The Circular Staircase

held on Tuesday, and the interment of the body was to be deferred until the Armstrongs arrived from California. No one, I think, was very sorry that Arnold Armstrong was dead, but the manner

go into town to pay their last respects to the dea

nothing of what happened. He looked grave and anxious, and h

e to have any secrets from an old servant-I was not in a pleasant humor myself. Warner brought up the afternoon mail and the evening papers at seven-I was curious to know what the papers said of the murder. We had

was what I read, and then I put down

of this?" I

But not so soo

u?" to

ertrude said faintly. "Oh,

ou helped him, both of you, to get away! You get that from your mother; it isn't an

o speak, but Hal

ude," he said quietly;

crumpled the newspaper into a ball and flung it to the floor. While Halsey, looking stricken and white, wa

ere, but just now I can re

s. Mr. Trautman went to the loan clerk and, after certain formalities had been gone through, the loan clerk went to the vault. Mr. Trautman, who was a large and genial German, waited for a time, whistling under his breath. The loan clerk did not come back. After an interval, Mr. Trautman saw the loan clerk emerge from the vault and go to the assist

y minutes he had called up three different members of the Traders' Board of Directors. At three-thirty there was a hastily convened board meeting, with

and might not be at the bank for a day or two. As Bailey was highly thought of, Mr. Aronson merely expressed a regret. From that time until Monday night, when Mr. Bailey had surrendered to the police, little was known of his movements. Some time after one on Saturday he

from the cashier, and on the poor policy of a government that arranges a three or four-day examination twice a year. The mystery, it insinuated, had not been cleared by the arrest of the cashier. Before now minor officials had been used to cloak the misdeeds of men higher up. Inseparable as the words "speculation" and "peculation" have grown to be, John Bailey was not known to be in the st

been murdered two days before. I sat dazed and bewildered. The children's money was gone: that was bad enough, though I had plenty, if they would let me share. But Gertrude's grief was beyond any power of mine to

d at last and stared ac

. "Couldn't you stop him, Hals

the windows of the breakfast-room,

night, he was frantic. I can not talk until Jack tells me I may, but-he is absolutely innocent of all this, believe me. I thou

nt man would run away from here at three o'clock in the morning? D

en just!" she flamed. "You don't know

ll believe Mr. Bailey innocent the moment he is shown to be. You pro

d over and p

iley hasn't a penny that doesn't belong to him

" I said grimly. "In the meantime, I tak

turned suddenly. "But when the bonds are offered fo

d with a sup

by some one who had access to it, and used as collateral for a loan in anothe

ca

ca

ho did it-he w

ve he has a million at least, as the result, and that he will never come back. I'm worse than a pauper now

d to the telephone, I ceased all pretense at eating. When he came back from the telephone his face show

vely. "He died this morning in California.

e turne

have cleared Jack can never

ing himself. When your Jack comes to me, with some two hundred thousand dollars

cigarette away

n the money, of course. If he is innocent, he probably hasn't a te

versation, had flushed an indignant red. She got up and drew herself to her

given my mother, had she lived-my love, my trust. And now, when I need you most, you fail

ropped beside the table and, burying her f

that was totally unlike her. "Oh, I never though

y, and there was something aloof in her grief, something new and strange. At last, when her sorrow had

I was on my knees beside her, her arm a

was soon herself again. The little storm had cleared the air. Nevertheless, my opinion remained unchanged. There was much to be