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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 8, 1933)
MURDER By An ARISTOCRAT Mignon a. Eberhart *» _ My only desire during tnose days was to get away. And Dr. Bouligny Insisted on pro- j longing my stay. Florrie need ed my care, he said. And the ; semblance of the ordinary, everyday state of affairs which they had built up was »o real In Its outward aspects that I could not refuse. I could not say openly that I wanted to leave, because— | well, because Adela looked worried, harassed, and old— ; •r Kvelyn dark and ill—or Hilary frightened. That I wanted to leave because a ■urn had been killed In that house. That I was afraid. And I scarcely dared say that I wanted to leave be cause I was convinced that ene of them had murdered a man. Nothing, however, happened during those three days; it seems incredible as I write It, hut It's true. Florrie had got ever her communicativeness; Dave stayed out of sight, and when Dr. Bouligny asked What I had done with the re maining veronal tablets and 1 told him Evelyn had them he seemed quite satisfied and said no more about it. It was when Florrie was sitting up in a chair and an amazing dressing gown which •nly Florrie could have thought anything but poison ous, and was obviously about to get up and stay up, that Adela undertook her cam paign. I wonder how often she had rehearsed it, gone over every step of it, testing its weak points, before she sent lor me the afternoon of the lourth day of Florrie’s illness. She was In the library. The high-backed chair she had chosen added to her little air ef stateliness. Her bleak blue eyes looked colder, back of her polished eyeglasses. Her lavender silk gown fell in deli cate folds, and there were her favorite snowy ruffles shout her throat and wrists. She asked me a few ques tions about Florrie, said she hoped I would be with them s few days longer, gave me no ©pportunity to voice my own somewhat urgent views of the matte;, and began: “Miss Keate. sne saia, i have liked you very much. I leel you to be a woman of common sense and sanity. I want your help.” “Yes. You see—” her bleak blue eyes went to the open window for a moment to lin ger on the green stretches of cunllt lawn and the cool chadows of the shrubbery at Its edge—“Bayard’s death has been a great shock. You know that. So far, we have not suc ceeded in discovering the man who did it. The man who ctole the diamonds. Mr. Strove doesn’t seem to think we chall ever find him. Now then, first I want you to under stand that I myself am con vinced—entirely convinced— that Bayard met his death at the hands of a wicked thief. At the same time it happened here—in my house—the That cher heme for generations. There will be people who will cay things. Anything. People ere always ready to talk of a family which—’’ she hesi tated here and then con tinued with quiet simplicity —“which has been more or less prominent and which has never lacked—worldly goods. I could never be more com pletely convinced than I am now that the members of my lamily are innocent of this thing. Even the thought is absurd. But for their own pro tection I intend to prove it.” There was silence in the long old room: A silence so complete it was as If the books and the portraits and the old walls themselves were repeating her words: “I in tend to prove it.” Even with the memory of that conversation which I had overheard when she had told Hilary and Evelyn that she would convince me x uuunx not quite credit my ears. All those damaging things I knew swarmed Into my thoughts. How could she prove their innocence when I knew there was no burglar? When I knew that the diamonds had never been stolen? When I knew about the revolver and about poor little Janice’s bloodstained hat? When I knew so many things— and yet not enough. Janice said Bayard had been “bleeding the family for years.” Silence in that long room with the bare space almost at my feet where there had been the rug on which we found Bayard, dead. And the door to the little study where I knew |he’d actually been killed securely closed. I don’t know why I felt so sure that Dave was at that very mo ment in his soundproof study unless it was because I so sel dom saw him and I knew that was his retreat. “I intend,” said Adela, slow ly and deliberately in her ele gant voice, “to prove it. And you can help me, Miss Keate, if you will be so good. I want you to hear everything I ask, every inquiry I make and its answer. And if you feel that, in any case, I have not fully and thoroughly covered the ground, I want you to say so. To ask, in fact, anything that occurs to you.” Gradually I grasped the thing she proposed to do, which was apparently to con duct her own Inquiry. To ques tion in my hearing those who might be thought to have had some connection wlt?i the death of Bayard Thatcher. I wondered that she dared. It would take the wisdom of a serpent, the wiliness of a dip lomat, the guarded care with which one walks on the edge of a precipice. She con tinued : ‘ I nave asuea amurouuc ™ come first. I intend to ques tion her, Miss Keate. And I want you to listen carefully. And If you are not entirely satis—” she checked herself on the very verge of giving herself and her motives away _“I mean If you think I have overlooked any — anything, don't hesitate to speak.” “You mean,” I said, ‘‘that you really want me to ask any questions that occur to me? To make any inquiry I wish to make?" She looked relieved; I sup pose because that was exact ly what she did want. That was the only way in which I could be convinced. “That is exactly it, Miss Keate," she said. ‘‘Please don’t hesitate at all. Don’t feel that any inquiry is at all—” She floundered a little and then adroitly skirted the danger ous ground. “You see, you have so much clearer a view point than I. You are so much more apt to think of the ob vious.