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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1943)
M UR DER'i®^ 1*1 RATE'S HEAD B4 ISABEL WAITTV ^ ■ — -=« —- / 'jc/Nu- release THE STORY SO FAR: Judy Jason, *ho is telling the story, receives an anonymous letter enclosing *800 and ask ing her to bid for an abandoned church to be auctioned the neat day. She sus pects, In turn, each of the guests at the inn where she is staying. They are the Reverend Jonas DeWitt, Lily Kendall, Thaddens Quincy, Albion Potter, Hugh Norcross and his sister, Bessie, and Vic tor Quade, a writer who has just ar rived. Judy bids for the church and gets it. The body of a man identified as Roddy Lane, found in a chest in the basement of the church, disappears. I.ater, Victor Quade tells Judy that he found a golf club near the chest. Now continue with Judy’s story. CHAPTER VI Toward dawn the shed was just a sputtering heap of cinders. And what would they find? What w'ould they find! We were all running around try ing to help. I’d encountered, as I remembered afterward, everybody except Uncle Wylie, still sleeping it off in his room, and, of course, Thaddeus Quincy, wrapped in a blanket, watching the Are from his chair. He’d managed to wheel himself onto the porch. But none of us had found a trace of Old Man Brown until my foot slipped. UghI I can feel it now—like a bony snake. It threw me off bal ance so that I barged into the Rev erend's stomach, and he let out a word which any editor would most certainly delete. I picked up the thing which had tripped me to dis cover it was a large, old-fashioned ear trumpet—the kind you used to see years ago, in plays, when a deaf person would hold one up to your nose and shout "Hey?" Well, poor old Mr. Brown would never again use this one. I look it at once to Victor. “Add to unsolved mystery: One trumpet, saved by person wh< couldn't save himself. Threw it os of the window, didn't he, maybe'.’ "Maybe. You say this Brown wi stone deaf? Very interesting Very "Well, one thing's sure. It provi he’s dead. Otherwise he’d be clin ing to it.” "Oh, yes! Never talked in it m self, but my husband has," sa.v. Aunt Nella. “Mrs. Gerry, what time does your milkman arrive? Any earlier holi days?" “Later. But we've enough cream saved for breakfast. Around noon. The Head's the last place he calls." Victor sighed. “Hear that, folks? Doesn't that beat the dickens? We’ve had an explosion nobody heard at the bridge. N< dy from Rockville, I mean. Another, fol lowed by a fire nobody saw. Now we’ve got to wait till 12 o'clock be fore the milkman can get here.” “We could meet him," Potter sug gested. “We'll appoint a committee,” boomed De Witt. “Well, there s certainly nothing more to do here The trees are safe. The fire’s over. Why don't we go back and get dressed and have some toast and coffee, if Mrs. Gerry can manage it? Perhaps some of you ladies—” “Of course, we will." my aun' and Lily both cried. “Me, too," added Bessie Norcross “Come along, Hugh." 1 waited for Victor, w-ho told me to go with the others. He’d be along pretty soon. He was leaning over the hot embers, searching with the flashlight I’d given him. Victor Quade called me back "Judy”—even he was calling me by my first name now. common danger having bred familiarity. I loved it— "does your Uncle Wylie smoke a pipe?” Did Uncle Wylie smoke a pipe! Why, one never saw him without it —a smudged little old briar that smelled to heaven. . "Yes; why?” "Keep it under your hat. Take a •quint at this.” I took a squint in the faint morn ing light. Looked like my uncle's pipe, all right. "But, good land. Mr. Quade, thal was hours ago—if he dropped it.” “Exactly. Maybe he didn't drop it If I’d found it written in one of my books I’d say it was a plant." "In one of your books? But I thought you were Just beginning to write. You said—” “Come along. Judy. We might as well have coffee, too.” He smiled down at me rather grimly, 1 thought. “Don't give me away, will you? Quade is my real name. If I told you my pen name you'd see me mobbed with pink teas and auto graph hounds. 