Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 259, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 March 1929 — Page 13

MARCH 19,1929-

THIS HAS HAPPENED On Monday morning RUTH LESTER secretary, finds the body of her employer. "HANDSOME HARRY" BORDEN. sprawled beneath the alrshaft window of his private office. M'MANN, detective sergeant, questions th * following suspects; MRS. BORDEN, Borden’s estranged wife and mother of r.is two children: RITA DUBOIS, nlgnt club dancer, with whom was Infatuated: and JACK HAYWARD. Ruth’s flance, whose office Is • cross the narrow airshaft from Borden s Jack's guilt seems emphasized bv McMann s discovery that Jack’s pistol is missing from his desk: by Jack's admission that he returned to the seventh floor Saturday afternoon, and bv the testimony of MICKY MORAN and OTTO PFLUGER. e evator hoys. BILL COWAN. Jack s friend, unwillingly admits having heard Jack threaten Borden's life Saturday morning. McMann questions BENNY SMITH. Borden's office boy; ASHE, his man*fvant; MINNIE CASSIDY and LETTY B ® v ®nth floor scrubwomen, and CLEO GILMAN, Borden’s discarded mistress. MARTHA MANNING, mother of Borden’s Illegitimate son. is questioned. She says she last saw Borden Friday night In his office after his bodyguard. JAKE BAILEY, had left him, and that her Incriminating fingerprints were made then Martha Says she did not call Saturday afternoon but telephoned Borden. McMann polntblank accusses her of the murder and Martha challenges him to bring forward anyone who saw her in the building Saturday. Benny Smith bursts in upon them erving. "I’ve come to give myself up. I' shot, Mr. Borden.” NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER XLII RUTH LESTER was miserably ashamed later to remember that her first emotion upon hearing Benny Smith say he had shot Borden was one of relief. Jack Hayward was saved! But that emotion was almost instantly submerged in pity. And she was glad later to remember that she was conscious of no horrified shrinking as she ran to put her arms about the unsteadily swaying body who had just confessed to murder. “Here! Let me help!” McMann gruffly commanded the girl, and with as much ease as if he were lifting a baby the giant detective lifted the boy in his arms and carried him to the big, overstuffed leather chair from which the murdered man had manipulated his ruinous schemes and which for two charge of the investigation into his murder as a vantage point from which to heckle, harass, bully and confound suspect* When the boy was lying back weakly in the big chair, McMann whirled one of the straight-backed visitors’ chairs to the desk and commandeered Ruth Lester’s services as a stenographer, to take down the confession. Her eyes were now so blinded with tears that she could hardly find her notebook and pencils—pencils upon which Benny himself had put such a fine brave edge just last Saturday! •‘Ready, Miss Lester? ... All right, Benny. Tell us all about it now,” the detective commanded, almost gently. A glass of cold water from the tap in the outer office had been fetched by the detective himself and stood beside Benny’s right hand. “Well, sir,” Benny began, after a strange, wistful look at Ruth Lester, who waited with poised pencil, “I lied yesterday when I said I didn’t come back. I did come back, but nobody didn’t see me, ’cause I walked up.” “Why did you walk up, Benny?” McMann interrupted. “ ’Cause I was sore at Mr. Borden, ’n I—l wanted to have it out with him,” Benny answered, his adoles. cent voice going suddenly soprano on the last word. tt tt tt “TT7HAT were you sore about?” VV “ ’Cause he—he bawled me out!” Benny cried, rolling his head from side to side against the brown leather back of the chair. “Isn’t it true that you were more sore at him because he’d ‘got fresh’ with Miss Lester Saturday morning?” the detective suggested. “You keep Ruth’s name outa this!” Benny protested shrilly. “I tell you—l was sore at Mr. Borden ’cause he was always pickin’ on me, ’n Saturday he talked to me like a dog, jist ’cause I wanted to borrow Ruth’s pistol for target practice.” “Then you were also lying when you said the pistol was not in Miss Lester’s desk when you returned the first time—at half-past one?” McMann asked. “Naw—it wasn’t there, ’N say, I didn’t come back up the second time to kill him—” “But you walked up six flights of stairs so you would not be seen ending the building,” McMann pointed out grimly. “Listen, Benny, now that you're confessing, make a clean

