Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 187, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 December 1930 — Page 8

PAGE 8

Murder At Bridge ArelN hu ANNE AUSTIN "the black pigeon* ■) °y THE AV6Na&^ggOT <tl g^ B ackst Aibs . ’ YV

BEGIN HEBE TODAY JUANITA SELIM is murdertd *t bridge. Sucplcion rests on nearly all of her guests. LYDIA, her maid, cays she loved Nila end shows SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR DUNDEE presents she gave her. including a bronze lamp with a broken bulb, which Indicates to Dundee that the murderer bumped Into it while fleeing toward the back hall. TRACEY MILES one of the guests, returns and offers to take Lydia home with him If he may. and Dundee tells her of this, and reads Nlta's will, leaving errythlnz to Lvdla. which shows Nlta's fear or murder and also gives a new motive for the crime to Lydia. Lydia knows nothing of the HO.OOO Nita deposited since she came to Hamilton. In a note to Lydia. Nlta tells her to dress her for cremation In a velvet dress. 12 or 13 years old, which Dundee suspects is a wedding dress. He learns from Lydia that Nlta went, out with RALPH HAMMOND, in love with her and missing from the partv. Thursday night, and Friday lnaht. the night she made the will, saw DEXTER SPRAGUE, who left her upset. Dundee tells Miles that Lydia accepts the offer, and asks him If he sew Ralph at Nlta's house when he called that morning, and what was his attitude. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE “T TNUSUAL?” Miles repeated, U frowning. “He was a little Bhort with me because he was busy, and, I suspect, a little jealous because I’d come calling on Nita—” He broke off abruptly, in obvious distress. “Look here, Dundee! I didn’t mean to say that, but I suppose .you’ll find out sooner or later—. Well, the fact is, the whole crow* knows Ralph Hammond was absolutely made about Nita Selim. Wanted to marry her. and made no secret of it, though we all thought or hoped it would be little Penny >Crain. “He’s been devoted to Penny for years, and since Roger Crain made a mess of things and skipped out, leaving Penny and her poor mother high and dry, we’ve all done our best to throw Penny and Ralph together. But since Nital came to town—” “Was Nita in love with Ralph?” Dundee cut in, rather curtly, for he had a curious distaste for hearing Penny Crain discussed in this manner. “Sometimes we were sure she was,” Miles answered. “She flirted with all of us men—had a way with her of making every man she talked to think he was the only pebble on the beach. But there was something special in the way she looked at Ralph. “Yes, I think she was in love with him! But then again,” he frowned, “she would treat him like a dog. Seemed to want to drive him away from her—but she always called him back—Oh, Lord!"he interrupted himself with a groan. “Now I suppose I have put my foot in it! “You’ve got the damnedest way of making a chap tell everything he would cut out his tongue rather than spill, Dundee! But just because a young man’s in love, and happens not to show up at a party, is no reason to think he sneaked up to the house and killed the woman he loved and wanted to marry. “For I’m not so dumb that I haven’t seen the drift of your damnable questions, Dundee! ... Do you know Ralph Hammond, by any chance?” he concluded, his round face red with anger. tt tt a "XTO —but I should like to meet <Lv him,” Dundee retorted. “He seems quite hard to locate this evening.” “Well, when you do And him,” Tracey Miles began violently, his blue eyes blazing with anger, “you’ll soon find you’ve been barking up the wrong tree! There’s not a cleaner, finer, straighter—” “In fact, he is a friend of yours, Miles,” Dundee answered soothingly, “and I respect you for every word you’ve said. ... By the way, did all of you go to the Country Club for dinner after you left here?” Somewhat* mollified, Miles answered: “All of us but Clive Hammond. He said he was going" to have a look around for Ralph himself. Seemed to have an idea where he might find him. “And, oh yes, Sprague disappeared in the scramble. He hasn’t a car aod nobody thought of offering him a lift. Guess he took a bus into Hamilton. .. . Ah. here’s Lydia! . . . Hello, Lydia!” he called heartily to the woman who was standing, tall and gaunt, in the doorway. “Mighty glad you're coming to look after the kids!” From behind the black veil which draped her ugly black hat and hid her scarred face, Lydia answered in the dull, harsh voice that was characteristic of her: “Thank you, sir. I’ll do my best.” She made no protest when Dundee. with a word of embarrassed apology, went rapidly through she

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33 Carrier. 34 Self. 35 Series of epic events. 37 Driving command, 38 Blemish. 39 Male ancestor. 40 Sea eagle. 41 Places.

