2
THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 10, 1916
I'VE OF
ATEMARI
E
O TOU get it? Every
woman there had a.
daughter or some
body downstairs. It
was the older women
they -wanted, of
course. The debu-.
- ten tea never wear
much In the line of Jewelry. As soon aa
they'd taken oft their trimmings he lined
them up against the wall in a row. One
VUUHU1 ftllCI UUULllOl UCUUQ HiUAlCljr WW
that rxiom. tickled to piece at a. chance
to get home early and take off hex tight
things. It's one ot the bitterest things
hi life, to me that I couldn't see the
change in their faces when they saw the
others lined op like a spelling class and
the gentleman with the open suitcase.
Yes. he pat the things In a suitcase.
Was it a haul? Well, rather. He got
f75,000 and a piece of skin off the mater,
the skin coming with on earring she
-trrliffl off Ami mother wns Tint a mark
er to ftome of the others.
There were forty-two women against
the wall, and the suitcase was full and
he was putting things in his overcoat
j-ockets before he stopped.
"New, ladles," he said, "for twenty
minutes I shall ask you to raise no
iilarat. T do- not like to make threats,
bat ray men will be In the ballroom for
that length of time! At the end of
twenty minutes you may scream your
beads off."
"How are we to know when the twgi-
I3isa
IKusiratci Vf & TaudZer
m
M
r1?
ft
y
I
SYNOPSIS
OLIVER GRAY IV young society clubman sets out to unravel
tike jnyatery of tLe double murder and tike clever robbery at
the assembly ball. An unknown womati and OEie's taxi cab
driver arc mysterioualy killed and valuable jewels axe stolen whilo
the city Ire a heiyLeas in the throes of darkness, due to the electric
wires havsng been cut. The double murder occurs while OUie and
Howard Martin are being taken, home after the darkness interrupts
their plans of a supper party for a stage favorite. Ollie's mother
figures conspicuously in the holdup. It is Ollie who finds pretty,
petite Hazel Hazeltine, his father's stenographer, wandering in the
park at 5:30 in the morning following the murder, pale, worried and
acting suspiciously.
S3
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s-a
e3
Bi!!,itrH"!timti'tiirti,.roi!tl11(,mi
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7A
ty minutes is up?" mother demanded.
Trust the mater for spunk! "You've
taken our watches."
Mofher said shejrather hoped he'd re
turn her diamond wrist watch. But he
didn't.
"Suppose," he said politely, "one of
you counts sixty, rather slowly, twenty
times. That would approximate, the
time. Count out loud, please."
Mother said she seemed to "bo the
only one with breath enough to count.
"One, two, three
she began, and the
man closed the suit
case, walked over to
the dressing table
and blew out the can
dles, pot out aa elec
tric Cash from his
pocket and went out.
The mater had only
Sot to eight -when lie
closed the door and
locked It behind him,
- Zt seems that oth
er women came up
and rattled at the
door for admission.
)
Hot the only answer they had was
mother counting away for dear life "thirty-onethirty-twothirty-throe
" Can
you beat it?
Boisseau told me the story himself
while I was making the coffee. He wept
while he told it.
If you would explain to your mother
and father, ATr. Ollio," he said tearfully.
P's known me since I was "Master Ol
Ue. ""We will do everything, ray back
the losses I cannot. I am ruined. But
the police are working hard, especially
dace -one of them was almost assassi
nated. ,
I sat up.
"What!"
"Tt is true, monsieur. We had a spe
cial officer at the door. We do so al
ways at the assembly. After the lights
went off be -was attacked. A deep cut
in the shoulder, it looked as if It 1
been don with a razor. Bleed! Man
Eieur
"Oh, no!" said Miss Hasertine sud
denly. Give you my word Td forgotten
her for a minute. I was thinking of the
mater counting and all that, and the
policeman. She was leaning forward,
with her lips slightly
' parted. She has a
pretty month. Td
never noticed St be-
qutte tTM,"
Boisaeaa. ""Blood
Roiiterm told
me the story
himself . . .
He wept white
he told it.
N
over everything. A Httle more and he
would haver .died. He is upstairs now.
Me, I pay tor a norw, for a surgeon.
The mattress is ruined. Also a carpet."
"Oh, stop at that." I said, seeing how
sick she looked. "Well take the horrors
for granted."
He arabled, away to get a newspaper.
The morning papershad just come In.
Pierre brought in some eggs himself, and
i saluted them. I needed food. By
George, with one thing and another, I
was dizzy. But Miss Haaeltine took only
a little coffee.
"I must get home. Mr. Oliver." she
eaid. Tm not hungry. I'm warmer
now. I really I'm quite comfortable."
I put an egg on her plate, V .
"iot a step until you're eaten some
thing," I insisted.
She'd got in the way of thinking me a
eori of lightweight, because in the office
the governor's the dominant figure, and
he treats me like an office boy. But I
can be firm enough If I want to. I sat
over, her until she'd got down an egg and
a piece of toast. She wouldn't admit it,
but she was better. She began to think,
about her looks, and she whipped open
her bag to get out a mirror.
"I'm so untidy!" she said, I don't
remember ever being up all fclght be
fore." I
"Oh," I said. "So you've been up all
night."
Having said it, she was too honest to
go back on it,
"I have, Mr. Oliver."
TOW she and I hare debated tnlsi
question since. The bait was ooen.
and turned toward rae. She says hotly
that I had no business to try to see
what was inside, but I maintain that,
even then, I had determined to help her,
whether ehe wanted me to or not, and
that I had a right to every scrap of help
2 could -get.
Well, I looked. There was a bit of a
eofiad steel sprins; rn it. a small spring,
but it looked strong. J dont know what
Xd expected, but I was disappointed. She
caught xne looking and snapped the bag
shut. 1
Of course yon may jusk how I knew
that the spring was what she'd picked up
in the pork. Well, It was a small bag,
and there was nothing else of any size
In It. Whatever ahe found she'd seen
from the path as It lay in the dead park
crass, some twenty yards away. How's
that for reasoning
I dont know when 1 first connected
the taxicab trouble with Boiaseatfs.
Maybe when the old fellow talked about
a rasor. When you think about It, there
were three people within a radios of half
a mile slashed at orabomt the same time.
The policeman got his first, fixing the
time by the darkness, then my taxt man,
and the woman on Jie bus was the third.
But what had Jack the Slasher to do
with the robbery at Boisseau'a? Think
about rt. The gentleman bandit In the
dressing-room had never raised lis
Toice. There had been no violence. The
-whole Idea of the thing Toad been a quiet
getaway.
Was it likely that the bandit. r ban-
dits, would try to murder the policeman
on doty at the carh. the most ronapieu
ous person they could have fixed oaT If
there had been an alarm raised. It woald
have been different, bat there was no
alarm for long enough after that. Only
the mater counting away for dear Xfe
and locked in the dressin g-room.
It looked to me just then aa tbovgh
. three things, not connected, had occurred
almost simultaneously. The light and
telephone wires had broken, a raaatao
had taken advantage of the darkne&e to
cut loose, and a band f thieves wba bad
tCaaaed a beaten timut tahtga comfth
their waqr an teak then away in a eait-
Bnt Tm the devff whm. I got as Idea
m my 'head. They dbrft come often.