1 needed a rest—to get away from all that. No one ever heard of Victor Quade. I may have to tell them myself. That Quin cy fellow suspects me." I couldn’t speak. One second I puffed with pride to be in the confi dence of an author famous enough to be mobbed; the next, my hopes fell. 1 mustn’t let myself like him. He’d never give me a thought Prob ably he was married anyway. As tonishingly, I heard myself say, “Lucky you didn’t bring Mrs. Quade." "Mother? She’d never ride with a trailer Or did you mean—? Why, you artful little devil. Just like that! And I've spent years wonder ing how to do that little thing on my typewriter. Judy Jason, you're going to be a great help to me." I felt all happy again. Nothing pleases a woman so much as to be told she's a help. I ran on ahead to help Aunt Nella. She was the quickest thing you ever saw in her kitchen. Already coffee was percolating. Lily Kendall was turning toast. She'd poured too much cream into the cups. I halved it from cup to cup and set her to getting plates and spoons. Such a hubbub in that dining room! Auntie and I decided we might as well boil eggs, too. and let them fix their own oranges. If we didn’t we'd just have to give them a regular breakfast in an hour. Mur der and explosions and fires can work qp awful appetites. The Rev. Mr. De Witt consumed five three minute eggs! "Give ’em all they want,” Aunt Nella said. ‘‘They’ll be leavin’ soon.” Auntie hadn't stopped to change her clothes. She looked like the Witch of Endor. I told her she'd better fly, because when the police came all our pictures might get into the Rockville Gazette. She just sat at the kitchen table, weeping into her coffee. If Wylie’s pipe had set the fire she didn’t care what happened, she said. It wasn't in his pocket when she undressed him. I hadn’t mentioned the finding of that pipe. But it wasn’t on the kitchen shelf where he always put it at night, just before going to bed. Though it made more work for me, I was glad our high schooler had gone home right after doing the dishes last night. At least she was out of this mess. I carried in Mr. Quincy’s cereal, soaked with hot milk, as he liked it. "-killed Roddy Lane, burned his house and jumped into the sea,” Hugh Norcross was saying. “Yyu've got it twisted, my boy,” boomed the minister. "Roddy killed I Bessie Noreross stood clinging to the porch rail. Brown, more likely. The fire was his funeral pyre Then Lane dis appeared from the Head." Lily tittered, twiddling a string of pearls. "How, please? I didn't hear no airplane." Thaddeus Quincy thumped his cane. “Listen, folks. This is a lot of fun, I know, conjecturing about murders. But you’re all wrong The whole business is a series of odd coincidences. Very odd. First, Judy has the jitters and imagines she sees something. Well, we proved there was nothing there, didn’t we? Then the bridge broke down at the same time a car backfired, and we assumed it was blown up. I'll wager ! the police won’t think so Next that fish shed burns. Spontaneous com bustion. probably Place wasn't fit to live in anyway. Just a shack full of tar paper and oily ropes and old tarpaulin A wonder anyone would sleep in the dump, but someone did. Judy and I saw the light through the one window. Couldn't see in. Too dirty and cobwebby. Had a paper curtain over it, too, didn’t it, Judy? I just remember slits of light.” I nodded and he con tinued, “Old man may have been smoking. But it was an accident, pure and simple. Lane didn’t kill anybody. He's a mean skunk, but he's far away by now. As to how. Miss Kendall, he came in a car and left the same way.” Victor Quade stood up and Mr. Quincy stopped abruptly. “You're wrong, too, unfortunately,” Victor said quietly. "Lane’s car is still in the castle garage. It's now,'' he glanced at his watch, "not quite 5 Mrs. Gerry says the Head is the last place on the trade people's route Milk not until noon Being a hob day, there’ll be no mail. Market man tomorrow. You can see we have quite a little time before the first person along that empty stretch of road you call the Neck discov ers the broken bridge and sum mons aid. Funny Rockville didn't see the fire, but remember the fog was mighty dense and we project nearly five miles out to sea. Take it for a bonfire to honor the Fourth if they chanced to see it.” “So what?” Bessie interrupted. “Just this, my friends. Your Rod dy Lane did not leave the Head. His car is still in the garage. Saw it last night when we searched. I had the flashlight. It’s my belief Judy was right, but now it’s daylight