Tragedy Trail | Page 3

I want one myself. Oh,
confound it!"
"What's the trouble?"
"I stuck my finger with the needle, if you want to know. That is the
'steenth time this week. I'm not very handy with the thing, it seems to
me. Jessie Simpson never will know what I've suffered to help make
her a wedding present."
She 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