Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1910 — The Quest of Betty Lancey [ARTICLE]

The Quest of Betty Lancey

B y MAGDA F. WEST

CHAPTER Vl. (Continued.) "That’s what I’m trying to do,” replied Johnny. "I’m attempting to And out how that man got In. Here it is. See?” His Anger had touched the spring, .* or the baseboard, whieh was.-ftt least two feet high, suddenly spilt and swung discordantly bac)c, revealing a square hole and a clumsily constructed panel opening directly ints» the house next door! This building was lower than the Desterle home, -for while the hole in the baseboard ran from the floor in the Desterle house, it was merely eighteen inches or less belofo the Ceiling of the room into which the excited..group was gazing. Well fur-1 nished, lined with books, and illuminated by a green shaded reading lamp on a low table, the room apparently served as a library. Portraits of highchokered, " uncomfortable - looking statesmen Ailed the nlches--between the book cases, and on the Aoor beneath the trap door rested a bronze plaque, very significantly the size of the trapdoor. “What do you know about that?” asked Johnny, narrating the appearance and disappearance of the stranger. , Because he was the smallest of them all, Johnny was delegated, to creep through, the bole and Investigate tbs' adjoining house. The others divided into relays and began another branch of the disquisition. "Say, Farley, go telephone my paper about this, will you?” begged Johnny in a whisper. “They’re long on extras up there, you know, and they might want to get one out on this. Honest, boys, I can’t say I much in for making this twelve-foot desperado dive for life before bt, but I guess it’s so long. Put the panel back; 1 thipk you’d better,” and he swung down through the trapdoor. Meanwhile the Arst relay went outside to recormoiter. ' The block was a crowded one with the houses standing shoulder to shoulder, as closely ha masons might put them. Midway in the block the name of the street changed from Ramikln terrace to Briarsweet pfarce. The Desterle house was 86 Ramikln terrgce, and the house into which Johnny had disappeared war' 84 Brlarsweet place. Twenty years previous the street had been a fashionable thoroughfare, but it had gradually become relegated to the second best, with respectable boardlng v houses of the variety usually catalogued as “shabby genteel." Some of the did houses had been remodeled into Aats, and in only a few were the _owners now residing. Of these the major pa?f were those sentimental women who, long after their families are married and gone away, still cling to the old home that welcomed them in their days of bridal joys and happy youth, or of the conservative set now pushed dut jOt the lead of the procession "of fasht ionable society by the influx of the newer and faster ideas of life and living.

Such a family had long tenanted 94 Brlarsweet place. The owner, Mark -S. Flanders, was one of the few oldstyle lawyers who are fortunate to Tiave husbanded their acquired competence before the lean years of age and Oslerlzatlon have descended upon them. One of the flrst settlers In the town, the Flanders residence had at one time been the admiration and the eyewtdener of the country over, but of late, and especially since the death of Flanders’ wife, both the old mansion And the old lawyer had been reckoned among the hopeless by the ultra-smart set. , Flanders had always borne a reputation for the highest Integrity and greatest personal honor. He had even managed to keep his record while serving his city two terms as Mayor. That the bricks and stone of the supposedly well-bred Flanders mansion should have opened up surreptitious entrances to the plebeian boarding house next door seemed incredible, especially in connection with a murder. Liberal usages of telephones and directories elicited the Information that Flanders had sailed quietly and unheralded for Europe a week previously. •Gorin got Dunwlddy, Flanders’ partner, on the wire and asked him about It. Dunwlddy was out of sorts at the call. The clock showed 4,:30 a: m. and Dunwlddy was in the most delectable division of his early morning snooze. "Yes, yes,” he shouted over the telephone, “tjils is Thomas Dunwlddy, Flanders' partner. Who are you and what do you want at this disgraceful hour of the morning? An Associated man? Well, you’ve got impudence to get a min up at this hour of the morning! Flanders tnay be implicated Ih the Wayne murder? Nonsense! Where is Flanders? Minding his own business, where you ought to he. I don’t know anythtng about him. Me sailed for Europe the 15th and I hope he’s there by now. A panel cut ‘through between the closet and his house?' Dear me, that is unfortunate. Come to recall It now, Mr. Flanders let his house for the season just before he left. I did not see the tenant, but have the leases on file. I think the man's name Is Hamley Hackleye, and I don’t know anything about him except that he hrar Englishman wmrtas; Hvedbhr the tropics. Now, my dear sir, I beg of you to keep the Flanders name out of any affiliatiQftsiito this unfortunate affair, if you possibly can. You understand me, of CQunse- Yes. I ‘ suppose you may see the le&Sbs, but you must be cpreful wbat moves you make. International complications, you know, and all that Good-by.” , *■ ' • -v i*, ■■ • -»•• ~ i - v ' - * a v.. v

