The Capitol Hill Weekly News The Oklahoma Fairdealer (Capitol Hill, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 29, 1910 Page: 3 of 8
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THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE
MARY
ROBERTA
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SYNOPSIS.
____ Innes, spinster and gua
Oertrude and Halsey, established
headquarters at Sunnyslde. ’J
<eaert. Gertrude and Halsey
Jack Bailey. The house was awal
§I ‘ and Arnold ■
of
summer
servants
Ive with
volver shot
rive with
ikened by
Irno'"
!i in
revolver »
Bailey had
Arnold Armstrong
und shot to death in the hall. Miss
>«/'a patrnlvor f»n the
on
dlsap-
she was
a revol
was fo
Innes found Halsey's
lawn. He and Jack Bailey hi
poared. Gertrude revealed that she wa
engaged to Jack Bailey, with whom she
talked in the billiard room shortly Lefore
the murder. Detective Jamieson accused
Innes of holding back evidence. He
imprisoned an Intruder In an empty room.
prisoner escaped. Gertrude was sus-
pected because of an Injured foot. Hal-
ppears and says he and Bailey
M
in
•ey reap,_________| ■
were called away by a telegram. Cashier
Bailey of Paul Armstrong’s bank, de-
funct, was arrested for embezzlement.
" ‘ Armstrong’s death was announced,
y's llaneee, Louise Armstrong, told
ey that while she still loved him, she
was td marry another. It developed that
Dr. Walker was the man. Louise was
found at the bottom of the circular stair-
case. Rocovering consciousness, she said
something had brushed by her on the
stairway and she fainted. Bailey is sus-
pected of Armstrong’s murder. After
seeing a ghost,” Thomas, the lodgekeep-
*r, was found dead with a slip in his
pocket bearing the name °f “I.ucien Wal-
lace.” Dr. Walker asked Miss Innes to
vacate In favor df Mrs. Armstrong. She
refused. A note from Bailey to Gertrude
Arranging a meeting at night was found
CHAPTER XXI—Continued.
saw
“Grossmutter,” he said. And I
Mr. Jamieson’s eyebrows go up.
“German,” he commented. “Well,
young man, you don't seem to know
much about yourself."
“I've tried it all the week,” Mrs.
Tate broke In. “The boys knows a
•word or two of German, but he doesn't
know where he lived, or anything
about himself.”
Mr. Jamieson wrote something on a
card and gave it to her.
“Mrs. Tate," he said, "I want you
to do something. Here is some money
for the telephone call. The instant
the boy's mother appears here, call up
that number and ask for the person
whose name is there. You can run
across to the drug store on an errand
and do it quietly. Just say, 'The lady
has come.’ ”
" ‘The lady has come,’ ” repeated
Mrs. Tate. "Very well, sir, and I hope
It will be soon. The milk bill alone
la almost double what It was.”
“How much is the child's board?” I
asked.
"Three dollars a week. Including his
washing.”
“Very well,” I said. “Now, Mrs.
Tate, I am going to pay last week's
board and a week In advance. If the
mother comes she Is to know nothing
of this visit—absolutely not a word,
and. in return for your silence, you
may use this money for—something
for your own children."
Her tired, faded face lighted up, and
I saw her glance at the little Tates’
small feet. Shoes, 1 divined—tho feet
of the genteel poor being almost as ex-
pensive as their stomachs.
As we went back Mr. Jamieson
made only one remark; 1 think he
was laboring under the weight of a
great, disappointment.
"Is King’s a children's outfitting-
place?” he asked.
“Not especially. It is a general de-
partment store.”
He was silent after that, but he
went to the telephone as soon as we
got home, and called up King & Co. in
the city.
After a time he got the general
manager, and they talked for some
time. When Mr. Jamieson hung up
the receiver he turned to me.
“The plot thickens,” he said with
his ready smile. “There are four
women named Wallace at King's, none
of them married, and none over 20! 1
think I shall go up to the city to-night.
I want to go to the Children's hospital.
But before I go, Miss Innes, I wish you
would be more frank with me than
you have been yet. I want you to
show me the revolver you picked up
In the tulip bed."
So he had known all along!
“It was a revolver. Mr. Jamieson," I
admitted, cornered at last, "but I can-
not show it to you. It is not In my
possession.”
coming toward me, and I shrank Into
the bushes. It was Gertrude, going
back quickly toward tke house.