HORIZONTAL 1 Having flavor. 5 Machine for raising or lowering •weight*. © Molten rock. 10 Bustle. MS Soft white mineral. 14 To afllrm--15 Grain. 16 Above. 17 Not any, 18 Conclusion. 19 Title. 90 To concede. 82 Frozen. 28 Walked heavily. 96 Constellation. 90 Music drama. 90 Rodent. 99 To wander about.

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! heavy suitcase she had brought up from the basement with her. And when he. had finished his fruitless search, she knelt and silently smoothed the coarse, utilitarian garments he had disarranged. Five minutes later Dundee was alone in the house where murder had been committed under such strange and baffling circumstances that afternoon. He was not nervous, but again he made a tour of inspection of the first floor and basement, looking j into closets, testing windows to make sure they were all locked. Everywhere there were evidences 'of the thoroughness of the police , detectives who had searched for the | weapons with which Nita Selim I had been murdered. In the baseI ment, as he had subconsciously | noted on his headlong dash to question Lydia Carr, the furnace doors swung open, and the lids of the laundry tubs had been left propped up, after the unavailing search. . . . He plodded wearily up the basement stairs and on into the kitchen. Perhaps the ice box had something fit to eat in It—the fruit intended for Nita’s -and Lydia’s Sunday breakfast. Those caviar and anchovy sandwiches had certainly not stuck with him long. . . . He was making his way toward the electric refrigerator when he stopped as suddenly as if he had been shot. The kitchen door, which he had taken especial pains to assure himself was locked, when he had made the rounds immediately after the departure of Captain Strawn and his men, was standing slightly ajar! Someone had entered this house! u a u DUNDEE stared blankly at the door, which was equipped with with a modern lock. Someone with a key . . . But why had the door been left ajar? To make escape easier? With the toe of his 6hoe Dundee pushed the door to, heard the click of the lock, then, all thought of food routed from his mind, made a quick bat almost silent dash into the dining room to secure one of the pair of tall wax tapers, which, in their silver candlesticks, served as ornaments for the sideboard. If the intruder still was in the houe he could be nowhere but In that unfinished half of the gabled top story. The nearer stairs were those in the back hall, and Dundee took them tv/o at a time, regardless of the noise. Who had preceded him stealthily? ... By the aid of his lighted candle he discovered an electric switch at the head of the stairs, flicked it on and found himself in a wide hall, one wall of which was finished with buff-tinted plaster and three doors, the other of rough boards with but a single door. With his candle held high, so that its light should not blind him, and well aware that it made him a perfect target, Dundee opened the | unpainted door and found himself j In the dark, musty-smelling room that had served Nita Selim and the j Crains before her as a storeroom. , From the ceiling dangled a green ] cord ending in a cheap, clear-glass i bulb. But its light was sufficient to penetrate even the farthest low nooks made by the three gables. He blew out his candle and dropped it as useless now. A quick tour convinced him that nothing human was concealed behind one of Nita Selim’s empty wardrobe trunks, or behind one of the several pieces of heavy old furniture, undoubtedly left behind by the dispossessed Crain family. Big footprints on the thick dust which coated the floor showed him that he was being no more thorough than Captain Stravvn’s brace of plainclothes detectives had been much earlier in the evening. Two pairs of giant footprints. . . . With an exclamation he discovered a smaller, narrow pair of prints and followed their winding trail all around and across the attic. And then he remembered. . . . Ralph Hammond’s footprints, of course made that morning as he went' about his legitimate business of measuring and estimating for the job of turning the storeroom into bedrooms and bathrooms. Dundee had not realized that he was frightened until he was in the hall again, facing one of the three doors in the buff-tinted plastered wall With surprise and some amusement he became aware that his hands were trembling and that his

