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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 1930)
rnmmmmtmmmmmrnm ———————— THE DESERT MOON MYSTERY BY KAY CLEAVER STRAHAN 17 "That Is up to you,” Sam drawled. “As the sheriffs say, everything you say will be ased against you. But, as they don’t say, everything you don’t v*y will be used against you, a sight harder. If I knew you bad no suspicions, I v/ouldn't try to force you to invent wane, just to be sociable. But you were pretty free with your hints this morning. All right. Talk.” Hubert lowered his Roman nose and pulled at his mous tache for a minute. It was rasy to see he was busy with a decision of some sort. He ■cttled back in his chair more xnmforlably and, still pulling ml his moustache, he began. CHAPTER XXVII Hubert Hand Talks Well," he said, ‘T can talk all right. But I want to start with this understanding. I don’t know any facts that amount to a damn. You’re right that I have suspicions, ff you weren’t forcing them out of me. I’d have sense enough to keep my mouth dint, from now on, at least •ntil airing them might do ■ome good. But, since you are determined to have them now, at the point of a gun. I’ll say tliat I think John did it, and tint somebody else in the bouse is shielding him.” Danny gave a thin, sick iiUJe shriek and threw her arm around John in a protecting way. John straightened. Under his tan I rould see the color seeping out of his face. Gently, he removed Danny’s arm. Bam lowered his white eye brows until his eyes looked like two slits of blue light, glinting out from away behind bis face. When he spoke his voice was iron. "Why do you think John ^ _n ^mtru iivTi i “In the first place, John is the only one here who hasn’t a water-tight alibi—” “Wot by a damn sight he Isn’t,” Sam interrupted. “But never mind. Go on.” “At four o’clock Gaby came down through the room. While sire was still in sight, Danny called clown, trying to get her to come back. Now this is just Mntfiher suspicion, I don’t know whether anyone here will back me up in it or not— probably not,"—he added the last in a hateful, slurring way —“but I noticed that her voice Kuanded strange, like she was excited, maybe, or else afraid.” Sam asked, “Did anyone else her notice anything of that kind?” l nau ceciaea ngm at nrst, to keep my mouth shut about everything; so 1 did, *1 thought not,” Hubert Hand said, as if he had known from the start that he was the only honest one in the crowd. Mrs. Ricker spoke. ‘ I noticed It," she said Hubert bowed to her, in a sort of mocking way. Know- | ing what I knew. I thought ; that her corroboration would «to Hubert Hand more harm than good. But, of course, the others did not know what I knew. Nor were they going to know it, since Hubert Hand was keeping his part of our bargain. Right or wrong, I was thankful, just then, that we had made that bargain. “Let me **?e," Hubert Hand continued 'where was I? Gaby, af LV. „oing through the room, stopped on the porch for a minute to talk to Chad. He came into the house in a line humor. Gaby then went around the house to the rab bit hutch, and for some reason, gave her bracelet to Martha. When Martha’s turn comes, in this inquisition. I suggest that she be questioned rather closely.” Bam banged his fist on the table. ‘‘Never mind your sug Ttsiin* Mr. Asha's Memory. From Minneapolis Tribune. U thf physicians cannot authenti cate the a^e of Zaro Asha. who MMMicstiv claims to have survived theweissitudes of 156 years, it may fee barely passible that the framers cl ^urestlonnaure.s can throw some f$cht cm the veracity ol that vener able gentleman's pretensions. The Tribune is frankly skeptical of Mr. A^ha. It does not believe Vnl any rational person with the »r cumulated wisdom of 156 years w.wld be silly enough to risk his 157th year in America, whev 1930 jaruMiel roadsters are known to be no respecters ol *774 model «v«eks. gestions. You are acusing John now. Stick to that.” “You bet,” Hubert Hand ac cepted, “especially since Mar tha was in the house again within five or ten minutes, with every last one of us. Danny had come down by that time. From four to five, then, you and I were playing chess. Chad was at the piano. Danny and Mary were over there, ; talking together. Mrs. Ricker , was tatting, where she is now, i by the window. Martha was : bothering us, part of the time, and part of the time she was just fooling around the room. I'm pretty certain not one of j us left this room during that ! hour. You might check up on j that, Sam.” Sam asked Mrs. Ricker, and Danny, and me, if we remem bered anyone’s leaving the : room during that hour. We all said we did not. Danny added that she might not have noticed. I wished seeing Hubert Hand smile, she had let well enough alone and not bothered to add that. “At five," Hubert Hand re sumed, “we three men went together to let the cows in and to milk. Mary, I believe, was j in the kitchen alone, getting supper, during that time. Mrs. Ricker, Danny and Martha re mained here in the living room. Is that right?” “Maybe it is. and maybe it isn’t,” Sam said. “There is the hour in there, before supper, that we’ll all have to account for, right accurately, before any of us has that water-tight alibi you were talking about, Hand. And,” Sam added, with his own sort of emphasis, “we won’t have it then.” “All right, Huoeix nana agreed. “You and Chad and I went down to the barns to gether. We let the cows in. We milked them. At least, you and I did. Chad stayed with you and was kidding around down in your end of the barn. I heard you laughing and talk ing down there, together, the whole time. Is that right-” “Practically,” Sam an swered. “All but,I couldn’t swear that you were in the barn during the entire time.” “No? Well. I’ll admit that I hadn’t thought of that. If I’d thought of it. I’d probably have known that you— how is it?