"Nothing that I know could help you to find Halsey," she said

stubbornly. "I know absolutely as little of his disappearance as you

do, and I can only say this: I do not trust Doctor Walker. I think he

hated Halsey, and he would get rid of him if he could."

"Perhaps you are right. In fact, I had some such theory myself. But

Doctor Walker went out late last night to a serious case in

Summitville, and is still there. Burns traced him there. We have made

guarded inquiry at the Greenwood Club, and through the village. There

is absolutely nothing to go on but this. On the embankment above the

railroad, at the point where we found the machine, is a small house.

An old woman and a daughter, who is very lame, live there. They say

that they distinctly heard the shock when the Dragon Fly hit the car,

and they went to the bottom of their garden and looked over. The

automobile was there; they could see the lights, and they thought

someone had been injured. It was very dark, but they could make out

two figures, standing together. The women were curious, and, leaving

the fence, they went back and by a roundabout path down to the road.

When they got there the car was still standing, the headlight broken

and the bonnet crushed, but there was no one to be seen."

The detective went away immediately, and to Gertrude and me was left

the woman's part, to watch and wait. By luncheon nothing had been

found, and I was frantic. I went up-stairs to Halsey's room finally,

from sheer inability to sit across from Gertrude any longer, and meet

her terror-filled eyes.

Liddy was in my dressing-room, suspiciously red-eyed, and trying to put

a right sleeve in a left armhole of a new waist for me. I was too much

shaken to scold.

"What name did that woman in the kitchen give?" she demanded, viciously

ripping out the offending sleeve.

"Bliss. Mattie Bliss," I replied.

"Bliss. M. B. Well, that's not what she has on he suitcase. It is

marked N. F. C."

The new cook and her initials troubled me not at all. I put on my

bonnet and sent for what the Casanova liveryman called a "stylish

turnout." Having once made up my mind to a course of action, I am not

one to turn back. Warner drove me; he was plainly disgusted, and he

steered the livery horse as he would the Dragon Fly, feeling uneasily

with his left foot for the clutch, and working his right elbow at an

imaginary horn every time a dog got in the way.

Warner had something on his mind, and after we had turned into the

road, he voiced it.

"Miss Innes," he said. "I overheard a part of a conversation yesterday

that I didn't understand. It wasn't my business to understand it, for

that matter. But I've been thinking all day that I'd better tell you.

Yesterday afternoon, while you and Miss Gertrude were out driving, I

had got the car in some sort of shape again after the fire, and I went

to the library to call Mr. Innes to see it. I went into the

living-room, where Miss Liddy said he was, and half-way across to the

library I heard him talking to some one. He seemed to be walking up

and down, and he was in a rage, I can tell you."




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024