—Oh, there you are, Em meline. Come in, please. You may sit down. Emmeline,” as the gaunt woman sat stiffly and uncomfortably on the edge of a chair, glanced with distrust at me, and then back to Adela’s mouth, “Emmeline, I want to ask you a few ques tions about—about the after noon of the robbery, and I want you to answer freely. Do you understand?” “Yes, ma’am,” said Emme line hoarsely, with another side glance at me, and her hands working in her white aproned lap. There was a brief pause while Adela formulated her questions, and I remember | wondering that Adela dared undertake such a dangerous campaign. Was she really con v'nced that her family—every member of it—was innocent? Or could it be that she knew who had murdered Bayard? Knew and counted on her powers to protect him? “You were making Jelly in the back kitchen that after noon. Did you see anybody at all besides Higby all that aft ernoon?” “No, ma’am, not a soul.” “But of course you were not at the window of the kitchen all that time?” “Why, yes ma’am, I was.” “But. Emmeline, you could n’t have been at the window every moment.” Adela’s face was granite again, her blue eyes like two stones. How she must have longed to beat down Emmeline’s testimony; yet she had not asked the woman to lie. “Why, yes, ma’am,” said Emmeline. “I was. Higby gets lazy when the weather *;ets warm. And Miss Janice had told me you would all be gone that afternoon and I’d better keep an eye on him. So I Just brought all the sugar and glasses and strainers and everything I would need to the long table below the win dow. I had the little stove right there too—you know how wide the windows are, Miss Adela—so there was no need for me to leave at all. And I kept an eye on him all the Ume like I said I would. He knew it, too. And worked right along.” “You can see the back door from there?” “Why, of course. You know that, Miss Adela. You can’t help seeing the back door. It’s right square in front of the window. No, ma’am, nobody went in that back door. There was nobody at all around the back of the house that whole afternoon, ma m. I’m sure of it.” Adela s face looked gray ana old and tired. But she was still stately and unmoved. “Can you see the library from the back kitchen?” Emmeline looked scornful. “You know I can’t, ma’am.” “Then anybody could have entered the library windows without your seeing him°” Emmeline did not under stand her immediately, and the question jhad to be re peated. It was Just at that moment, I believe, that Pan sy waddled across the room, looked at me suspiciously like a cranky little old woman, and settled with a tired puff at Adela’s feet. “Why, yes, Miss Adela, I suppose so. But Higby was out there on the lawn all aft ernoon. I know that. I can see most of the lawn, you know, and nobody could have crossed it without my seeing him. Unless he came from the front, and then Higby—” “We’ll let Higby speak for himself,” said Adela rather sharply. “That is all, Emme line—unless—Miss Keate?” “When she came in through the house and found Bayard dead here in the library, did she see anybody? Was the house quite deserted?" Adela looked approving; she put my question to Emme line at once. “No,” said Emmeline. “There was nobody about. I’d have seen him if there was. I have to let my eyes make up for my ears.” “Did you look through the rooms downstairs? Or up stairs?” “Why, of course not. You know what I did. When I passed the library door and looked in and saw him—right there where you are sitting, Miss Keate, ma’am—I ran in to look at him. Right there on the floor he was. Dead as a doornail. I dropped my spoonful of jelly and ran out doors, and there you was on the steps. I've told you all that.” “You see. Miss Keate. some one could have been hiding here without Emmeline's knowing it. Although I really think the burglar made his escape immediately. Is there anything else you think of?” “Not Just now." I said slow ly, thinking how difficult it was going to be to ask the things I really wanted to know without bringing some what dangerous suspicion on my own head. What would they do, what would they say. when they discovered all those things I knew! “Very well, Emmeline. That Is all. Higby is on the east lawn. Will you send him here, please.” We were silent while we waited; Adela stared out on the lawn with unseeing blue eyes. I could not know what she thought of Emmeline’s stubborn refusal to admit the possibility of the fictitious burglar having got past her sharp eyes. It was one of the ironies of life that so short a time was to elapse before Adela was to be so frantically glad for that stubborn refusal. But she couldn’t know that, then, and I wondered what her thoughts were as we sat there waiting for Higby. Higby was easier to confuse. Probably Adela’s bland state liness awed him. He began by saying that not a fly could have got into the library win dows without