SYNOPSIS
David Mallory, In search of newspaper
Work In New York, is forced to accept a
job as switch-board operator in a swank
apartment house, managed by officious
Timothy Higgins. There David meets
Miss Agatha Paget, a crippled old lady,
and her charming niece, Allegra. One
day, talking with Higgins in the lobby,
David is alarmed by a piercing scream.
David finds the scream came from the
Ferriter apartment, not far from the
Pagets'. The Ferriters Include Lyon and
Everett, and their sister, lone. Everett,
a genealogist, is helping Agatha Paget
write a book about her blue-blooded an
cestors. Inside the apartment they find
a black-bearded man—dead. No weapon
can be found.
CHAPTER II—Continued
Hoyt had brought down a thick
shouldered person with an unlighted
cigar clamped in his jaws who ad
vanced and tapped Higgins on the
shoulder so that the superintendent
jumped.
“Higgins?” his accoster asked.
“C’m on. Captain wants you.”
My employer cast a look of ap
peal over his shoulder as he was
marched away. It puzzled me. I
could not imagine him a murderer,
yet he had asked me for an alibi.
An elderly young man in a Ches
terfield overcoat, with a cane hooked
over his arm and glasses tethered
to a black cord, approached the po
liceman at the door, stood for some
minutes, not in argument but con
versation with the sentinel, and then
pushed past him, undeterred.
Something in his cocksure swag
ger irked me and woke foggy recol
lection. As he spoke, I recognized
him. He had strolled through the
anteroom of the Sphere’s offices that
noon while I had waited for the
scornful office boy to tell me once
again that Lomax, the city editor,
could not see me.
“ ’Evening,” said the intruder
briskly. “I’m from the Sphere.
Duke. Larry Duke.”
It was childish to vent my griev
ance agairist Lomax upon his report
er, but my nerves were jangled and
I had had no lunch, thanks to my
fruitless journey to the Sphere’s of
fice.
“Yes?” I said.
Duke leaned against the switch
board and lit a cigarette. That
made me angrier. I needed one so.
“Had a little killing upstairs, eh?”
he asked. “Know anything about
it?”
“Plenty," I told him. “I found
the body.”
That shook him up. He jerked so
that his eyeglasses fell off. He
hauled copy paper from his pocket.
“Ain’t,” he grinned, “ain’t this
somepin? First, let’s get your name
right.”
I gave it to him. He printed it
carefully at the top of the page.
“Now,” he gloated, "tell me all
about it. How did you know there’d
been a killing? When did it happen?”
“Easy,” I said. “I’m not work
ing for the Sphere.”
He put on his glasses again and
stared at me.
“I don’t get you,” he said at last.
“Sure you don’t,” I told him and
I loved it. I was landing a punch at
last after being hammered all over
the ring. “You don’t get me—or a
word out of me.”
He looked at me harder.
“Now wait,” he wheedled. “Don’t
be that way. If you can give this to
me exclusive, there'll be a piece of
change in it for you.”
“I cap,” I said, “but I won’t, and
I’ll tell you why.”
It felt so good to get a little of
my own back that I wanted more.
And besides I never saw a man
with a black tie-rope to his glasses
whom I liked. In my mind I com
bined Duke and his boss, Lomax,
retaining the worst features of both.
"Believe it or not,” I told the re
porter, “I used to be a newspaper
man myself. I came to this town
with a letter to Lomax from Doc
Gilchrist. When Lomax didn’t have
two nickels to rub together, Doc
gave him a job and taught him all
he knows. I sent in the letter. Lo
max was busy; come back in a
week. In a week he was still busy.
And the week after and the week
after that.”
“Boy,” said Duke, “there are a
lot better newspaper men than you’ll
ever be looking for work in this
town and not finding any.”
“Maybe,” I granted. “If you knew
the story I could write at present,
you’d change your mind. Not get
ting a job isn’t what gripes. Your
boss is too important even to give
old Doc Gilchrist’s friend a hand
shake and wish him luck. Doc read
m« his letter to Lomax. Which is
one of the reasons why I say hell
with him and with you.”
