CALIFORNIA FARMER SECTION
* ji <1 l'<l llkn Io find out more about
tiin Hurry family." anawvrod Poe.
"Well, nil you got to do I n to unk
'em."
"I’ll do that."
Th., nrxt duy Chrlatophrr Poe at
tended tile funeral of old Hilly Burry,
lluiuilua of the traglo way he had
m«t hla death ninny people turned out
from curlonlty to follow the body to
tlie little Oregon cemetery,
Chrlatophar Poe learned nothing of
inlvreet and early that afternoon ex
plained to the Hhepurde tliut he would
Kludly pay them two weeka* board In
full If they could arrange for him to
gut a room nt the Barry«.
Mr. Hhe-
pard diplomatically mndo the ar
rangement with Ueorge Burry and thut
afternoon
Christopher Poe quietly
moved Into the little
hillside hoi»«
and wan established In the very room
In wl.l. h
lull Burry
tool died;
the
room having bean made cl.’un and tidy
by Jenny.
The grutammenrso of hla altuntlon
did not occur to the flounder because
of hla great Interent In the crime. 11«
lay for hours In the bed and re-ea-
tul.llr H.<| In liiu mliiil the room na It
hud been on the nlglit of the murder
Th luring
the
first night he ruse
'
■ ' >1 iteta to reurr.im:.- eluilre la
an effort to figure out some plaualnln
theory.
He ulao carefully examined
tin.
i„ dock arid mud« a mental
note of the fact that ho could plainly
hear the breathing of the two broth
ers who occupied aepurate rooms, both
opening onto the middle chamber in
which Poe lay,
Jenny had a small room below, Just
beneath the old staircase, and though
he felt
that
someone
was moving
about below stairs several times dur
ing the night he could hear no sound.
Nrxt
day at break fuel
jMk an
nounced In a bualnoaa like tone that
he and Jenny were to be married that
night.
Christoph, r Poo lmm.dlnt. ly
became anxious. A vague theory had
been fanning In his mind and he felt
that he must act at once.
Ho lmm«Mliately after breakfast
he
Naked ths two liarrya and Jenny up-
atalna to hla room
The old «k’P
medal with Its blood atalna upon It
lay on the dresser, the aheep shears
beside IL fTirbatopher Poe had found
no difficulty In seeing that these two
artlrles were not dlsp.sied of.
The
gruesome relics seemed to hold a mor
bid interest for all the Barry hi.rn.e-
bold.
When they were all gathered In
the room Christopher Poe stepped
softly to the door and locked it. then
he went over to the clock on the
mantle piece and turned the hands
until they
were pointing to half-
paat two.
"Now." he said, taking
up
the
sheep shears and placing them on the
chair near the stairway where they
had been the night of the tragedy,
and putting the silver sheep medal on
the bed, "I want you all to imagine
the bed, "I want yon ail to Imagine
that thin la the night that Mr. Barry
was killed. The s I. mlts lay where they
did that night, the sheep medal will
represent the place your father oc
cupied. and the clock la set at half
past two.
I have found in examin
ing thia Clock that It Is of very ex
cellent
Rwlaa
workmanship.
The
boll sounds the hours In regular ro
tation
1 have tampered with it now
so that It will strike three o'clock
whnn
the
hands
are
turned
to
three.
"Now you two boys are supposed to
be lying awake In these two outer
rooma and Jonny Is either awake
or asleep down stairs In her room,”
Christopher i*<>e slowly and delll>erately
moved the hands of the clack until
they reached the hour of threa The
silver tinkle sounded clearly and dis
tinctly three Um «a.
"Now.” continued ths banker-de
tective, "you heard It strike three and
if 1 left the clock alone It would strike
four after an hour Is passed, but In
stead of that I turn the hands around
the entire face of the clock back to
about half past two, so that the next
time the clock strikes, while it would
bo really four o'clock the l>«Ul would
only sound three times."
(To He « warluded Nest Mrek|
The Twirley Twins in
Trouble
By ROBERT CARLTON BROWN.
(t'natlaxed From l.ast Week)
It was produced In Ixmdon and even
I could not toll him from the real
dog. This scene occurs at that fearful
moment,
the darkn.ws before dawn,
the watchman notes that the dog la a
bit fiercer than usual and draws a
sigh of relief ns he reaches the gate.
The stage
la darkened and tha au
dience hushed.
"Before the watchman mak«w
his
next
round 'th* trick la dona Ths
nervy, desperate woman has chloro
formed the miser and robbed hla mat
tress. The real dog is fast reviving
from^ ths affects of the chloroform.