his, Higby’s, see ing it, and ended by admitting that there were many times when his back was of neces sity turned to those windows. “But there’s no shrubbery near the house, Miss Adela, except there in front. And my back would be turned only for | a moment or two at a time.” “Much can happen in a moment,” said Adela. “Don’t you agree with me, Miss Keate, that the burglar could have made his entrance into ! the house without Higby’s see- | ing him?” “I don’t thinK anyooay could—” began Higby help- ' lessly, and stopped on en- j countering Adela’s cold blue gaze. “There’s only this,” I said slowly. “A thief would have j had to approach the windows t from the back or front of the ; house. Since there are no side doors, he couldn’t have en tered that way. And Emme line is positive no one was at the back of the house. And I am equally positive no one came from the front of the house. Between the three of 1 us the whole circuit of the ; house was under observa- j tion.” Adela always knew when to agree. I “That’s quite true, Mis3 Jteate. But don’t you think it possible for an intruder to have somehow managed to approach the house from the west?” “No, ma'am,” said Higby, sticking to his guns for a rather brief moment. “I knov? nobody did.” “But you were mowing the lawn continuously,” reminded Adela affably. “Yes, ma’am,” said Higby, looking uncomfortable and shifting about on his feet. “And in pushing the lawn mower up and down the stretches of lawn your back was often turned to the win dows and to the lawn itself at different angles. And you j were paying attention to your i work.” “Oh, yes, ma’am,” said Hig by looking further discom fited. “You see, Miss Keate,” said Adela blandly, “he was watch ing his work all the time. Probably paid little atten tion to anything else. It seems very clear to me that 1 someone could have run across the lawn back of him, watched his chance, likely, to do so, and then slipped into the house. These screens, you see, can be unhooked and opened quite readily. And closed as readily. Thieves are very adept at that sort of thing. Do you think of any thing you’d like to ask? Do 1 you feel quite convinced?” (TO BE CONTINUED) Sleeper Awoke in Time lo Catch Snake Tulare. Cal. —(UP)— If he has to see things. Harry Martin. Jr., of Tulare prefers pink elephants or polka-dotted pigs, he declared today. Marlin awoke from a nap on a hillside near Woodlake, Cal . the ether day to find a rattlesnake coiled and peering at him from a distance of eight inches. He captured the snake. Third Suit for Divorce Asked to Be Restrained Utile Rock. Ark. —“ When William Cook's wife n ed •ml for her third divorce from Mm Cook went to court mid, •ought a nrtralntn* order. An iwenn^ the divorce complaint Cook said! "On two occasion* when di vorces were granted, the p.ainttff •od the defendant remarried within a abort t me -nse defendant loves the p*aui Uff wi-d he dJ*» not desirt to Uv* apart from her and believes that tf a divorce la granted he will within a short time be competed to expend a sum of money to pur chase another license and have another ceremony performed . I the plaintiff asks that the com plaint be dismissed for want of equity and to prevent multiplicity j of suits " Divorce Mill Gains More Speed Each Year Houston. Tex. — <UP> — Harris i Bounty's divorce mill, rprrsenUd by five civil district courts. la grinding out divorces at a dsxzy spied and is gaining in speed each year Were it not for one clause In the Texas law. Harris county might qualify os « rival of Wa hoe county, Nevada. home of the fa mous Reno divorce mill. It is fu’.ly as easy — and far cheaper — to got a d.vorce here bat longer legal residence is requ.itd fog the purpose. In Texas a perron bringing suit for divorce mast lure livrd in the state 12 months. Nevada re quires only six months' residence. Even so. more than half as many divorces were granted tn Harris county tn 1932 as were granted In Reno Matches have to be damp-proof In the Panama Canal aone. A spe cial brand from Sweden U used liter*. Napoleon was Imprisoned on both K ba and St Helena Islands *i 4»f •run', time’. He escaped from the [ former and died cn the latter. INDIANS USED i ANESTHETICS Kansas City, — <UP> — Indi ans in Central America used an aesthetics long before Columbus made his voyage of discovery, and were acquainted with the funda mentals of mathematics long be fore white men learned them, ac cording to Gregory Mason, ex plorer and archaeologist. "How many Americans realize," Mason asked, "that the Tolteca built a pyramid three times as great in bulk a3 the biggest in Egypt, that the Peruvians made tapestries finer than any of Eu rope, and that the Mayans invent ed zero 600 years before the Hin dus—which means that the May ans were able to multiply and di vide 1,000 years before Europeans could. "The natives of Yucatan, whom Cortez called ‘barbarians,’ were bet ter astronomers than the Europeans, and had a calendar far more ac curate than the one Columbus was using and in some ways even su perior to the one we use today.” -- ■—»».. —- — Informal Evenings I This charming evening gown for the less formal occasions is of black net, trimmed becomingly with white pique. The sleeves are elbow length end puffed below the shoul ders. An unusual feature of the gown is the novel arrangement of fan pleats at the front of the skirt. Law Repeal May Bring Couples Back