THE DESERT MOON
MYSTERY
BY KAY CLEAVER STRAHAN
28
‘Well,” I said, "that means
Shat I've got about half an
hour to disguise a family meal
as a company dinner—”
"Don’t bother,” she inter
rupted “They won’t be here
for luncheon—dinner. I need
to see them only about ten !
minutes ”
I didn’t bother—answering.
If she didn’t know any more
about the ways of the people j
In this country than that, I
didn't see why I should take ;
St on myself to teach her.
But she was right. She j
talked to them a few minutes;
and, though I insisted that
they slay for dinner, off they
went, tt was an insult to the
Desert Moon Ranch. Every- :
one on the place, but Miss
MacDonald, knew It. Two
weeks before. If a couple of
friends had left the ranch at
eleven-thirty in the morning,
willi no reasonable excuse for
so doing, Sam would have
blowa up and burst with rage.
That noon he was not even
decently indignantly interest
ed.
He had plenty of interest,
though, concerning the find
ing of the attic key. He had
had it all settled, and was
satisfied that, since it had
been proven that Gaby had
been killed on the stairway, it
aise had been proven that no
member of the household
could have been implicated.
Now this second key coming
to light, the key that must
have been put over back of
2he wood before the fire was
lighted that night, and that
must have been blackened in
that one fire, because there
had been no fire in that fire
pluce since, dragged, to quote
Sam. not wishing to use such
words on my own hook, “Every
damn one of us badk into the
damn mess again.
“Sam,” I said, and I guess
my only excuse is that I was
still angry at having my
honest word doubted, “do you
know what I think? I think
that Miss MacDonald—though
land knows she is a nice girl,
and a living wonder as help
In the kitchen and around the
house—is going to be a flat
fizzle from start to finish
when it comes to discovering
the murderer.”
‘That’s kind of the way I
got it sized up, too,” Sam said.
“But U she’s good help to you,
•he’s worth a lot more than
her expenses.”
“It isn’t the cost of her," I
•aid. “I’m afraid she is going
to d* a lot of harm around
here.”
“Good-night, Mary!” he
•aid. ‘If anyone can do any
more harm around here than
has been done already—why,
leave ’em do it.”
“Ngt much with ycur ‘leave
Vmi do its,' I said. “My idea
Is that we’ve had about enough
trouble. What I’m getting at is
this, Sam; I think that fool
girl, at present, is suspecting
you more than any other one
of us.”
“That’s the v;ay I had that
sized up, too,” he said “But
let her go ahead. If she can
prove I’m guilty, I'm willing
to hang for it.”
“Don’t be a fool, Sam,” I
snapped. “Did you ever hap
pen to hear of circumstantial
evidence ?”
•You bet. But they can’t
bang more than one innocent
person on circumstantial evi
dence, and there’s enough of
that stuff around here now to
hang about five or six of us.
Til take my chances with the
jest of you, Mary.”
“Lands, Sam,” I was taken
•back, “do you think she sus
pects me?”
Something pretty close to
the old twinkle came into
Sam’s eyes. “Well. Mary, Gaby
was one extra to do for and
•he came late to meals and
pestered you quite a lot.
Furthermore, though it hasn’t
been made a point of, you
were all alone In the kitchen
for the hour between five and
six o’clock. You might have
slipped up and have done the
deed between the time you
put the meat on and took the
biscuits out.”
I knew that he thought he
was being funny; but I didn’t
like it. “see here, Sam,” I be
gan, “Danny was going back
and forth all the time—”
“ ‘Now then,’ ” Sam inter
rupted, mocking Miss Mac
Donald. “Did Miss Canneziano
have any particular reason for
watching you? No. I see. Then
I am afraid, she can not be
positive that you were not
out of the kitchen. Twenty
minutes often seem like two
hours and sixteen minutes—
“I’ll tell you what, Mary,”
Sam got sudenly serious. “I’m
going to wait a few more days,
and then if this lady isn’t pro
gressing a deal faster than
she is a present, I’m going to
pay her off, full amount, of
course, and wire to ’Frisco for
a plain, ordinary, he-man de
tective to come up here and
take hold of things. By the
way,” he went on, ‘does it
seem to you that Danny and
Canneziano are getting along
all right?”
“I judge it isn’t a case of
their getting along, much,” I
said. “So far as I know, she
hasn’t spoken a word to him
since she greeted him the
evening she came home.”
“Well,” he hesitated, “Well
—I know a mite further than
had it all settled , and was
that isn’t dinner time— may
uc.
He went into the dining
room, and I followed him.
All during the dinner, and
the same had been true of
every meal since the first
breakfast I’ve mentioned,
John hardly took his eyes off
of Miss MacDonald. I made a
way to speak to him about it,
alone, right after dinner.
"John,” I said "For Mercy’s
sake, what do you want to sit
and stare at Miss MacDonald
for, during meals, like she
was the place where you had
lost something?”
He blushed. "Gosh, Mary!
I haven’t been doing that,
have I?”
"You certainly have. It
doesn’t look nice, John. Why
do you do it?”
"I didn’t know that I did.
