The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1943-01-21


to a stop, there was curious
sound from the library. The mu-
sic had ended, and this sound
struck sharply against the quiet.
It was of the order of a COM
mand, a short, undistinguishable
word barked out. The well-bred
heads upon the lawn turned. not
without some irritation, at the
uncouth noise. And Vaughan
Dunbar stood beside the Colon
els desk.
His left hand was raised an
almost imperial signal to the
people on the lawn. 1t brought n
moment of complete silence, the
servants stopping in their cours-
es to look, and all faces puzzled,
expectant.
Colonel Merriwether sat as if
transfixed. His face was very
white. His hands were spread
before him on the desk. He was
staring, not az Vaughan Dunbar,
but straight ahead into the faces
of his guests, half a hundred
yards away.
Vaughan Dunbar held up a
sheet of paper in his left hand.
Then he laid it calmly on the
desk before the Colonel, who
did not move. Vaughan Dunbar
gazed for an instant down at the
face and head of Weslye Hope
Merriwether. He lifted his right
hand, and with the small pistol
that it held fired two shots.
Even as Colonel Merriwether
slumped forward over his desk,
Vaughan Dunbar was gone.
In the madness of screams and
shouts, men cried, Stop him!
Grab HIM" But within the same
rush of frightened noise, the
roar of Vaughan Dunbar's en-
CINE could be heard at the rear
of the house. His car went off
with whine. The whine dimin-
ished rapidly, and its sound was
lost.
The pursuit gathered instant
ly, with motors starting, and
servants and chauffeurs yelling,
He went this way" and, quite
contrariwise, HE went that
way Once past the stables,
however, the rear approach to
Stone House broke into half a
dozen lanes and byWayS. And all
of them we're empty. The pur-
suers cried out 10 each other,
and then they turned back
toward the house and the tele-
phones.
Within half an hour, all but
a very few of the guests were
gone, and the police were in pos
session of Stone House. The abb
lest among them was Lieutenant
Thatcher of the State Police, and
he had given many orders,
quickly.
Men of his own patrol, of the
county forces, and of the sher-
ifs office were watching the
roads of all Long Island. The
bridges and the tunnels and the
ferries were under close scruti-
ny. And descriptions of the fug-
tive had been broadcast over
radio and the teletype machines,
throughout the metropolitan
district.
With this much done, Lieuten-
ant Thatcher spoke quietly with
Mitchell Grace, saying, Tell me
everything you know"
Mitchell Grace told, then, of
Vaughan Dunbar's first appear
ance at Stone House, and of his
subsequent appearances there.
Also he told of those last few
shocking moments.
Il was walking into the Ii
brary to see If the Colonel want
ed anything, and Vaughan Dun
bar was standing in the shadow.
| got there just in time to hear
him speak to Joseph, the Col
onel's servant, and ask him to go
and fetch a glass of fruit juice.
He had not seen me, at that mo-
ment.
Joseph went out of the room
and Vaughan Dunbar heard my
footstep. He turned toward me
and said, Good evening. Will
you please ask Miss Cynthia to
meet me at once in the drawing
room? 1t is important He SEEM
ed very quiet and serious, and
! went without thinking much
about it. l had just found her,
when he called out, and l saw
him standing over the Colonel. ,
What dio Colonel Merri-
wether seem to think of that"
Il glanced at him. He seemed
a little dazed. / got the impress
sion that Vaughan Dunbar had
brought some bad news"
Where were you when you