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or it. WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE. Death strikes Garrett Folsom hile "I shall be very glad to do so," Anastasia sald, rising at once. "Come search of his friend, Croydon Sears came up to the group. > gress, to told him of toward' Sears, Seeing the earnest discussion in pro- 'he paused, uncertain whether % gs A Then he gathered a few words that Miss Folsom's attitude and catching sight of Robin's anxious face, he stepped for- he died Surely that is 1 In my quest for the truth" ward. "Can I help?" he "Is this another inquest?" the dagger." "Why---er--were you?! Yes, so you were." Clearly Ned Barron had no recol- moment in question, but he was quite bathing at Ocean Town, N.J. ter | with me, Dan. And you, too, Mr. d ing Pestanetarily examined by 8! Riggs. No one else." Hotel Mio, body is brought to the| And led by Robin, white-faced and starter, 808, where an Inquiry flashing-eyed, they crossed to where Folsom's bathing companions had | Croydon Sears sat reading a news- n Roger Neville, Mrs. Helen Bar-| paper, naby and Carmelita Valdon. It i8{ "Dad," Robif shid,. "sill you put established that Folsam, just before|down your paper, please?" his death, had been standing mext to "Surely," said Sears, rising as Miss ng. Barton," known "a3" the: copper Folsom drew near, Then the startling announcement| She &poke at once. ' ie made that Folsom fad been stabbed] "I am here to ask you, Mr. Sears," to death in the water. is questioned wife, but no | ery. Ross, his valet, as are Barron and his ight is shed on the mys- Anastasia Folsom, eccentric and masterful sister of the dead man, ar- Tives and takes command. At the in- quest it is established that the death Weapon was a pichaq, an Oriental knife, and that it and its scabbard had been purchased on the boardwalk. It is also established that Croydon Sears is a fancier of curious knives. Anastasia engages Titus Riggs to work on the case. He asks permission to go through the dead man's effects. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY. CHAPTER XXIII. Anastasia Folsom was not at all unkindly, but she was straightforward and direct of speach and her eyes flashed with a sort of veiled warning. "Your father bought several dag- gers at that auction?" "Two, madam," said Robin, quietly. "What, for?" "As he stated a to his collection." "Yes, I heard him. Why did he go out late, on a stormy night, to buy daggers for his collection?" "Because that was the night on which. the auction was held. Mr. Meeker also bought daggers at that ' sale." "I know that. But Mr. Meeker was not acquainted with my brother, Your father wae." "I don't think he was, Miss Folsom, though I am not sure. But, even so, he had a perfect right to buy antique curios if he choga." "Oh, yes, a perfect right. That is, if he tought them for antique curics, But if he bought them for use as deadly weapons, his right is not 80 unquesticnable," Robin had had about all he could stand. Naturally courteous, he hesitated to speak sternly to ua woman; yet ho felt the time had come. Tite Riggs was watching him close- ly; =o was Pelton. Neville and the two women with him had taken chairs nearby, and were curiously listening to this dialogue. . Anastasia Folsom was regarding ' Robin Sears with an eager gaze that t the inquest, to add cho began, "about the daggers you bought at the auction last Thursday night." "Yes, Miss Folsom; what about them?" Croydon Sears was what is often called a gentleman of the old schéol. He had a fine old-fashioned courtesy, and though not an old man, he showed a polite deference in conversation not generally seen in to-day's social inter- course, "You bought two, that were among evidently willing and anxious to aseist his friend, and ready to back up his word. \ "You remember, then," Miss Fol- som said quickly, "that Mr. Sears was some distance up the beach when my brother fell under the tater?" "Yes, yes--I remember perfectly." -"By the next rope, up the beach-- that is, north," went on the inexorable voice, and staring into her face, al- most as if hypnotized, Barron repeat- ed, Yes, up the beach--north." "No, Ned," Sears said, " I was down the beach, toward the south. I fear your observation was not at its best." & held in it not so much of enmity as inquiry, almost as if she hoped for some plausible