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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1933)
MURDER Bv An ARISTOCRAT Mignon G. Eberhart “Rather,” .said Dave, look ing at his plate. He did look II, pale and tired, with heavy lyciidr. On seeing the two men faring each other, I re alized that their resemblance was largely a family matter sf bone structure and color tog. Dave's face was flabbier than his cousin's, more pas rivc, less hard. His mouth was not thin and predatory, it was Indecisive and faintly sullen. He continued: “I promised Allen to go fishing with him this afternoon, and I suppose he’ll be along soon.” “Fish aren’t biting today,” laid Bayard. "Too hot.” "They always bite in That cher lake,” said Janice. I don't know why I felt that both she and Adela had not expected Dave to appear and that for some reason his pres ence violently disturbed them. Perhaps it was in the eager ness with which they clutched at conversational openings. "That lake Is full of fish. They all but jump at you." "Here is your coffee, dear,” said Adela anxiously. "I don’t think you ought to go today. It will be frightfully hot and close there around the lake. It won’t do your head any good.” "Nothing will,” said Dave. "So you’re going with Al ien,” said Bayard. He was looking at Janice instead of Dave, whom he apparently addressed. His face wore that cordonic look I was begin ning to know, "Well—don’t fall in.” Janice’s dark eyes dropped, and there was for an instant a kind of pinched look about her mouth. Dave said without much interest: un, i can swim. Anyway, I shouldn’t think it would worry you. Bayard.” ‘‘Naturally not,” Bayard was beginning, when Adela defin itely and firmly interrupted. ‘‘Janice, before you go will you be sure to tell Higby to mow the west lawn this after noon. Emmeline will be out in the summer kitchen making jelly, and she can keep an eye on him. He’s apt to loiter, these warm days, if he isn’t watched. You’d better eat some lunch, Dave, if you’re going to the lake this after noon. Allen will be along pretty soon. I imagine. Don’t let me forget to ask if Evelyn heard from the boys today. My two nephews,” she said to me. "My brother Hilary’s sons. Splendid boys — really fine boys. Both away at school now. At some sort of camp. But they are coming home soon for summer holidays. I’m sure they’ll enjoy the lake, Dave. Hilary said, by the way. he had bought that old sport roadster of Frank Whiting’s for them to use. I was against it; but if they Just manage not to break their necks they’ll enjoy it, I sup pose. Coffee, Miss Keate? Florrie, coffee for Miss Keate, please.” All so bland, all so careful ly «legant—curious that her hands, blunt and white below their snowy organdy ruffles, shook a little, and she moved a piece of flat silver beside her plate in a constant pat tern. But I daresay she could have kept up that gentle lit tle pattern indefinitely while Bayard sat there sipping iced tea and looking at the slice of lemon floating in it and then at Janice with an im penetrable expression in his yellow-gray eyes, and Janice, white as the cloth, avoiding Bayard’s eyes and trying to help. Fortunately lunch was soon over, and shortly after Allen Carick, driving a battered old roadster which I judged to be the one recently purchased for the boys, arrived and pres ently left again with Dave be side him. Dave’s hat was pulled low ove rhis eyes to •void the glare of the sun, although Allen had no hat at all, his lean brown face ex posed as if he liked it, and his sun-bleached hair shin ing. At the last moment (he dog (whose name, by the way, was Pansy) decided to go along, and waddled fatly down the dri/e in their wake, her long ears flopping and her tongue lolling, and had to be called back and forcibly restrained by Janice. She was, It seemed, a creature of temperament— the dog, I mean—and as I helped my patient upstairs to his own room for a rest, I could hear her yapping an grily from the library, where Janice had incarcerated her, and scratching pettishly at the closed door in a way which, in a creature less fa vored. would have brought in stant reproof from Adela. I think she relaxed her house keeping vigilance only for Pansy. And, possibly, for Dave. “And now,” said Bayard Thatcher, when he was once more lying rather wearily on the bed in his own room, “I’m going to take a nap, and I want to be alone*” “But I don’t