That Friday morning after Faith’s party for her. Crystal Hathaway woke with an extraordinary feeling of happiness and well-being. She had never felt so light and free and young in her life. She laughed softly, a clear, belllike little sound in the morning quietness of her pretty room. She felt so extraordinary well that It did not occur to her that she had not been walking. Confidently, exultingly, she lifted her thin body from the bed, swung her narrow white feet to the floor. So intent was the girl who had been born again to look herself in the eye and to see if she had indeed ascended into the Kingdom of Heaven that she did not even feel the wave of dizziness that ' swept over her brain and the tingles in her long-inactive feet. In the door of her clothes closet was set a long mirror, almost the length and width of the door. Toward it she walked unsteadily but unconscious of weakness. Although Tony had held a mirror for Crystal to see her transformation the night before. Crystal felt as she stood before the long glass that she was seeing herself for the first time. Bending close, she gated deeply into her own eyes. Clear, grave, but luminous with a new’ light, the large, translucent hazel eyes in the mirrored reflection gazed back at her unflinchingly. It was true, true! She could look herself in the mir-

breast of everything. Your actions prove you premeditated murder.” ‘No. I didn’t!” Benny denied, his head rolling wildly against the chair back. ••■Well—go on,” McMann directed resignedly. “I come back, like I said, and opened the door with my key,” Benny began rapidly, and was again interrupted by McMann. “At just what time?” “I_” Benny looked pitifully confused. “I don’t know exactly. ’Bout two o’clock, I reckon—” “Then —” McMann said parenthetically and triumphantly to Ruth, “my theory that Rita Dubois robbed the body is correct." Then, remembering the mysterious telephone. call, a fragment of which Bill Cowan had said he overheard when he had called Jack Hayward's number at 2:10 and was plugged in on a busy line, and Rita’s corroborating story of Borden’s line being busy from 2:05 to 2:15, the detective asked: “Have you any way of fixing the exact time of your second return, Benny?” The boy looked at the detective suspiciously, even fearfully, Ruth thought—though what could he fear now, after confessing? “Naw, I don’t knqw, I tell you, but it was about 2 o’clock. ’At’s all I know. I unlocked the door and come in, and Mr. Borden was settin’ at his desk, ’n Ir-I come right in here, ’u we—we quarreled ” “What about?” the detective interrupted sharply. “Aw—jist about him pickin’ on me, ’n—everything! ’N he picked up a”—his fevered eyes roved over the desk and lighted upon the glass ink well, empty now, since McMann had used its contents with which to take Martha Manning’s fingerprints —“that there ink well and started to throw it at me, ’n I grabbed Ruth’s gun ” “Wait! Just where was this gun?” McMann cut in. “Layin’ on the desk,” Benny answered. “Right—right here!” and he laid his hand in the center of the big green blotter. “The big stiff tried to beat me to it—’n I thought he was goin’ to shoot me ” tt tt “ A FTER hitting you with the ink lYweli?” McMann asked mildly. “He—he put the ink well down.” Benny amended desperately. “’N I —I pulled the trigger, ’thout knowin’ what I was doin,’ ’n—’n the gun went off—’n ’at’s all!” he concluded, seizing the glass for a long draught of cold water. “So—you shot Borden while he sat at his desk.” McMann said slowly. “That right?” “Yeah, ’at’s right!” Benny retorted defiantly. “Then how do you account for the fact that his body was found away over there under the airshaft window?” McMann demanded. “I—l forgot that,” Benny confessed. “But—say, don’t you go and try to make me say I didn’t kill him —'cause I did! I—l did it in self-de-fense,” he added, obviously a little proud of his use of a legal phrase. “After I shot him, he got up and walked over there and fell down—’at’s how I account for it!” The detective extracted an offi-cial-looking, typed document from his pocket As he unfolded it, Ruth caught a glimpse of the wording of the printed letterhead: “Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Department of Police—” McMann studied the detailed report in silence, then folded it slowly and returned it to his pocket. “Now, Benny, you know it can’t make any difference in the long run whether you shot Borden while he was seated at his desk, or while he was standing at that window. Come, now—just where was Borden when you shot him?” “Settin’ at his desk!” Benny repeated stubbornly, and began to cry, like a small boy, and not at all like the 17-year-o!d young man-about-town that he fancied himself to be. “And Benny”—McMann’s voice was very gentle now—“how many times did you shoot Borden? How many bullets were fired?” “Just one! I—l sorta come to when I seen what I’d done, ’n I dropped the gun ’n beat it—” Just one bullet! Ruth repeated to herself. And two bullets had been fired on Saturday, one imbedding itself in Borden’s chest, and the other scarring a brick beside Jack Hayward’s office window!

