Hungry Horse news and Columbian., 1947-10-31

lie | SGG IllS LldIICI ClCdi W NH
to Todd grinned. Excitement wa
int working in him. II mean tina
rst things will automatically come t
de a head within a week, say; tn
IL game has to be won or lost in tina
We time. And what's due to happel
I'd at any minute?"
n "Our leaving-I hope"
Il He shook his head. mo; ths
Us telephone made me think of it
~ The antique dealer, Georgine, who
'e may be here at any time, and
d who'll presumably take away all
le that fine old furniture from the
,e attic. Nobody knows when he's
S coming, except that it'll be soon,
but the secret will go away with
" him.
q "The attic mystery and the
!, murder mystery" Todd said from
|. remote thought. "They may be
d . the same and they may not. Per-
: = haps they touch only at one small
! point. But there's an interesting
; parallel there, Georgine: the sense
! of urgency, of something that has
to be finished before something
else happens. There must have
been reason why Miss Tillsit
died at the very moment she did,"
Georgine remained at the door,
smoldering. "And l suppose we
brought this on ourselves, just by
trying to be helpful to Nella! You
would have to think of the an
tique dealer, and offer to get him
up here, and make it urgent for
the rats-in-the-attic person to find
what he's after and maybe NOW
us all down in the process! I
hope.
"You hope WHAT" He glanced
round at her, his eyes alight with
laughter.
"Oh, well-not that anything
happens to you. I can't afford to
lose you at this stage. But l GER
tainly hope that the searcher gets
cheated somehow, and maybe
what he was looking for got
thrown out years ago, unbe-
knoWnst, with the rest of the rub
bish from the drawers and the
crevices of the chairs. Handker-
chiefs and scissors" said Georg-
Inc with irrelevant bitterness,
"and nurses cap that was sup
posed to've been lost from the
wash, and buttons"
SIS that what Nella found and
threw away as rubbish ?" Todd in
qulred. She looked at him, star
tied. The aerial seemed to have
shot up.
TITS nothing much," he added.
Il only remembered that the clean
laundry is left in the entry at the
loot of the enclosed stairs"
"Weil, what of it?" Georgine
'ald GROSSLY. "If someone's been
'oing through all this rigamarole
o lind something that was lost
rom the wash, I'll knoW we're
listing in a loony-bin!"
.ODDY!" Barby shrieked from
Il the next room. "I told Vir-
ette you'd play the mouth-organ
Or us, and you never did yet, and
ou promised"
"Ill be right with you, Barby,"
odd said. FINISHED with these,
eorgine? Then I'll take EN-"
e bundled his papers together.
Yes, I've finished, and there
as something 1 wanted to sug-
est; but it'll keep. Go on and
Barby will yell her head
f if you don't"
She walked up and down her
'om, frowning, her thoughts
Ding round like roulette wheel
lat might deposit the ball of
glc in any one of a dozen places.
had typed him as
lie Damn Fool-wasn't it possible
lat ne might fit in yet another
ltegory? What if Gilbert were
lie Noble Sacrifice? He might
ave seen the candy, or remem-
cred that Nella had recently
wen him some to take to the old
dy; and suspected, rightly or
rongly, that there was some
ing queer about it. Supposing-
lst supposing that he had looked
at his aunt as she lay in the
'glnning of coma, had sensed
lat this was no natural sleep,
1t not being sure, had yielded to
mptatlon just enough so that he
'pt still instead of calling her
lrse; He might have hoped, hu-
anely enough, that she was Slip
ng quietly away to her death.
ould 1T be murder if he had de-
cted this and had not given the
arm? 1t might have made him
81 guilty enough so that he
'uld be perturbed, then and lat
and, when he found that the
Wn was talking, he might have
Tered himself as a scapegoat
ing away to the war would
We looked as if he were taking
easy way out.
She had to suggest it to some
E. Todd was thoroughly en-
ossed, in the next room, teach
the two little girls to sing, !
ather, dear father, come home
IN me now" They seemed to be
aost paralyzed with giggles, but
re making brave stab at the
lie. What was the time?
(TO BE CONTINUEDl