The thick man stood beside me;
he had chewed an inch off his cigar
since I had seen him last.
“Hi, Larry,” he said to Duke and
turning to me:
“If you’ve finished the lecture,
mug, the Captain wants you up
stairs. As a matter of fact, he
wants you anyway. On your feet."
“Hey listen, Jake,” the reporter
begged, “give me a steer, will you?
What’s going on? Is it big?”
“Colossal,” the other replied,
pushing me toward the elevator.
“Shannon’ll see you boys later. I
can’t stop now.”
He glared at me all the way up
stairs. I glared back. I felt better
somehow. They had cops like him
in my own town and besides, for
the first time since I reached New
York, I felt I was important to
somebody.
CHAPTER in
The patrolman still stood before
the Ferriter door. It was open and
I could hear men inside talking and
furniture being moved and I saw
the short white glare of a flashlight.
Jake pushed me off the elevator and
I kept from asking him how he’d
like a sock in the nose, remember
ing just in time that this wasn’t my
town.
“Whoa," he said as I turned to
ward the open door. "Not there,
sap. In here.”
He jerked his head toward, the
Paget apartment, turned the door
knob and waved me in before him.
It was dark by now and all the
lights were on in the workroom.
Three men were there. The ember
head, who I learned was Captain Ma
lachi Shannon of the Homicide
Squad, kept walking up and down
before Higgins who sat and sweated
in a chair by the desk where a
greasy little dick took shorthand. In
the corner, calmly alert, Miss Paget
occupied her wheel chair. She
seemed more out of place, yet even
more wholly enjoying herself, than a
bishop in a crap game.
I must have showed what I
thought for in the moment’s silence,
while Shannon walked up and down
the rug again and Higgins perspired
more, the old lady said:
“The Captain’s associates are still
busy in the Ferriter flat, David. So
I put my own at his service.”
The grin, that lent her withered
face youth, heartened me. Shannon
I came East for work
I didn’t get.”
turned on Higgins again, started to
speak, bit his lip, rumpled his hair
and said at last:
‘‘All right. You can go. But not
far. I may want you later.”
“Yes, sir.” Higgins grunted, heav
ing himself up. The chair I took
was warm from the superintendent’s
stewing. Jake stood ii> the door
way, and chewed his cigar. Shan
non rumpled his hair some more
and then wheeled on me.
“Now get this,” he stormed, “I
want the truth out of you.”
Partly, it was the presence of the
old lady; partly, it was because I
hadn’t liked being pushed around by
Jake. My squabble with Duke had
boosted my morale, too.
"And get this,” I told Shannon
and he gaped: "I’ll tell you just
as much more if you don’t yell.”
His eyes were clever for all the
Irish obstinacy of his freckled face.
"Tough, eh?" he asked at last.
“With tough guys.”
I thought 1 saw traces of amuse
ment on his face. I did not know
whether Miss Agatha coughed or
snorted. Shannon hesitated. I said:
"To save us both time, my name
is David Mallory, twenty-nine, em
ployed since last Saturday as a hall
man here, living in the superintend
ent’s flat in the cellar.”
"Ah,” Shannon purred, looking at
me hard, “one of these wise birds?”
“I passed for one,” I replied, “in
my home town. Even the cops said
so.”
“Cops knew quite a lot about you.
eh?” the Captain asked politely.
“They did,” I admitted. “I was j
a reporter oh the News, in Omafha.
You can check up on that, though
I’d rather you wouldn’t.”
*'I see,” said Shannon in a decep
tively mild voice, “then what are
you doing on a job like this?”
“I have a yen for food,” I an
swered and wished that Miss Paget
were somewhere else. “I just can’t
get along without it. I came East
for work I didn’t get. I ran into
Eddie Hoyt—he’s on the elevator
last week. His father had worked
for mine. Eddie got me this Job.
