Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 190, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 December 1930 — Page 11

j’EC. 18, 1930.

Murder At Bridge Av ANNfc AUSTIN Mu£An /a £ "the slack pigeon* and) fulfil / TE AVENGING BACKSTAIRS* '

BEGIN HERE TODAY SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR DUNDEE, laving dinner wllh PENNY CRAIN the Sunday after JUANITA SELIM li murdered at bridge, tells her the latest findings: Suspicion centers -heaviest on RALPH HAMMOND In love with Ntla. who tame to Mta's house the morning of the murder to estimate the cost of remodeling the attic and found In the attic bedroom traces of DEXTER SPRAOUE'B occupancy there. POLLY BEALE, calling for Nita. find* her gone, and seeing the state Ralph Is .In .telephones Nita and breaks the luncheon engagement and forces Ralph to have lunch with her end bis brother CLIVE, Dundee suspects that Ralph shot Ntla with a gun and Maxim Ulencer he stole that afternoon from JUDGE MARSHALL. Nita's landlord, to whom she paid no rent, and then ran a wav. FLORA MILES, another suspect, who was In Nlta’s closet reading a note which lie thinks Is from her husband, couldn't have heard anv whispers that passed between Ralph and Nita Pennv accuses Sprague of the murder, out. the case Is stronger against Ralph. LYDIA, the inatd who was horribly burned bv Nita and to whom Nita left oil her money. Including a mysterious sto 000 which Dundee thinks Is blackmail. Is nractclallv rlepred of suspicion. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER -TWENTY-FIVE (Continued.) “Nita thought enough of Dexter Sprague to send for him to come down here, and to root her head off lor him to get the job of making the movie," Penny reminded him licrcely, making a great splashing in the dishpan. "Then—you don’t think she was m love with Ralph?’’ Dundee asked. "Oh, I don’t know!’’ the gtrl cried. ‘ I thought so sometimes—had the grace to hope so, anyway, •since Ralph was so crazy about her." “That’s the point. Penny," Dundee told her gently. "Every one I've talked to this morning, including Spragde, seems sure that Ralph Hamilton was mad about Nita Selim.” "So of course he would kill her!" Penny scoffed bitterly. “Yes, Penny—when he discovered Sprague's easily recognized cravats draped over the mirror frame in a bedroom in Nita’s house. . . . For they were there to be seen when Ralph went into that bedroom yesterday morning." “How do you know he saw them?” a “Because lie left this behind him,” Dundee admitted reluctantly, and wiped his hands before drawing an initialed silver pencil from his breast pocket. “I found it under the edge of the bed. The initials aro R. H.” “Yes, I recognize it,” Penny admitted, turning sharply away. ‘I gave it to him myself, for a Christmas present. I thought I could afford to give silver pencils away then. Dad hadn’t bolted yet—” She crooked an elbow and leaned her face against it for a moment. Then .she flung up her brown bobbed head defiantly. "Well?” “Ralph must have been —well, in a pretty bad way, since he loved Nita and wanted to—marry her,” Dundee persisted painfully. “Remember that Polly Beale found him still there when she stopped to offer Nita a lift to Breakaway inn. “It is not hard to imagine what took place. We know that Polly curtly canceled her luncheon engagement with Nita and the rest of you, and went into town with Ralph, after making sure that Clive would join them. “I saw young Hammond myself for an instant, without knowing who he was, and I remember now thinking that he looked far too ill to eat. I was lunching at the Stuart house myself when they came into the dining room, you know.” "Plenty to hang him on, I see!” ! Penny cried furiously. “There's a little more, Penny,” Dundee went on. “Polly Beale and Clive Hammond were mortally afraid that Ralph would come to the cocktail party! I’m sure Clive made Ralph promise to stay away, and that both Clive and Polly did net trust him to keep his promise. "That is why, I am sure, Clive beckoned Polly to join him in the -olarium, without entering the living room to speak to Nita. You •emember they said they stayed here all during the playing of ” ana IF you call it the ‘death hand’ again, I'll scream!" “All right. . . . They stayed there until Karen discovered the murder. I am sure they chose that place because of its many windows—they could watch for Ralph's car, dash out and head him off. “Take him away by force if necessary, to keep him from making a cene, was their intention. I believe they knew he had murder in his heart, and that he would find a way to get a gun ’* "Have ycu also found out that he stole Hugo’s gun yesterday?" "I have found that it was possible

