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The Ghost
Wore White
By
BETSY ALLEN
NEW YORK
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CHAPTER
Fill er up?
Connie Blair, who had been driving for a hundred
miles through rolling Connecticut countryside,
nodded brightly in response to the gas station
attendants conventional question. Please.
Connie turned to her twin sister Kit. Want to
stretch a little?
Kit opened the door on the other side of the car
and got out to saunter up and down in front of the
pumps. While the man held the nozzle of the hose in
the mouth of the gas tank, he looked from one girl to
the other in frank astonishment. The sisters looked
confusingly alike. Each had bright blond hair falling
almost to her shoulders; each had brown eyes
sparkling with enthusiasm and intelligence; each had
a slim young figure worth a second glance. Connies
skin, however, was tanned to a smooth golden tone
1
BUTTERWORTH TREASURES
SACRIFICED AT TAX SALE
She read the two-line head aloud. Butterworth.
Where have I heard that name before?
Kit replied without taking her eyes from the road.
Dad went to school with a boy named Tim
Butterworth. I think he was a relative of the
Newport Butterworths. Anyway, when Dad visited
in Newport he had lunch with Tim at a big house
called Eagle Rock. I cant remember how it
happened. Maybe Tim was staying there or
something.
Connie consulted the clipping again. Eagle
Rock. Thats the name of the Butterworth house. All
is explained. He just wants us to look it up for
sentimental reasons, I guess.
He described the place as fairly fantastic. Too
bad it will be empty, now.
Connie shrugged. Maybe somebody else has
bought it and fixed it up. You cant tell.
Maybe, Kit agreed idly.
But I rather hope its empty, Connie added. I
adore empty old mansions! Her eyes grew very
bright.
Kit glanced at her twin sister and laughed.
Connie, youre incredible. Will you never grow
up?
6
NeverI hope!
She put away her fathers notes and glanced at the
passing landscape. Long since, New London had
been left behind them, and more recently they had
crossed the Rhode Island border and turned into
Route 3.
Shouldnt we turn off soon, on the road to the
Saunderstown Bridge? Connie consulted the road
map. I can almost smell salt water, right now.
No wonder youre a success in the advertising
game, Kit teased. You have such a wonderful
imagination!
Here, here! Connie pretended to be stern. Cast
no aspersions on my first love.
First love? In her turn, Kit assumed an
expression of surprise. Don Fitzgerald and Larry
Stewart and three or four other boys I know would
be disappointed to hear that.
You win, Connie told her twin, chuckling.
Connie liked the game of wits she and Kit often
played together, tossing banter back and forth like a
ping-pong ball. It was fun to look forward to being
with Kit for two long weeks. Her sister was closer to
Connie than any other girl could ever be, and the
wrench of leaving her in Meadowbrook when she
fared forth to Philadelphia and the advertising
business had been greater than anyone had ever
guessed.
7
The winding road from the highway to Saunderstown seemed especially long, but finally they were
driving across the high span of the silver bridge,
looking down on blue water dotted here and there
with a sailboat or a power launch.
Connie looked out of the window ecstatically.
Smell! she cried. Doesnt it smell just like
summer? And look like a vacation ad?
You and your ads! But Kit was smiling happily.
Oh, isnt this going to be fun!
Gulls and terns winged above them, and a cluster
of puffy white clouds rode serenely in the sky. The
shore line was low and green, and Jamestown, when
they reached it, was as quaint and sleepy and
charming as Mr. Blair had promised it would be. On
the ferry ride to Newport, Connie and Kit began
talking about Aunt Helen and Uncle Pete, whom
they remembered rather more clearly than the boys.
Their aunt looked enough like their father to make
people remark on the family resemblance. She had
the same easy manner, the same laugh lines around
her eyes. Peter Ridgeway, her husband, was a tall,
rangy man with a high forehead and penetrating blue
eyes. He had the typical newspapermans probing
nature, and Connie had an idea that she would enjoy
getting to know him better. She almost always liked
men who were interested in the writing profession.
Kit was more interested in the boys. Randy will
8
14
CHAPTER
it in the daytime!
Tom laughed. I thought ghosts walked at night,
Small Fry.
