Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 257, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 March 1929 — Page 10

PAGE 10

THIS HAS HAPPENED RUTH LESTER., sec re la rv, finds the body of "HANDSOME HAfcRY” BORDEN. her employer. Monday rooming sprawled beneath the alrshaft window or his private office. McMANN. detective sergeant, conducting the Investigation in the victim's office, questions the following suspects: Ruth. MRS. BORDEN. Borden’s estranged wife and mother of his two children: RITA DUBOIS, night club dancer, with whom Borden was infatuated. and JACK HAYWARD. Ruth’s fiance, whose office is across the narrow airshaft from Borden's. McMann’s belief in Jack’s guilt is strengthened by his discovery that Jack’s Colt .38 is missing; by Jack’s admission that he returned to the seventh floor Saturday afternoon, and by the testimony of elevator bovs. MICKY MORAN and OTTO PFLUOER. BILL COWAN. Jack's friend, unwillingly tells McMann he heard Jack threaten Borden’s life. McMann questions BENNY SMITH. Borden's office bev: ASHE, his manservant: MINNIE CASSIDY and LETTY MILLER, seventh floor scrubwomen, and CLEO GILMAN. Borden's discarded mistress, who gives an ironclad alibi. MARTHA MANNIO. mother of Borden's illegitimate son. Is involved by Ruth's own detective work. McMann Questions her mercilessly about her relationship with Borden. She tells McMann she called on Borden last on Friday night after following him and JAKE BAILEY, his bodyguard, into the building. She says she climbed stairs to the seventh floor and saw ’ Borden after Jake's departurer. McMann tells her tg lying and calls in Jake Bailey, waiting outside, to prove it. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER XL AM*ORT broad-suouldeied man, his face composed of a set of battered, unmatching features, on which a genial smile set oddl& swaggered into the room, his surprisingly falsetto greeting accompanying an enormous hand thrust out toward the detective In charge of the investigation into the murder of Henry P. Borden: ‘‘Hello, Cap! Seen In the papers where my buddy, Harry Borden, got bumped off, and that you was anxious to have a chat with me. Anything I can do—Well, I guess you don’t need me after all, Cap!” he broke off to exclaim when, on reaching Borden’s desk and shaking hands with McMann, he got a view of the face of the woman whose back had been turned toward him as he entered the room. ‘‘So—you got him, did you? Minute my back was turned—” ‘‘Just a moment, Bailey!’ - McMann interrupted sharply. “You identify this woman?” “Sure I know her! Harry pointed her out to me not a week after he took me on to look after him. ‘Jake,’ he says, ‘take a good look at that woman and don’t let her get any nearer to me than she is now, or you’ll lose your job, Jake,’ he says— ’’ “When and where was this?” McMann interrupted impatiently. ‘‘Now—lemme see!” Jake Bailey laid his pearl-gray derby on his dead employees desk and scratched his head. “Must a-been ’long about the middle of November, for I had my last bout with Battlin’ Demon on November tent’—a frame-up it was, too, Cap, I’l ltake my Bible oath! All right, Cap! Keep your shirt on!” he admonished the detective genially. “But you ast, didn’t you? Well, it must a-been about the middle of November, then, and me and Harry was walkin’ along the Avenoo when Harry pipes this dame gittin' off a bus. She makes like she’s gonna speak to him or bust, and then he says to me, Harry says ” “Yes, you've already told that!” McMann interrupted impatiently. “Did she speak to him?” “Say, Cap!” Jake Bailey grinned broadly. “Harry hopped into a taxi so quick I almost got left!” “Did you ever see her agaii.?” “Sure! Christmas Eve. That bird that putters around Harry's apartment went to the bootlegger’s downstairs ?,nd left the door unlatched. and first thing me and Harry knew —in the bedroom we was—there she was, no shame at all -•-busting in on a man what's bhangin’ his clothes!” nun AT that expression of Jake's outraged modesty. Martha Manning laughed—a queer, startling blend of scorn and ironic amusement. “Yeah! You can laugh, can’t you?” Jake BaPey's little greenishblue eyes glared at her with Jiatred. "You got him—jist like he thought you would, and now you laugh!” Martha Manning's great, -ragic brown eyes swept him scornfully, as If he were an obnoxious insect,

TTJJ? A rj?w Saint-Sinner ByjJnneJlustin •t93B4fNCA.sama.iNc.