ror with self-respect! She had entered the kingdom of heaven-on-earth. Now—what sort of face and body had she been granted upon being born again? Her eyes traveled swiftly, making happy discoveries. Clear, white, unblemished skin, faintly gleaming, as if candles had been lighted within in the altar of her own^oul. Shining, smooth, red-brow’n hair, like a bronze bell. Her eyes traveled downward. The thin chiffon of her low-cut, sieveless nightgown was like a pale-pink mist which softened but did not conceal the outlines of her bedy. Why, it was beautiful, she discovered, with quick tears of gratitude. Slim and supple and white as the virginal little birch-tree in the Grayson woods. No wonder she felt light and free, with a body like that! Then snddenty Crystal felt hungry fcr the first, time since her ilfness. It would be a delight to feed this lovely body and make it strong —strong as the spirit which gazed at her unabashed through the clear, translucent windows which were her eyes. Ten minutes later a slim, but very erect girl dressed in darkblue silk crene, black lizard skin pumps and sheer gun-metal stockigns, appeared in the doorway of the Hathaway dining room. (To Be Continued.)

“So you dropped the gun, eh, Benny?” McMann asked gently. “Odd we didn’t find it—” “I—l picked it up again ’n stuck it in my overcoat pocket, ’n then I beat it down the stairs,” Benny corrected himself feverishly, shrilly. “I—gosh, I was scared! I—l wrapped the gun in a newspaper what I—l found on the stairs—l mean in one of them big sacks in the hall, what the cleaning women use to dump wastebaskets in—’n I —I chucked the gun in a—a big trash can on the sidewalk—” “Where?” McMann interrupted. “ —I don’t remember. Aw, gee, Mister, what does all. them things matter now? Ain’t I told you I done it?” the boy pleaded, wiping his eye on the sleeve of his coat. tt tt a “TjENNY, after you’d—shot Bor--13 den, did you go around to Mr. Hayward’s office for any reason whatever?” Ruth interrupted with a question of her own. The boy stared at her, frankly puzzled. “Naw—why should I?” “I thought so! Oh, Benny! Why are you doing all this? For my sake, Benny?” the girl cried, her voice shaking. Jumping up from her chair at the desk, she abandoned her notebook and pencil and ran to the boy. “I know you’re just making it all up, Benny darling! Why, why?” “He —he ’at detective”—Benny sobbed—“told me yesterday I’d better come clean, or you—you’d be arrested for murder.” “Oh!” Ruth cried, her blue eyes blazing scorn at the embarrassed detective. Then, to the boy, soothingly: “Dear Benny, I told you yesterday I was in no danger—” “But after he’d sent you for Minnie, he said you was, ’n just didn’t know it, ’n all last night ’n this mornin’ I studied how I could get you out of it, ’cause I’m just a kid ’n they wouldn’t ’lectrocute me—’! The boy broke off, sobbing heartbrokenly. The door opened. “Mrs. Smith’s here, sir—” # But Benny’s mother waited for no permission. A small woman, her sharp-featured face framed In frizzly waved light-brown hair, pushed past Detective Birdwell and ran to the sobbing boy. “Benny Smith, if you wasn’t sick, I’d spank you right here in front of these folks!” she scolded the boy sharply, but Ruth knew that the sharpness covered acute maternal anxiety. “I mighta known you’d pull some stunt like this, minute my back was turned!” Then she whirled upon Detective Sergeant McMann. “Are you the detective, mister? . . . Well, I hope you’re satisfied! You and your third-degree have run my boy’s fever up till it’s something awful! “I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night, listening to this poor child rave about keepin’ Miss Lester out of jail! The doctor and my girlfriend, Mrs. Thompson, who helped me set up with him and hold him in bed, can tell you how he took on —ravin’ in fever he was—about confessin’ so this Lester girl wouldn’t have to go to jail—” tt tt a “tjLEASE, please, Mrs. Smith!” ■T McMann at last succeeded in stopping the torrent of words. “I’m very sorry indeed if anything I said to Benny yesterday gave him the impression that I was about to arrest M-iss Lester. Now, I think we’d better call an ambulance and have this boy taken to the hospital. I’m afraid he’s a pretty sick youngster.” After Benny, who haa lapsed into a fever stupor, had been removed on a city hospital ambulance stretcher, the whole proceeding frantically recorded by newspaper cameras outside the Borden suite, a wet-eyed girl faced a flushed, penitent detective across the dead man’s desk. “Pretty rotten, I know,” McMann admtited defensively, dropping his eyes to the sheaf of notes he was shuffling betwen his thick fingers, “but if the police didn’t use oldfashoined methods occasionally, we wouldn’t solve half the crimes we do. Don’t like ’em myself, but—” He paused and shrugged. “Leaves us pretty much where we were before Benny burst in on us, doesn’t it? If you’ll pardon my language, Miss Lester, this is a hell of a case! Os course I knew the kid was lying before he’d been ‘confessing’ five minutes! . . . Well, better go to lunch, child. It’s after I—by George! It’s half-past!” Ruth rose, her notebook with its stenographic report of Benny’s chivalrous lies held against her breast, tenderly. She would transcribe every word of them, keep the record always. “And —may Mi*. Hayward go with me?”