Kit shivered. Change the subject, cant you?
she asked in a voice half-teasing, half-serious. She
was still looking up at the castle on the rock. I can
see what Randy means.
The moon, riding high behind them, dodged
behind a cloud as she spoke and the bay was
suddenly darkened. No white path danced on the
water; no light fell on the faces in the sailboat.
Connie found herself following Kits glance, leaning
back against the side of the cockpit and looking,
with strange inevitability, upward. She felt awed,
almost afraid, as though on the breeze that was
certainly far from a gale she might actually hear the
sound of a wail, as the German poet had in years
gone by. But instead, to her surprise, she saw a light,
a wan and flickering light that seemed to move
slowly from window to window beyond the
mansions stone walls.
Look! Connie whispered, and pointed.
Look at what? Tom was busy with the tiller and
he didnt recognize the urgency in her voice.
But Randy responded with gratifying promptness.
Hey! Theres a light!
Where?
In the Butterworth place. Honest, Tom!
22
But she didnt dream, on that first moonlit, starstudded evening, that she was to have a most
unusual vacation, and that she was to learn a great
deal about something quite differentand even
more excitingthan how to sail a boat.
25
CHAPTER
Eagle Rock
Eagle Rock?
Explore? Connie questioned.
Randy nodded, his eyes bright with mischief.
Now that he had accepted his cousins as virtual
playmates he could tell them his secret. I know a
way to get inside.
You do? Connies immediate interest was
explicit in her tone of voice. When she was excited
she always spoke in italics.
Yep. Down on the basement level theres a
broken window. Us kids found it one day.
Just who us kids happened to be Connie didnt
stop to inquire. Looking at Kit she cried, Lets!
But Kit was the more cautious twin. Mightnt it
beillegal, maybe?
Were not breaking and entering. Were just
entering, Connie replied with a chuckle. Anyway,
as Aunt Bet always says, she said, recalling the
young aunt with whom she lived in Philadelphia,
anything thats fun is almost always illegal or
fattening. Come on, Katy, be a sport!
Kit shrugged. Just so you promise to get me out
of jail in time to enjoy the rest of my vacation.
Its a deal!
Nobody cares, Randy insisted, bouncing up and
down in impatience. The house is a wreck,
anyway.
So a few minutes later, at her young cousins
29
explain it then.
But Connies mind was engaged with a much
more interesting question. How did it happen that
here, on the second floor, no fragrance perfumed the
air. Had a woman wearing a heavy scent quite
recently walked through the lower chambers? What
else could account for the odor both she and Kit had
noticed?
Listen, Kit said suddenly. You two may not
feet like burglars, but I do. Its all very interesting,
but Ive seen enough. Think how foolish wed feel if
somebody should catch us! Im getting out of this
house.
She meant it too. She ran downstairs quickly,
Connie and Randy trailing behind. As they retraced
their steps through the rooms of the main floor to the
stairs leading down to the kitchen Connie kept
looking for some trace of the perfumed visitor, but it
was unlikely that the lady would have conveniently
dropped anything so revealing as a handkerchief or a
pair of gloves.
Had they imagined the flowerlike fragrance?
Connie began to wonder, but the next moment she
became acutely conscious of it again.
Kit, that is the smell of perfume. She spoke
sharply, as though she were trying to convince
herself.
Kit frowned and nodded. I dont understand it.
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38
CHAPTER
50
CHAPTER
start.
Hello. Connie looked down as a young man,
with high cheekbones and intense blue eyes,
emerged from between the pilings and grinned up at
her.
You must be Toms cousin.
Connie nodded. I am.
My names Mark Eastham.
Oh, yes! Ive heard Tom speak of you. Connie
smiled genially and sat down, cross-legged, on the
edge of the dock. Do you live under there? Her
eyes were mischievous as she indicated the spot
from which Mark had emerged.
No, the boy answered quite seriously, I was
quahoging.
Connie snapped her fingers. Splendid! Now you
can tell me what that peculiar word means.
Now Mark laughed. Peculiar? Its mighty
common around here. Quahogs are big clams. We
use them to make chowder. He reached into a split
wood clam basket and showed her one.
Connie examined it with mild interest. Then the
clams live under the dock!