The whole thing has
been nicely
timed, and the burgling pair Just dis
appear over tne wall with their booty
In a black apron llkn that In the cor
ner
there,
when
the
dog, whose
collar has been reattached to the chain
by tho man
whnn ho
was through
with Ills little Impersonation, leaps out
and bark» at the watchman who Is
just arriving on hla rounds. The ani
mal, maddened
on hla
recovery,
lunges nt the watchman and barks so
furiously that the noise brings the
old miser out of his stupor; the d<»g
leaps In the sir and breaks hla chain
an the miser throws up his window to
cry far help
As a grand final« the
dog la shot just before he leaps on
the watchman,
thus giving tangible
proof that ths animal hud been
on
guard all the time and covering up
the renJ
entrance
and exit
of tho
smooth burglars.
Then the curtain
goes down amid great aplauoe."
There was dead silence as Chris
topher Poe finished and stood up, bls
eyes darting
beneath
their
bushy
brows from one to the other of the
Twirley Twins.
I'm afraid you've missed the six
fifty," he «uild In a hesitant tone ‘1
thought you'd l«t me Into the room to
sort
of serve nn alibi If you needed
one I mean In skipping your board
».111 oy »..me other .-rime you may have
committed so I accommodatingly set
my watch back half an hour to cov
er the minutes during which the crime
might have been committed. 1 knew
you would both
be relieved to hear
me announce that
It was only five
thirty."
Neither «poke.
Kuddonly
Mrs.
Twirley
swung
around and demanded:
"Well,
how
the devil did they prove the crime on
>•■■■ taBM in >'-ui precious sket.h',”
"Oh, there wasn’t any crime at all.
The couple reconslderad tbelr action,
decided they could moke more money
on
the stage
with the sketch and
repealing the crim« In acrobatic pan
tomime every night for five or six
years at fifty dollars a night with per
fect security of physical and mental
freedom
Ho In a little third scene In
the sketch
th«y called a moaoengrr
boy and sent him around to the mleer
with two suit cases packed with hla
money. That
pleased
the audience
and-—"
There was a sudden flash of light as
the woman snatched a pointed paper
cutter from the table and sprang for
Poo:
but
her busband caught and
held
her
while
Poe
dexterously
knocked the knife from h<-r hand.
"Listen
to
reason.
Kid!" cried
Twirl, y
"l.lsten'
Ih'o («1 it doped
out
beat! Ixm't
be
a fool!
You
didn't want to do It yourself. It was
just the only thing we could do."
The woman lurched forward in his
arms and clawed
frantjcaly at
tne
sJr. Poe
picked
up
a
magi zine,
turned hla back to them and sat read
ing far ten mlnutea, at the end of
that time the woman. r<-d-faced and
Mood-shot-eyed.
cried
defiantly:
"There's a mesaenger ring down In the
hall. Go ring far a boy yourself, Mr.
Hardy."
"No, thanks. I'd rather not. Besides
there Isn't any eu<-h bell In the hall.
1 looked as I entered,” answered Poe
languidly, not taking his «yea
from
the book.
Mrs. Twirley stared at him as though
he were unreal and threw her hands to
her head In a frenxy, screaming, "How
in hell did you ferret out all this, you—
you weasel P*
‘Tve got a room looking out Into
the
Dubois
court myself,"
smiled
Poe, turning toward her frankly now
that aha had given In.
“It's just
imitation of Alert to entertain the
landlady.
I’ve seen you both exam-
InIng that Ihibols window with the
next door, I've heard Dickie bark In
teloacopa.
1 was mors or less pre
being somewhat of a
pared, and
night-prowler myself, I just happen-
ed around with a skeleton key or
two and gnthered a bit of material
for a—vaudeville sketch.
I can get
you booked either way you Ilka.
At
Billy Byan's Vaudeville agency or the
station house. It's up to you I"
The woman looked sharply from
Poe to her husband and then furtively
at the two suit cases which she bad
left unguarded tn the corner.
"lie's only bluffing, Dickie!” ahe
cried.
"I know It." But It eort of stands
to reason,” Twirley answered.
"I'd
rather get SO a week clean from Billy
llyan than fifty thousand that'd stick
like mud to my fingers every time I
started to spend It.”
"Bully for youl" cried
Christo
pher Poe.
"I’ve got a skeleton plan
of the sketch In my pocket here. Til
back you two far a set of prop« Tour
wife and I will go over the sketch,
Dickla, while you run out and call a
m eManger.
Mrs.
Twirley with a submissive
gulp, burst into a flood of genuine
tears.
"Tea." she said softly. “Go ahead,
Dickie, he's got the real dope."
THE END.
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