—couldn’t swear that I was in the barn during the entire time.” “Meaning?” Sam demanded. “That if John is guilty, you’ll shield him with your last lie. Sam’s fist knotted at his side. His voice was not iron, now; it was tempered steel. We’ll settle about my last lie later, Hand.” “You’re begging for this,” Hubert Hand reminded him. “Get on!” “I milked four cows. Not very good, for the time— about forty minutes; but as good work as you did. And I will swear that you were in the barn the entire time. Anyway, that is easy settled. Mary, did I, or did anyone of the three of us, come through the kit chen and go upstairs during that hour?” “No,” I answered. “Weren’t you.” Sam ques tioned going back and forth between the kitchen and the dining-room?” “No. Danny set the table for me. I didn’t step foot out of the kitchen.” “Mrs. Ricker,” Hubert Hand questioned, “did any one of us men come in, and go up stairs through the living-room during that hour?” “No," she said. “Mrs. Ricker,” Sas asked, “were you right there, alone, in the living-room during that entire hour?” “I was not alone. Martha was with me. And. several times during the hour, five or six times at least, Danny came ! Neither does it believe that a vet eran of the French revolution, of the Crimea and of Plevna would be foolhardy enough, if informed of the hazards ahead, to strike out to ward Chicago. Nevertheless, if the visiting Turk's memory can be tested and checked by questionnaire, it may yet be proved that he Is. in reality, the patriarch of 156 summers. Can Mr. Agha, for exan-o*. , re ! call the last heavy-weight fignt that ! did not end In a foul? Does his memory run back to the i year when Babe Ruth was first des , cribed as slipping? oan he remember the first fare i wail tour of Harry Lauder, and the m irom trie dining-room to see whether she could see John coming up the road.” “Danny,” Sam spoke to her, “were Mrs. Ricker and Martha in the living-room every time yau went in there-” “I—think so.” “Only think so, eh?” Hubert Hand half sneered it. “I mean,” Danny explained, “that I am sure Mrs. Ricker was here. She was sitting right by the window. I did not particularly notice Martha.” “I can vouch for Martha,” Mrs. Ricker snapped. “All right,” Hubert Hand went on, “so far, so good. The ladies, I think, especially if you remember the glass doors between the living-room and the dining-room, have estab lished alibis that would satisfy any jury. “Now for you and Chad and ! me, again. We walked to gether, carrying the milk, to the dairy. There we took off the barn coveralls, and at your suggestion, washed up in the dairy kitchen to save time. We came back to the house together. Mary said that sup per was on the table. We all sat down to the table to gether. All present you see, except John. “Would it have been possible for you, or for me, or for Chad, to have gone down to the barn (you and I each milked four cows, remember), come back to the house and through it, with not one of the ladies see ing us, committed the murder, got back to the barn, and then to the house again, all in an hour? I think, Sam the wisest thing you can do, is to grant us all our alibis for that hour, anyway, and then work on from there, if you’re bound to.” I felt reasonably certain that, if Hubert Hand had gone through the living-room, be tween five and six o’clock, Mrs. Ricker would not tell of it. But I was more certain that Danny, on the watch out for John, would have seen anyone who had come in through the front door. “The aiiDi nour sounas nne, Hand,” Sam said, “but you are making a mistake. You are as suming that I think that someone here committed the murder. I don’t think that. I do think that someone in this room, right now, knows who did it. Where any one ot' us was, or was not, at the par ticular hour you’re making such a stew about, probably doesn’t cut any ice.” “I think it does. I began this, you know, by saying that I thought John—” “You said that once,” Sam interrupted. “Once is plenty. Go ahead with it now. if you can. Give your proofs.” “There you go. I told you I didn’t have any proofs, didn’t I, when you made me talk? But I have got some pretty solid bases for my suspicions. John decided, all of a sudden, to go to Rattail for the mail— or something. The kidding he came in for, right then, shows whether he usually went for the mail on a holiday after noon. He