We were kids together.”
“And if you were so hard up as
that,” the Captain went on and I
felt something tense behind his
pleasant manner, “why didn't you
go back to Omaha?”
I drew a breath.
“I’ll make this,” I said, trying to
be jaunty about it. “as short and as
cheerful as I can. Hunter, who was
city editor of the Sphere, liked my
work. He sent for me to come on.
Hunter was canned the day I’d
planne,d to come and a so-and-so
named Lomax took his place.”
“I know him,” Shannon nodded.
“It’s nothing to boast about. They
gave me a farewell dinner on the
News and a gold watch. 1 haven’t
either of them now. My boss In
Omaha, Gilchrist, raised Lomax
from a pup, but not very far. Gil
christ gave me a letter. He was
certain it would get me the Job Hunt
er had promised. Well, it didn’t. Or
it hadn't up to noon today, which
was the last time I called at the
Sphere office.”
“I won't crawl back home,
whipped. That’s why I’m in this
handsome, second-hand uniform. It
lets me stay alive here, and I make
the rounds of the papers in my spare
time. Every office boy in town now
locks the city room door when he
sees me coming.”
I hated the shaky quality of my
laugh.
"You can check up,” I invited,
“through the Omaha chief or the
News—but you can see why I’d rath
er you didn’t.”
He nodded, thought a minute and
then sat down with a sigh.
"All right, fella,” he said with the
comradeship cops can always show
when they need newspaper help.
"Here’s what we know so far.”
He rattled through a catalogue of
unrelated details:
Blackbeard had been stabbed
through the heart. No one knew
how he got into the Morello, for
there was no entrance to this main
building except the foyer or by ele
vator from the basement. No iden
tification had been found in his
clothes, though there was money in
his pocket. No one knew whether
the Ferriters knew him. lone was
still too hysterical to be questioned.
Neither of her brothers had come
in. Everett had gone out at four
o’clock. No one had seen Lyon,
the older brother, since he left the
apartment house that morning.
"That,” said Shannon, "is as far
as we’ve gone. What have you got
to add?”
I was so slow in answering that
his eyes grew hard again. Aston
ishment silenced me. In the confu
sion before and after the finding of
the dead man, I had forgotten that
last telephone call from the Ferriter
flat. Memory of it, flashing back
now, blew my mind about.
"Sorry,” I told the Captain and
gave a weak grin. "I just remem
bered something. I took a phone
call from Three B a half-hour—
maybe twenty minutes—before Miss
Ferriter began her screaming. Per
haps. I heard the man killed."
Even the oily little stenographer
stared at me.
“What time was this?” Shannon
asked hoarsely.
"Just before Miss Paget’s chair
broke down. That made me forget.”
I told of the phone call from the
Ferriter flat, of the comment in a
thick, foreign tongue, apparently to
someone else in the apartment and
of the muffled thump that followed.
"What number was it?” Shannon
asked.
I shrugged.
"Spring—something. It’s on the
pad downstairs.”
"Jake,” the Captain snapped. The
detective clumped down the hall.
Shannon ran fingers through his hair
again and squinted at nothing.
"Know anything about these Fer
riters?” he asked suddenly.
"No. I’ve been here only a week.”
“Never heard why the three of
them came here?”
Miss Paget cleared her throat and
then spoke precisely.
It was through me. Captain. Ev
erett Ferriter, as I told you, is a
genealogist of some reputation. He
has been helping me with a book I’m
compiling. When Mrs. Reynolds
wished to rent her apartment, I told
Everett about it. They are appar
ently gentlefolk, if that means any
thing.”
“Not much, begging your par
don,” Shannon retorted.
Miss Agatha nodded. ”1 quite
agree,” she said.
Amusement puckered the Cap
tain's eyelids. He turned to me.
‘‘When did this other one, this
Lyon Ferriter, go out?"
I thought and shook my head.