Mark laughed again. Some of them do. They
live all along shore here. You dig them with a clam
fork like this. He brought his into view.
Very interesting!
We have plenty of littlenecks around here too.
56
face.
At cozy little Belmont Beach they rested, then
walked on to the picturesque Chinese Tea House at
the cliffs edge, on an estate aptly named The
Marble Palace. Down they went into a spooky
tunnel which ducked under the house, then up again
to blink their eyes in the sunlight and gaze at another
sweeping view of seascape and millionaires estates.
This stuff, Tom said, waving his hand
inclusively toward the great houses, makes Eagle
Rock look like small potatoes, doesnt it?
At the name Eagle Rock Mark stiffened, and Tom
glanced his way sharply, then gave a short chuckle.
Sorry, old boy. I was forgetting your middle name
is Butterworth.
Butterworth? Connie repeated.
Oh, the relationship isnt especially close. Mark
seemed anxious to discount it. As a matter of fact
Ive never been particularly proud of my connection
with the family. Even if they were rich as Croesus at
one time.
Kit looked surprised, because she hadnt been
present at the breakfast table when Uncle Pete had
sketched the Butterworth background for Connie.
She stood twirling the big metal disk that hung from
a gold bracelet on her wrist. Her nickname was
etched across it in her own handwriting. Connie
always wore a similar bracelet and they jokingly
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63
CHAPTER
arrant foolishness.
Tom was in between two fires. We saw
something, he admitted. But Ill be darned if I
know what.
In any event, Connie said, lets get over to
Eagle Rock as soon as possible. And Ill make a
bargain with you! She chuckled slyly. If I find my
bracelet Ill promise to give up the ghost.
Because Mark was practically a member of the
family, according to Kit, who set great store by
names, she felt less like a trespasser when the
quartet turned boldly into the crumbling drive in the
Blair car. This time Connie parked right under the
porte-cochere, and they were at no special pains to
be quiet as they got out and shut the doors.
But somehow the air of mystery clinging around
the strange old house made them lower their voices
as they searched the balconies, and by the time they
reached the bedroom window through which they
had climbed the night before, they were talking
instinctively in whispers.
Tom tried the sash, but it was easy to see that the
window had been locked on the inside. Heres a
fine point, he murmured. Can a ghost throw a
window catch?
Connie giggled, because she knew all their ghost
talk was just so much horseplay. She was quite
certain that their haunt was completely mortal,
66
Kit groaned.
What? asked Tom, and his voice was
unexpectedly stern.
We know another way to get in the house.
How?
Through a pantry window. Its really Randys
secret, so you must promise not to tell.
Connie looked from Tom to Mark with a smile
that begged their co-operation in this innocent
conspiracy, but when she saw the expression in
Marks eyes she quickly sobered. He was looking at
her as though she had given away a state secret, not
just let them in on a childish discovery. His blazing
blue eyes were narrowed with mistrust and
something very like fear.
So lets have just one final look! Connie
begged Tom while she wondered what prompted
Marks dismay. We wont hurt a thing, and it wont
take five minutes. Come on!
With flying feet she led them around to the bay
side of the house and down to the lower level where
the window to the pantry still opened with ease.
Inside, they blinked for a moment to adjust their
eyes to the light, then started through the kitchen to
the stairs.
Then, just as on the previous day when they had
crept into the house with Randy, Connie stopped and
inhaled. Again there seemed to float on the air a
68
But was it? No, the volume she had picked up the
other day lay where she had left it on one of the
bookcase shelves. She walked over just to make
certain and picked it up, an identical volume to the
one Tom held in his hand.
This is curious. Why should there be two of
them? Connie showed it to him.
Maybe there was a minister in the family. Tom
opened it to the flyleaf. But no Butterworth had
written this book. A Rev. Alexander P. Simpson was
the author.
Heres another just like it, Kit announced.
And another! Tom bent and picked up a fourth
companion volume. Why should the Butterworths
have been interested in making a collection of
identical books?
Thats what Id like to know. Connie began
riffling through the brittle, yellowed pages covered
with small print. It was easy to see that the book
contained a series of sermons written in the
flamboyant, evangelistic style of the nineties. Sold
Out . . . The Lords Razor . . . Why Are Satan and
Sin Permitted? The titles were printed in a running
head.