Goirin whistled as he hung up tjie receiver, and repeated over and over agaih the name “Hamley Hackleye.” “I|umph,” he said, and dropped another nickel in the telephone slot, as he gave the call, to direct his office to cable London and And out if they could discover anything about Mr. Hackleye. A very careful external examination of the premises at 94 Brlarsweet Place was made. Thejre was a small back yard, grass laid, and neat and digriiAed, with a few tulips a-bloom along the path that led to the primly latticed back gate. The shades all over the house were closely drawn and there was no indication of Johnny nor any any other sign of life any place at all about. A quart of milk and a small bottle of cream had been left on the back steps, and a morning paper blown by the wind rotated between the porch and the back walk. "Uxtry, Uxtry,” shrieked a newsboy on the sidewalk. There was the scrape of opening windows^ along the street from adjacent houses and many a-tou-sled head aqd nightrobed Agure cautiously shielding its deflciencies of costumes by .deftly balanced window shades and draperies bid in the smelly sheets as the gamin added his thrilling climax. “All about the escape of the dreadful monster, the man-aperilla, from Its cage in the park.” Gorin leaped the fence and made for the lad. The extra was principally a matter of headlines glaring and' Inksmutted, chronicling,the escape of the unknown beast, appended to the news stories that had gone through the earlier editions. “Whew!” whistled Gorin, “this looks pretty bad! Nice men, I must say.”

CHAPTER VII. Frankel and Sothern went down the hall from Betty Lancey’s room after the clerk and his companion, who was so excitedly seeking the papers that had blown out of the window and a couple of bell boys. go right down through the bar, it’s the quickest,” they overheard the clerk say as .the couple passed to await the elevator. The two newspaper men ran down to the next- floor, caught the car at the second landing end rode to the first floor with the clerk and his plainly excited companion. I The bar was closed and while one clerk procured the keys for entrance Frankel' covertly watched' the man, and Sothern nonchalantly strolled over to the clerk behind the desk.

“Who Is. that man?” he queried. “I don’t mean the little Jew, but the dark, handsome fellow there? He has such a'beautiful wife, looks like a woman I knew In Paris once.” , "So?” asked the clerk. ’They have been here At frequent Internals this last year or two. Don’t know much about them, except that his name ip Harcourt—Harold Harcourt—and they always register from India. They’ve got cash to burn.” “What’s the matter with him now?” questioned Sothern. The clerk laughed. , "Oh, I don’t know,” he answered. “He came bustling down here awhile ago shouting about some documents that had blown vput of his window and lit on the lire escape opposite. He wanted somebody to go up and help him get out on the fire escape. Tore around as If he was afire.” ”Hfe*«9vAß crazy, too,” Supplemented one of the bell boys. “Old lady in E 22 where he went to get out of the window wouldn’t unlock the door to lei us at the. fire escape. Don’t blame her, but her hubby made her come to the scratch and-let us in, and she was the tlckledest when the papers were gone. They’s going down In the court now, to hunt them up.” - * Frankel by now had joined the clerk at the door of the bar and was enjoying that functionary’s attempts to make the key yield in the lock. “What’s on?” he asked, carelessly, “a riot or a raid?”

“Nothing-at all, sir, private business, private business only,” Interrupted Harcourt, with the air of giving Frankel his conge. ~ \ Frankel. however, refused to accept such a gratuity and followed the two men. and thb several bell boys, one with a pocket light, and the others with various boxeq of matches through the darkened barroom. The, glasses and mirrors and decanters gleamed dully in the half-light and the tiled floors were slippery with recent scrubbing. The door that opened upon the court was heavily chained, barred and bolted, but it, swung wide at last and Harcourt clutching the pocket light from the grasp of Its bearer flared It Into every corner and crevice of the clean cemented rectangle. “Nothing here, sir, notlflng here,” commented the clerk. "What Was the nature of tog papers, if you please?” Hhrcourrs face was livid. He rumpled his thick hair nervously with his long white fingers, oblivious of all his surroundings. At the third repetition of the Interrogation he rouSed from his stupor and remarked:. “A picture of my wife, a very valuably hand-made print, one I prize for Ittgaasoclatlons as much as for lfa intrinsic vrorth, and gome extreme jplgiportant passports. I would not have lost for half a-mlllion dollars.” The belf boys poked around In a desultory fashion Into Imaginary crevicye that did not exist. The clerk led thy way back to ftab‘office and Harcourt absently met the claims of the buttons upon bis pockets. “Excuse me, Mr. Harcourt." said a

