The Mazarof f Mystery
-By-
J. S. FLETCHER
j7Jn.rrat.ona by IRWIN MYERS
(, by Alfred A. Knopf, lac)
W. N. U. Service
CHAPTER XI Continued
17
"Tou're all right r I sal J eagerly.
Safe?"
"Safe yes!" she answered "All
right, too. Hut everything else Is all
wrong! MnythorneT where Is he?"
"Outside." I said. "The police, tool
Two of them Corkerdale and Man
Hers." "We've got to see the police at
once!" Interrupted Sheila. "Let them
in, Mervyn. You'll hear everything
that I my to them," she added, turn
lng to Mr. Elphlnstone. "There
mustn't be any delay, either I Open
the door!"
I thrust back the latch and threw
the door open the three men outside
came In, wonderlngly. The two po
licemen, thus admitted, appeared to
lose their tongues, but May t home,
after a first keen glance at Sheila,
smiled
"I think you're none the worse for
your adventures. Miss Merchlson," he
said. "I hope Mrs. Elphlnstone Is not
seriously the worse, either?"
"My mother's had a sort of col
lapse after she came In." replied
Sheila. "The doctor says she will be
all right after a night's rest Sit down,
all of you. If you please 1 want to
talk to you." she coutinued, abruptly.
"You've ail been wondering where my
mother, and Alison Murdoch, and my.
self went, and where we've been since,
haven't your
"A good deal of search has been
made for you, miss," observed Cor
kerdale, finding his tongue. "Going
on now. It Is, tool What happened.
If I may ask?"
Sheila looked at
from him to me.
"Happened?" she
Maythorne and
answered. "My
mother and I were kidnaped !
Mr. Elphlnstone groaned but there
was a note of triumph In his voice,
"Dy whom were you kidnaped. Miss
Merchisonr asked Maythorne quietly.
Sheila unconsciously lowered her
Tolce as she bent forward to answer.
"Alison Murdoch I" she replied.
"And where Is Alison Murdoch?"
continued Maythorne. "Cut I sup
pose you don't know I"
"No!" answered Sheila. "1 don't
know I"
Corkerdale cleared his throat the
sound suggested that he thought it
was high time he came In.
"What I'd wish, Mr. Maythorne," he
said "that Is, Sergeant Manners and
myself would be If the young lady
would Just tell us what happened after
she and her mother and this woman
left the hotel three nights ago. Seems
to rae we want a consecutive narra
tive, as It were. Then"
"I'm going to tell you," Interrupted
Sheila. "Hut I shall have to begin
before that I must begin where Mr.
Maythorne and Mr. Holt came to Miss
Apperley's flat that evening the eve
ning that my mother arrived here.
After you two had gone," she con
tinued, turning to Maythorne and me,
"I thought a lot a tremendous lot
about the whole business. I was very
uneasy about everything the will
the general situation. To tell you the
truth, I felt that If things were going
to remain where they were I should
come perilously near to suspicion of
my own mother. So"
Mr. Elphlnstone smote his knees
with his open palms and groaned
audibly. Cut Sheila gave him a glance
and went on.
"So, eventually, I said ttf Miss Ap
perley that I was going to Short's, to
have It out with my mother, If I
could. I came here 1 saw my mother
In that bedroom."
"Alone?" asked Maythorne.
"Alone! We had a sort of row at
first she was naturally furious with
me; first, for taking the will out of
her possession ; second, for running
away to London with It and giving It
to Mr Holt. Cut In the end she
calmed down, and eventually, when
we had restored amicable relations be
tween ourselves, she told me that I
need not have been so hnsty, for It
was her full Intention to send the will,
either to Mr. Postlethwaite, who had
prepared it, or to Mr. Crole, the very
next day, with an account of how it
had come Into ber possession
"How had the will come Into Mrs.
Elphinstont's possession?" asked May
thorne, "In this way," replied Sheila. "1
told you and Mr. Holt that my mother
wus out late In the evening for two
evenings In succession, and that on
the second evening I stole downstairs
on hearing her come In, and, unper
celved by her, saw her examining a
document which I afterward discov
ered to be the will. Her explanation
is that on coming In that night she
found one of the French windows In
the library open, and on the curpet,
Just within, an envelope containing the
will I She had just picked tills up and
was examining It when I saw her."
"To be sure to be surel" muttered
Mr. Elphlnstoue, "Perfectly clear I
perfectly!"
"proceed, If you please," said May
thome, quietly.
