“Then, Marten, you head a hunt through these grounds. The murderer might still be hiding in the shrubbery. Stop every one—shoot ’em if they don’t stop. Now Nealman, Van Hope, Killdare—where’s the phone?” Nopp, Nealman, and myself started for the house; Fargo, Major Dell, and Pescini and Van Hope followed Marten into the more shadowed parts of the gardens and lawns. Before ever we reached the house we heard their excited shouts but we paused only an instant. “They can handle him if they’ve got him,” Nopp said. “We’d better go and do our work.” We divided in the hall. Nopp and I went to the phone, Nealman and Van Hope, at Nopp’s suggestion, to round up all the servants. “Keep ’em in one room, and watch ’em,” Nopp advised. “We’ll like enough find the murderer among them—some domestic jealousy, or something like that. Don’t give any of ’em a chance to get away or to destroy evidence.” [Pg 68] [Pg 68] I telephoned to Nixon’s first. The sleepy, country Central rang long and often, and at last a drowsy voice answered the ring. “This Charley Nixon?” I asked. “Yes.” He awakened vividly at the sound of his own name. “This is Ned Killdare—I met you on the way out. I’m at Nealman’s—Kastle Krags. A man has been murdered here, just a few minutes ago! I want you to watch the road with your dogs—that strip between the river and marsh, and not let any one go through from this way. Can you handle it?” Charley Nixon had borne arms in France, his father had ridden with the Clansmen of long ago, and his answer was clear and unhesitating over the wire. “Any one who tries to get by me will be S. O. L.,” he said. A moment later I reached the coroner at Ochakee. He promised he could start for the scene at once, in his car, bringing the sheriff or his deputy, and that he would take all the precautions he could to cut off the murderer’s escape. Then Nopp and I returned to the living-room. It was an unforgettable picture—that scene in the big living-room where Nealman’s guests had been so merry a few minutes before. A bottle [Pg 69]of whiskey still stood on the table in the center, half-filled glasses, in which the ice had not yet melted, stood beside it and on the window-sills and smoking stands. Little, unwavering filaments of blue smoke streamed up from
Prev.
Back
Top