like to leave you,” I protested. “It doesn’t seem quite—” I hesitated, thinking of the peaceful household, but said— “quite safe.” He laughed. “Entirely safe, I assure you. Look here. At the east edge i of the lawn—you can see It from the window there—is a sort of arbor with some very comfortable chairs. Chairs you can stretch out and sleep in. It’s cool, shady, and quiet. Why don’t you go down there and get fresh air and rest at the same time?” Afterward I wondered a lit tle at his solicitude. Even at the time something said faint ly In the back of my mind: Is he trying to get you out of the house? Why? But the sug gestion was Extremely attrac tive. “If you are sure— “Perfectly sure. Run along, Miss Keate.” Well, I took a book from my bag just in case I couldn’t actually sleep, and went, al though as a rule I suspect ar bors, which are apt to be rather dank places with vines that are too heavy and un expected spiders dropping on one’s head and worms prom enading over one’s ankles. But this one proved to be merely a shaded place on the lawn’s edge, open and pleasant, with gayly cushioned chairs and j an unobstructed view of the whole front and east side of the house. I settled myself drowsily and yielded to the dreamy mood induced by staring lazily across a sun-drenched lawn, listening with half an ear to the sound of the birds and the soothing whir of a lawnmower somewhere out of sight, and digesting an excellent lunch. Alter all, my terrors of the night might have been most ly imaginative; nothing sin ister or dreadful could pos sibly take place in that tran quil household on that tran quil summer afternoon. About 2:30 I saw Florrie emerge from the corner back of the house, dressed no doubt in her best for her afternoon out. She walked rapidly down a side path and disappeared toward town. It was very quiet and very warm, with the scent of the flowers in the sun and the mown grass mingling with a faint odor, of boiling grapejuice which drifted around the house from the summer kitchen—which, by the way, was built out from i the house, entirely separated from it, with a laundry in one end. I was almost asleep when the front door banged. It was Janice, crisp and dainty in white, with a small white hat over tier dark nair, She car ried an enormous brown wick er basket over each arm. stopped among the flowers to fill one of the baskets with roses and tall blue Delphin iums, and then walked briskly to the garage. Presently she backed out a small coupe with the most expert precision, turned and drove clown the drive and away, the flowers nodding in the seat beside her. With Janice’s departure si lence came again, a drowsy, warm silence which was only broken about a quarter of an hour later when the front door banged again. This time it was the dog Pansy, who’d apparently managed to release herself from the library and was bolting across the lawn and into the shrubbery. I was faintly amused to note that she had all the earmarks of a dog who’s been recently punished: Her tail tucked in. her ears hugging her head, her legs making their best speed. She looked, in fact, as if she’d been kicked, which was absurd, for only Adela and my patient were in the house, and my patient w;as resting in his own room. And a few minutes later Ade'a herself came out on the porch, closing the screened door gently behind her ana putting up her parasol before she ventured from the shady porch into the heat of the sun. Idly I watched her dig nified progress along the turf path to the road and the side walk to town. She looked cool and pleasant in her favorite lavender dotted-swiss, with soft frills about the throat and wrists and her eyeglasses dangling on a ribbon. It was exactly 3 o’clock when she turned onto the sidewalk leading to town, and the serenity of complete si lence, save for the soft whir of the lawnmower, again lay all about me. The peal of the telephone, which rang about 15 minutes after Adela left, seemed particularly loud and sharp and demanding against the drowsy stillness. The win dows of the house were open, of course, and the sound of the telephone so shrill and imperious that I started to my feet. However, it broke off abruptly in the middle of one of its peals and did not ring again, so I relaxed against my pillows once more. The thought did cross my ( mind that my patient must > have answered it, for Emme line was deaf, and out in the summer kitchen