But, on the square, did you
ever see anything as pretty—
I mean, as clean and —well,
kind of comforting looking?
She changes so, too; like a
diamond, or a desert, or a
sunrise, or—something. Did
you ever see anyone as in
teresting to look at, Mary?"
"Never mind asking me,” I
said. "Just you go and ask
Danny some of those ques
tions.”
"Danny,” he answered, "is
—well, Danny is Danny, of
course. She’s different.”
"Better take to watching
| how different she is,” I ad
vised, and left him to think
it over, and went into the
living-room.
Canneziano was loafing
around in there. "Mary," he
said. “I’ll make a dicker with
you.”
CHAPTER XLVI
A Dicker
Not with me,” I said, and
started up the stairs.
Curiosity like mine is a
curse. I’d gone about four
steps up when it caught me.
"What’s your old dicker?” I
said.
"If you’ll persuade Sam to
give me the ten thousand for
producing the murderer, I’ll
split it with you.”
I am tired of apologizing for
myself. I will state, merely,
that I managed to say the one
> thing, under those circum
stances, that I should not have
said. Do you know who the
murderer is?” Thereby prov
ing that I was possessed of
about as much diplomacy as
an alarm clock.
“Certainly not,” he an- '
swered. He had not hesitated; j
he had looked straight into
my eyes. But I knew that he
believed that he had lied.
“See here,” I said. “I take it
that one five thousand dollars
is as good to you as another. 1
If you know who committed
the murder, and will produce
him, I’ll give you the five
thousand dollars myself."
“Don’t say that, Mary,” Dan
ny stepped out from behind
the long curtains at the end
of the south windows.
Cannezlano jumped like a
spurred bronco. “Spying, eh,
my lady?”
She spoke directly to me.
“Listen, Mary; don’t ever, for
any reason, enter into any
sort of an agreement with this
man. If he knows, or thinks
that he knows, who the mur
derer is, he can be forced to
tell without a bribe. If he had
known for one day, one hour, i
and had witheld the informa
tion, he is, in effect an ac
complice—there is a legal
term for it, but I have for
gotten it. I am going out, now,
to find Uncle Sam, and bring
him here and tell him that
this man says that he knows
who committed the murder.
Mary, you telephone to the
sheriff in Telko—”
“Just a moment, please,”
Cannezlano spoke smoothly
and smilingly. “I have said,
definitely, that I do not know
who killed the Gaby. And—I
do not know. I am bored, un
speakably bored. I should like
to try my hand at detecting
this—er, villian. But,” he
shrugged his narrow shoul
ders, “with no impetus—”
“The fact that she was your
own daughter—” I began,
notiy.
“Don’t, Mary,” Danny Inter
rupted, with a sigh. “There is
no use. You and he do not
speak the same language.”
“How is thla?” Canneziano
said, and went on speaking,
very rapidly, in some foreign
language.
Danny stood and stared at
him without a mite of ex
pression on her face. He
paused for breath. She said,
“I have forgotten my Italian.
I do not understand you, and
I am glad that I do not. Come,
Mary, shall we go upstairs?”
In the upper hall she said
that she wanted me to go
with her to Miss MacDonald,
because she wanted to tell Miss
MacDonald what had just
happened.
We knocked on her dor. She
greeted us pleasantly enough,
but there was a pucker be
tween her eyebrows.
“You have asked us,” Danny
began at once, “to tell you
nothing about the case. Does
that mean that you do not
wish to have us tell you of day
by day developments, which
seem to have a direct bearing
on the case?”
“As, for instance?” Miss
MacDonald questioned.
Danny told her about what
I had happened, from the tlrua
she had stepped behind the
curtains, until she and I had
come upstairs together.
Miss MacDonald’s first ques
tion was, “Why were you
watching him?”
“Because,” Danny answered,
straight, “I think he came
here with some evil purpose. I
should like to find out what
that purpose is.”
“Why were you so eager to
prevent Mrs. Magin’s making
a pact with him?”
“Miss MacDonald, a woman
who has dealt with criminals,
as you must have, should not
need to ask that question.”
“But,” Miss MacDonald per
sisted. “you have not dealt
with criminals.”
“I have dealt with this man.
I know that he is bad and
crafty. For five thousand dol
lars he would perjure himself
ewer and over again. He would
produce witnesses who would
perjur themselves. You know
the ways of criminals better
than I do, Miss MacDonald. I
know, as Uncle Sam knows,
that it is unsafe to deal with
them.”
“Has this man approached
you with offers similar to this
one, Miss Canneziano?”
"He ha* had no opportunl*
ty.”
“You are sure of that?”
Danny's chin went up a
trifle. “I don’t understand.”
"I think you do.”
Danny turned to me
“Mary,” she said, “yesterday
afternoon that man came tc
my room when I was alone
He slipped in, closed my door
and locked it. I ran into Gaby’s
room, but I could not get oul
of it because the doors were
locked. I went into Gaby’s
bathroom and locked mysell
in. I stayed there for half an
hour, or longer, urftil he left
Miss MacDonald evidently
thinks that he and I were ir,
conversation during that time
I have no proof that we
weren’t. Do you believe me
Mary?”