and satisfactory ex- planation. THE DAGGERS YOU BOUGHT AT NIGHT." "I AM HERE TO ASK YOU, MR. SEARS," SHE BEGAN, "ABOUT "sald, pleasantly. "No, Ned," Sears said soberly, "but you may as well corroborate my state- ment that 1 was fifty feet or more away down the beach from Mr. Fol- som at the time he was stabbed with lection of 'Sears' whereabouts at the | pocket at the right side, requi; you are unaware of his name." that. green. so I noticed it." (To be continued.) ---- A MODISH FROCK There is nothing smarter than the style pictured here has most slender- izing lines. An inverted plait at each seam provides for the necessary ful- the collar is new. There #8 a set-in sleeves are dart-fitted ar loose. But- tons are sewn in groups at the left side and are the only adornment on this chic frock. No. 1667 is in sizes 86, 88, 40, 42 and 44 inches bust. Size 88 requires 3% yards 89-inch, or 8 yards 54-inch material. Price 20 cents the pattern. EOW TO ORDER PATTERNS. Write your name and address plain- ly, giving gumber and size of such patterns as-you want. Enclose 20¢ in stamps or coin (coin preferred; wrap it carefully) for each number and address your order tu Pattern Dept., Wilson Publishing Co., 78 West Ade- laide St., Toronto. Patterns sent. by return mail. AUCTION LAST THURSDAY But Robin was at the end of his rope. The words "deadly weapons had so roused his ire that he felt a direct response was called for. "Mies Folsom," he said, "my father »did buy those daggers for his collec- | tion. But your insinuation is too de- | finite to be ignored, and I think I must i ask you to cross to the other side of | the deck and say to him what you have said to me" "Oh, both ways. Just a stroll bagk|that your answers to her questions! Not Always Parted in the port sought refuge on our ee | Just Dip to TINT, or BoiltoDYE i =~ and forth. Then home to my hotel." | Just now have not been very satis-| "A fool and his money are soon Olt ee : TTITIITTIT TIT "Not going into the sale room factory, and your friend's backing up,' parted." Co EE a os TH +H again?" T° though nobly attempted, fell down re sob united--to some gold : HH "No, Miss Folsom." badly me In on this," said Tite Riggs digger. . HT The quiet tone carried an impres- ' L 8s, | -------- Fas sion of versely. and composure, but 8 dou Mv Sears, tha you cin prove, Cariboo Road Toll is To Be [] dlose observer mi ave seen Alan alibi, and donot let that 56) . slight quiver of Sears' lips, a slight! frighten you. Any innocent pereon] Aboliched 3 throbbing of a pulso in his cheek, and | can prove an alibi; it is the' guilty, Victoria, B.C--Abolition of tolls on a nervous movement of his hands. [man who makes up one that he can't (0 Cariboo Road, the only toll road ints a 1 | At eny rate, his, oon 'saw _ these! prove, Now, 1} us who were 1D British Sokimbls, was forecast ho x 2 £ D his or Was y 118 eXpuclel 118 MeRisu LAE] SE i i De po 2 " {ton 'of :the present es in the | 18 a profitable companion. Hi | ihr, Sears," the insistent lady went spring. This Wi affect thousands of os ; . sang med American as well as Canadian motor- | It removes the odors of on, "I have no reason to suspect you ie! k HEE tot ho i : £0 of any con y in my brother's ists who are planting. to'cover the i dining : death. I have no motive to attribute new hits Slong the Fraser river can- | 3 idence to point your yom MLXI998. che b ed on div ST Son Bat 1 | Bome 7000 cars traveled the road am investizating every possible ave- during the. present year, a total up to ; : ; the expectations of the Government, Jue of Saqiiey: Sud 39, Since You oan but considerably. be have no: ng to answer, oo I ask you where you were in the| ocean at the time my brother met his | == the finer specimens of the lot, I under- stand." "You have been correctly informed; 1 did." "Then you left the sale room, i company with Mr. Meeker?" "Yes, I did." "Then where did you go?" "1 walked a bit on the boardwalk." "Up or down?' worthless,' temptuously., ' "I think your corroboration is ' Miss Folsom said, oon- | "And I think we are on tHe verge of a revelation," said Dan Pelton,' juking up the am here to yi my aunt in her 4 o mitch |, to ask, when I am so deeply Coricerned "No, Miss Foleom, that is not too} much to ask," and Tite Riggs' lps shut tight together, a habit of his when much perplexed. "But, of course, Mr, Sears, you can