besides, but if Bayard was up and wander ing about the nouse it couldn’t hurt him, and I was too list less to care. Afterward they asked me if I had slept, even for a few moments, during that quiet sunny afternoon, but I knew I hadn’t. I lay there quiet, soaking in the peace and tran quality that enfolded me, looking lazily at that gracious old house. But I did not sleep. I’m sure of that and always was. It does seem curious that I didn’t, when I was so tired from a wakeful night. It’s i possible that some inner rest lessness, some hidden fore boding kept me a little un easy. But if so it was an en tirely unacknowledged pre monition, I am a reasonable woman, and my reason told me that the house was quiet and empty save for my sleep ing patient. Emmeline was making grape jelly in the summer kitchen, and Higby mowing the lawn steadily around on the west lawn, and ail was well. At 4 o’clock—I know it was 1 then, for I glanced at my watch and marveled how fast the afternoon was flying— Hilary turned in from the . street and walked quickly | along the turf path to the house. He looked hot and ; rather flushed from his walk, j and as he stepped up on the porch he took off his hat, I passed his handkerchief over his head, and without paus ing to ring, opened the door and disappeared in the cool depths of the house. Ten min utes later he emerged, settled His hat on his head, ana walked briskly away. I rtmpjn ber thinking that if he'd come to see my patient their inter view must have been brief and calm, for theie v.as not, so far as I could see, a shad ow of agitation about Hilary’s complacent pink face. He had no more than gone, however, when, coming from the opposite direction in which he had disappeared, the yel low roadster turned smooth ly into the drive and stopped at the side of the house. It was Evelyn again at the wheel. She did not see me, but walked directly across the lawn to the porch, her ta'l figure graceful and hand some in her light summer fn ck, and her smooth gold head bare. She went at once into the house but emerged in only a moment or two, got into the roadster, °nd backed with some of Janice’s expert exactness out of the drive. I did not notice that, once in the road, she drove toward town instead of going in the direction from which she’d come. Those were the only inter ruptions during that long, lazy afternoon. After Evelyn’s departure the place sank again into its somnolent si lence, with Higby's lawnmow er still going smoothly and methodically, if a trifle lan guidly, and the smell of boil ing grapejuice growing strong er and more pungent. Once I whistled for the dog, but she seemed to have gone to sleep in some thicket and did not appear. The shadows were begin ning to slant long on the greens of the lawn, and I was thinking of rousing myself and returning to duty when the coupe swung again into the drive, and Janice and Adela got out. Janice carried her two wicker baskets, heavy now, directly into the house but Adela lingered along the garden, saw me, and ap proached. “Did you have a good rest?” she asked pleasantly. “Very nice indeed. It’s been such a lazy, pleasant after noon.” “I like it under the trees, here. Our home is quite nice in the summer, I think. How good Emmeline’s jelly smells! We must have some of it at dinner. Somehow, it always tastes better when it’s just made. No, no, don’t trouble to come in now. It’s a long time till dinner, and I’m sure a nurse needs all the rest she can get.” I watched her walk quietly across the lawn. She had al most reached the step when a scream arose within the house. It rose short and sharp, stabbing the peace like a thin knife. It was followed swiftly by other screams—all of them high and jerky and sharp. The door flew open. Em meline ran out, still scream ing. Her white apron was dabbled with purple stains. Her arms were bare to the elbow, and she lifted purple hands and waved them jerk ily. “Help!” she screamed. “Murder!” Adela stopped dead still, as if she d been struck. The whir of the lawnmower stopped. Every bird hushed, and in the shocked silence the woman shrieked again: “Murder 1 Murder! He’s all shot to pieces!” (TO BE CONTINUED) Machine Age Caught Up With the Camel Washington — (UP* — The camel has at last been affected by the machine age. Moslem pilgrims who cross the Arabian Desert to the holy city of Mecca, near the famed Red Sea, now use the automobile to a large