I was surprised. I waited until she
had had time to get almost to the
bouse before I started. And then I
stepped back again into the shadows.
The reason why Gertrude had not
kept her tryst was evident Leaning
on the parapet of the bridge in the
moonlight, and smoking a pipe, was
Alex, the gardener. I could have
throttled Llddy for her carelessness
In reading the tom note where he
could hear. And I could cheerfully
have choked Alex to death for his
audacity.
But there was no help for It; I
turned and followed Gertrude slowly
back to the house.
“The frequent invasions of the house
had effectually prevented any relaxa-
tion after dusk. We had redoubled our
vigilance as to bolts and window-
locks, but. as Mr. Jamieson had sug-
gested, we allowed the door at the
east entry to remain as before, locked
by the Yale lock only. To provide only
one possible entrance for the Invader,
and to keep a constant guard lu the
dark at the foot of the circular stair-
case, seemed to be the only method.
In the absence of the detective,
Alex and Halsey arranged to change
off, Halsey to be on duty from ten to
two, and Alex from two until six.
Each man was armed, and, as an ad-
ditional precaution, the one off duty
slept in a room near the head of the
circular stalroase and kept his doer
open, to be ready for emergency.
These arrangements were carefully
kept from the servants, who were only
commencing to sleep at night, and
who retired, one and all, with barred
doors and lamps that burned full until
morning.
The house was quiet again Wednes-
day night. It was almost a week since
Louise had encountered some one on
the stairs, and it was four days since
the discovery of the hole in the trunk-
room wall. Arnold Armstrong and
his father rested side by side in the
Casanova churchyard, and at the Zion
African church, on the hill, a new
mound marked the last resting-place
of poor Thomas.
Louise was with her mother In
town, and, beyond a polite note of
thanks to me, we had heard nothing
from her. Dr. Walker had taken up
his practice again, and we saw him
now and then flying along the road,
always at top speed. The murder of
Arnold Armstrong was still unavenged,
and I remained firm in the position 1
had taken—to stay at Sunnyslde until
the thing was at least partly cleared.
And yet. for all its quiet, it was on
Wednesday night that perhaps the
boldest attempt was made to enter
the house. On Thursday afternoon
the laundress sent word she would
like to speak to roe, and I saw her in
my private sitting room, a small room
beyond the dressing room.
Mary Anne was embarrassed. She
had rolled down her sleeves and tried
a white apron around her waist, and
she stood making folds in it with fin-
gers that were red and shiny from her
soap-suds.
"Well, Mary,” I said encouragingly,
“what’s the matter? Don't dare to
tell me the soap is nut.”
“No, ma’am, Miss Innes.” She had
a nervous habit of looking first at my
one eye »:id then at the other, her
own optics shifting ceaselessly, right
eye, left eye, right eye, until I found
myself doing the same thing. “No,
ma'am. I was askin' did you want the
ladder left up the clothes chute?”
"The what?" I screeched, and was
sorry the next minute. Seeing her
suspicions were verified, Mary AnD9
had gone white, and stood with her
eyes shifting more wildly than ever.
“There’s a ladder up the clothes
chute, Miss Innes,” she said. “It's
up that tight I can't move It, and I
didn’t like to ask for help until 1 spoke
to you.”
It was useless to dissemble; Mary
Anne knew now as well as I did that
the ladder had no business to be
there. I did the best I could, how-
ever. I put her on the defensive at
once.
"Then you didn't lock the laundry
last night?"
“1 locked it tight, and put the key
in the kitchen on its nail.”
“Very well, then you forgot a win-
dow.”
Mary Anne hesitated.
“Yes'm," she said at last. “I thought
I locked them all. but there was one
open this morning.”
I went out of the room and down
the hall, followed by Mary Anne. The
door into the clothes chute was se-
curely bolted, and when I opened it
I saw the evidence of the woman's
story. A pruning ladder had been
brought from where it had lain
against the stable and now stood up-
right In the clothes shaft, its end rest-
ing against the wall between the first
and second floors.
I turned to Mary.
"This is due to your carelessness,"
I said. “If we had all been murdered
in our beds it would have been your
fault.” She shivered. “Now, not a
word of this through the house, and
send Alex to me."