CHAPTER XLIII WELL, darling,” Ruth said, after she and Jack Hayward had deposited lightly burdened trays upon a table in a far corner of the cafeteria, “this has been a busy morning! Net result—a confession!” “What!” Relief flared in the young insurance broker’s eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me as soon as we met?” Contrition sobered Ruth's vivid little face. “Forgive me, darling! I’ve raised your hopes, just to dash them. It was just Benny—lying like the darling little idiot that he is, because he thought McMann was- going to arrest me! I’ll read you his whole ‘confession’—l took it down in shorthand, at McMann’s request—when I’ve transcribed it*. Os course Benny was half delirious with fever, but I’ll never have a nobler compliment paid me—” “You’re a siren and ? cradle snatcher,” Jack told her severely. “It’s good thing I’m going to marry you and withdraw you from circulation. Anv other developments this morning?” Smiling delightedly, the girl told her sweetheart of Cleo Gilman’s stimulating visit and its ludicrous effect upon dour old McMann. (To Be Continued)

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES .

OUR BOARDING HOUSE

fBJSffeR, M\aD, ~~ I WAdT Wyo JJjS Ltr'S SEE , Mortis us-reiJ iff mV plaJs tor aiJ ipeal. JiS Snt weeks each woulp calendar, To Be k'Jowd as yme 72 "HOOPLA- CALENDAR 7 TUIR-ry J H DAVS To THE MOHTH, EACH MoHfH L A YEAR fTo Be DivilPEP islTo Si* fiue-daV f \ WEEKS, v*—DoikSS AWAV WITH MokIDAVS Jy H°LipAYS Ikl A VEAR, a aHd THursdavs, thaT Will, gwe M, that makes ah, ij4 ) EvyERVBoxV si* sukJdaVs a molJyh daVs of loafikJs/= j FoR "REST, - ALL HouPAVS WILL BE k YHREE WEEKS OF V ?ERMAM£(JfLV Ti*EP To FoiLOU) A YoUl? MOidTH ToR c SuklpaV, ~~~ There will ,be 36opavs ) vacaTok! would be (To A WEAR WlfH mV CAIEhtoAR, THE e*TRA {ls T>AVS MORE, ~~ ....................