“I haven’t seen him today at all.
The others on the hall—”
Shannon’s angry grunt cut me
short.
“They didn’t see Blackbeard come
in; they didn’t see this Lyon go out.
Yet he is out And Blackbeard is
across the hall. And you say some
one made a phone call from that
apartment and, unless he was talk
ing to himself, there was another
guy with him.”
He rumpled his hair further. I
asked Miss Agatha:
“Are the Ferriters foreign born?”
She shook her head.
“I believe not. They speak ex
cellent English.”
“Then,” I went on, “it was Black
beard who telephoned. A thick voice
that sounded as though it might be
German.”
Jake entered with the call sheet
The half-devoured cigar wabbled in
his mouth and his finger shook as
he handed the page to his chief and
pointed.
The Captain said no wore* but
looked for a long minute before he
held the paper out to me with his
thumbnail indenting its margin.
"That the call?” he asked in a
voice I felt he kept so mild by great
effort.
“Yes,” I said. “At three-thirty
by the clock on the switchboard. I
don’t know whether it was complet
ed or not. I plugged in and then—”
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Training Winged Gladiators
At U. S. ‘West Point of the Air’
Now that the government has launched its huge preparedness
campaign, the classes at Randolph Field, Texas, Uncle Sam's “Wesl
Point of the Air," will be bigger than ever. The course consists of
about 70 hours of flying, of which 30 hours are dual instruction
and 40 hours solo. Civilian candidates must be unmarried male
citizens of the United States, between 20 and 27, in excellent health.
One of the
classrooms at
Randolph Field. The
students are receiving
instructions in radio code work.
Messages are tapped from the
rostrum on a "buzzer.” The stu
dents receive them through their
headsets and write them down.
Three classes enter the school
mch year.
The eyes of this cadet are un
dergoing a rigid test. Ears, heart
and muscular action also come
in for rigid inspection. I
Parachute instruction. The ca
dets are dropping the “skyhooks”
with 200-pound dummies in a
special room at Randolph Field.
This l). S. training plane is
about to go into a slotv roll, with
a student pilot at one of the dual
controls. Right: Model planes are
used to demonstrate proper air
technique.
Almost 500 pilots ■
to-be are now in train
ing at Randolph Field,
which at present has j
200 training planes.
Photo shows student ,
pilots and planes just \
before the daily pro- \
gram gets under way. >
Right:Calisthenics are
part of the strenuous i
daily routine the fly- \
ing cadets undergo in ■
being transformed to |
full-fledged birdmen. i
On moy to the training planes to go aloft in their first solo test. I
Eliminating
Blemishing
Birthmarks
By DR. JAMES W. BARTON
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
Birthmarks occur more
frequently in girls than
in boys, about three to one, so
that it was not surprising per
haps that one of -
the Dionne quin- TODAY'S
tuplets should urm-ril
have a birth- ■■fcALIH
mark or hae- I COLUMN
mangioma, as it L———.
is called. By means of ra
dium, Dr. Howard Kelly of
Baltimore successfully re
moved this blemish. A hae
mangioma is a growth of tis
sue containing small blood
vessels.
The first thought many mothers
have when they discover a birth
mark—strawberry mark, port wine
stain, blood tumor—is that radium
must be used. It
will be gratifying to
mothers to know
that unless the mark
is large or is very
thick and raised
above the skin, a
simple method of re
moving these marks
or stains is availa
ble.
Dr. Norman M.
Wrong, Toronto, in
Dr, Barton Canadian Medi
cal Association, re
ports a series of 156 patients with
angioma treated by carbon dioxide
snow at the Hospital for Sick Chil
dren, Toronto.
“The technique of the treatment
of skin diseases by carbon dioxide
snow is both simple and inexpensive.
A chamois bag is placed over the
nozzle of a tank of carbon dioxide
and when the gas escapes the tem
perature is lowered to such an ex
tent that some of it is converted into
snow. This is then made into a
suitably sized pencil in a wooden
mold and the pencil is applied to
the tumor with Arm pressure.”