"Well." continued Sheila. "1 then
began to tulk to my mother uhout
various possibilities us to how the will
had come there. I pointed out that
the possession of It, and her refusal
to account for It und to reply to qucs
tlons (all of which Is due to her nat
ural pride and ohstlnncy and dislike
of being coerced by anyone) would
make people like you, for instance
suspicious about her. She cared very
tittle about It, but we began to dis
cuss the question of the Identity of the
murderer. For it seemed to me that
whoever had stolen the will had pre
viously murdered Its maker I And
eventually, and I think, accidentally,
I told her about that cairngorm
brooch which you showed me the
other night."
"Ah!" exclaimed Maythorne, with
a smhlcn betrayal of tils keen Interest.
"You did? Good good I And'
"Sho immediately became excited,
She Jumped to the conclusion that you
had picked it up at the scene of the
murder "
"I did I" remarked Maythorne.
"So she suspected and said that
that of course was why you were tak
ing care of it. Then she told mo that
from my description the brooch
was one of two which Mr. Elphlnstone
had bought, years ago, In Scotland,
and given to her. She had never worn
either, as they were cumbrous and
heavy: she still had one, but she had
given the other away, some time be
fore." "Aye, and to whom?" asked May
thorne, eagerly.
"To Alison Murdoch!" replied
Sheila, giving us all a swift, envelop
lng glance. "And of course, as soon
as I heard that, I saw through the
whole sordid business, Alison Mur
doch was the guilty person! She had
murdered and robbed Mazaroff; she
had dropped that brooch at Helver's
den: she had thrown the will Into the
library at the tower the one fatal
mistake she made for her own chances !
and ... I told my mother my
conclusions. And then I fetched All
son Murdoch in, and accused her
polntblauk !"
There was a murmur that seemed to
denote a mixture of Interest and of
admiration from the two policemen;
Corkerdale, who sat twiddling his
thumbs and watching Sheila intently,
smiled broadly.
"You plumped her with It, miss?
straight out!" he exclaimed. "Yes
yes?" "Stralcht out! there and then." as
sented Sheila. "Cut let me tell you
why In addition to what I've already
told. During the last few minutes
of my talk with my mother I'd been
thinking, harder and quicker than I'd
ever thought In my life. Now, I re
membered something about Alison
Murdoch and about her family. Al
though my mother rarely mentioned
such matters to me, I knew more about
Marrasdale and my father's connec
tion with It than she had any idea of
I had picked up a lot of knowledge
and gossip from the old people round
about us. And I knew that my father,
Andrew Merchlson, was well known
In those parts before his marriage,
and that his people bad been folk of
some consequence there. I knew, too,
that Alison Murdoch's family had been
there a long time, too, and that be
tween It and my father's people there
was a di-adly enmity, arising out of "
"I-and!" Interrupted Mr. Elphln
stone. "Land ! The Merchlson lot did
the Murdochs out of a bit of land
some years ago. Piece of oppression
and chicanery but It was done. Un
forgivenble, of course In the minds
of these Corder people. Feud! Land
feud! Such things are remembered
for ever."
"They rankle," said Slielia. "There
was blood shed over It at the time
a Merchlson shot a Murdoch; though
not fatally. All that's well known
Mr. Elphlnstone knows all about it"
"Countryside gossip to this day,"
agreed Mr. Elphlnstone. "There are
men and women there In Marrasdale
who remember It"
"Well," continued Sheila, "It struck
me that Alison Murdoch, who Is a
silent, grim, reserved, determined
woman, probubiy not only remembered
It, but was the very sort of person,
who, If she got the chance of revenge,
would take It without hesitation. I
figured it all out this way. Alison
Murdoch, when Mazaroff, who, of
course, was really Andrew Merchlson,
came to the Woodcock, was helping
there: helping with the cooking and so
on. She saw him, and recognized
him. She no doubt got acquainted with
his habits and knew that he strolled
out on the moors, after dark. Now,
"Ornery" Long Employed
"Ornery" and "onery" are corrupted
forms of "ordinary." They are dialect
or. colloquial terms meaning Insignifi
cant low, mean, contemptible, and
they express a higher degree of con
tempt and disapprobation than "ordi
nary" does. "Ornary" as a contrac
tion of "ordinary" wus a common pro
vincialism In England In the time of
the Stuarts, although It Is now nearly
obsolete. We find the phrase "uppon
ornarle time," In the Easthnmpton rec
ords as late as 1070. In Ireland mid
the United States this form persists In
the still more corrupted forms or "orn
ery" nnd "onery," which were brought
to the American colonies nnd perpet
uated lurgely by Irish and .Scotch-Irish
Fraih Air and Warmth
The public health service says that
fresh warm air of a proper degree of
moisture and free from appreciable
draft is now recognized us essential
to Indoor workers. The old Idea thnt
a cold room necessarily contains fresh
air and thnt comfortably warm rooms
necessarily contain bad air has been
discarded.
