared.
knowledge of his own incaution
made him still angrier.
Written" he said and thrust out
his heavy lower jaw, ION the type
writer in the front room yonder, as