Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 | Page 6

this letter from her?" mused Kennedy. "Why didn't he destroy
it?"
"That's what puzzles me," remarked Leland. "Do you suppose some
one has broken in and substituted this Lytton letter for the Thurston
letter?"
Kennedy was scrutinizing the letter, saying nothing. "I may keep it?" he
asked at length. Leland was quite willing and even undertook to obtain
some specimens of the writing of Vera Lytton. With these and the letter
Kennedy was working far into the night and long after I had passed into
a land troubled with many wild dreams of deadly poisons and secret
intrigues of artists.
The next morning a message from our old friend First Deputy
O'Connor in New York told briefly of locating the rooms of an artist
named Thurston in one of the co-operative studio apartments. Thurston
himself had not been there for several days and was reported to have

gone to Maine to sketch. He had had a number of debts, but before he
left they had all been paid--strange to say, by a notorious firm of
shyster lawyers, Kerr & Kimmel. Kennedy wired back to find out the
facts from Kerr & Kimmel and to locate Thurston at any cost.
Even the discovery of the new letter did not shake the wonderful
self-possession of Dr. Dixon. He denied ever having received it and
repeated his story of a letter from Thurston to which he had replied by
sending an answer, care of Mrs. Boncour, as requested. He insisted that
the engagement between Miss Lytton and himself had been broken
before the announcement of his engagement with Miss Willard. As for
Thurston, he said the man was little more than a name to him. He had
known perfectly all the circumstances of the divorce, but had had no
dealings with Thurston and no fear of him. Again and again he denied
ever receiving the letter from Vera Lytton.
Kennedy did not tell the Willards of the new letter. The strain had
begun to tell on Alma, and her father had had her quietly taken to a
farm of his up in the country. To escape the curious eyes of reporters,
Halsey Post had driven up one night in his closed car. She had entered
it quickly with her father, and the journey had been made in the car,
while Halsey Post had quietly dropped oft on the outskirts of the town,
where another car was waiting to take him back. It was evident that the
Willard family relied implicitly on Halsey, and his assistance to them
was most considerate. While he never forced himself forward, he kept
in close touch with the progress of the case, and now that Alma was
away his watchfulness increased proportionately, and twice a day he
wrote a long report which was sent to her.
Kennedy was now bending every effort to locate the missing artist.
When he left Danbridge, he seemed to have dropped out of sight
completely. However, with O'Connor's aid, the police of all New
England were on the lookout.
The Thurstons had been friends of Halsey's before Vera Lytton had
ever met Dr. Dixon, we discovered from the Danbridge gossips, and I,
at least, jumped to the conclusion that Halsey was shielding the artist,
perhaps through a sense of friendship when he found that Kennedy was
interested in Thurston's movement. I must say I rather liked Halsey, for
he seemed very thoughtful of the Willards, and was never too busy to
give an hour or so to any commission they wished carried out without

publicity.
Two days passed with not a word from Thurston. Kennedy was
obviously getting impatient. One day a rumor was received that he was
in Bar Harbor; the next it was a report from Nova Scotia. At last,
however, came the welcome news that he had been located in New
Hampshire, arrested, and might be expected the next day.
At once Kennedy became all energy. He arranged for a secret
conference in Senator Willard's house, the moment the artist was to
arrive. The senator and his daughter made a flying trip back to town.
Nothing was said to any one about Thurston, but Kennedy quietly
arranged with the district attorney to be present with the note and the
jar of ammonia properly safeguarded. Leland of course came, although
his client could not. Halsey Post seemed only too glad to be with Miss
Willard, though he seemed to have lost interest in the case as soon as
the Willards returned to look after it themselves. Mrs. Boncour was
well enough to attend, and even Dr. Waterworth insisted on coming in
a private ambulance which drove over from a near-by city especially
for him. The time was fixed just before the arrival of the train that was
to bring Thurston.
It was an