The Vanishing of Betty Varian. Wells Carolyn

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      “We want the truth, you know,” he said, thoughtfully. “If them two wasn’t on good terms, you might as well say so, – ’cause it’ll come out sooner or later.”

      “But they were, – so far as I know.”

      “Oh, well, all right. I can’t think yet, the girl shot her father. I won’t think that, – lessen I have to. But, good land, man, you say you’ve looked all over the house, – where’s the murderer, then?”

      “Suicide?” laconically said the man who had come with the sheriff.

      It was the first time he had spoken. He was a quiet, insignificant chap, but his eyes were keen and his whole face alert.

      “Couldn’t be, Bill,” said the sheriff, “with no weapon about.”

      “Might ’a’ been removed,” the other said, in his brief way.

      “By whom?” asked Doctor Varian.

      “By whoever came here first,” Bill returned, looking at him.

      “I came here first,” Varian stated. “Do you mean I removed the weapon?”

      “Have to look at all sides, you know.”

      “Well, I didn’t. But I won’t take time, now, to enlarge on that plain statement. I’ll be here, you can question me, when and as often as you like. Now, Mr Potter, what are you going to do first?”

      “Well, seems to me there’s no more to be done with Mr Varian’s body. You two doctors have examined it, you know all about the wound that killed him. Bill, here, has jotted down all the details of its position and all that. Now, I think you can call in the undertakers and have the body taken away or kept here till the funeral, – whichever you like.”

      “The funeral!” exclaimed Doctor Varian, realizing a further responsibility for his laden shoulders. “I suppose I’d better arrange about that, for my sister-in-law will not be able to do so.”

      “Jest’s you like,” said Potter. “Next, I’ll investigate for myself the absence of this girl. A mysterious disappearance is as serious a matter as a mysterious death, – maybe, more so.”

      “That’s true,” agreed Varian. “I hope you’ll be able to find my niece, for she must be found.”

      “Easy enough to say she must be found, – the trick is to find her.”

      “Have you any theory of the crime, Mr Potter?” Landon asked.

      “Theory? No, I don’t deal in theories. I may say it looks to me like the girl may have shot her father, but it only looks that way because there’s no other way, so far, for it to look. You can’t suspect a criminal that you ain’t had any hint of, can you? If anybody, now, turns up who’s seen a man prowling round – or seen any mysterious person, or if any servant is found who, say, didn’t go to the circus, but hung behind, or – ”

      “But if there’s any such, they or he must be in the house now,” Bill said, quietly. “Let’s go and see.”

      The two started from the room and Landon, after a glance at Doctor Varian, followed them.

      “I don’t see,” Landon said to Potter as they went to the kitchen, “why you folks in authority always seem to think it necessary to take an antagonistic attitude toward the people who are representing the dead man! You act toward Doctor Varian as if you more than half suspected he had a hand in the crime himself!”

      “Not that, my boy,” and Potter looked at him gravely; “but that doctor brother knows more than he’s telling.”

      “That’s not so! I know. I came up here to the house with him. I was with him when he found his brother’s body – ”

      “Oh, you were! Why didn’t you say so?”

      “You didn’t ask me. No, I don’t know anything more. I’ve nothing to tell that can throw any possible light, but I do know that Doctor Varian had no hand in it and knows no more about it than I do.”

      “Good land, I don’t mean that he killed his brother, – I know better than that. But he wasn’t frank about the relations between the girl and her father. Do you know that they were all right? Friendly, I mean?”

      “So far as I know, they were. But I never met them until today. I can only say that they acted like any normal, usual father and daughter.”

      “Oh, well, it doesn’t matter. It’ll all come out, – that sort of thing. Now to find the girl.”

      CHAPTER V

      The Yellow Pillow

      “What’s this pillow doing here?” the sheriff asked, as he picked up the yellow satin cushion. “This looks to me like a parlor ornament.”

      “I thought it was strange, too,” returned Landon. “But I can’t see any clue in it, can you?”

      “Anything unusual may prove a clue,” said Potter, sententiously. “You never saw this pillow before, Mr Landon.”

      “No; but I’m not familiar with the house at all. Maybe it’s a discarded one, handed down to the servants’ use.”

      “Doesn’t look so; it’s fresh and new, and very handsome.”

      “Lay it aside and come on,” growled Bill Dunn, who was alertly looking about the kitchen. “You can ask the family about that later. Let’s go down cellar.”

      To the cellar they went, Landon following. He had a notion that he might help the family’s interests by keeping at the heels of these detectives.

      But the most careful search revealed nothing of importance to their quest.

      Until Potter said, suddenly, “What’s this? A well?”

      “It sure is,” and Bill Dunn peered over an old well curb and looked down.

      “A well in a cellar! How queer!” exclaimed Landon. “I never heard of such a thing.”

      “Uncommon, but I’ve known of ’em,” said Bill “Looks promising, eh?”

      Potter considered. “It may mean something,” he said, thoughtfully. “We’ll have to sound it, somehow.”

      “Sound it, nothin’!” said the executive Bill; “I’ll go down.”

      “How?” Potter asked him. “There’s no bucket. It’s probably a dried up well.”

      “Prob’ly,” and Bill nodded. He already had one foot over the broken old well curb.

      “Wait, for heaven’s sake!” cried Landon. “Don’t jump down! You must have a light.”

      “Got one,” and Bill drew a small flashlight from his pocket.

      With the agility of a monkey he clambered down the side of the old well. The stones were large and not smoothly fitted, so that he had little trouble in gaining and СКАЧАТЬ