P< . j\s .\M) UEU brUDIKh

f\A\\\ NO KIOOIN'. BOOTS-HOW OH-l DUKINo!W f WAT, \ SHOULD TEH . BUT ■ GEE -NOW THW I OCtSVT EEE\-TB£ A SUCCESS- 1 GUESS I'M THINK YOU'OBft! KNOW LUt COFvt OUT ON TOP, EUL YOUNG BtLLt ? TUNNY - BUT, THE HAPPIEST _ 1 OONT GET SUCH A KICK OUT 111 mvr to you -you __ somehow-\t girl in the J of \t anymore l y know-i SURE PUT TWMa f DOESN'T SEEM WORLD j PONY THINK. ft LONG IN A T — WT) "LEA ROOM I'MEMJ MUCH J ‘ ?LACE LIKE TH\S,MMMY-\T

FliKt’K !,KK AM) HUS FRIENDS

r—— S/7 v*i£ MIGHT OUST AS \ 1([ MOEU-,AWWAy T ' Woo LATE" f CIttCLS AROOmD < / UAD A *mQILUNS RIDE \ V AAJD GO OAOk TO A ) \ ° 69S *X „ ) JUST AS FRECKLES > LANDING PIELD / l DIDN'T NIE, FRECKLES? / and uncle harry Leo < ' J w- ' CAAkE TOOWNS f-EDTAIULV 1 CNER SAN PEDRO, - / ' mmS®! Ij f DID uncle WSy SA'W TILE . For UAWAII ' —= — oisappear . v-

WASHINGTON TUBBS II

( f GEE wizt a N \ ) fGOOD OLD 602 v! OOYI LISSEN wfffPfoX (cablegram. J To TmS:"A9R\med home okav. ii'•jJ’H, V CHEER UP, OUR. SOAP STOCK TOOK (ft/ A FLOP 6UT SfiLL HAVE MOKJEV TO Wash’s pal, iijaHpfjL burn, wiring couple grand for GOIM GALLUP, 1 J || J GOOD TiME .... GOIY." .. . j '—~T ——'——”

Sa I,I'SMAN SAM

A V<yosn, Why didn’t \ Think o' cow me. AfTHeßes the OUD BOY HimseufOamwassc mack eeFORE? from all We heard ha can tell Connie AnywhereSUCCESSFUL ABOUT HIS KIMOUESS TOWARD YOUNG- IF THAT AIN’T HIM, HIS IN HIS ATttMifT £5-CCeS, ALL l GoTTA Do IS WALK (Nib BROTHER, IF He'S GoT ON€.— TO LAND WITH pAlßv< "FELL HIM <’M READY TA BUT t'CL BeT A HAT IT'S HIS ...

MOM N POP

FTI " OOF-TASSY TPAoHir that's all \ re's that rood of prixe J , cos -cost=_ FLUFF! )( l Or* -rms ABOUT: \ LETTERS X GOT ABOUT naming | Afi/ICI [IM / / FOREVER M5R£Y= YOU'VE 3E6N TUE CAT. I'vE OPENED AND o DL(\LK\t. UM -Z / ~p 11 6 MUMBLING AND \ READ MILLIONS OF THEM. r.M- plr ™ ° J GRDANIN&-AUD \ ALL NIGHT LONG. NAME?! CAMc Piling ANABEU.E. - ) V yfp THEN YOU BEGAN \ NAMES!NAMES!!COLUMN IN So FAST N—\ \ CALUMG.—TABBY. I A=T£g COLUMN oT NAMES Tkt.T Ms “ ' 11% : /&■

THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE

Wherever Ursula and her ten thousand maidens went, Prince Conon and his knights followed, helping to spread Christianity. Ursula loved him, but felt that her mission of Christianity was not yet completed so she postponed the day when they would wed. Vi* TVfajJ* SptojJ of tH* Publisher* el Tfc* Book c* Kwawksly. Cogy^jH-

By Ahern

, & \ I // Tv? hJjbl a During the pilgrimage, barbaric heathens fell upon the hosts of Prince Conon, overcoming them., N. , J-a

OUT OUR WAY

f G\OOX~SMOt) ( fei HAIL-* / X WEM£R COOED FIGGEF YvA,' REASOW vjv-w culture. ocsPises. Tv\' crude., fec?,hadther Beem no ROGOVA necks, Ther'd be. no Place fef? -Th* dude . [ R£G. u. s. PAT, orr. WLA VIC£. wc.

