Heppner gazette-times., May 17, 1928, Page PAGE FIVE, Image 5

HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1928.
PAGE FIVE
Ah, she was a scrumtious creature,
Glib of tongue and fair of feature,
But, alas! I couldn't teach her
For she had been there before
And she winked at me and mur
mured,. Murmured the one word: "En-
. core!"
Only that and nothing more.
"Pinch me if I fall asleep," mut
tered the Stewed Stude as he lurch
ed against the lamp post, and the
Proud Minion of the law proceeded
to do as he was bid.
Mrs. de Style: "I suppose your
daughter is to have her coming out
ball very soon, Isn't she?"
Mrs. Rose Quyck: "Oh, dear no!
My daughter has another year at
school before becoming a dilitante,
and will not make her debris until
next season.
"It stands to reason," said the
wit as the first debater arose.
SUFFICIENT
Once upon an evening dismal
I handed her a paroxysmal
Kiss, and spoke her name baptis
mal. Spoke her name it wag Lenore;
rU Edison Marshall iihsirdhns ?mmtt
CHAPTER I
Tampa is always quiet in mld-
afternoon. It is always a tranquil
time of day, and the best way to
spend it is to sit and drink many
cold drinks of lime and lemon.
I used to spend it that way ex-
- cept when out on calls. Jefferson
Davis Lincoln, who watches over
me and answers my bells and
sweeps my office and with inimi
table bows guides my patients to
their chairs, nan make as refreshing
a concoction out of a; little llme-
Julce and mint and seltzer-water as
can be Imagined.
Perttaps tho story of Southley
Downs should begin with that Au
gust afternoon beside Useppa Is
land. Alexander Pierce and I were
tarpon fishing.
When I think of Alexander Pierce
it is always with a flshingrod in
his hand. He was at his best then.
To see him on the street one could
easily guess that he was a fisher
man, but never a detective. There
Is no practice In the world that
leaves its mark upon a man's face
more clearly than fishing. Pierce
had that mark. He had singularly
quiet eyes eyes that looked farther
than most telescopes, but yet not
seemingly keen or alert. He had
a lean, weather-beaten face, scribed
, and rescribed with lines. His hair
was curiously thin and people ra
ther expected it to be gray. But
when he removed his hat it was
seen to be rather light brown and
fine.
"So you go back to your work to
morrow," J said. "I'm sorry you
can't stay longer."
"Not as sorry as I am, doc," he
replied . "If it's between fish and
thieves, I choose fish every time.
They are more gentlemanly, and
require a finer art One's daily
bread, you know! But why don't
you stay and fish without me?"
"Fishing for tarpon with anybody
except Alexander the Great would
give me no thrill at all," I told him.
"I'd sooner go to my house party."
"Dancing around In a ballroom
when you could be dancing around
on the sea with a tarpon! By the
way, where did you say you were
going for this riotous week?"
"To a big old manor house In the
interior Southley Downs."
"Southley!" he muttered. "His
name doesn't happen to be Peter
Southley, does it?"
"That happens to be his name."
"An old man seventy-five years
of age white-haired, heavily built,
about as tall as you, with a peculiar
nervous twitch to his eyes?"
"That's Peter Southley. I don't
know him well. I met him at my
club in Tampa when he was visit
ing the Martjns. And I can't un
derstand what made him ask me.
I got the letter just a couple of
days ago, and he promises fishing
and shooting and golf of the best
Asked me for a full week, and even
seemed a trifle hectic about It as If
ne wanted me very badly. I'll stay
a day or two, at least"
"Queer thing," he muttered. "Such
a queer thing. But there doesn't
seem to be any further doubt"
I was scorched by curiosity; but
I knew enough not to ask ques
. tions.
"You're a sort of a trustworthy
quack, Long," he remarked at last.
I began to be hopeful: but I knew
my cue.
"Very blundering, I'm afraid,
Alex."