But Cherry’s vanity was not quite so great as her love for her husband. She dropped again, and Faith had to bend her head to catch the forlorn whisper: “I wonder when Nils will come to take me home.” “Just why did you leave him, if you can hardly wait for him to come for you?" Faith asked, not unkindly ‘•Don't be ridic!” Cherry flashed. “ “What else could I do. after what happened? After he laughed at me, ■ in front of another man! Os course I'd much ratfftr it had • been another man. than another woman.” she acknowledged, as if trying to be very fair. "But—can’t you see; Faith, darling? If I’d tamely submitted to his laughing at me, he'd have been absolutely impossible.” "The truth of the matter is that you adore being mastered, and you’d despise Nils if you could wind him around your little finger, as you’ve been able to do every other man that jras in love with you.” "If I just knew he was terribly in love with met” Cherry smiled, acknowledging the correctness of ■ Faith’s deduction by ignoring it. "He won me so ’easily, didn't have to lift a finger! Why, I practically flung myself into his arms, I was so afraid he wouldn't ask me to marry him! * 0 "Don’t you see that’s why I simply have to prove to myself now that he can’t live without me?’ "But what if you proved that he ! could?” Faith suggested cruelly. "Oh!’’ Cherry covered her face with her hands. "Don't you know I'm already scared half to death? You don’t have to rub it in! Oh, I wish I’d never laid eyes on Alan Beardsley.”

then dropped to the hands in her lap. “Jake, this is a serious charge you’re making against Miss Manning,” the detective began. “Whatfoundation have you for this charge? Have you personal knowledge of Miss Manning's guilt?” ‘ Person al knowledge—hell! ” the ex-pugilist retorted. “If you mean did I see her do it—no! I left town Friday night and jist got back—” “Before we go into your own whereabouts on Saturday, when Borden was killed.” McMann interrupted, “suppsse you tell me exactly what happened on Christmas Eve, between Miss Manning and Harry Borden.” “Well, like I said—me and Harry was in Harry's bedroom, when in she walks, bold as brass. 'Harry,’ she says, ‘it's Christmas! Aren’t you going to give me—end the boy —a Christmas present?’ she says, and by that time Harry was at her, tryin’ to walk her right bkek out of his room. But she hung', back—like a wildcat she was—and she keeps whinin’ something about not wantin’ nothin’ for Christmas but his promise to git a divorce and marry her —oh, no! She didn’t want nothin’ much!” he ltughed sarcastically. “And then? Borden struck her on the mouth?” McMann prompted impatiently. Something like a blush ran over the scrambled features of the expugilist. “We-ell, Cap,” he admitted reluctantly, “I reckon that was me Harry was payin’ me a good sal’ry to pertect him, wasn’t he? I jist done my duty—’at’s all! But I never nit her till she snatched open her handbag—like she was reachinfor a gun—and Harry yelled at me to help him.” “And did she have one?” “No,” the dead man's efficient bodyguard admitted. “Reckon she was after a picture of the kid she had in her bag. Had ‘Merry Christmas for my dad’ wrote on it—” It was not a laugh this time that told that Jake Bailey’s words had struck home. It was a long-drawn “Oh!” of infinite misery, so heartrending that Ruth Lester involuntarily leaned forward and patted these tight-locked han- 1 whose message she had not yet had time to read. “And after you knocked her out?” McMann prodded his witness. “Well, me and Harry fixed her up with some brandy, and I took her down and put her in a taxi. Paid for it, too,” the ex-pugilist added virtuously. “And did Borden later intimate to you that he feared this woman would kill him?” MARTHA MANNING raised her head then and stared steadily at the man who leaned nonchalantly against her dead lover’s desk. “Sure!” came the emphatic answer in a cracking falsetto. “He said he’d a-swore she was gonna croak him that time, and he bet she'd do it yet—” “So ypu offered to put her out of the way for him. didn't you?” McMann asked casually, after a glance at the notes he had made on the story of Frank Ashe, Borden’s manservant. “Well, I didn't, so it won't be me ’atH sit in the chair,” Bailey retorted. “And did you see Miss Manning again?” McMann pursued his questioning. “Naw—guess she laid low and waited till I was out of town,” Bailey answered. “You didn’t see her on Friday night?” “No, I left town on Friday night, like I told you.” “But you were with Borden before ou left?” “Sure I was. I went with him to the Crillon. a swell feed joint, and waited outside while he et with his new sweetie, that classy little dancer he picked up at the Golden Slipper. 'Bout half-past six it was when he met Rita there, and around eight when him and her come out. He put the frail in a taxi, and promised to see her at the Golden Slipper about 10, before her act went on at 11. She wouldn’t let him drive