CoeurD’ Alene, Id. — (UP) — 1 Folks in Idaho are now preparing for an Influx of bashful grooms and blushing brides, since the state “gin marriage” law has been repealed and the three day clausa discarded. Repeal of the law came in the last session of the state legisla ture, and was pushed by business and hotel men who pointed to a falling off in trade derived from couples eloping from Washington. It is the fond hope that Idaho’s Gretna Green status will prove more successful to the state finan cially than did the six-month resi i dence law regarding divorces. Biose and Coeur d’ Alene had hoped to become the divorce capi tals of the country, but Reno, doesn’t seem to be feeling the competition any. Citizens Can’t Have Beer Nor Old Songs Wenatchee, Wash. — (UP) — From the West come stories that a revival of sentimental songs, such as “Sweet Adeline,” and “Down by the Old Mill Stream,” is scheduled, due to the return of beer. But citizens of this city—and of Chelan county, who — will have to get the old time songs over their radios without benefit of brewery Juice. A city and county ordinance has ordained that beer and musi* don't mix, and that selling beer at dance halls is taboo. Cigar Made Him Drunk, Man Said Porterville. Cal. — (UP) _ it may or may not have been 3.2 per cent beer that caused it. but. ac cording to police. Ervin Otven. 21. I undeniably was intoxicated. Given admitted he had been “on his back, but insisted it was caused by a big. black cigar he had been smoking. J Anyway, Police Judge Scott sen I tcnccd Given to 10 days in Jail. Hitch Hiking Rabbit Took Ride I Scott City. Kan. —(UP)— C. D. Dickhut drove into agarage here and discovered a Jackrabbit con tentedly sitting on the running board of his automobile The hitch-hiking rabbit. Dick hut said, apparently had taken refuge from a strong windstorm by leaping on the machine However, the Journey ended dis astrously for the rabbit A garage man took turn home for dinner KnlUed Things Demand Extra Care in Washing Have you succumbed to the knit ting or crocheting fever? Whether or not, you certainly have sweaters, knitted suits, etc., for who can b® without them these days? They'r® , so attractive, and almost indispena 1 able for sport and everyday wear, and if washable, as many of them are, it’s so easy to keep them clean. Before washing a new sweuter, test it to be sure the colors are fast, by squeezing an inconspicuous por tion in clear, lukewarm water for five minutes or so. Knitted things often get out of shape wiien wet. so to insure restor ing them to the correct proportions Just draw an outline on clean, wrap ping paper before wetting. Inci dentally, the Ideal time to draw this outline is when the sweater Is new, before you have stretched the el bows, etc. Then this outline may be used each time yon wash the sweater. Remove unwashable buttons, buck les, etc., and turn the sweater wrong-side out. Make rich suds with mild, neutral soap flakes; always have the suds and rinse waters luke warm or cool. Put in the sweater and wash by squeezing the suds through and through the material. Never rub. Wash quickly. Do not soak colored garments. Thoroughly rinse in plenty of luke warm or cool water. Squeeze out the water—don’t twist. Then roll the sweater in a dry turkish towel, knead for a moment and unroll. Don’t leave colored garments rolled up while wet. Ease the sweater into shape on the outline. If the sweater tends to shrink, pin It in place on a firm surface as on corrugated pasteboard, or an old rug. Use pins which will not rust. When the sweater is dry remove It from (he outline, turn it right side oui and press It lightly, using a damp cloth to remove wrinkle® and pin marks. Warfare on Leprosy Seven outstanding American bac teriologists, the first of whom will be Dr. Malcolm H. Soule, professor of bacteriology at the University of Michigan, are to assume tours of duty at the Philippine leper colony on Culion Island In a concerted ef fort to conquer the disease which has defeated all attempts at extermina tion from time Immemorial. The 6,000 cases on Culion Island are expected to furnish variations in such numbers as to advance the Investigations recently conducted In the more limited leper colony at Porto Rico by Doctor Soule and Dr. Earl B. McKinney, of George Wash ington university, who succeeded in Isolating the leprosy bacillus. As a result of experiments conducted with monkeys, which were Inocu lated with leprosy bacillus, It was determined that it is not a vigor ous or growing organism with any but humans, the animals quickly re covering their former health. JUST 46 POUNDS OF FAT GONE Feels 20 Years Younger "I surely nan recommend Kruschen Slltg I reduced from 1S6 to 110 Ibe., my natural weight and 1 feel 20 years younger. ‘A plneli a day, keeps the fat avray.' ’’ Mrs. Vale Walter, Seattle, Washington (Dee. 30, 1932). Once a day take Kruschen Salts—one half teaspoonful in a glass of hot watef first thing every morning. Besides los ing ugly fat SAFELY you'll gain in health and physical attractiveness— constipation, gas and acidity will cease to bother—you’ll feel younger—more active—full of ambition—clear skin sparkling eyes. A jar that lasts 4 weeks costs but a trifle at any drugstore in the world— but demand and get Kruschen and if one bottle doesn’t joyfully satisfy you— money back. 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