Tragedy Trail | Page 3

put the centerpiece upon the table and went into the bathroom adjoining. Mabel Higgins heard her start the water, fill a glass, and guessed that she was drinking.
"This water seems to taste queer tonight!" she said.
Mabel Higgins heard the water running again, and knew that the glass was being filled once more. Then the water was shut off, and Alice Patton came back into the room, carrying the glass.
"At the store to-day----" she began.
She seemed to choke on the sentence. Mabel Higgins turned slowly on the bed to regard her.
"What--what is it, Alice?" she gasped.
For her friend's face had turned white and her eyes had closed. She dropped the glass of water to the floor and clutched at her breast with both hands, gasping, seeming to struggle to speak. Then she tottered and fell with a crash.
Mabel Higgins' cry rang through the house. Other girls heard it and ran into the hallways from their rooms, and Mrs. Burke hurried up the narrow stairs as rapidly as her bulk would permit, to ascertain the cause of the trouble.
"Alice! Alice!" Mabel Higgins was crying.
Mrs. Burke burst into the room with half a dozen girls at her heels. They saw Alice Patton stretched upon the floor, one arm bent beneath her body. Her face was ashen, and her eyes were open and fixed.
Mrs. Burke was a woman of broad experience; she needed but the one glance.
"Dead!" she said. "Telephone for a doctor, one of you girls--but she's dead!"

CHAPTER II.
THE MYSTERY DEEPENS.
BEFORE the physician arrived Mrs. Burke drove the panic-stricken girls to the lower floor, led the frantic Mabel Higgins to another room, and tried her best to restore silence and order.
Mrs. Burke was used to emergencies, and she found herself confronted by one now. She did not pretend to know what had caused this sudden death of a girl in excellent health and spirits, apparently; that was for the doctor to determine. Her present duty was to quiet the other boarders and preserve the reputation of her boarding house. She did not want a tragedy to drive away her only means of livelihood.
The physician arrived, and Mrs. Burke conducted him to the room where the dead girl was stretched on the floor. At the first glance the doctor pronounced life extinct and then he began his careful examination. Mrs. Burke stood near one of the windows and said nothing. It would be time for her to talk when there were questions asked.
After an interval the physician got to his feet and stepped across to the landlady, whom he had known for years.
"Mrs. Burke," he asked, "what have you to tell me?"
"Very little, doctor. Alice Patton has boarded with me for more than a year, and so has Mabel Higgins, her particular chum, who has this room. Alice came from work as usual this evening and seemed to be in good spirits. Mabel was home with a headache, and after dinner Alice came up here to work on some embroidery and talk to Mabel. A little later we heard Mabel scream. I hurried upstairs and found Alice on the floor, as you see her now."
"Um!" the doctor grunted. "What sort of girl was she? Rather nice sort?"
"One of the very best!" Mrs. Burke replied, without a trace of hesitation. "And I'm not saying that just because she is dead now, either; I mean it. I'd have been proud of a daughter like Alice Patton. She was a kind, lovable girl, and everbody liked her."
"She hasn't been having the blues lately, has she, or anything like that?"
"She always seemed to be in good spirits. Just what are you driving at doctor?"
"You don't think she'd commit suicide?"
"Good heavens, no!"
"Mrs. Burke," the doctor said, "I regret it very much, because it happened in your house, but I shall have to notify the coroner, of course--and the police."
"The police?"
"Miss Patton died as the result of poison."
"Doctor!"
"And from an unusual poison, which is very difficult to obtain. It may have been an accident--or suicide--or foul play."
"Why, Alice Patton didn't have an enemy in the world!" Mrs. Burke declared.
"We never know, Mrs. Burke," the physician said, out of the wisdom acquired through years of practice among all sorts of persons. "I'll remain here until the officers come, of course, and do what I can to save you annoyance. Please leave everything in the room exactly as it is. Get the other young ladies into your back parlor and keep all of them there for the present. Perhaps I can let the police in and get them upstairs without the other boarders knowing."
"Thank you, doctor," Mrs. Burke said.
She went down the stairs to collect the other frightened boarders, and the doctor closed the door of the room and followed her. He telephoned the coroner, and to police headquarters, and then waited