A DON'T GET lOH ,THSS AIL SO TAME TOO WELL,ILL EE • 1 " * TOD, E.OOTS EASY'- 1 HAUETfeE DOIN’YHINGS, Y\G6EREO 1 \ i L GEE I OON'TCHA SEE ? S9RING L THOUGHT HMMII SM „ OM \S IN TH' A\R -AN’ I THINK OF NT'S SUST A HUNCH, \ V Fl')** Wm, Ml, V O’*** " c> SONKt. wc t Ma.u..T.OW. i

7 NOWTUAT VNE ) you GOT ME, 1 f UNCLE UACQV.'.' _ VhOU'RE rlsut/ y MISSED 77\E Boat ) FRECKLES =- IT QEaaEmBER OUT ON TUE j VUA’LL fiET TO I t( for J looks LIRE OUR V °° \ ItANJAU OR | ACE vNE GOINS JLTRIP AAS GONE ME 7UAT VNUEN YOU SET \ g OST ;; v -jo Do FLooEY ,, j Your mind to do some.- /. ”

r / .“Y | T)OLt(VPS ACH, DOT’S \ ,( BE RICH, EH, \ V6LL, VELL,

Vessiß, MR. MACK, I'Ve.-tried oar vjith fVJHOOP-t&' WH ,T a^C,#' -tu’ (HDUsHS, SEMAToRS, RED So*, BRPVes LUCKV BREAK FoRTHE. llfL. AH’ Oaßos, AM' HMew'T ttfto amy LUCK- ATHLETICS' WUAAa BUT STILL THUaK lVv A BALLPLAYER- V 'Ui** | ==f ~^<V\l C-~ Ip <Ae, HUH? VJ<=LL,SCM, (T LOOKS m* i L 1* F ' 1 m L\Ke 'You've had a loTta bad r .^EtTa mmi breaks- v’n\ comma oweYp a iJO * F£R ‘ mV/\ REAL CHPMCe- VF THeRe'S r*“! I 1 WUM * COMMIE, f//'WJ\ AMY BASEBALL IMTA.WefRe CxOMMA 6EX ITOOT’ nP ' CK ‘*

’ You'D BE RESTLESS Too\ /NAMES! TUAT'S Wh AT N @ SCAT ! EVERY TiMt. X / VJO'AI! ?o? ' IP YOU HAD A NIGHT MABE ( YOU ASVLEO YOUR 3 1 CLOSE MY EYES THAT | lYOU'itf A RlCrTl VNU2RE A DROVE OF WILD-I \ FRIENCS FOR.WASN'T 1= BABY AND A THOUSAND WT NEVER. SAW CATS CAME SWOOPING in S, Y IT A, NAME FoR £ LIKE fT START DIVING- \tt)U IN SUCM A ON YCU AND YOU HAD j \ YOUR. TRiCKCAT/g IN AND O*JF OF WINDOWS AdSLICiooT A COOK-STOVE Tied To \ V '- - , -rfti H; YOUR LEG AND EACH J / J & nKf ' CAT WA< TAGGED WTW UJ T PI , p ' .mu tww. pin*, wr ... trr&r-z*-* ‘T,’"—— |

s 'Mm Prince Conon and his knights were slain. So were the women. The beautiful Ursula was .taken before the king, a-*

SKETCHES BY BESSEY. SYNOPSIS BY BRAL'CHEB

Ursula’s great beauty won the king and he offered to’ marry her. Instead of accepting safety for herself, Ursula denounced his murderous career. Thp king seized an arrow and shot it into her heart. Ursula died true to the pledge of Christianity that guided her life.

PAGE 13

—By Williams

—Bv Martin

By Blnsser

By Crane

By Small

By Cowan