"Of course your years are against
you only thli ty-thrte. Yet they
say that you have a cool hand With
a scalpel. Steady hand means
steady nerves. Steady nerves means
you're to be trusted in a pinch. You
hardled thnt Wlldmarsh problem
pretty well, too. Tell me have you
,nv deep, personal regard for this
man Southley?"
"Not really." I'd barely met the
man. ' T did think he was a kindly
old chap; very agreeable, and with
a fine taste for vintages."
"I rather thought that might da
scribe him. Long, I want you' to
keep your eyes open when you art
at his house. I want you to wach
all the time."
"Alexander, you are the last man
in the world to ask mo to do any
thing that is the slightest breach in
loyalty between a guest and his
host."
"I rather hope I am, Long yet a
detective gets remorseless. I must
guard agulnst it. I should say it
; was quite otherwise. Maybe you
don't kryjw what I mean . I'm not
sure that I know myself. I have
rather vague ideas Instincts, I
guess you'd call them. I can't tell
you what prompts them. I don't
know myself. Anyway, you can be
sure that I don't want you to take
any position unbecoming a guest."
"Then toll me what am I to do?"
He went on as If I hadn't ques
tioned him. "Perhaps I'm playing
a blind lead; but my Instincts tell
me otherwise. It is simply this.
Less than a year ago, tho detective
agency with which I have official
connections would have paid me the
biggest fee of my lifetime to find
this same Peter H. Southley. Only
his name Isn't that, or anything like
it It Is, in reality, Andrew Las
son." "You mean that the old man is
going under an alias?"
"I'll correct that a little. I don't
know that his real nama is Andrew
Lasson. I don't know that it Isn't
Southley. Names don't much mat
ter, you know. At sundry times
I've been known through the West
as Amos Schn iclt. His real name
may be Southley, and it may be
Lasson, and it may be something
else. All I know is for a long per
iod of time the man who calls him
self SoutHloy was known as Andrew
Lasson, I know that he landed In
America forty years ago as Andrew
Las-ipii. What his name was before
that, I don't know. I know that
about a year ago inquiries cr.me
from a certain man in England to
find at all costs Andrew Lasson.
The fee as to be tremendous, most
of which was to be paid a year af
ter we found him. The man's name
was Roderick at least, that's what
he told us. Hlb signature was that
of an old man. After a while his
son a big, dark, good-looking man
about thirty-five came to see us
personally. Well, we started to work.
We traced just long enough to dis
cover that Andrew Lasson had mov
ed South from New York as Peter
H. Southley when Roderick called
us off. He said he'd found his party
himself."
"Perhaps it was just some legal
mix-up heir to an esttte, or some
thing? Southley is tremendously
wealthy.
"Possibly. But I did get Inter
ested. I never saw such a tireless
pair of hunters as these Rodericks
were. And when you're down for
this week-end party I want you to
keep ears and eyes wide open and,
of course, Hps closed."
S
The journey to Southley Downs
is distinguished by some of the
most beautiful scenery In Florida,
but I didn't look at it
The porter showed me my seat
.it ihc seaboard station, and it is un
believably true that ten minutes had
passed before I ever noticed the
dainty little hat on a girl almost the
length of the car ahead. And it Is
a queer thing that my first thought
aftor noticing it was that ten min
utes had been wasted. There is no
accounting for tho vagaries of the
human mind. It wasn't that I'm
the kind of man that can stand be
fore a shop window and spend an
enjoyable ten minutes gazing at
creations of millinery. .
There was a feeling from the first
that if it should only be lifted off
It would reveal a great lovely heap
of shimmering brown hair, arching
a face as pretty and piquant as the
eyes of a man could wish to see. It
was just that kind of a hat
The train stopped at a station,
and a man in the opposite row of
seats from mine left the train. His
chair was considerably nearer the
front of the car than mine, so I
slipped Into It. The girl's profile
was plainly visible to me now.