“I do, with all my heart,” 1
said.
Miss MacDonald persisted.
“You told no one about this?”
“I did not dare to tell. It
John thought that that man
—” She stopped short.
“Yes?” questioned Miss Mac
Donald.
“I mean that John would
fight with him; would whip
him within an inch of his
life.”
“Why should you care?”
Danny looked at me.
“She’d care, I said, answer
Ing the appeal in her big, hurt
eyes, “because she is a woman,
Miss MacDonald. It may be
hard for you to understand;
but women, who aren’t crime
analysts, don’t want theii
men fighting.”
“Thank you. Mary,” Danny
said, and walked hurriedly oul
of the room.
CHAPTER XLVII
/in mu
“Mrs. Magin,” Miss Mac
Donald began, right off, the
minute the door had closed
behind Danny, “I want to ask
you to help me with this case.”
“I couldn’t be any help to
you,” I said. I guess I was
rather tart about it.
“Why not?”
“One reason is,” I said, “that
anybody who doesn’t know any
better than to suspicion Dan
ny, in this affair, would need
a lot more help, to get any
where, than I could give
them.”
“My only suspicion concern
ing Miss Canneziano,” she
answered, “is that she knows
more than she is willing to
tell. I may be wrong about
that. Have you any other
reason for refusing to help
me?”
“Only that you don’t believe
a word that I say. If you would
consider that I am, anyway,
trying to be honest and if
you’d do the same with the
others, until you are sure that
you have reason to do other
wise, I’d consider it an honor
to help you, and I’d thank you
kindly.”
“I am afraid that I don’t
entirely understand.”
“Crime and wickedness,” 1
told her, “aren’t the general
rules of the world. If they
were, all the good people would
have to be locked up, for
safety’s sake, while the crim
inals ran loose for lack ol
space to confine them. Why,
instead of doubting my simple
word, this morning, when 1
told you how Sam always
lighted a fire, for any excuse,
couldn’t you have believed
that I was telling the . truth,
and that whoever put the key
in there knew that Sam would
light the fire, and so throw
suspicion on himself?”
“That is possible,” she ad
mitted. “But the key, there,
leads me to suppose that
whoever put it there, to hide
it, would be too stupid for
much subtle reasoning. Keys,
you know don’t burn.”
“They don’t,” I agreed. “But
we never take the ashes out
of the fireplace as you did this
morning. We open the ash
dump and shoot them down
into a barrel in the basement.
Every few months the ashes
are emptied in starvation
field, eight miles or more away
from here. Not a bad way to
get the key off the place, if
that was what he wanted. Not
a bad way, either, to throw
more suspicion on Sam, if the
key was found.”
<TO BE ICONTINUED)
KuUt liaom Rather Wild.
Prom Baltimore Sun.
Ruth Hanna McCormick has a
good deal of her fathers boldness
hut lacks much of his Judgment. If
Mark Hanna had ever started out
to trail a political enemy he would
have kept his hand more carefully
hidden than Mrs. McCormick has
ton*. And he would have employed
a more dependable set of sleuths.
What must be thaught of the
iridii of detectives who follow a sen
ator to get something on him and
stake a mystery of his traveling
with “another man and two blond
women,- without ever having taken
tot trouble to recognize the sena
tor’s wife? The blonds were Mrs.
Nye and the wife of an assistant
attorney general, who was the other
man in the case. And having
• mash” notes sent the senator with
the alleged purpose of entrapping
him into what is called ‘‘a compro
mising position” seems to be rather
crude stuff.
The seizure of the detective agen
cy's telegrams throws further light
on the Hawkshaw business. They
bristle with such mysterious mes
sages as “Want both parties cov
ered throughly. If either leaves
town wire registration and car
number with description.” “Third
subject is here. Keep other two cov
ered." “Both parties making move |
to leave." “Direct information that ;
subject will lea*/e Canada." But
with all this secrecy as to who was
being shadowed and the conceal
! ment of names, one of the sleuths
wires: “Dill here. Nye, Dade, Mose;,
Patterson. Wagner not registered.
1 Wire instructions."
Tt was thrilling business, but
there will be interest in ascertain
ing whether Mrs. McCormick got
j her money’s worth. To be disclosed
as stealthily pursuing a committee
I of the senate for months, apparent -
I ly in hopes of “getting the goods"
I on iis members, and to wind up
with a water haul, is calculated to
distract considerably from her rep
utation as a “wonderful woman.”
GOOD HOG FEED
Hogs fed wheat are said to gain
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The Test.
From Tit-Bits.
••What's the difference between
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“I don’t know.” he replied
“I thought so,” she said.' Shall
we sit down?"
For
TEETHING
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Habit* Hard to Break
Blinks—How do you like your new
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Jinks—It will be all right after l
can break myself of the habit or
going out there every night just be
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—Cincinnati Enquirer.
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imimminmfflnniiniiiiiimimTranranniiminiilinniinitiiiitinifniiaLiilirininiiiir.HniiDrimm
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LYDIA ORLOSKI
j 425 So. W»»hington Ave„ Scranton, Pa.
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I