“I think it’s time you went to bed, tc cry yourself to sleep,” suggested Faith. “Another thing that made me furious,” Cherry went on, ignoring Faith's advice, “was Nils’ inviting Crystal to come out to the farm to recuperate. Babbled away about the fresh air. fresh eggs, new milk and what-not, in the most disgusting way. I thought he was going to kiss her any minute!” Faith laughed, and flushed, too. “Then Nils isn’t a bit original. I'm sure every, man in The room felt exactly the same way about her tonight. and you could hardly blame them.” “What's happened to her anyway? Losing twenty-five pounds and getting a stunning new bob aren't enough to account so- it,” Cherry complained. “Heaven knows I never thought I’d live to see the day I'd be jealous of Crystal Hathaway! Even Dick Talbot tried to date her up. and if Bob remembered that she was his cousin, he gave a swell imitation of forgetting it!” “Do you want me to cry myself to sleep, too?” Faith asked lightly. but th£ flush deepened. “And George Pruitt wantng to paint her portrait, and Harry Blaine looking as if he’d welcome six lions and a tiger to protect her from!” Cherry went An fiercely. “I’m warning you, Faitli—Crystal's turned into the kind of a girl that every man just aches to protect. The most dangerous kind in the world . . . Well. I'll go to bed. but—oh. Faith! What’ll I do if Nils doesn't come after me first thing in the morning?” To Be Continued