She wore a little tailored suit of
blue, and her silken bag Indicated
a week-end visit with a girl friend
on the shore. It was one of those
pretty conceits that girls love, cut
up into a hundred delectable pock
ets for toilet articles. I could not
watch her so intently now. I pre
tended to gaze out of the window,
but the panorama slipped by me
without leaving a single Impression
In my memory. Then, turning once
more, our eyes met.
All at once I saw that her color
was gone. I watched her more in
tently. The fatigue of the journey,
combined with some nervous strain
that I could not understand, were
having an actual, tangible effect on
her physical being. I began to feel
glad that I was a doctor. . Her posi
tion had changed, too. I had to
look twice to see what she was doing.
She no longer stared at the back
of the seat She was sitting up
right, amlost rigid In her chair, and
her eyes were on the landscape out
side the window. I followed their
line of sight, and saw at once that
we were passing through some
great country estate. An enormous
house, a great white palatial struc
ture of style of long ago, perched
upon a near-by hill. It looked as'
big as the castles of Europe, and on
the hillside were clustered such out
buildings as stables and garages.
There were wide sweeps of meadow,
a curving driveway, and in the most
astounding contrast the deep fast
nesses of tropical jungle. For we
were in the interior of southern
Florida, as verdant a place as is to
be found in all of North America.
Human senses are not entirely
reliable. On the witness stand I
could not swear exactly what I saw.
As if caught In the frozen fascina
tion with which the girl watched
the passing panorama, I was still
following the line of her vision. It
seemed to me that I caught a
glimpse of something yellow In the
thicket a curious brilliant yellow
In great splashes of color. It was
just a glimpse, and yet I had dim
reasons for thinking that the yel
low form was living.
It might have been just a gayly
colored plant, or a flash of bird
wings, or even a tawny dog. I
should say that its size might corre
spond to that of an enormous
hound. It might have been a yel
low calf, or perhaps only the sun
light against dark water. It didn't
matter anyway. The only thing that
did matter, or that I remembered
for hours afterward, was that the
girl suddenly slipped down to the
floor in a dead faint.
In an Instant she was In my arms.
I don't remember how she came
there. I have no remembrance of
exertion In leaping to her chair or
picking her up. She was simply
there when I again looked into her
face, her slender body against my
breast, her head resting on the
muscle of my left arm, her white
face uplifted, and unconsciousness
upon her.
If I had a single impression as I
carried her to tho women's room, it
was certainly not of her weight.
She seemed to have no weight at
all. But I did see the lovely shadow
her eyelashes made against the
whiteness of ht-.r face.
A woman picked up the silken
week-end bag that the unconscious
girl had carried, and drew the cur
tain for me. She was a large,
cheery-faced matron, capable nnd
determined, and under ordinary cir
cumstances I would have felt per
fectly safe in leaving my patient In
her hands. But in this case, I went
to work to effect the recovery my
self. It was the most simple form of
ordinary faint; so I sent the woman
for smelling salts.
"Maybe she's got some in her
bag." she suggested.
I peered into the pretty conceit
that the woman had brought but I
found no perfumed salts. It was
a far different thing that met my
eyes. I like to think that my face
gave no sign, that the woman had
no inkling of the little shiwer of
wonderment that went through ev
ery nerve.
What I saw would not have been
unusual under different circum
stances. In the bottom of a trunk,
or pushed into the cushions of an
automobile seat, or even in a suit
case, perhaps I would not have
glanced twice at it But in this
bag, with the most intimate articles
for daily use, it seemed incongru
ous to a horrible degree.
It was a dark, ugly automatic pis
tol, brand-new and with a full mag
azine of cartridges.
Reviving the unconscious girl
was the work of a moment But it
almost made me miss my station.
Her eyes opened and rested upon
me. I do not know with what white
magic that glance was Instilled. But
it went deep into me, and left a
curious warmth and elation. I know
that no other eyes had ever looked
at me in quite that way, or had the
same effect upon me. Perhaps it
was their curious darkness, or even
the haunting sorrow that could not
possibly be denied.
(Continued next week.)
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