Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-10-01
CHAPTER w

pduSeu IN llle doorway, tIllS lduy
with the almost golden hair and the
levelest OF gray eyes.
1t was impossible not to contrast
this new, this mid-April Elsa with
the Elsa of the preceding autumn.
On that memorable night when I
had driven her to town in her work
ing girl suit and carrying an over
night bag with just pajamas, be-
cause she had to have something,
she had been like a high-strung,
nervous colt at the barrier. Tonight
a calm almost philosophic in its as
pect had come upon her. No long
er was the race so hot, the urge to
be off so compelling. I realized, of
course, that she experienced sense
of arrival. The notoriety of her car
features had sobered her.
Nov, goodbye, Barry" she said,
holding out her hand. "And de-
lightful trip in the Orizaba with
Dwight ard Margaret"
Goodbye, Elsa. I'm sorry you're
not joining u.s."
II am too; but there is this work
can't put off. Please give my
love to Papa and Berta; you'll see
them at Mazatlan, of course"
Huntoor. Rogers and walked back
together TO the yacht; Dwight and
Margaret had gone on ahead. The
last guest had departed and we
sailed in half an hour.
"A remarkable girl, isn't she?"
Rogers said, referring to Elsa.
Extraordinary, I think"
you've never been able to get
anything out of her about the baby,
and what she knows about the muir
der of her Aunt Kitty"
MOO" I said hesitantly. "Look
here, Rogers"
eyes, I know" he cut me off.
"I'm aware that you've been work.
ing quietly on certain angles of the
case"
II must be hell of detective"
said in disgust. First Elsa ac-
cuses me of shopping and now you"
cts very peculiar case" he OBJ
served thoughtfully. Nothing is OBJ
vious in it. Officially it is tagged
suicide. 1t ends there. There's moth
ing to 60 on but the nose of one
fellow in Pasadena, the chap who
smelled chloroform. He has really
remarkable sense of smell. I've
tested him. He sticks to it that there
was an odor of chloroform in the
room. There was no evidence of it
in the autopsy
You're satisfied she was muir
dered?"
"Of course. And I mean to help
you get to the bottom of it,
We dropped anchor in the harbor
at Mazatlan and the crew lowered
the launch to the sparkling water of
the bay where it floated lightly from
the end of its boom awaiting our
pleasure. However, now that we had
arrived, there was no hurry to go
ashore; we were in that land of
manana where time does not press
and nothing demands doing immedi-
ately. Dwight had come to fish, but,
as we reminded him, there was to-
morrow.
OF MeXico's many charms the one
that most endears itself to me is
that Indifference to time; nothing
needs doing now. At home, time
rides me like the Old Man of the
Sea; in Mexico I can relax
Anybody going ashore now?" in
quired Margaret briskly, coming up
from her stateroom.
eyes, I'm going" responded Rog-
ers. decided to join them.
Two ragged boys in the idling
crowd pushed forward as we started
from the wharf up narrow, twisting
streets. Enormous sombreros shad-
owed their dark faces in each of
which cleaned a row of very white
teeth. One carried battered gui-
tar, the other a ukulele. Strum-
ming fingers began resolutely to
play.
When they had finished, Marga-
ret's hand dived swiftly into her
purse and she held out a coin to the
older boy. The latter backed away,
shaking his head; the other thrust
his ukulele and his free hand be-
hind him.
"Muchas gracias, senora," said
the boy with sweeping bow, "pero
no tomamos dinero." 1--WE don't take
money!
Margaret continued to hold out
the coin, and the boys backed far
Their away. There was a little ex-
preston of wonderment upon her
face.
think, however, that of all the
unexpected things, the things that
have taken me most by surprise
In Mexico, none has equaled the
sight which confronted us as we
came out on the Street of the High
Waves that morning of our first ex-
cursion ashore. Margaret saw it
first, and stopped abruptly to stare
as If she were seeing a ghost. Rog-