she didn't live at the Woodcock she
lives at n cottngo of her own, on the
way to nirnsido. I came to the con
elusion that having made up her mind
to revenge the old fued on Andrew
Merchlson, she watched for her op
portunity. On the night of the murder
she saw him go out and take the path
towards Itelver's den. She abstracted
Musgrnve's gun from the parlor and
followed hltn and shot him. And "
"A moment I" Interrupted Maythorne,
He glanced at the two policemen.
"Corkerdale and Manners will under
stand the meaning of a question I
want to put to you," he continued
"It's this does this woman, Alison
.Murdoch, at all resemble your mother,
Mrs. Eiphlnstonel'1
"Very closely!" answered Sheila.
"They're of the satno height and build,
anyway very similar In figure and not
at all unlike In general appearance.
"One could easily bo mistaken for
the other lu the dark, eh?" asked May
thome.
"I should say, very easily," asserted
Sheila. "In fact, I have so mistaken
them, myself."
Maythorno turned to the policemen.
"That accounts for what Eccleshare
and Parslave saw or believed they
'Straight Out! There and Then," As-
ssrttd Sheila.
saw," be remarked In an undertone.
"Eh?"
"Seems so to me." answered Man
ners, "les I should say it did."
Corkerdale, however, said nothing:
he was still watching Sheila. "You
were saying, miss V he suggested.
"Well I was going to say that that
seemed to me a good ground for sus
pecting her, taking other things Into
consideration," continued Sheila. "Hut
I bad another ground. It was well
known It had already got talked
about He was careless about dis
playing his wealth I myself heard.
as people do hear things In villages.
that he left large sums of money and
even diamonds lying about on bis
dining table. Now, I knew that Alison
Murdock Is a covetous, avaricious,
grasping woman; miserly to the Inst
degree. If she murdered Andrew
Merchlson out of revenge, she was
Just the sort of woman to rob his
dead body of everything on It out of
sheer greed I She Is, I say that
sort"
'A hoarder!" muttered Mr. Elphln
stone. "A saver of farthings! I
think you're quite right, Sheila. Cut
murder? dear me!"
"Well, that's the conclusion I came
to," said Sheila, "a id these were my
reasons. In the fe.v minutes In which
I thought all this out I came to the
absolute definite conclusion that All
son Murdoch hud shot Andrew Merchl
son, had robbed him of his money,
valuables, and papers, and that It was
she who had thrown his will Into the
open window of Mr. Klphlnstotie's
library, where my mother' had picked
It up. And. as I said at the beginning,
as soon as I'd arrived at that conclu
sion, I called her Into my mother's
room that room ! und accused her of
the murder!"
Mr. Elphlnstone treated us to one of
his groans. Hut Corkerdale, uncon
sciously, edged bis chulr nearer to
Sheila.
"Now this Is where the reully In
teresting part comes in, miss!" he
to Express Contempt
Immigrants, who settled In the South
and West This explnlns the fart that
'ornery" and "onery" are generally re
garded as southerlsms or westernlsms.
In lSTX) the New York Constellation
published the following as a southern
expression: "You ornery fellow I Do
you pretend to call me to account for
my language?" Pathfinder Magazine.
Hearing Insects F!
"Yon wrote recently In this column,"
writes a correspondent to "Looker
on" In the Ixmdon Dally Chronicle,
"thut one of your renders heard slugs
eating. I have never heard them, but
I have heard snails and caterpillars
eat Snails make a scratching noise.
Cuterplllnrs crunch. The caterpillars
of the privet hawk moth make quite
a loud noise, and I have often heard
them when sitting In the garden, and
they have been eating the lilac leaves."
Other correspondents state thut they
have heard snails feeding.
Alaska's Coastline
Alaska bus more than 0,000 miles
of coast
ft e& 9
mmm
HI
mUwM
said. "You chnrged her I What might
she reply, now?"