satisfy the lady's i There must have been someone about whom you knew, Or some one you can describe, even if "Oh, yes," cried Croydon Sears, at "T 'distinctly remember a man in a bright green bathing suit. Shirt and trunks, both of bright, grass It struck me as unusual, and coat dress for daytime wear, and the, ness, and the clever arrangement of | and the! untlet. "Mr. aid endeavors to find the man who stab- 'bed my uncle. Like her, I have no) reason to suspect you of any hand in! the crime. ut I am ready to say roud on Nov. | : ater bot nol attempt will be mad® to keep e road| {oben sirius the nese winter sensom | pe: returned Yor at her West Sixtyelghth Street, Miss who 18 till In the twenties, 'her adventures fn earth and the rou 'corners "of the | nd:tumble life left at sea as a "middy,". tho only woman bol Ren chief. This happened at the island of Malekulo during a two months' cruising trip among the islands of the New Hebrides. The chief she des- cribed as about 46 and very good- looking. : "He proposed to me," said Miss Cooper, "Just Ifke an American would | buy a good plece of roast beef, But | | I smilingly refused his offer, and he seemed very mueh surprised and dis- appointed, To show me how much be admired me, I guess, the chief pre- | sented an {sland fn the Fijis, five miles square, having coral and cocoa- nut palms to me. When I asked him what I should send him in return, when I got back home, he asked for a Prince Albert coat, a silk hat and a pair of 'yellow spats. I suppose he had seen a photograph of one of the had been there thirty-two years.. Mrs, Boyd sald she had not seen a 'white woman, before the arrival of herself and Miss Schoen, for a year. se LL Always Famillar., Europea rchs." men?" " . pean monarchs "Always, my dear." Tired of Routine Here. " Miss Cooper explained. she had |Minard's Liniment for T made the trip purely in the spirit of adventure after becoming tired out with the routine in New York of type- writing and stenography and ether secretarial work, and being of a liter- ary turn of mind, ghe was putting her experiences in manuscript form, and was hoping some day to have them published under the titlp of "Wind- pamming in Fiji." She sailed from 'Vancouver in 1926 with a fellow-voyager, Miss Jean Schoen, on the French' bark Bougain-] ville, first christened Himalaya, Inter known as the Star of Peru, a three- masted vessel that has been sailing the high seas for sixty-three years, and known as & "jinxless ship." The two girls were signed as mid: chipmen, studying navigation, and the | rest of the crew was made of French- men and South Sea Islanders. Cap tain Lem Chateauvien was in com- mand of the bark, which was on her last voyage to a port in New Cale- donia, there to rust away her last days as a warehouse barge. Crews 'Always Courteous. "Miss Schoen and I spent sixty days on the windjammer, and when she was turned into a warehouse in the New Hebrides that did not end {our careers as seamen. My succeed: ing months of service were on a small trading steamer in the New Hebrides, the St. Michel, then on the St. Andre, arfother small French steamer, on a trip to Australia, when I was the only woman on 'board with a crew of fifty . persons of many nationalities, and, | Have stockings in the very newest lastly, on the Commandant Destre- shades; your old or faded stockings meau, that brought me to San Fran- given any tint in the rainbow in five cisco. minutes; with fifteen cents' worth of "I was never troubled while at sea | Diamond Dyes! but use dyes, not by any of the crew. . They were al- synthetic tints. And. be 'sure'they're ways most courteous to me. I ear' true dyes. rled just one small trunktul of 'clothes ! Try a pair to-night! Use Diamond and when I arrived In New Hebrides Dyes, and no one will dream they I cast my dresses aside, bought goods | were tinted at home. (And you can from the traders and made my own. do real dyeing with just as perfect I also carried a typewriter and a re- 'results, if you will just use the true volver. : Diamond Dyes. While we were anchored in the St. FREE: Why not ask your druggist Midgel in the South Sea Islands, dur- | tor the very useful Diamond Dye ing our two months' stay there, Miss Cyclopedia? Valuable suggestions, Schobn slept on a mattress on the easy directions, and piece-goods sam- dining table, on account of the rats ple