over to her hotel •with her—always acted pretty ritzy with him—that dame did. So him and me hopped into another cab come over to his office. Said he was dopin’ out a new scheme and wanted to work awhile before goin’ to the Golden Slipper.” “And did you come up with him?” “Sure! Harry wouldn’t go into his own office at night alone, if he could help it. Scared some sucker who was sore at him because he’d lost his money might be layin’ for him, or this dame here,” and Jake jerked his head toward Martha Manning. “I come up all right, and we set here awhile, chewin’ the rag —told me about this dancin’ baby he was gonna take to Winter Haven with him Saturday, if he could gat her boss to let her off.” “How long' were you with Borden?” “Oh, 'bout half an hour, I guess,” Jake answered readily. “I didn’t have nothin’ to do but kill time before iny train left—9:24, that was. Must a-been ’round nine when I beat it—sure, that’s when it was! Eight fifty-five! I remember asking the elevator man what time it was,, when heshoved his book at me to sign out. They make you write down the time and your name and the office you’ve been in.” n n n PLEASE, Mr. McMann. may I ask a question?” Ruth spoke for the first time since Jake Bailey had entered the room. “I’ve just been wondering how Mr. Borden got into his office, since he’d given his key to Rita Dubois Friday afternoon and never did get it back.” “That's right!” McMann agreed, rather ungraciously. He did not enjoy having Been caught napping. “How did Borden get in, Jake?” “Check, kid!” and Jake touched his forehead in a salute to Ruth. “Harry didn’t remember till he got to his door that he didn’t have a key, and since I never had one myself, he had to hunt up one of the old janes that cleans the offices to let him in with her passkey. “He couldn’t find the old lady that took care of his office reg'lar, and had to prove who he was by showin’ a letter with his name on it to the woman I scouted around and found for him.” “Hmm! Letty Miller, I suppose. She’s the only other cleaning woman on the floor,” McMann commented, as he made a note. “Where did you find her?” “Down the hall,” Bailey answered promptly. “Said she wasn’t acquainted with the tenants on this corridor, but was jist helpin’ out the old lady who belongs on this part of the floor.” For the first time in many minutes McMann addressed a question to Martha Manning: “Did you see this scrubwoman yourself, Miss Manning?” The contralto voice was quite steady. “No. As I told you before, I saw' no one. I w T as alone while I waited for—this man”—and she nodded scornfully toward Jake Bailey—“to leave; and no one but myself was in the hall when I left after seeing Mr. Borden. The scrubwoman who admitted Mr. Bprden must have finished her work in this corridor before I had walked up the stairs.” McMann peremptorily commanded the amazed ex-pugilist to silence. “You realize, Miss Manning,” he said to the now calm but burning-eyed woman, “that if Letty Miller tells me she was working on this corridor while you claim you were in it your story will be blown sky-high?" “I’m not afraid of anything that this Letty Miller may say,” Martha Manning retorted scornfully, “for I am telling the truth. I was here —I did wait until—this man had left, I did have a talk with Mr. Borden—” “Say!” Jake Bailey burst out, regardless of McMann's injunction. “Wherewas you? You wasn't in no hall when I come out of here to take the elevator—” “No, I wasn’t. I was behind the stairway door, holding it slightly ajar and watching you,” Miss Manning assured him with cool triumph. “Say!” Jake Bailey turned to McMann. “You got the goods on that dame, ain’t you?—and she’s tryin’ to lie out of it, ain’t she? You got ! proof she was in Harry’s office, and i she's tryin’ to make you believe it | was Friday night she was here and 1 not Saturday? That’s right, ain't | it?” nun TIif’MANN grinned wryly. “Substantially correct, Jake. We’ve got her fingerprints, left sometime between Friday afternoon and Monday morning on the glass panel of that door between the two offices. “Miss Manning insists that those fingerprints were made on Friday night, that she followed you and Borden into the building, walked up the stairs, waited at the head of them on the seventh floor until you left Borden, and then immediately knocked on Borden’s door, counting on his thinking it was you, returned for a last word." “Hell!'’ Bailey spat contemptously.' ‘'Claims Borden let her in—pretty and polite as you please, does she? Ho! Not Ham-! Not this dame! He'd as soon let a wildcat in ” “Mr. Borden carelessly opened the door wide, thinking it was you,” Martha answered him calmly. “Mister Bailey, you’ve just told Mr. McMann that you kept a sharp eye out for me. lest I follow Mr. Borden, and that you did not see me again after Christmas eve. That’s correct, isn’t it?” The man glared at her. “Well—what of it?” “I couldn’t have passed very close to you on the street without your seeing me?” she persisted. “Then”—the lovely contralto voice vibrated with triumph, “I think I can convince both you and Mr. McMann that I watched you from the head of the stairs on Frday night!” (To Be Continued' In the next chapter—a confession. And from a surprising source.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

OUR BOARDING HOUSE

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BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES

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FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS

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WASHINGTON TUBBS II

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THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE

Among the famous early Christians who spread the P if I farth in Great Britain and Ireland were St. Columba St Patrick escaped and St. Patrick. St. Patrick, whose memory is hon- slavery, became a priest ored on March 17, was born probably in Scotland, of a and re t urned to help the neble family, in 396. In 411 he was captured and taken oeople of Ireland. He jn vjied in 469 ‘ 3-. J

OUT OUR WAY

By Ahern

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• Columba was forty when h ; tet out v .tri twel.e h'i*. j St. Columba was born( sionaries, crossed the stormy seas to the north of Irein Ireland in 521 and land, to the shores of Scotland. Columba founded .a founded several monas- monastery on the Island of lona. We can still see the teries there. He resoWed ruins of the monastery where he lies buried. \to go to Scotland. 3 J m. t* (To Be Continued)

SKETCHES BY BESSEY. SYNOPSIS BY BBAUCHEft

MARCH .16, 1929

—By Williams

—Bv Martin

Bv Rlnsse^

By Crane

By Small

By Cowan