Quite impersonally, Mark offered a suggestion.
Ill bet some preacher took a crack at one of the
Butterworths. Thats what Ill bet! Wouldnt that be
a reason to buy up a group of books, just to get the
71
turn, then up one side, across the top, and down the
other.
Midway to the bottom Connie cried, Look! and
reached up to touch a worn handhold just visible on
the dulled paint of the trim. She pulled, and to the
astonishment of the other three the whole tier of
shelves, creaking and groaning at this unexpected
disturbance, swung slowly into the room.
75
CHAPTER
The Cave
88
CHAPTER
Kit!
Connie almost screamed her twin sisters name,
and terror clutched at her throat.
It was impossible that Kit couldnt hear her.
Impossible!
Without waiting for Tom, without waiting for
Mark, Connie began to feel her way down the dark
steps. With no light to guide her she slipped and
slid, almost lost her footing, then righted herself
precariously.
She felt Toms hand grip her armor was it
Marks?but neither of them spoke. Fear sharpened
their caution. They went on silently. Connies heart
was beating like a metronome set for quick time.
Kit, Kit, Kit, Kit, Kit. Something had happened,
unbelievably, to Kit. All Connie could remember of
the cave was the water, the murky tunnel to the bay
and the water flowing through it, advancing and
89
Connie.
Kits hair was still wet and matted from the water
Tom had unceremoniously but sensibly dashed over
her face and head. Her dress was damp and stained
from her fall, and her face and arms were streaked
with dirt. Connie didnt realize, at the moment, that
she looked little better. She had sat on the wet floor
of the cave with Kits head cradled in her lap,
regardless of the consequences, and her skirt was far
from immaculate.
Tom took Kits hand and helped her carefully
from step to step down the rocky incline. Easy
now. No hurry. He was gentle and patient.
Mark had hurried on ahead, and was helping the
Bosun beach his boat. From the hilly path Connie
could hear them calling back and forth. It occurred
to her suddenly that they would be expected to
explain their disheveled appearance. The boys
looked all right, but both she and Kit showed
unmistakable signs of a mishap she didnt care to
explain.
Wait a minute, she whispered when they were
halfway down the cliff but still screened from the
beach by the natural arch of vines and shrubbery.
We cant appear in public looking like this. She
took a comb, a handkerchief, and a compact from
her summer handbag and did her best to comb Kits
tangled hair and wipe the dirt streaks from her face
97
and arms.
Kit had to grit her teeth to keep from crying out
every time Connie brought the comb near the lump
at the back of her head. Dont I look good enough
now? she asked finally.
You look better, but you dont look good.
Connie inspected her critically. Now wait until I do
a little doctoring on myself.
Tom stood by shaking his head. You look all
right, but your dresses are a sight, he said with
masculine forthrightness.
Connie glanced down at Kits muddy skirt, then
at her own. Yes, they certainly are. How can we
explain without really explaining?
You might say you slipped and fell.
Where? Where is there mud today, on such a
beautiful afternoon? Then she looked down at the
mossy stone under her feet and at the others that fell
away below her to the beach. I have it!
Have what?
But Connie put a finger to her lips and grinned
impishly. Wait till you see me put on an act. If only
Mark doesnt give me away well be all right.
Suddenly, to the equal astonishment of both Tom
and Kit, her laughter trilled on the clear summer air.
It is slippery, isnt it! she cried in apparent
amusement, mingled with mild alarm. Her voice
carried easily to the beach.
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CHAPTER
sun.
Down in the garden, on a trestle table the family
used for outdoor suppers, Tom was cleaning
mackerel, whistling as he worked. It wasnt an
especially happy whistle, but rather a musical
accompaniment for his thoughts. Randy was
gathering wood for a fire in the outdoor fireplace,
bringing it around from the stack near the kitchen
door. Every once in a while he would stop and speak
to Tom, and Connie felt sure that he was suspicious
concerning Kits accident. She would have bet,
dollars to doughnuts, that he was trying to find out
whether they had been back to Eagle Rock.