colors. Or write for free copy of in the cabin. "While in the New He- Color Craft, a big illustrated = book brides we had about fifteen earth- sent postpald -- address DIAMOND quakes a day, and we could feel the DYES, Dept. N13, Windsor, Ontario, ship shaking and the ashes from thé Diamond D yes Knew His Nightingale. One {ime on the Texas. frontier a man came into a camp riding an old mule. : 'How much for the mule?" asked a bystander. "Jist a hundred dollars," answered the rider. "I'll give you five dollars," said the other, The rider stopped short, as if in amazement, and' then -slowly dis. mounted. i "Stranger," said he, 'J ain't a-goin' to let a little matter of ninety-five dol lars" stand between ime and a mule] trade, The mule's yourn," ERB ART You can't hidé dt, all 1sn't leather that looks like leather and squeaks. | Silk Stockings two active volcanos on the islands in | our faces. Once the French traders in the crew. : Europe. On} d's conviction w )- One of her most thrilling experl- 'she. sald, she rooted that he Vout nol oa 'ment and ences, she sald, was a proposal of d 'Presbyterian | durin an argument over us atten marriage from a former cannibal | Missionary, who had been there twen-| (o p shooting y 'Horn tysix years, and her husband, who | grizzlies, wild goat, and the like, - "Is she familiar with professional Je sat startled the thinker out of his '| best advantage. | gold, blue and red, a majestic figure | of Neptune with trident intact, and | that visited m | member be bu siz months, + ; deer declared he would not stop fights ng until it was against the law t shoot any deer, 4 How Curwood became 'converted t his principles reads like ome of kh wild life 'stories, It Happened whil he was hunting fn his early years among the "Rockies 'for. big. & ' Sights Gigantic Beak # While on the trail Curwood sig ted from a- distance a glant sleék bear, nine feet tall'and known to hunters in the district as Thor, king of the moun-' tains, 2 He became consumed with a' desire' to bag Thor. Nights he dreamed of it and days he trailed for the kill. Three times in three weeks he came upon the giant and three times he sent bullets nto the mass of fur, but each' time Thor escaped. = One quiet Sunday, when the sun, the air, and all nature combined to make a perfect day. Curwood climbed to a certain spot on a mountainside to muse upon the rolling ages. A pres historic skeleton he had discovered was near his favorits spot and tho author sat picturing the monster sporting iu the sea far below in the sunshine of a million yeats azo, before the earth's crust thrust up the levias than's fossll skyward. Moving for a better view, Curwood slipped and in recovering his balance: .. qo. broke his gun. Putting' the uselesy weapon 'aside he leaned back again to* muse. ah he ETN "HSS Mis Enemy Thar 'Appears. © , Suddenly an omirens scratching along the narrow. ledge above where' \ reverie, He glanced and rounding curve in the rocky wall a few stops away,..ambling directly toward him, was Thor. " 4 "The great grizzly no longer was the fat, sleek animal," 'Curwood: told in reciting his story. "The slash ot my bullets were' in kis side. He had fol- lowed me by smell along that ledge and he was here fighting for his life. "That beast knew me. He knew that*here, in his power, was the dead. Hest of all his enemies. His eyes blazed and his great head swung from side to side. Sa SThor reared toe his haunches--six fet away. I was back as far as I could go without falling over a preci: pice. One sweep of that forepaw and it would all ba over. "Then; slowly, he came down upon: all fours again. Even more slowly,+ it seemed, he limped away, back along | 'the ledge he had "tome--leaving be: hind his-enemy to live!" : Feeling thus forgiven, Curwood re- turned never to write of slayings, but to champlon the cause of every wild pS % thing. v Old Ship Figureheads 'Now Adorn a Garden ! Down on the New Jersey coast in~ a little village close to the sea there is a garden that-----instead of the con evntlonal sundial, bird-bath and statue ~~boaéts figureheads from ships of long ago. These picturesque relics are | set with careful consideration jand® pride where they be seen to the ® a on goddess in 4 Among them ar a swarthy king or prince. The man who owns this unusual garden was at = one time the ¢aptain of a satling ship any a far-off port. ge