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for him to do so,” Dundee said slowly. “The butler was off for thp afternoon until 6 o’clock. There was no one in the house but the nursemaid and the three-months-old baby." “Well? And I suppose you think Clive and Polly didn’t haye a chance to head Ralph off, as you say, but that they did see him runnnig away after he killed her?” Her voice still was brittle with anger, but there was -indecision and fear in it, too. “No," Dundee replied. “I don’t think they saw him. I feel prettysure he came into the house by the back way and through the back hall into Nita’s room. a a o “He must have known Clive and Polly would be on the lookout for him. ... At any rate, I have proof that whoever shot Nita from in fernt of that window near the porch door fled toward the back hall.” And he told her of the big bronze lamp, whose bulb had been broken, reminding her of its place at the head of the chaise longue which was set between the two west windows. “That was the ‘bang or bump’ Flora Mills heard while she was hiding in the closet,” he explained. “I suppose Flora has told all of you about it? ... I thought so. Muffled as she was In the closet, it is unlikely that she could have heard Nita’s frantic whisperings to Ralph. ... I doubt if he spoke at all. . . . Nita must have been sure he was leaving by the porch door—” Dimly there came the ring of the telephone With a curt word, Penny excused herself to answer it. Dundee went on polising glasses with a fresh towel. . . . “Bonnie 1” Penny was coming back, walking like a somnambulist, her brown eyes wide and fixed. “That was—Ralph! And he doesn’t even know Nita is dead!’’

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX “Y\F course I recognized the V-/ voice instantly when he said, ‘That you, Penny?’ and it's a wonder to me I didn’t scream," said Penny Crain, fighting her way up through dazed bewilderment to explain in detail, in answer to Dundee’s pelting questions. “I said, ‘Of course, Ralph. . . . Where have ycu been? . . . “And he said, in that coaxing, teasing voice of his that I know so well: ‘Peeved, Penny? ... I don’t blame you, honey. You really ought not to let me come over and explain why I stood you up last night, but you will, won’t you? . . . Ni-i-ze Penny!’ . . . “That’s exactly how he talked, Bonnie Dundee! Exactly! Oh, don’t ; ou see he couldn't know that Nita is dead?” ~ “Did you ask him where he was?" Dundee asked finally. ‘No, I just told him to come on over, and he said I could depend on it that he wouldn’t waste any time. . . . Oh, Bonnie! What shall we do?" “Listen, Penny!" Dundee urged rapidly. “You must realize that I’ve got to see and hear, but I don’t want Ralph Hammond to see me until after he’s had a talk with you. Will you let me eavesdrop behind these portieres? ... I know it’s a beastly thing to do, but —" Penny agreed at last, and within ten minutes after that amazing telephone call Dundee, from behind the portieres that separated the dining and living rooms, heard Penny greeting her visitor in the little foyer. She had played fair; had not gone out into the hall to whisper a warning—if any warning was needed. He had seen Ralph Hammond enter the dining room of the Stuart house the day before, in company with Clive Hammond and Polly Beale, when the three had been strangers to him;, but Dundee told himself now that he hardly would have recognized the young man whom Penny was preceding into her living room. The Ralph Hammond of Saturday had had a white, drawn face and sick eyes. But this boy. . . . a a a LIKE his older brother, Clive, Ralph Hammond had dark-red, curling hair. But unlike his brother’s, his eyes were a wide, candid hazel—the green iris thickly flecked with brown. A little shorter than Clive, a trifle more slender. But that which held the detective's eyes was something less tangible, but at once more evi-