Kit lay on the bed with her eyes shut, and Connie
stood at the window for a long time, thinking. Then
she heard a car pull up before the house, and heard
the sound of the front-door knocker. A few minutes
later a pleasant-faced, homely little man came into
the bedroom with a professional black satchel in his
hand. Mrs. Ridgeway accompanied him, but Connie
stayed at the foot of the bed while he examined Kit.
Hm, he said to himself. Nasty crack, that. Get
caught by a boom?
Kit dropped her eyes. II fell.
That hurt?
Yes.
That?
Not terribly.
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CHAPTER
10
Moonlight Sail
resounding bang.
She remembered, too, the conversation she and
her uncle had had about the Butterworths, and she
repeated the question she had asked herself then.
Could there be any relationship between the
Butterworth history and the present turn of events?
The discovery of the underground cave with its
tunnel to the bay seemed to say yes. But still things
didnt add up. Why the packing boxes of medicine
bottles? Why the attack in the dark? Why the locked
room? Why? Why? Why?
And a new question kept nudging its way into
Connies stream of consciousness. Where had Mark
been when Kit was assaulted in the cave? This, of
course, led to a whole stream of minor questions.
Why had he let her go back there alone? What
connection did he have with the whole affair that he
might be keeping secret? His middle name was
Butterworth, after all.
Connie decided, as she was stacking the dishes
and running water into the sink, that she would
make it her business to find out considerably more
about Toms moody friend and his peculiar uncle,
for whom no one had a good word to say.
Connie
Yes? Connie bounced abruptly back to the
present, and found Randy, dish towel in hand,
standing at her elbow.
115
asked.
Maybe. Connie was deliberately noncommittal.
But Randy felt encouraged. Maybe was a great
deal better than the outright no he had received
when he had made the same proposition to Kit a
little earlier in the evening.
Tomorrow? he prodded.
I dont know.
We could sneak off, Randy planned. Just us
two.
If you dont stop teasing I wont go at all,
Connie told him with mock fierceness.
Aw
I mean it!
O.K. O.K.
Randy subsided and dried the dinner plates
silently, wondering whether the half-promise he had
received was worth the work which he found
himself doing. The phone rang, and he threw down
his towel in an instant, to make a dash for it. The
call was for Tom, however, and he was forced to
return reluctantly to his task. Tom spoke briefly,
then appeared in the kitchen door.
Tell the folks the clam factory called, will you,
Randy? Theyre a guy short on the night shift and
theyll give me time and a half, so Im going to
climb out of these clothes and get going. He
grinned at Connie and rubbed his palm. Filthy
117
advanced.
Connie didnt continue the argument. She was a
little ashamed that they had quarreled on such a
beautiful night. For a while she sat very quiet and
withdrawn, looking out over the dark bay toward the
lights of Newport. Why was Mark so anxious to
keep her from going back to Eagle Rock? Just as she
was about to ask him, she checked herself. Mark,
she knew, would dodge with a denial or an indirect
answer.
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CHAPTER
11
136
CHAPTER
12
A Lone Expedition
out.
Marks grin was embarrassed. It does, at that,
he admitted. But your gang was getting a kick out
of the game, too.
Until yesterday. Connie rapped out the words.
Dont you think it was going a little berserk to
almost kill my sister?
What?
Do you think it was sportsmanlike to carry the
game quite that far?
I never
Connies head was high and her brown eyes were
accusing. I should think youd be ashamed!
Why
Knocking an innocent bystander unconscious!
Connie stormed. An innocent bystander, thats
what Kit was. And you did it just in a silly,
uncontrolled attempt to scare us off the premises for
good and all! Couldnt you think of a better way, a
way that wouldnt hurt anybody, a way that
wouldnt practically give a girl on vacation a
concussion? Is a place to do your practicing
undisturbed worth that?
Connie! Listen! You
But Connie would not be stopped. By the moment
she was growing more indignant, more scornful.
When she thought of the miserable night Kit had
spent, when she thought of her twin lying curled up
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CHAPTER
13
sumptuous stairway which curved to the mosaicpatterned marble floor of the reception hall.