was gone four hours instead of the two—two and a half, anyway—that he could have made it in. He had two bum excuses. First, tire trouble. That would be a better excuse, if the car wasn’t standing in the garage right now with the same tires on it that he started out with.” “I know you said you had no proof of anything,” Sam broke in. “I reckon, of course, you can prove that, though?” John spoke. “I don’t think he could prove it, dad, since the spare was a Truetread, same as the others. But he’s right. I changed tires twice, that’s all. The spare was rot ten. When I had the second : blow-out, I patched the first tire and put it back on. The patch is there, to prove that.” ‘‘And the rotten spare?” Hubert Hand questioned. “It wasn’t worth bothering to put on the rack. I rolled it off across the desert.” “My mistake,” Hubert Hand said. “Maybe. Two hours is a long time to change tires, even twice. The second excuse was. that he had met Leo Saule and | summer in which Minneapolis' pav ing blocks were not washed out and | replaced on an average of three times ct wc^k? I Does he recall the first war to end ! gang wars in Chicago? Can he name, within a decade, the year in 1 which Will Hays did not clean up the movies, in which Senator Brookhart remained discreetly si I lent and in which the northwest re I ceived, and agriculture with it, all the breaks in Congress? Let Mr. Zaro Agha rally his an rtent wits about him and set to work. The Questions, if he is actual I lv 156 years old, seem fair enough. But if he has barely passed the cen 1 turv mark, lat the gentleman naa given mm a tow. Same is a rotien little half-breed, who could be bought for a hall collar. Also, he lives alone away off the main road—” John jumped to his feet “Get this. Hand—” Sam j imped too. He got to John and put his hands or his shoulders. ' Keep your shiri on, son. I am to blame foi this. Your turn is coming Wait for it. Go on, Hand.” John hesitated, and sal down again. Sum went back to his chair by the table. “Sorry,” Hubert Hand apolo gized, “I don’t like this a damn bit better than John does; but it seems to be up to me. Well, then, he came ir two hours late. He cam? through the kitchen; and in stead of leaving me car m me garage, he left it in the bacb entrance. He went straighi upstairs. It took him half ar hour, or more, to get shaveo and change his clothes. When he came down he acted like a man in a daze. He couldn’t eat. He offered being out in the sun every day. “I think that he had met Gaby, as they had planned right after dinner when he started for Rattail. Maybe shf had promised him to leave the place. He was crazy to get he) off the ranch. I know that He told me so, just the othe) day—said she was making trouble here, and so on. She may have had something on him, that she was threatening to tell Danny, or Sam. I don’t know about that, either. 1 don’t know a damn thing about whatever they might have had between them. Bui I think that he killed her. out on the desert some place. “I don't think that he hat? planned to do it. I think he must have threatened her. of/ and on, though; her note te Danny, and other things, sho\* that she was afraid for hei life. All the same, I think he started it. yesterday, as q bluff. But the desire was back of the bluff—that’s pretty cer tain. “I don t Know wny nt brought her body back and hit? it in the house. I don’t give him credit ior figuring out what a smart thing that was to do. He may have been afraid of footprints in the road, 01 ; on the desert, if he carried the body away and tried to hide it out there. He didn’t know that the storm was coming, t<? cover up his traces. I think, though, that it was pure funk that made him come driving home with the body hidden in the car—covered with the sacks of rock salt. “I didn’t like to think that it was Danny who helped him out, after that. It didn’t seem like her. I couldn’t think oi anyone else, though, whe would help him. In the last few minutes, I’ve managed tc think of someone else. It is a lucky thing for John. You are a damn sight stronger 1 ally, Sam, than Danny or anj one else would have been. For instance—this present mag , nificent bluff of your’s.” “All right,” Sam said. “All : through?” “I’m satisfied, if you are,' Hubert Hand answered. “I’m not,” Sam drawled “Because, like the caterpillar said, ‘It’s all wrong from be ginning to end.’ It is a queer thing, though, the way quo tations always come to me. Most of the time you were 1 talking. Hand, I kept thinking • of this one: ‘Give a guilt> man enough rope and he will hang himself.’ ” CHAPTER XXVIII John Talks If you mean me, dad,” John spoke right up, and I’d given a pretty penny to have had him say something else, for of course, Sam had not meant him. “I’m not worried. Thej don’t hang innocent men in Nevada, no matter how much rope their friends present them with.” “As a matter of fact,’ Hubert Hand said, “I guess I they don’t hang any men in Nevada, now, do they? Lethal chamber, isn’t it?” ]. __ (TO B» CONTINUED) ware. He is in, we should say, lor s first rate flunking. -- » » ■ - .. ■ Naming Pullman Cars. From Fortune. Mrs. Frank O. Lowden, daughter J of the late George Mortimer Pull man, never, though thousands have believed that she did, named a sin gle Pullman car. It was Richmond bean who achieved the brilliant record of naming 300 Pullman cars in 24 hours. He did so by dispatching a phalanx of assistants to the public library and having them copy virtually every old Ro 1 man and Grecian name of which 1 thaia was record. Now Comes lialkura Shaving Cream A New (gticura Product Men who like a smooth, agreeable shave should try it. Containing, in a modified form, the emollient properties of Cutimril, it makes shaving easy and at the same time is soothing and cooling. It leaves the skin fresh and clear, free from any tense dry feeling. Sells for 35c. a tube. Sold by druggists or mailed on receipt of price, by Potter Drug & Chemical Corporation, Sole Proprietor* Maiden, Mass. Rejuvenation Dr. Sims Lee Rice, the Richmond surgeon, was talking about the Voro noflf and other methods of rejuve nation. “These methods,” he said, “reju venate, yes, but the rejuvenation only lasts a short time. A year or so passes, and you are older, far older, than before.” “One of our millionaires,” Profes sor Rice went on, “underwent the re juvenating operation, and temporari ly the change in him was remark able. Though he was seventy years (Did, a crop of thick brown iiair burst forth on Ids bald head, his wrinkles disappeared, and the strength of youth came hack to him. “When lie returned home the homo papers all called him the grand old Eian.” Vitality of Germs Germs sealed up in culture tubes 20 years ago have been found to be stilt alive by Dr. Ortiz Patto, reports Modern Mechanics Magazine. Hav ing a number of these culture tubes made up ns long ago as 1903, he in oculated samples into living animals to see if typical diseases would oe produced. Many of the germs grow in tlie new cultures and some pro duced disease just ns these same germs would have done when young. He Knew His Kitchens A corpulent widower planning to be married in the near future was in specting an apartment. After a peel; at the kltelien lie said: “Have you one with a smaller kitchen? I don’t like to help wash dishes."—Indian apolis News. An author may lie good in spite of some faults, hut not in spite of uiuuy faults.—Voltaire. ! What is “mental anguish” if not worry? Speaking of Sermon* A young fellow from Fargo who should have known better than ask the question, inquires “if there aro many women preachers in the United Stales?” “Millions,” sighed the Trib une editor, gazing at ills wife’s pic ture on the desk. “Millions, my hoy;, and they're not all in the pulpits, either.” Candles as Bullet* C’apt. Kric I>. Porter, infantry, of the department of experiment, Fort Penning, as part of a test recently fire*! an ordinary tallow candle from a l--gaugc shotgun, completely pene trating a one-inch pine board at close range,—Army and Navy Jour nal. _ Must Be Natural It is impossible to simulate hon esty; honesty begins with yourself.— Unhid J. It. Wise. Outdoors is the place for had ama teur singers to sing, but the very out ermost outdoors. and Li VER TROUBLE S, Coated tongue, bad breath, constipation, bili ousness, r.ausca, indigestion, dizziness, insom nia result from acid stomach. Avoid scrioua illness by taking August Flower at once. Get at any good druggist. Relieves ptomplhj — sweetens stomach, livens liver, aids digestion, clears out poisons. You feel fine, eat anything, with ^UGUST p LOWER Sioux City Ptg. Co., No. 33-1930. A child with 30 dolls doesn't care much for any. It is often a good deal the same way with a man with, many friends. a • j Flit is sold only Avoid in this yellow — 3 _ H can with the || I ® | black band. typhoid ■ Largely carried by Flies. Get your Flit and the Special Flit Sprayer. t I 8 j j O’tnottuMotB* , Happy Woman Tells How She Lost 19 Pounds of Fat in 27 Days During October n woman In Mon tana wrote—“My first bottle of Kruschen Salts lasted almost 4 weeks and during that time I lost 19 pound* of fat—Kruschen Is all you claim for It—I feel better than l have for years.” Here’s the recipe that banishes fat and brings Into blossom all the nat ural attractiveness that every woman possesses. Every morning take one half tea spoonful of Kruschen Salts iu a glass of hot water before breakfast. Be sura and do this every morning for "It's the little dally dose that takes off the fat."—Don’t miss a morn ing. The Kruschen habit means that every particle of poisonous waste matter and harmful acids and gases are expelled from the system. At the same time the stomach, liver kidneys and bowels are toned up and the pure, fresh blood containing Na ture's six life-giving salts are carried! to every organ, gland, nerve and flbru of the body and this is followed by “that Kruschen feeling" of energctio health and activity that is reflected in bright eyes, clear skin, cheerful vi vacity and charming flgure. If you want to lose fat with speed get an Sac bottle of Kruschen Salts from any live druggist anywhere in America with the distinct under standing that you must be satislied with results cr money back, i