The effect on Alex was to make him
apoplectic with rage, and with it all I
fancied there was an element of satis-
faction. As I look back, so many
things are plain to me that I wonder
1 could not see at the time. It is all
known now, and yet the whole thing
was so remarkable that perhaps my
stupidity was excusable.
Alex leaned down the chute and ex
amined the ladder carefully.
"It Is caught," he said with a grim
smile. "The fools, to have left a
warning like that! The only trouble
is, Miss Innes, they won’t be apt to
come back for a while.”
"I shouldn't regard that In the light
of a calamity,” I replied.
Until late that evening Halsey and
Alex worked at the chute. They
forced down the ladder at last, aud
put a new bolt on the door. As for
myself, 1 sat and wondered If I had
a deadly enemy, Intent on my destruc-
tion. 4 -
I was growing more and more nerv-
ous. Liddy had given up all pretense
at bravery, and slept regularly In my
dressing room on the couch, with a
prayer-book'and a game knife from
the kitchen under her pillow, thus pre-
paring for both the natural and the
supernatural. That was the way
things stood that Thursday night,
when I myself took a hand In the
struggle.
CHAPTER XXII.
A Ladder Out of Place.
At dinner Mr. Jamieson suggested
sending a man out In his place for a
couple of days, but Halsey was cer-
tain there would be nothing more,
end felt that he and Alex could man-
age the situation. The detective went
back to town early In the evening, and
by nine o’clock Halsey, who had been
playing golf—as a man does anything
to take his mind away from trouble—
was sleeping soundly on the big leath-
er davenport in the living room.
I sat and knitted, pretending not to
notice when Gertrude got up and wan-
dered out Into the starlight. As soon
as I was satisfied that she had gone,
however, I went out cautiously. 1 had
no intention of eaves dropping, but I
wanted to be certain that it was Jack
Bailey she was meeting. Too many
things had occurred In which Ger-
trude was, or appeared to be, involved,
to allow anything to be left in ques-
tion.
I went slowly across tho lawn, skir-
ed the hedge to a break not far from
the lodge, and found myself on the
open road. Perhaps 100 feet to the
left the path led across the valley to
tho Country club, and only a little
way oft was the foot-bridge over Cas-
anova creek. But just as I was about
to turn down the path I heard steps
CHAPTER XXIII.
While the Stables Burned.
About nine o’clock that night Llddy
came Into the living room and re-
ported that one of the housemaids de-
clared she had seen two men slip
around the corner of the stable. Ger-
trude had been sitting staring in front
of her, jumping at every sound. Now
she turned on Liddy pettishly.
“I declare, Liddy,” she said, “you
are a bundle of nerves. What if Eliza
did see some men around the stable?
It may have been Warner and Alex."
"Warner . In the kitchen, miss,”
Liddy said with dignity. “And if you
had come through what I have, you
would be a bundle of nerves, too. Miss
Rachel, I’d be thankful If you’d give
me my month's wages to-morrow. I'll
be going to my sister’s."
“Very well," I said, to her evident
amazement “I will make out the
check. Warner can take you down to ]
the noon train.”
Liddy’s face was really funny.
"You'll have a nice time at your |
sister's,” I went on. “Five children,
hasn't she?"
"That’s It," Llddy Bald, suddenly
bursting Into tears. "Send me away, j
after all these years, and your new
shawl only half done, and nobody
knowln' how to fix the water for your ]
bath."
"It's time I learned to prepare my
own bath." I was knitting compla-
cently. But Gertrude got up and put j
her arms around Liddy's shaking
shoulders.
"You are two big babies," she said
soothingly. “Neither one of you could
get along fov an hour without the oth-
er. So stop quarreling and be good.
Llddy, go right up and lay out aunty’s
night things. She is going to bed
early.”
After Liddy had gone I began to
think about the men at the stable, and
I grew more and more anxious. Hal-
sey was aimlessly knocking the bil-
liard balls around in the billiard room,
and 1 called to him.
"Halsey," I said when he sauntered
In, “is there a policeman In Casa-
nova?”
“Constable," he said laconically,
"veteran of the war, one arm; In of-
fice to conciliate the G. A. R. element
Why?” i
“Because I am uneasy tonight.”
And 1 told hitp what Llddy had said.
