The Great Auto Mystery | Page 3

car a little so I can run in off the road?"
"I don't know how," she replied, helplessly.
There was a little pause. The occupant of the other car was leaning forward, looking at her closely.
"Is that you, Marguerite?" he asked finally.
"Yes," she replied. "Who is that? Don?"
"Yes."
A man's figure leaped out of the other machine and came toward her.
Curtis appeared beside the Green Dragon with a huge can of gasoline twenty minutes later. The two occupants of the car were clearly silhouetted against the sky, and Reid, leaning back in the tonneau, was smoking.
"Find it?" he asked.
"Yes," growled Curtis. And he began the work of repairing the leak and refilling his tank. It took only five minutes or so, and then he climbed up into the car.
"Cold, Marguerite?" he asked.
"She won't speak," said Reid, leaning forward a little. "She's angry because I went inside to get a hot Scotch."
"Wish I had one myself," said Curtis.
"Let's wait till we get to the next place," Reid interposed. "A little supper and trimmings will put all of us in a better humor."
Without answering, Curtis threw a lever, and the car pulled out. Two automobiles which had been standing when they arrived were still waiting for their owners. Annoyed at the delay, Curtis put on full speed. Finally Reid leaned forward and spoke to the girl.
"In a good humor?" he asked.
She gave no sign of having heard, and Reid placed his hand on her shoulder as he repeated the question. Still there was no answer.
"Make her talk to you, Jack," he suggested to Curtis.
"What's the matter, Marguerite?" asked Curtis, as he glanced around.
Still there was no answer, and he slowed up the car a little. Then he took her arm and shook it gently. There was no response.
"What is the matter with her?" he demanded. "Has she fainted?"
Again he shook her, this time more vigorously than before.
"Marguerite," he called.
Then his hand sought her face; it was deathly cold, clammy even about the chin. The upper part was still covered by the mask. For the third time he shook her, then, really frightened, apparently, he caught at her gloved wrist and brought the car to a standstill. There was no trace of a pulse; the wrist was cold as death.
"She must be ill--very ill," he said in some agitation. "Is there a doctor near here?"
Reid was leaning over the senseless body now, having raised up in the tonneau, and when he spoke there seemed to be fear in his tone.
"Better run on as fast as you can to the inn ahead," he instructed Curtis. "It's nearer than the one we just left. There may be a doctor there."
Curtis grabbed frantically at the lever and the car shot ahead suddenly through the dark. In three minutes the lights of the second inn were in sight. The two men leaped from the car simultaneously and raced for the house.
"A doctor, quick," Curtis breathlessly demanded of a waiter.
"Next door."
Without waiting for further instructions, Curtis and Reid ran to the auto, lifted the girl in their arms and took her to a house which stood just a few feet away. There, after much clamoring, they aroused some one. Was the doctor in? Yes. Would he hurry? Yes.
The door opened and the men laid the girl's body on a couch in the hall. Dr. Leonard appeared. He was an old fellow, grizzled, with keen, kindly eyes and rigid mouth.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Think she's dead," replied Curtis.
The doctor adjusted his glasses rather hurriedly.
"Who is she?" he asked, as he bent over the still figure and fumbled about the throat and breast.
"Miss Marguerite Melrose, an actress," explained Curtis, hurriedly.
"What's the matter with her?" demanded Reid, fiercely.
The doctor still bent over the figure. In the dim lamplight Curtis and Reid stood waiting anxiously, impatiently, with white faces. At last the doctor straightened up.
"What is it?" demanded Curtis.
"She's dead," was the reply.
"Great God!" exclaimed Reid. "How?" Curtis seemed speechless.
"This," said the doctor, and he exhibited a long knife, damp with blood. "Stabbed through the heart."
Curtis stared at him, at the knife, then at the inert figure, and lastly at the dead white of her face where it showed beneath the mask.
"Look, Jack!" exclaimed Reid, suddenly. "The knife!"
Curtis looked again, then sank down on the couch beside the body.
"Oh, my God! It's horrible!" he said.
II
TO Hutchinson Hatch and half a dozen other reporters, Dr. Leonard, at his home late that night, told the story of the arrival of Jack Curtis and Charles Reid with the body of the girl, and the succeeding events so far as he knew them. The police and Medical Examiner Francis had preceded the newspaper men, and the body had been removed to a nearby village.
"They came here in great excitement," Dr. Leonard explained. "They brought the body in with them,