Evening star., 1940-10-19

now proceed to a re-enactment OF
the first crime"
After directing the members of
the group to stand in approx
mately the same places they had on
the morning that Stephen Ballard
was killed, Inspector Storm turned
to Ken Brewster. And now" he
requested. will you turn out the
lights just as you did that morn
ing?"
The guide stepped over to the
switch and snapped of the elec-
tricity. There was no sound In the
darkness of the cave until, just as
he had done on that previous occa-
sion, Storm gave the command,
Turn on the lights!"
But there was no response to his
order. Storm turned on his fash
light and made his way to the elec-
was Illuminated with yellow light.
He made a swift survey Of the faces
before him. One person was miss
ing
Almost at once there was a COM
motion in the secret passageway.
and two husky deputies emerged
holding between them the struggling
form of Ken Breswter.
1--WE got him in the passageway."
said one of the deputies. his face
red from the struggle. You sure
called that one. sir"
1T was deduction based upon evil
dence." Storm answered quietly
You have no evidence against
me- Brewster said shakily.
"Oh. yes we have-a lot more
than you suppose" Humphries an
sWered, land your attempt to escape
clinches the matter. Come along"
He gave the signal to the deputy who
was guarding Leslie Ballard. and
the four men left the chamber.
Everyone Is Stunned.
For a moment everyone in the
party stood as if stunned. Then
Denise Ballard turned to Inspector
Storm.
How do you know he was the
murderer" she asked, hesitating
curiously after the last word.
The first clue that pointed in
his direction" answered Inspector
Storm, was the fragment of label
We found bearing the three letters
'uld.' At first thought they might
refer to Hulda Svenson, since they
were the middle letters of her first
name Then I recalled that they
were also the middle letters of the
city of Boulder. Colo. But our
questioning revealed that only one
member of the party had any con-
nection with that city-Ken Brew
ster who had been attending the
State university, which Is, of course,
| located in Boulder
But what possible motive could
he have had for killing my uncle?"
asked Iris Hunt.
That puzzled me, too. until Myra
Watkins, without knowing it. sup
piled me with the information I
needed. When she told me that
Stephen Billiards. chicanery had
caused his partner. Bruce Cameron,
! to serve a prison sentence on a
trumped-up charge, began to per-
ceive that there were other forces
at work than those We had sus-
pected. Cameron himself could not
have committed the murder, since
he had died within a year after
being released from prison. But the
fact that his wife and son had
disappeared shortly afterward led
me to believe that they had changed
their names. Sheriff Humphries
| sent one of his best men to Boulder
to look into that angle Of the case.
He not only discovered the shop
keeper who remembered selling
Brewster the dagger. but he also
investigated his academic records,
using the university files as a start
ing point. Everything was in order
until he had traced him back to his
grammar school days. The records
showed that Brewster had received
his earliest training not in Boulder
but in Denver. When he sent wire
to the school requesting informa-
ton, he discovered that no Kenneth
Brewster was registered there, but
a Kenneth Brewster Cameron was,
Coventry's Death Explained.
II imagine that this was the in
formation that John Coventry went
to Denver to verify. When the old
miner called me that day at Hidden
House, I suspected that the conver-