degree instead of the camel, ac cording to the Commerce Depart ment. CameJ caravans were formerly employed exclusively to transport the pious overland from Egypt. Syria, Iraq and other parts of the Moslem world to the place of pil grimage. Hard-surfaced roads have re placed caravan routes. New Locality for Fo:*il Mammals Announced Ottawa, Ont. —(UP)— Disco; ery « a new locality for fossil mam «a(s in Canada Is announced by ©r. U S. Russell and Dr. R. T. D. Wiefeenden of the Geological Sur rey, Department of Mines, Ct >fcw* Working in the viciulty of Swilt Current, Sask., They obtained a cnali collection of fossil teeth vaieb prob'd to represent runnels ml the lat# Eocene times, not pve ttouctT found In Canada. Such ; fossils have been found in Utah and have been more recently u,s covered in Southern California. The Saskatchewan collection Includes teeth of a rhinoceros, of titanotheros (large horn bearing beasts), of a three-toed horse, primitive anteiope like creatures; and a forerunner of tha squirrels. Mast interesting is a single rabbit teoih, one of the oldest known records of such animals. The fossil bearing beds arc part ot a great sheet of coarse grained rocks over tlia Cypress Hills and east of Swift Current and resting on an irrcaular stnjace if ih? older formations. There are in dications there that Southern Saskatchewan during the early par of the age of mammals had sal’ejs and uplands differing m elevation by as much a3 1.400 feet. War Vet Awarded Purple Heart Order Laredo, Tex. —(UP)— Pedro Ro cha, who fought in the American armv in th« World war. has been awarded one of the new purple heart orders and cited for a silver star medal In recognition of his activities in the Meuse-Argonne campaign. The new purple order was giv ■ en him for wounds he received. The citation was for his brave 1 part in capture of two German guns which then were turned on the enemy. The latter feat was performed in company with mem [ bers of two platoons. Rocha now is janitor at the Laredo Dost of fie* ] Extra Housework Made by Untidy Hands Small Matters to Which Even the Older Mem bers of Family Do Not Always Give Amount of Thought Which They Deserve. In these days when detective sto ries are popular, many readers, young and old alike, believe that i they have instinct, or at least qual i ities, which would lead them to dis cover clues leading to the solution ; or thefts and crimes, should they f have a chance to exercise them. They ; seldom think of things the other way ! around, with an appreciation of how I easy It would be for anyone to track ! them down. They are constantly 1 leaving trails of what they do in } the simple and innocent activities of their days. ) Yet they wonder how it Is that mother, father, some one in the fami ly, or one with whom they are boon I I companions discover what they have been doing or “what they are up to.’’ It may be with no wish to con ceal their actions that things are not spoken of earlier, but opportun ity may not have arisen or the “right time” for which they were looking, has not come. Then, when they do speak of the thing. It is they who are amazed, for they can see the information is not totally a urprise to the hearer. Leading Signs. “How does mother always know when i have been at her work bas ket, even for a needle and thread?" Is the (piery of surprise, often voiced by some daughte s. H«>>v indeed! The needle is left on tnbb nr bureau wherever tlie sewing stopped. In her rounds of straightening rooms one such needle is generally discovered. On putting it away, the needlecase [ Is found to be lying open and the end of the thread on the spool not fastened off. These are not char acteristic ways f>( the mothers. They are of the daughters, who thus leave clues about, praiseworthy as the work Itself probably is. Who lias been writing at father’s desk? Not that it would in itself be disliked, but the stopper to the Ink bottle is off, and that is annoying. The ink gets dusty and the next time father writes he is bothered with tiny specks on the pen, whiclt make strokes uneven. He does not have to be a Sherlock Holmes to know who is the culprit—and lie or she gets taken to task and the clues are not wrong which led to the discovery. Silent Clues. Or when there is pasting Lo be done, and the top is not replaced on the tube or the cover on the paste iar, clues are not wanting to point wllh insistent accuracy to some one, not the owner of the tube or Jar. having been using said paste. When the cracker Jar lid is not put on straight mother does not have to look inside and find the lowered contents, to know somebody has had an especial treat. But it isn’t al ways children who leave trails of their activities in their wake. Older people share with them the same traits of leaving trails which sim plify detection of activities. Care less trails are untidy and make ex tra work for the homemaker. ®. ISM Bell Syndicate.