42 Compact. .43 Portion. VERTICAL 1 Taste and odor. 2 Oat grass. 3 Mother or father. 4 To challenge. 5 Girl college

SATURDAY’S ANSWER

; knees had a curious tendency to j buckle. The fact that the door directly In front of him was open about j two inches served, for some odd reaj son, to steady his nerves. Pushing the door wide open with his foot—for he never forgot the possibility of incriminating fingerprints which might easily be obliterated—he discovered, a light switch near the door frame. a a tt THE instant illumination from a ceiling cluster revealed a large bedroom, and, less clearly, another and smaller room beyond it, facing las the house faced—toward the i south. Knees and hands steady again, he ! investigated the finished portion of the gabled story swiftly. A charming layout, he told himself. Had Penny Crain once enjoyed this delightful little sitting room, with its tiny balcony built out upon the sloping room? And it gave him pleasure to think that this big, well-furnished but not fussily feminine bedroom once had been hers, as well as the small but perfect bathroom whose high narrow window overlooked the back garden. The closets, dresser drawers and highboy drawers were completely empty, however, of any trace of her occupancy or that of any other . . . With these rooms going to waste, why—he suddenly asked himself—had Nita Selim coazed Judge Marshall to have the unfinished half of the gabled attic turned into bedrooms and baths? Why couldn’t Lydia have slept up here, if Nita thought so much of her “faithful and beloved maid.’’ But even as he asked himself the question, Dundee realized that the answer to it had been struggling to attract his attention. These rooms had not been wasted! Someone had been occupying them as late as last ni t ht! Weaving swiftly through the three rooms, like a bloodhound on tie scent, Dundee collected the few but sufficient proofs to back up his intuitive conviction. A copy of the Hamilton Evening Sun, dated Friday, May 23, left n an armchair in the sitting room. All windows raised about six inches from the bottom, so that the night breeze stirred the hand-blocked linen drapes. And, clinging to these drapes, the faint but unmistakable odor of cigaret smoke. Finally, with a low cry of triumph, Bonnie Dundee flung back the hand-blocked linen spread which covered the threequarter sized bed and pillow cases, though clean, had, beyond the shadow of a doubt, been slept upon. Bending so that his pose almost touched a pillow case, he sniffed. Pomade! . . . Who was the man who had slept in this bed last night? CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR WITH the thrill of his discovery singing blithely along his nerves, Bonnie Dundee, special investigator for the district attorney, at first had hugged the intention of following the new trail alon. Hadn’t Captain Strawn taunted him not too good-naturedly about his ability to get along without the younger man’s help? (To Be Continued)

STKKERS

-*N * -*T -*T-H * -*N*RY? _ .* By putting a certain letter in place of each of the dashes and another certain letter in place of each of the stars, you can form a sentence. Just two ietters are used—one for the dashes and one for the stars.

/(y)® (y)\ 10 /4r /m 3© f ®] 9 A© 1 '<pu 1 6 By starting to count at the letter TANARUS, that is just to the right of the Y, and counting seven letters around the dock, clockwise, you come to another letter TANARUS, Continuing the seven count around and around the dock you finally spell out the two words TWELVE THIRTY. The numbers indicate the order in winch the letters are reached, , 3

TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE

student. 6 Made amends. 7 Nautical. 8 Fragrant oleo re-sin. 9 Speeches. . 11 Instrument for determining magnifying power of telescopes. 13 Correlative of , debtors. 21 To jog. 22 Trappings. 24 Culmination* 25 Primps. 27 Swift. 28 To lore exceedingly. 30 To happen attain. 81 Marble. 36 Coin. 38 Mineral spring.

Answer for Saturday

While Tartan was being led off to prison, the girl, Dilecta, whom he had rescued from the treacherous arms of Fast us, sat at home among her female slaves. Her parents, Dion Splendid us and his wife, had gone forth in their Utter to a banquet. The invitation had come that afternoon froia a family close to the emperor’s favor.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

OUR BOARDING HOUSE

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FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS

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WASHINGTON TUBBS II

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BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES

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The banquet lasted until late in the night. While the guests yawned behind their hands from boredom, the Emperor Sublatus showed no sign of leaving, and none dared make any motion to go while the emperor remained. But •finally an officer arrived with a message for which Sublatus apparently had been waiting. He smiled his satisfaction.

—By Ahern

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Requesting everybody but Dion Splendidus and hia wife to withdraw, the emperor announced to Dilecta’s parents that Maximus Praeciarus, her fiance, had been arrested for harboring Tarzan of the Apes. “If she wishes to save the life of Praeciarus,” Sablatus said, “she may marry my son, Fastus. Otherwise Praeciarus will die ae a traitor,"

OUT OUR WAY

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—By Edgar Rice Burroughs

Dion Splendidus returned home, his heart heavy with grief. He knew that the predicament in which Praeciarus found himself was due to love of his daughter. It was cruel to ask her to make such a choice. But it was for the girl to decide. When he presented the emperor’s ultimatum to her, she did not flinch. ”1 havr a dagger,” she said.

_DEC. 15, 1930

—By Williams

—By Blosser

—By Crane

—By Small

—By Martin