and I propose further search. “Mr. De Witt and Mr Potter, you take another look in the garage. See if you can get into the Lane castle. Break a window if neces sary. Here are the keys to my trailer. Scout around. But espe cially scan the rocks.” Bessie began to cry, and Hugh said resentfully: “I think you might consider the ladies. My sister—” "Of course. You girls help Mrs Gerry. Poor woman, she needs it.” Bessie left the room, but Lily and I sat tight, while Victor continued his directions. Lily begged to be al lowed to join the hunt. "All right, Miss Kendall, you and Mr. Hugh What’s-your-name, take the church end and the woods. Scour the shore. Yours is the quieter side toward the cove. You might find something. Anyway, if Brown or Lane is in those woods, come quietly back. The Head is so tiny you all ought to search it in no time. But don't touch anything you may find. I wouldn’t go into the church base ment again till the police come." Mr. Quincy folded his hands, his lips working pitifully. I could have squeezed Victor when he said, "Quincy and I will look at the Are ruins." And he seized the invalid's chair, while 1 ran to hold open the door. 1 didn’t like to be left behind, but they’d virtually dismissed me, so I had no choice. Anyway, they’d soon be back 1 fixed a tray for Uncle Wylie, which Aunt Nella took up. Bessie wiped and I washed the dishes. Every other minute one of us would race to the door, and as soon as we were through I ran down to where the other met) were gradu ally collecting around the ruins of the fish shed. Bessie Norcross stood clinging to the porch rail. She wouldn’t budge till her brother came for her, she said. And of course my aunt and uncle were in their room at the time. “Don't come any closer," Victor cautioned. “Don’t touch a thing.’’ “Glory be—they’ve found some thing. Ain't it excitin’?" Lily burst her pearls down poor Mr. Q's neck as he leaned forward, pointing with his cane. “See it? That, girls and boys," Thaddeus shouted, “is the corpus delicti, without which there can be no murder. Now all we need is to find out if it's Brown or Lane." “Or both of them." Potter said, shuddering. You girls go back, victor said, taking the shawl Mr. Q. handed him from his shoulders and covering the charred torso lying in the midst ol ashes and debris. 1 won’t describe it here; it’s too horrible. I’d never before seen a body burned and blackened beyond recognition What little there was left might have been anybody Could experts tell wheth er the remains were of an old man or a middle-aged? I wondered. "Of course it was Old Man Brown,” Mr. Q. said, "or we'd have found Lane's diamond ring Dia monds w ill burn under pressure, be ing allotropic forms of carbon, but not in a fire like this. Well, there wasn’t any ring we could find, was there, Quade?" "No, only don't tell the police wx poked." "That leaves us just where we were before,” Lily Kendall said "Mr. Norcross and 1 didn't see any body in the woods." Hugh agreed. "That's right Lane skipped, and this was an accident. How do you know Lane didn't walk to town?" "Bless you, 1 don’t. He may have," Victor agreed. "But is it log ical to suppose he did—a man with a car?" "And the car's still over there," the minister thundered. "Strange Passing strange.” "There wasn’t a thing wrong with the trailer," Albion Potter added. "Did you go into the castle?” "No. we didn't." De Witt said "Breaking and entering—I thought we’d better wait for the police. But Potter here shinnied up on to a bal cony and saw that one room had been used all right. Suitcase on the bed wasn’t there. Potter, and clothes strewn about?" Albion nodded. "Couldn’t see much, but the bed didn’t look as il it had been slept in." “A man’s clothes? You—you couldn't be sure they were Lane's?" "How could I? But a man’s, all right. Hclter - skelter, pajama shirts, tumbled out of an open sui case.” "It’s beginning to make sense, Victor Quade said "How about i you people? We can do a lot i clear up this business for the polici and the more we find out the moi Are’ll be saved afterward. What d vou say we lake a good look at tt oridge first, post a sentry in car anybody should happen along tli Neck bright and early, and tht I have a general co-operative get-b gether and clear up what we can” (TO UK COM IM KO Wake Up and Shine . . . for a Hearty Breakfast! (See Recipes Below) Winter Breakfasts Though the wind may howl moan fully and the icicles crackle coldly at your window these mornings when you arise to meet the day and all its tasks, a hot, well-bal anced breakfast is bound to bring you to the alert in double quick time. Fruit or fruit juice will wake you first, then eggs, hot cereal, rolls or flapjacks will do the rest toward getting you on your way. Citrus fruit crops are especially good this winter and will be at your breakfast service with all their rich vitamins, minerals and health-giv ing qualities. Their sparkle and freshness will give you a new start these busy mornings. Vitamin Cereals. It's a wonderful idea to follow up the fruit course with one of those quickly prepared hot cere Is which are so rich in vitamin Bl—that important vitamin you need dally for preventing nervousness, fatigue and restlessness. There are several ways of doing up the hot cereals. The quick-cook ing wheat and oat cereals may be readily prepared along with the rest of breakfast—in just a few minutes’ time. If you have a deep-well cook er on an electric range you can place the cereal in glass jars along with dried fruits you are able to obtain, turn on the unit overnight, and have fruit and cereal ready-to eat. Don’t hesitate at cooking the quick-cooking cereals longer—they are improved in flavor and more palatable if you give them a few extra minutes. Coddled Eggs. Coddled or soft cooked eggs are made by bringing a sauce pan of water to a good boil. Then turn out the heat, transfer into it the eggs with a spoon. Cover and let stand 5 to 10 minutes depending upon the consistency of egg you desire. This is a good way to fix eggs—you can place them in the water while you’re getting the rest of the break fast. Change Your Breakfasts. Fried mush is a wonderful break fast food; serve it with syrup, but ter and honey, and even fried apple rings—for a late Sunday morning feast. Toasted English muffins teamed with poached eggs—and a piece of broiled ham in between will work wonders toward getting the fami ly on its way out of bed. Packaged pan cake mixtures will speed up the j tempo at break fast time. Serve them with butter or vitaminized margarine—honey and butter syrup, melted together, or dark corn syrup flavored with a maple extract are all that could be desired, luscious indeed. No, I haven’t forgotten omelets! For a fluffy omelet allow 3 eggs for 2 people. Separate eggs, and beat each separately. Add M tablespoon cream to yolks, salt and pepper, | -.---—— t-ynn Says: __ Saying it Briefly: Saute minced onion and green pepper with left over meat and enclose in pastry squares. Bake until crisply brown and serve with gravy. Alternate slice; of sauteed egg plant and slices of leftover meat in casserole. Pour over it some tomato soup, sprinkle with grat ed cheese, heat, and presto! Your ! main dish is ready! Boil large onions, scoop out cen ter, fill with hash, and heat, serve with gravy or tomato sauce. Scoop out centers from pota toes, mash potatoes, mix with ground, leftover meat, refill, heat and bring to the table. This Week’s Breakfast Sliced Oranges Hot Oatmeal Honey Top Milk Coddled Eggs •Butterscotch Pecan Rolls Beverage •Recipe Given then fold in stiffly beaten whites. Heat butter in skillet, pour in eggs, cover and cook over low heat until mixture puffs, about 8 minutes. Un cover and finish cooking in slow oven (325 degrees) about 20 min utes. Fold over and serve on warm platter. Omelet Variations. If you have leftover ham, sprinkle a few tablespoons of minced ham over omelet while it is cooking. For a jelly omelet, spread a table spoon of jelly over surface of omelet before folding it ~ over—after it has finished cooking completely. For special occasions, spread sauteed chicken livers before folding omelet. Freshly baked rolls with swirls of brown syrup and whole pecans on top are bound to make your break fast a real pleasure. Make the rolls in the afternoon—reheat for break fast, for these won’t dry out: 'Butterscotch Pecan Rolls. (Makes 3 dozen) 1 package yeast, compressed or granular 94 cun warm water 94 cup milk, scalded, cooled to lukewarm 1 teaspoon salt 94 cup sugar 94 cup melted shortening t eggs, well beaten About 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup brown sugar, packed firmly 1 cup pecan meats Pour 94 cup lukewarm water over yeast, add 1 tablespoon sugar, stir, let stand about 5 minutes. Dissolve salt and remaining sugar in milk. When lukewarm add yeast and blend with 2 cups flour. Beat very thoroughly. Next, add eggs and shortening. Mix well and beat three minutes. Add remaining flour enough to make a smooth dough. Knead lightly on board about 5 min utes. Use only enough flour to keep dough from sticking. Dough should be kept as soft as possible. Grease top and let rise until doubled. Fold dough down again and let rise again until doubled. To shape: roll dough into oblong pieces until 94 inch thick. Spread with butter, brown sugar and nuts. Roll as for jelly roll. Cut into 1 to 194-inch slices. Use muffin tins, add 94 spoonful of butter, and a few nutmeats to each pan. Place rolls of dough, cut side down on each pan. Let rise again until dou ble. Bake about 12 to 15 minutes in a hot (400 to 425-degree) oven. Remove from pans immediately. Quick Coffee Cake. t4 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1% cups flour 214 teaspoons baking powder 1 i teaspoon salt 1 cup milk I teaspoon vanilla Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and beat until light. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk and beat for several minutes. Add va nilla and pour into a greased, shal low pan. Spread with topping and bake in a moderate (350-degree) oven 25 to 30 minutes. Topping. 2 egg whites 1 cup brown sugar Nutmeats Beat egg whites stiff. Fold in sugar. Spread on batter and sprin kle with chopped nutmeats. Have you a particular household or cooking problem on uhich you would like expert advice? Write to Miss Lynn Chambers at Western Newspaper Union, 210 South Desplaines Street, Chicago, Illinois, explaining your problem fully to her. I‘lease enclose a stamped, self addressed envelope for your reply. Released by Western Newspaper Union. CBS’ Stage Door Canteen will be the vehicle through which Bert Lytell, once a movie idol, will return to films. The movie version, produced for United Artists by Sol Lesser, will bring us a host of celebrities, including Katharine Cornell, who’s shunned the films so far, and Lunt and Fontanne, Tallulah Bank head, and scores of others. Lytell has been so busy with stage and radio engagements of recent years that he’s had no time for pictures. __ i - Orson Welles isn’t trying to set a new fad with that shock of long hair that he’s wearing at “Ceiling Un limited” rehearsals. He’s letting his hair grow at the request of 20th Century-Fox for his role of “Roches ter” in their version of “Jane Eyre.” -* George Montgomery will do one more picture before he goes into the service; it’s in “Bomber’s Moon,” opposite Annabella — the GEORGE MONTGOMERY story of an American pilot who’s shot down in Germany. Do you wonder that Hollywood’s wondering what to use for leading men? -rfc Maybe Bob Hope’s a prophet; he hopes so. His “The Road to Moroc co” was filmed six months before the Allied invasion of that territory, and released right on the dot. Re cently he interrupted his tour of the army camps for 48 hours to do a scene for “They Got Me Covered” which depicts a deflated Mussolini escaping from the nation he led into its present predicament—it’s being filmed with the blessing of the Office of War Information. Bob’s got his fingers crossed, hoping that this scene, too, will come true. 'I' Alan Ladd’s date with Uncle Sam upset the apple cart so far as Para mount’s “Incendiary Blonde” was concerned. He was to have starred in this screen version of Texas Gui nan’s life with Betty Hutton, but his prospective induction into the army wrecked that plan. At present the film has been shelved; Miss Hutton gets the feminine lead in "Let’s Face It,” and Betty Rhodes gets a sup porting role. They could hardly believe it at Metro when they got two new lads at once. Tommy Dix and Gil Strat ton were brought from the New York stage for “Best Foot Forward”—and at once Stratton was assigned to "Girl Crazy” and Dix will win Lu cille Ball in “Best Foot Forward." vjy 1 If the actors on your favorite radio program sound pretty exhilirated, it’s practically certain to be due to Just one thing—the return of a for mer member of the group in uni form. "Pepper Young’s Family” was almost