While this is simple enough, Dr.
Wrong states that experience is re
quired in determining the length of
time to keep snow applied to the
tumor, amount of pressure to use
and the type of tumor which is best
treated by this freezing process.
Early Treatment Advisable.
The usual types are (a) the port
wine stain with no increase in tis
sue, (b) the strawberry mark with
large vessels immediately beneath
the skin and (c) the enlarged lump
or growth of blood vessels and tis
sue raised above the skin.
Experience with these marks and
growths makes it advisable that, in
stead of waiting for them to dis
appear treatment should be given
as early as possible if the child is
well. It is in the thin small marks
that the carbon dioxide snow is
most effective.
* * *
Sunstroke and
Heat Exhaustion
CUNSTROKE and heat exhaustion
are two different ailments and
require different treatment.
In sunstroke you may feel tired
and dizzy before the regular symp
toms occur. These are headache,
feeling of oppression, sometimes a
tightness in the chest, great thirst,
restlessness, frequent desire to pass
urine, hot skin, a “sicky” feeling,
flushed face and high temperature,
finally unconsciousness.
Treatment in sunstroke is to lay
■the patient in a cool, shady place,
off the ground if possible or on the
ground on newspapers or clothing
if no bench or table is available.
Cold cloths are then applied to back
of neck, face and chest, clothing re
moved, body sprinkled with water.
The head should be kept high and
patient fanned with a towel or piece
of clothing When patient is able
to swallow, cool water containing
a pinch of salt should be given.
In heat exhaustion due to working
in a hot, ill ventilated room, there
is at first usually faintness, head
ache, dizziness and a staggering
gait. The face is pale instead of
flushed and skin is cold and damp,
and low temperature (not high) is
present. Unconsciousness may or
may not occur.
In the treatment of heat exhaus
tion, patient is laid in a cool spot,
cold applications made to the head
and heat (by hot water bags or
other methods) applied to the body.
If patient is conscious he is given
as much water as he can drink con
taining a quarter teaspoonful of salt
to each glass of water. If he is un
conscious, the salt solution is used as
an enema.
• • *
QUESTION BOX
Q.—What would cause the veins
in my hands and arms to be espe
cially prominent? I am only 22
years old.
A.—Your veins may be very near
the surface or you have not much
fat under the skin. Exercise of any
kind would be helpful, giving the
heart more driving power.
Q.—What causes gas pains?
A.—Gas pains may be due to a
sluggish liver and gall bladder, or
to foods that cause gas such as cab
bage, onions, lettuce and others.
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_\
Firing One-Ton Shell
The aiming of a 16-inch coast
defense gun, which can effectively
shoot a 2,100-pound projectile a
distance of 26 miles, is based on
many factors, such as the target’s
distance, direction and speed, cur
vature and rotation of the earth
and the direction and velocity of
the wind.
When blowing at 20 miles an
lour, a cross wind alone can carry
this shell as much as 303 yards off
ts course during the 101 seconds
:hat it is in the air.—Collier’s.
Help Them Cleanse the Blood
of Harmful Body Waste
Vour kidneys are constantly filtering
waste matter from the blood stream. But
kidneys sometimes lag in their work—do
not act as Nature intended—fail to re
move impurities that, if retained, may
poiaon the system and upset the whole
body machinery.
Symptoms may be nagging backache,
persistent headache, attacks of dizziness,
getting up nights, swelling, pufiinese
under the eyes—a feeling of nervous
anxiety and loss of pep and strength.
Other signs of kidney or bladder dis
order are sometimes burning, scanty or
too frequent urination.
There should be no doubt that prompt
treatment is wiser than neglect. Use
Doan's Pills. Doan's have been winning
new friends for more than forty years.
They have a nation-wide reputation.
Are recommended by grateful people the
country over. Ask your neighbor/
