The Thirteenth Letter

THE white-capped nurse dropped the curtains in place so that they completely shut out the night and equally prevented any ray of artificial light penetrating the outer darkness....

A LONG-DRAWN sigh cut the stillness. Slowly Miriam Ward raised her head and struggled to a more upright position. Her limbs felt stiff and cramped and she moved with difficulty....

ALAN MASON stopped his restless pacing back and forth and looked at his watch--two o'clock. Surely, the autopsy must be over! He had waited for what appeared an interminable tim...

MARTHA CORBIN laid down the brass fire tongs and turned to look at the wood-basket by the hearth. The logs were both long and heavy. Before attempting to lift one her attention...

A DISTINCT and unmistakable snore from the bed caused Miriam to approach her patient. Mrs. Nash, her head unevenly balanced between two pillows, was at last asleep. To place her...

THE minutes dragged interminably to Martha Corbin and she wished most devoutly that she had gone to her room before Guy Trenholm had found her in the kitchen. The sheriff was no...

DOCTOR ROBERTS laid down his stethoscope and frowned as he gazed at Mrs. Nash, lying back on her pillow, both eyes closed, and breathing rapidly. Leaning forward he picked up he...

BETTY CARTER watched Miriam disappear up the staircase before she moved. Crossing the living room she stopped in front of the fire and warmed her hands, then sitting down she to...

"Your wife has rallied and we can safely leave her with the nurse," he said. "Come, Nash, you must be very weary after your anxious night," and laying his hand persuasively on h...

MIRIAM hung up the telephone receiver with a dissatisfied frown. For the third time her talk with the nurse in Doctor Roberts' office had been cut off, and her appeal to the loc...

Thompson moved uneasily from one foot to the other; Betty's distress disturbed him. "I'm very sorry," he mumbled. "Indeed I am--but it's not possible. Perhaps," his face brighte...

"Excellent coffee," commented Roberts. He relaxed lazily against the cushioned sides of the big leather chair in which he was sitting and stretched his tired muscles. "It's stro...

MIRIAM WARD opened the window a little further and looked out. It was nearly midnight and the cold, raw breeze was an agreeable contrast to the atmosphere of the sick room. Mrs....

"So, Paul, poor lad, was stabbed with that vicious-looking nut pick," he exclaimed, pointing to where it lay on the table in the sunparlor of Abbott's Lodge. "And Mrs. Nash was...

MIRIAM looked at her watch--two o'clock. The brilliant sunlight and the out of doors exerted an appeal she could not resist. Stopping only long enough to put on her hat and coat...

GUY TRENHOLM raised his head. "May I keep this little paper in my safe?" he asked, taking it up. "I will return it at any time should you require it."

GUY TRENHOLM helped Miriam into his powerful roadster and then, with a murmured word of apology, slipped back into his bungalow. Miriam waited patiently, unmindful of his prolon...

MIRIAM did not stay long in her bedroom after leaving Guy Trenholm in the hall of Abbott's Lodge talking to Corbin. She had thought at first of lying down for a little while, bu...

TRENHOLM'S noiseless pacing back and forth before Betty Carter's bedroom door gave no evidence of the impatience consuming him. Miriam Ward had promised to join him the instant...

BETTY CARTER, too unhappy to keep to her room, where she had found bed intolerable after recovering from her faint, was the first to hear Roberts' frantic cries for mercy as Tre...