Page:Under three flags; a story of mystery (IA underthreeflagss00tayliala).pdf/77

 the office, and for the marks on the body of the murdered man.

"During the struggle the revolver is discharged and the bullet enters the cashier's heart. The doctors in the case tell me that the course of the bullet was such that the leaden missile might have come from a pistol discharged during such a struggle as I have described. But to continue:

"Ralph Felton draws the limp form of the cashier out into the office and lays it upon the floor. A moment's examination shows him that the man is dead, and he realizes his frightful position. Then the thought occurs to him that, if he carries out his original plan of robbing the bank, the crime will be ascribed to burglars. So he fills his pockets with what money and securities are in the safe, closes the door to the cashier's office behind him and leaves the bank, with the front door unlocked or ajar."

"Unless" interrupts Ashley.

"Unless what?"

"Unless," says the newspaper man, leaning back in his chair and blowing a cloud of smoke ceilingward—"unless Ralph Felton, when he rose from his examination of the body, was suddenly confronted by his father, who had come to the bank in response to the summons sent by the cashier!"

CHAPTER XIII.

THE KEY TO THE MYSTERY.

"Following along the lines of your theory," continues Ashley, "if Ralph Felton rose from the corpse of Roger Hathaway and confronted his father upon the threshold of the cashier's office, that dramatic meeting would explain many things. It would explain the startled glance that Cyrus Felton shot at his son—I was studying the faces of both—when the latter refused to state at the inquest where he had spent the time between 7:45 and