For a moment Connie relaxed enough to giggle as
she turned and looked up at him. If we dont look
silly! she said. In a place like this I keep having
the feeling we should be in evening dress, you in
white tie and tails, and I in something glittering and
bouffant.
Youd look lovely in white, Mark told her.
A compliment! Connie cried. I believe its the
first compliment youve ever paid me. Reaching
the floor of the hall she dropped a mock curtsy,
holding the cuffs of her shorts daintily with the
finger tips of either hand. Thank you, sir.
Mark grinned. Even in that rig youll do, he
admitted. Now lets get going if were to beard the
lion in his den. I dont relish swimming the
Hellespont in one of these summer storms.
You wont have to swim, Connie promised. i
Have the car. Ill drop you off at home on my way
back to the Ridgeways.
Thatll certainly confuse Uncle Adolph, Mark
replied.
The door to the pantry stood open, and Mark
looked at the open window as Connie crossed the
kitchen to the cupboard which opened on the secret
passage to the cave. He knew at once what she had
had in mind. All ready for a quick getaway, I see.
150
Whats that?
She didnt know what she expected him to say. It
sounded as though someone had set off several
husky sticks of dynamite right above their heads.
But Marks expression was unexpectedly
reassuring. Thunder, he said, then added, Wed
better get out of here.
Connie breathed a sigh of relief, and even gave a
nervous chuckle to excuse her own terror. She gave
one last, lingering look around the storeroom to be
sure she had missed nothing, then followed Mark
bark into the cave proper and shut the door.
The water had risen fast since they had entered
the storeroom. It was lapping within a foot of the
very walls of the cave. And the aperture through
which the sickly yellow light continued to glow had
narrowed. Mark pointed it out. Look. Another hour
and the tunnel mouth will be completely closed.
Connie shivered. All right. Ive had enough.
Lets go.
She skidded across the slippery, sloping floor as a
rising wind whistled through the tunnel with an
eerie, menacing sound.
And lets not come back, Mark said behind her.
This place gives me the creeps.
As though to punctuate his sentence, a door
upstairs shut with a resounding bang. Connie
jumped and stopped so short that she could feel
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CHAPTER
14
Tom Translates
the fire
bomb
to fly
dangerous
without care
to arms
affair of
Goodness, she cried, it sounds like a plot.
Maybe the cave was used by enemy agents during
the war.
The word litre appears several times, and some
numbers.
Gas for an airplane? murmured Mark.
Down at the bottom the ink is so blurred I cant
make out a three-word phrase, Tom went on. Vol
de . . . vol de something, but I dont know what.
Kit dutifully made a note of the fact. Then she sat
staring at the paper in her hand. All of which means
exactly what?
Nobody had an answer to this question. Tom
passed the scrap of paper to Mark, who looked it
over carefully, then passed it along to Kit. Sounds
like an intrigue involving airplanes, but why?
Thats it. Why? Connie agreed. It doesnt
make sense.
She was thinking of the boxes of medicine
bottles, trying to find some link between them and
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CHAPTER
15
The Capture
stay there. Ill get Kit and Tom to go for the cops,
he called softly from directly beneath her. Just keep
an eye on things until I get back.
In another minute he had disappeared into the
seemingly impenetrable thicket concealing the path
to the house. Connie, tense with excitement, waited
anxiously. How long would it take to reach Tom and
Kit and tell them the story? Five minutes? Then how
long, in turn, would it take them to reach the car and
drive into Newport to the police station? Traffic was
bound to be heavy at this time of day in the crowded
shopping district. She began to wish they had made
arrangements to phone rather than to report their
discovery in person. But would the police have
credited such a wild story telephoned in by
strangers? Either way there was a definite risk.
Half an hour to three-quarters, Connie decided,
would probably be the best time Kit and Tom could
make to Newport and back, even counting on the
fact that their return would be by police car. She sat
hunched up on the rock, her arms hugging her knees.
Suppose Mr. Meredith finished with his business in
the cave before their return?
There were so many slips they hadnt considered,
so many threads left untied. For instance, suppose
Kit and Tom failed to have the beach covered while
they led their police escort through the house? Mr.
Meredith would have plenty of time to make a
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CHAPTER
16
Alls Well
190
191