The Step In The House

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 489, 19 October 1928, Page 5

The Step In The House

♦ By

Rina Ramsay.

CHAPTER XVII. —Continued. Richardson could not make up his mind. He was puzzled. There were so many signs, in what Johnny let slip from time to time, that he was worrying about himself, about his own liability to suspicion. Still, even so, it ®as curious that he should have lit upon Peter Harrison to draw off the other man’s attention. It had not come out in the preliminary hearing, vhich had been more or less formal, that this man had anything to do with the case. The police had not yet lii'Tilged that he was going to be a witness. What, then, bad put him wto Johnny’s head? There was nothing, after all, so very remarkable in * man’s being seen staring up at the windows of a house that would probably, as long as it remained standing. "* pointed out as the house where a murder had been committed. Old “nrry Dodds’s dull stone house was already notorious, one of the sights °t the town. There was nothing so extraordinary in a passer-by stopping 0 gaze, even at midnight. Why, then. a< f Johnny been so impressed, to the extent of dragging in the man’s name f 8 the possible murderer? It was not self-preservation. He must have °ad some instinct. Richardson was passing the house unself —his own house, as things had .anted out —as he puzzled on this. It ew him. By this time he felt as if n k W every stone of it, every cor- ■ but it had a fascination for him. not help looking for some | Pxration there. He glanced up at „ front, the square windows, the J? at eliimneys up above, dark against W v tarry sky - Then he turned the Brass door-handle and went in. Sam and Mrs. Beamish were sitting earh &b ! y in their kitchen, one on side of the fire, with the cat They had not yet locked <^ oc^;or went down the pnsWhn k° warn the nx it was only he smii -j en tered the house. He bitch 11 3 'ittle when he saw lliat the tUn> ea table was littered with picwas an< i that although Sam bad h * as l ee P. Mrs. Beamish still er spectacles on her nose. as 10015 tke doctor’s appearance aia . malter of course. He was the r > U not for her to fidget

if he came in and out. She had managed to adjust herself equably to all these changes. “I been reading about Missie, she said nodding toward the papers, “and about that lady. It’s a grand thing for Missie. They’ll get her off now, won’t they, with all them grand relations?” “They’ll get her off because she is innocent,” said Richardson quickly. He was sometimes dubious as to the real opinion of Mrs. Beamish. But he knew she liked the girl. “I daresay, but that’s no warrant,” said Mrs. Beamish. Sam woke up with a start. .... , , “Eh?’ he said. “Oh, its the doctor. Aye, doctor, I beeu getting no sleep o’ nights. You’ll have to let us have a bottle.” “Why, you’re a champion sleeper, aren’t you, Sam?” said Richardson, amused. Sam grunted. “I would be if I was let, he said. “It’s her. She’s worrited twice as much over Missie getting took to prison as she did over the poor master getting murdered. Kicking and bouncing about in the bed. Never a kick over poor old master!” “Y on great silly!” said Mrs. Beamish “But I do feel easier in my mind to-night. I sot a hit worked up over our little Missie. . . It neats me why they don't take up that Johnny 'Adams. He is the one to do it if he'd fancied ... It was just as like to be him as Missie, for all