—WNU Servtre. AN AWFUL COUGH! . . AND BACKACHE . . Davenport, Iowa— “I was afflicted with a terrible cough— would cough myself out of breath, espe cially at night, and nothing I tried gave me permanent relief. I also had a severe pain in my back which was almost constant, and from this I could get no relief,” said Mrs, Violet Loving of 1529 West 6th St. ' Finally, I de cided to try Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery. I took four bottles but before I had taken half that quantity I was well, ray cough was all gone and I have had no trouble of the kind since.” Wrin is Dr. Pimii’i Clints, Butt sin, V v, I'nr (ran ntdiial sdiiss. Sinus Trouble Makes Lifs Unbearable Lilt yesr a prominent New York judge and his wife committed suicide because sinus trouble made life unbearable. Prevent sinus infection. If nose is stuffed, head hurts across the front, throat is lined with phlegm, use S1NASIPTEC, the marvelous discovery ofa St. Louis doctor. SINA51P TEC makes breathing easy, keeps head and throat dear and protects again« colds, catarrh, hay fever and sinus infection. Fear this out. Get a large bottle ofSINASIPTEC from your druggist and use it in warm water as directed. Seyit:—Sins-sip-tec. Diet Didn’t Do This! HAPPY little girl, just bursting with pep, and she has never tasted a “tonic!” Every child’s stomach, liver, and bowels need stimulating at times, but give children something you know all about. Follow the advice of that famous family physician who gave the world Syrup Pepsin. Stimulate the body’s vital organs. Dr. Caldwell’s prescription of pure pepsin, active senna, and fresh herbs is a mild stimulant that keeps the system from getting sluggish. If your youngsters don’t do well at school, don’t play as hard or eat as well as other children do, begin this evening with Dr. Caldwell’s Syrup Pepsin. This gentle stimulant will soon right things! The bowels will move with better regularity and thoroughness. There won’t be so many sick spells or colds. You’ll find it just as wonderful for adults, too, in larger spoonfulsl Get some Syrup Pepsin; protect your household from those bilious days, frequent headaches, and that sluggish state of half-health that means the bowels need stimulating. Keep this preparation in the home to use instead of harsh cathartics that cause chronic constipation if taken too often. You can always get Dr. Caldwell’s Syrup Pepsin at any drug store; they have it all ready in big bottles. THIS WOMAN LOST 35 LBS. MJm M. Katnfr of Brooklyn. S. Y„ K'riles: “Have usrd Kruschen for the pa*t 4 months and have not only lost 35 pounds hut feel so much better In every wuy. Even for people who don't earn to reduce. Kruschen is wonderful to keep the system lien 11 hv. I beinn a nurse should know for I've tried so many thin*** but only Krone hen answered all purposes.'* (Mae It. 1932). TO lose fat SAFELY and HARM LESSLY, taka a half teaspoonful of Kruschen in a glass of hot water in the morning before breakfast— don’t miss a morning—a bottle that lasts 4 weeks costs but a trifle—but don't take chances—be sure it’s Kruschen—your health cornea first— get it at any drugstore in America. If not joyfully satisfied after the first bottle—money back. DVERTISING is as essen tial to business as is rain to growing crops. It is the key stone in the aich of successful merchandising. Let us show you how to apply it to vour business. I ( I QUICK RELIEF FROM COLDS Mistol FOR NOSE AND THROAT Essence of Mistol ON HANDKERCHIEF AND PILLOW ACID ITY NEW FACTS ABOUT HEADACHES. SLEEPLESSNESS. OEBIUTY, ETC. Acidity is a danger signal. Don't bo1 | tatished merely to correct the con- ( dition in your stomach. Your en tire system is concerned. Take' COLD MEDAL HAARLEM OIL CAPSULES 'They stimulate your kidneys so’ | that they free your whols bodt| of more acids. See if they don’t I relieve all your acidity troubles. I i Insist on gold iieidal. 35f(. 4