"Is there any one you %an think of
who could be relied on to watch the
outside of the house to-night?”
"We might get Sam Bohannon from
the club,” he said thoughtfully. "It
wouldn’t be a bad scheme. He’s a
smart darky, and with his mouth shut
and his shirt-front covered, you could-
n't see him a yard oft in the dark.”
Halsey conferred with Alex, and
the result, in an hour, was Sam. His
instructions were simple. There had
been numerous attempts to break into
the house; it was the intention, not
to drive intruders away, but to cap-
ture them. If Sam saw anything sus-
picious outside, he was to tap at the
east entry, where Alex and Halsey
were to alternate la keeping watch
through the night.
As before, Halsey watched the east
entry from ten until two. He had an
eye to comfort, and he kept vigil in a
heavy oak chair, very large and deep.
We went upstairs rather early, and
through the open door Gertrude and I
kept up a running fire of conversation.
Liddy was brushing my hair, and Ger-
trude was doing her own, with a long
free sweep of her strong, round arms.
“Did you know Mrs. Armstrong and
Louise are in the village?" she called
“No,” I replied, startled. “How did
you hear it?"
"I met the oldest Stewart girl to-
day, the doctor's daughter, and she
told me they had not gone back to
town after the funeral. They went di-
rectly to that little yellow house next
to Dr. Walker's, and are apparently
settled there. They took the house
furnished for the summer.”
“Why, it's a bandbox," I said. “I
can’t imagine Fanny Armstrong In
such a place.”
"It’s true, nevertheless. Ella Stew-
art says Mrs. Armstrong has agi ! ter-
ribly, and looks as if she is hardly
able to walk."
I lay and thought over some of
these things until midnight. The elec-
tric lights went out then, fading slow-
ly until there was only a red-hot loop
to be seen in the bulbs, and then even
that died away and wo were embarked
on the darkness of another night
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
Condemns Sunshine Fad.
A well-known medical man con
demns emphatically the form of vani-
ty that leads people on their holidays
to do their utmost to get sunburned.
''Workers In city offices," he says,
“who go Into the country or to the
seashore for only one or two weeks
will deliberately sit about hatiess In
the blazing sun, so that they may
come back looking brown and healthy.
As often as not this practice will send
them home far less fit for work than
they were when the y started, for
even If one escapes sunstroke the ef-
fectp of the sun's rays upon the un-
covered head are very bad. They
will cause dizziness, headache, nausea
. "1 loss of appetltq and will often up-
set the digestive system for many
days. There ate ways of avoiding the
more serious effects of the sun, but
personally I would advise the city
dweller who must have a brown face
to stain it with walnut Juice and wear
a broad-brimmed hat like a sane and
sensible individual.”
Schwarze System of
Barber Colleges
Srhwartze System of Barber Col-
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of its branches. Extra good Instruc-
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In quality and largest outfit of Tools
given by any School.
Write
branch;
for Catalogue to either
Oklahoma City, Okla., Wichita, Kana-
Amarillo Texas, El, Paso, Tex., Spring-
field, Mo.
ENGINEERS
FOUNDERS
MACHINISTS
All typo and aiits
of power machinery
Machinery and »up-
plies of every de-
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MACHINE & IRON WORKS
18-36 East Main St
OKLAHOMA CITY
WE PRIINT:
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WINDOW CARDS
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121 1-2 Weit Mila
Oklahoma emr
Marv Anne Had F V</hi(e.
Making Him Go.
“1 don't think 1 shall go to the
poker party to-night."
"That's one of the truest thinks you
have done for quite awhile."
“Jinx owes me $5 which he was to
pay me at the party to-night, and
which 1 had decided to give to you to
go shopping with, but I am really too
tired to go out; guess I'll let It go this
time.”
"That Is Just like you! If It was
anything you wanted to do you would
go in a minute, but when It is some-
thing for your wife yop are too tired!
You will go to that poker party to
night or you will hear from met"
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painted china, sterling and plated silverware.
Special attedtion given to watch and jewelry repair-
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Boasen Brothers
JEWELERS
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£} I 33 Weat Main Street ... Oklahoma City, Okla <>
© til
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The Capitol Hill Weekly News The Oklahoma Fairdealer (Capitol Hill, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 29, 1910, newspaper, December 29, 1910; Capitol Hill, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc936510/m1/3/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.