"She denied It, of course Indlg
nantly," answered Sheila. "She wu
for flouncing out of the room, to com
plain to Mr. Klphinstonc. Then she
changed her mind, and said she'd go
to her own room, pack her things, and
leave the hotel. I soon settled lior,
though I"
"Aye? and how, miss?" asked Cor-
kerdale, still more Interested,
"I told her thnt If she attempted
to leave that room until I'd finished
with her, I'd ring the bell, send fo
the police, and give her In charge!
said Sheilu. "And I should have don
so nothing would have stopped mo,
That calmed her down sho knew met
Then 1 talked to her. I pieced things
together finally. I told her that he
cairngorm brooch had been found on
the scene of the murder "
"How did she tako that?" Inter
rupted Maythorne,
"She turned very pale," replied
Sheilu. "Cut almost Instantly she
retorted thnt my mother had an ex
actly similar brooch why wasn't she
suspected? I replied thnt my mother
never wore the other brooch evident
ly she, Alison, did. Then I went on
to rub It Into her, frightening her all
I could. My mother, ou her part,
begged her to tell of anything she
knew. Finally, on my telling her that
unless I got some explanation, I should
give her In charge there and then, she
admitted that sho knew something !"
"Ah!" said Maythorne. "Som
thing!"
"Something 1" repeated Sheila. "And
having admitted that, she made, a
strange offer though I'm bound to
say that it didn't seem so very strange
at the time. She pointed out that she
wns alone there In London, that aht
was, In a degree, at my mercy. Then
she reminded us that she had a brother
here In London, a man who left Mar
rasdale years ago, and who had, she
said, a business in the Harrow road"
"Aye, to be surel" muttered Cor
kerdale. "The Harrow road!"
"Arid she made us an offer," con
tinued Sheila. "She said that It we
would go with her, there and then, to
her brother's house, and allow her to
consult with him first. sheAJ tell
us the absolute truth about all thnt
she actually knew. We were fools
enough to go and we set off at once,
without telling anybody. We ex
pected, of course, to be back In i
very short time."
What happened, miss?" Inquired
Corkerdale.
"We left the hotel and got a taxi-
cab rouud the corner of the next
street," continued Sheila. "Alison
Murdoch told the driver where to go.
I know where the Harrow road opens
In Edgwnre road at Paddlngton Green ;
w e went a long, long way beyond that
At last we got out"
"A minute, Miss," Interrupted Man
ners. "When you got out, did you
happen to notice If you were being
followed? Cy another taxlcab, now?"
"I did see a taxicub pull up on the
other side of the street lower down.
replied Sheila. "I noticed that while
my mother was paying our man."
Manners sniffed, and whispered to
his colleague an audlblo whisper.
"That 'udbe him!" be said. "Tracked
em I Cog pardon, miss for Interrupt
lng you."
We walked up the road a little
way," continued Sheila. "Then we
turned Into a aide street, and Into a
still smaller street that ran off that
a dark, gloomy street Outside one of
the bouses, Alison Murdoch asked us
to wait a few minutes while she went
In. We did. She was away perhaps
five minutes. Then she cume out am)
fetched us In. It was a dark, gloom)
house as gloomy as the street out
side. She took us Into what seemed
to be a back bedroom, on the ground
floor, where there was a dim light
from a gas bracket, and asked us to
wait a few minutes longer. Then she
went out and that was the last we
saw of her."
Corkerdale, still twiddling his
thumbs, took his eyes off Sheila for
the first time. He cast them up to the
celling, and stared at whatever ho
saw there, thoughtfully. Manners,
however, let out one word, sharply:
"Trapped !"
"Of course we were trapped," as
serted Sheila. "Wc deserved to be!
anyhow, I did. We hadn't been In
that room five minutes before we
knew It. We heard the door locked
from outside, and what seemed to be a
bar put across it, too. I Immedlutoly
flew to the window and tore the blind
and the curtains away. Then I saw
that there were heavy shutters across
the window on the outside and I
found the sashes of the window Itself
were nailed down. We were trapped
Indeed! Horrible!"
"What happened?" asked Maythorne,
softly. "In brief."
"In brief yes," said Sheila. "I'm
not going Into details of that horror
for anything now, at any rate. 1
beat on the door, but there was no
reply everything was quiet enough.
After an hour, a panel that I'd noticed
In one of the walls tho sort of thing,
a hatch, you know, that communicates
between a kitchen and a dining room,
was suddenly slipped open, and a hand
und arm thrust In a big basket and
dropped It on the bed. Then the panel
was banged to, again, and I heard It
secured. There was food plenty of
It, nnd good In the basket, and a
couple of bottles of wine good claret
nnd glasses and a corkscrew. So we
weren't starved. Cut there we were,
trapped! until this evening two
nights and two days. We never saw
anybody. Each evening another basket
was dropped In, so suddenly that we'd
no chance to seize the hand that
dropped It, or to get a glimpse of tli
adjoining room. We neither saw nw
heurd anything, all the time,"
mm m mm
or
Children will fret, often for no
apparent reason. But there's al
ways one sure way to comfort a
rcstlcn, fretful child. Castorial
Harmless as the recipe on the
wrapper; mild and bland as it
tastes. Dut its gentle action
soothes a youngster more surely
than some powerful medicine
that is meant for the stronger
eystemi of adults.