flßlt his elbow, "brit I guess yarn'd better hurry back upstairs ,o your w|fe. She Just sent a call down that strange young woman had .run in there and said she was sick, arid that wa’d better send someone up to take care of her.”' . Harcourt thanked the boy and made for the elevator with all speed. Sothern and Frankel instinctively flashed to each other with their eyes the one word: . “Betty!” “Think I’ll go up and see If Betty needs any help,” suggested Sothem; “you’d better stay down here, Frankel, and see what you can skirmish up." Sothern made his way back to the "E” floor cautiously. He went to Bet- ’ ty’s room and knocked on the door. It flew quietly ajar and- h 6 was greeted With a chorus of: “What’d you get, Betty?” V’Tisn’t Betty,” grinned Sothern; "isn’t she here?” "No, haven’t seen anything of her since you left but her shoes, that she’s kicked off there,” said Hank Smith. “She must-have found a vein," added Larry Morris, - —— --V ----- - —."Moat likely a vein found her,” added Sothern, narrating the experiences of below stairs. “Let’s walk around that way and see.” At the bend in the corridor Larry's feet entangled themselves in something soft. He stooped and picked it up, and girigeriy spread it out to the light.. It a woman’s shirtwaist of white linen with a-little blue stripe, and the monogram "B. L.” heavily embroidered on the sleeve. “Betty Laneey’s waist,” cried Sothern. “Where is IJetty?” “I’m going to And out,” retorted Larry. Together they all strode in to Harcourt’s door. It was open and from within sounded the angered tones of a woman’s deeidedly nasal voice, "Are you sure you wasn’t dreaming?” came the words, “what could have become of the girl? If she was here, how did she get away so quick? Espe-f daily if she was sick!”

“She wasn’t sick,” replied Harcourt. “She must have! been a thief, trying to impose on my wife’s confidence. Weil, as she’s gone now, my good woman, you can go, too. There’s nothing here for you to do.” “No,” burst in Larry, whose worry over Betty whs noitf at fever heat, “but there’s something here for you to do. That’girl is a friend of mine, and if there’s any harm come to her, you’ll suffer for it. Here is her shirtwaist—it’s been torn off her body—do you see that—and where’s she? Look.at that blood! She started but half an hefur ago to come over here and speak to your wife, and she hasn’t been seen since, but we find this garment of hers, blood-stained and kicked Into the corner at the foot of the corridor. What Have you done with its wearer?” Mrs. Harcourt, still in the silker negligee and the diamonds, flung het hands wearily behind her head* bent like an overweighte3 reed, and phased beyond into her dressing room. “This Is an outrage, an outrage,” stormed Harcourt. “At this hour of the morning to interrupt a,guest of ths house In'this wanton fashion! You’ll pay for these, insults!”

“Perhaps,” said Larry Morris, “and in the meanwhile if you or your wife attempt to leave this hotel'till we have found Betty Lancey, you’ll find yourself face to face with a warrant that will land you in Jail, charging you with either her murder or her abduction. Do you understand me, Mr. Harcourt?”

“Oh, say, Larry,” hinted Hank Smith, “don’t you think you’re going too far? A man has his rights, you know.” “Indeed I know,” said Larry, “and that’s why I’m going to find Betty. This matter doesn’t look straight to me. Where’s Frankel gone, anyway?” “Don’t know. Nothing more doing to-night for me,” announced Hartley. "I’m going home and to bed, boys. Good-by.” i “Here, too,” chimed in a chorus. But Larry Morris was silent. He left the boys at the corner, then sought out and dug from their slumbers an official or two whom he knew well, and swore out a warrant against the Harcourts, charging them with abduction of feetty Lancey with intent to kill! “Don’t care if I go down the road for it,” he told himself. “You can’t tell me something hasn't happened to Betty. I can seem to feel her calling to me, there’s an Instinct tells me she’*, in fearful trouble. Hello, .what's this —another extra. So that beast got out, did It? Wonder where it went to!" (To be continued.)