disrupted when Larry WoodleaJ appeared recently. Larry’s a handsome lad who joined up be fore Pearl Harbor, after doing pub licity for the program; he’d spent eight months in the Far East. M' t Eddie Cantor’s explanation for substituting for Phil Baker on “Take It or Leave It”—“Last April, Phil Baker took my place when I was in the hospital. So I took his place when he was in the hospital. Next time we’ll both be on the program— the audience will go to the hospital!” -* William L. Shirer, the news com mentator, is planning a series of talks at service camps throughout the country in the near future. He has already given numerous talks at camps in the eastern area. Ed Mur row, the London newscaster, reports that he's expecting to solve the no gas problem soon; he has his eye on ) an elderly horse, but is still dicker ing over the price. ODDS AND ENDS—Kudin's Tim and Irene are among the featured players in Columbia's picture, “Reveille K ith Beverly” . . . Joe Schilling, Edward C. Robinson’s stand-in in “Destroyer,” wears a naval lieutenant’s uniform—the best his boss cun do is a chief boat swain’s mate outfit . . . Thomas Mit chell’s been added to the cast of Metro’s “Bataan Patrol’’ . . . Nelson Eddy, who hasn’t made a picture since "l Married an Angel,” will return to the screen in Universal’s remake of “The Phantom of the Opera”; Deanna Durbin, origin ally scheduled for the picture, probably won’t appear in it. l/ncle Pkilt Aa We See It Other people have prejudices; we have convictions and opinions. Don't rest on your laurels unless you are prepared to see them wilt. Your dog is willing to go to the depths for you, instead of trying to “make you over” into another kind of a person. Isn’t That Too Bad We love those whom we help, but not always those who help us. Those men who believe there should be a tax on bachelors are invariably married. Youth goes into the world to find what he can bring back from it. For colds’ coughs, nssal congestion, muscle aches get Penetro—modern medication in a mutton suet base. 254, double supply 354. Majority at Marriage Kansas is the only state in which males and females, when married, attain their majority at the age of 18 years and then revert to minor ity, until they are 21, if one partner dies or the couple is divorced. yo«V"'8‘*' may be quickly relieved with soothing, medicated, time-tested Resinol. Tryitl RESINOL. .. ■' 1 ■ ■ 1 ■ ■■ m Digging for Knowledge Knowledge will not be acquired without pains and application. It is troublesome, like deep digging for pure water, but when once you come to the springs, they rise up to meet you.—Felton. SAVE MEAT WITH TASTY ALL-BRAN MEAT PATTIES Here’s a grand recipe for these times! Delicious, nourishing meat pat ties—made with Kellogg's all-bran. Makes meat go further. Gives these patties a tempting, crunchy texture— plus all the nutritional benefits of all-bran: valuable proteins, carbohy drates, vitamins and minerals. Try it I Kellogg's All-Bran Meat Patties 1 egg 1 tablespoon 2 teaspoons salt chopped parsley 14 teaspoon pepper 1 cup milk 2 tablespoons 14 cup catsup minced onion 1 cup Kellogg’s All-Bran 1 pound ground beef Beat egg, add salt, pepper, onion, parsley, milk, catsup and All-Bran. Let soak until most of moisture is taken up. Add beef and mix thoroughly. Bake in hot oven (450° F.) about 20 minutes or broil about 15 minutes. Remove meat patties from pan. Add some milk and seasonings to drippings. Thicken slightly to make gravy. Yield: 5 serv ings, 2 patties each. Nine-Leaf Clover Archer Herrick of Saco, Maine, has succeeded in growing a nine leaf clover. He also has a collec tion of four, five, six, seven and eight-leaf clovers. I • Economy rules today, even with the least costly ingredient in your baking recipe ... and, Clabber Girl’s top quality at low cost joins in the war on waste. For best baking results, and for real economy, use Clabber Girl exactly as your recipe directs . . . levelling every teaspoonful. You pay less for Clabber Girl’s high quality but you use no more. Your grocer wants to help you stretch your food budget . . . He’ll not disappoint you when you ask for Clabber Girl. HULMAN & CO.,-Terre Haute, Ind. Founded 1848 Ask Mother, She Knows. .1 Clabber Cirl hat boon 1 known at the money-iav- 1 ing quality baking powdor I for yoart and yeart. f