That's the beauty of this special
children's remedy I It may be
given the tiniest infant as often
as there is any need. In esses of
colic, diarrhea, or similar disturb
ance, it is invaluable. But it has
everyday uses all mothers should
Old-Timer Takes Fling
at Feminine Reasoning
With the announcement of a wom
an senator nominated in Illinois, a
worried look spread over the conn
tenance of Senator Moses of New
Hampshire. "I gucsa tho old Guard
Is about licked," he grinned, "because
In debate, either domestic or politi
cal, you can't beat a woman.
"A constituent of mine has a wife
who would make a great congress,
woman. She had tackled her bus
ban for a new fur coat.
" 'Cut, my gracious,' he cried, '1
Just bought you an elegant, brand
new fox coat Inst year!'
"'New!' shrieked his wife. 'John
Jones, how dare you say It was new?
You know very well that the fox
had been wearing It or at least six
years !" I-os Angeles Times.
Britiihar Wall Fad
Specifications ns to supplies
brought to this country for the Crlt
KmIi army In the Itevolutlon required
Sound "beef, mrk. bread, flour, rice,
salt, pense, oatmeal." To these were
added cheexe, bacon, suet, fish, ruls
lim and motasnes. Don Sells, In writ
ing on the subject, adds: "Potatoes,
parsnips, carrots, turnips and cab
bages were provided when possible.
Nor wns there lack of liquid refresh,
ment. Port, claret anil spruce beer
were forwarded In quantities."
' Snow Quickly Mal'.ad
Calcium chloride, for the removal
of snow, was first applied about three
years ago. During Inst winter experi
ments wero conducted In Queens,
Crook I) n and Manhattan, N. Y., as
well as In Philadelphia, Pa., and
Hartford, Conn. The pavements were
sprayed with a treated solution of
calcium chloride made non-corrosive.
It was found that when the mixture
was applied, before or at the begin
ning of a storm, the snow did not
stay but melted almost Immediately.
Raal Long Diatance Talk
Prince Purochatra, Siamese minis
ter for trado and communications,
by using the telephone on his desk
In Bangkok, 81am, recently, spoke
for an hour and a half with his son
In Hamburg, Germany, and with
friends In Perlln, a dlstnnco of f,7'0
miles. The (Jermnn Telefutiken com
pany has a short-wave station in
ISangkok.
Civil War Necai.ity
RhlnpliiHtera, or fructlonnl cur
rency, were Issued during the Civil
war becntme of the dlmippearance
of coin from circulation and the
ahortago of small coin. The first Is
sue of fractional money wns made
on AugUMt 1, 1H02. The last and fifth
Issue was mado from February 20,
1871, to February 15, 187(1.
Important Europaan Rtvar
The Danube river with ltd more
than .KM) tributaries, drains one
tenth of the area of Europe In Its
course of 1,7150 miles.
The
power
reward of one duty Is tho
to fulfill another.
Kill those Diseasc-Carrying
fl
les
Get your Flit and the special
Flit Sprayer Today I
n
pray
klrnn smell
i VI.-V
jtyaaval
J uL
&t as a
U ik. " '! il
suiimifHLUlWlf'K!
CASTORU
httiiTimimmuirmTi'iw
enderstand. A coated tongue calls)
for a few drops to ward off coniti-
Cation; so does any suggestion of
ad breath. Whenever children
don't cat well, don't rest well, or
have any little upset this pure
vegetable preparation is usually
all that's needed to set everything
to rights. Genuine Castorta has
Chas. II. Fletcher's signature on
the wrapper. Doctors prescribe it.
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It IMIIOII I IIKWH A I. AMI TK I)IM1 CO.
JaraaoBilll ...... I lurlila.
hHM-lal AtmU Martini.
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COLON CI I NIC
anarrnN Tin ninT.t, inao
Paris May Honor Umbralla
Tnrls Is discussing whether to com
memorate next October, the one hun
dred and eightieth anniversary of
the Introduction of the umbrella In
to tho western world. In October,
l'.'A Joints Iliinwiiy gave the city a
shock by carrying a ruin protector
brought from China.
All Slotkad Up
Author Can I sell you a scenario?
Movie Producer O'wun, we've had
a scenario for years. Ilrooklym
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(TO BE CONTINUED.) ,