dent than superlative masculine good looks. It was a sort of shy joyousness and buoyance. which flushed the tan of his cheeks, sang in his voice, made hi* eyes almost unbearably bright. Before Penny Crain, very pale and quiet, could sink into the chair she was groping toward, Ralph Hammond was at her side, one arm going out to encircle her shoulders. “Don't look like that, Penny!" Dundee heard him plead, his voice suddenly humble. “You’ve every right to be sore at me, honey, but please don’t be. 1 know I’ve been an awful cad these last few weeks, but I’m myself again. I’m cured now, Penny ’’ “Walt, Ralph!" Penny protested faintly, holding back as he would have hugged her hard against his breast. “What about—Nita?" Dundee saw the young man face go darkly red, but heard his boyish voice answer almost steadily: “I hoped you’d understand without making me put it into words, honey. . . . I'm cured of—Nita. I can’t express it any other way except to say I was sick, and now I’m cured.” “You mean”—Penny faltered, but with a swift, imploring glance toward Dundee—“you don’t love Nita any more? You can't deny you were terribly in love with her. Ralph. “Lois told us—told me last night that Nita had told her in strictest confidence that sho had promisee’, to marry you, just Thursday night * The boy’s face was very pale as he dropped his hands from Penny’s shoulders, but Dundee, from behind the portieres, was not troubling to spy for the moment. He was too indignant at Penny for having withheld from him the vital fact of Nita’s engagement to Ralph Hammond. “That’s true, Penny,” Ralph was saying dully. “You have a right to know, because I'm asking you to marry me now ... I did propose to Nita again Thursday night, and she did accept me. I confess now I was wild with happiness ” “Why did she refuse you before?" Penny cut in, and Dundee silently thanked her for asking the question he would have liked to ask himself. “Was it because she wasn't sure she was in love with you?" “You’re making it awfully hard for me, honey,” thi boy protested, then admitted humbly. “Os course you want to know, and you should know. “No, she said all along, almost from the first, that she loved me more than I could- love her, but that there were reasons . . . two reasons, she always said, and once I asked her jealously if they were both men, but she looked so startled and then laughed so queerly that I didn’t ask again. “Then I thought it might be because I was younger than she was, though I can’t believe she is more than 23 or so, and I’m 25, you know. “And once I got cold-sick because I thought she might still be married but she said her husband was married again, and I wasn’t to ask questions or worry about him ’’ (To be continued)

ITKKfcftS

O <3 o_ r ill lo It is possible to divide the above checker board into four parts, each part ’to.have the same number of squares in it and be the same shape, so that a checker appears in each part. Can you doit? la

Answer for Yesterday

VICAR IRATE CANON ATONE RENEW The original puzzle had stars in every place but where the two words VICAR appear and where ihe W is, down in the right-hand comer. By replacing the stars with the proper letters, the words shown above are formed, so that (Jiey spell the same from left to right or top to bottom.

TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE

The next day a great sun. rising into a cloudless sky, looked down upon the fresh-raked sands of the deserted arena. The streets were crowded with people eagerly waiting for the pageant that would inaugurate the triumph of Sublatus. Upon the low? rooftops of their hemes patricians reclined upon rugs to witness the spectacle..

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

OUR BOARDING HOUSE

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FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS

'l f RILEYS COMIN' ( FLYIN’ JwELL, HE'S X ~ ' WTER LIU6 A MAO FOOL-.-. ) SEEM OOm6 > LOADING SOMETUitJa MUSTA / LDMS ewoUsH

WASHINGTON TUBBS II

PT'ASU MAW Be SOMEWHAT WORRIED OVER THE J „ ~ A/VRECENT “OEATH THREAT*, BUT tT DOES NOT OLO RAU-EN prettv INTERFERE WITH HIS TENDER WOOING OF THE j HARO, AND SENDS FLOWERS AND CHARMING DAUGHTER OF THE WAR MINISTER, CANOS EAJtRM DAY.

SALESMAN SAM

3ust Tiiymo- oM chrisT-A \aIHF\T ! tMGo&H, MAS PRESENT FRONV VOU—THIS \ WOMAN, A.RE.VOU ©P-6Y LAM& COAT— $l&00 t J IN VOUR. RIG-HT . •—,

BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES

Wat 2>OT tM T\W& , WEYX ,t!iA HfQM) WOTTA 'Bate.NC TOR. ou> sow! i’m om \ cant voo wwew YOU ss\owto ov> MV WAV OOWfi TO OCX VAOCW— Vot AOSV CWraVbTMYVi .TOO l PICK OOT SOMfc MtVIER BOOOHT A ! Voo'u. VON SANTA CYAO ttMPVt CW2\6TMA£. A A ‘aWt'E.T RACE. ,T.'U_ v . i

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There were hours of restless waiting, and then, from the palace, sounded the notes of martial trumpets. Slowly along the avenue came the pageant, led by trumpeters, behind whom marched the imperial guard. Cheering voices resounded as Caesar himself, resplendent in purple and gold, rode alone in a chariot drawn bj lions led on golden leashes.

—By Ahern

# IEToo \ oosh,Hgv) l wish some.3 Thats ©RAIN L6.SS SAP HAD PROPOSED To /SUPPOSED To VOU ©EFoREVie. VJERE tAARRt&o! /BE A SMART

Never before in the memory of the citizens of Sanguinarius had an emperor exhibited such noteworthy captives. There were Caecilius Metellus, a centurion of the legions of the Emperor of Castrum Mare, and Cassius Hasta. a nephew of the enemy emperor, but the one who aroused the greatest enthusiasm was a great white barbarian in a leopard skin.

OUT OUR WAY

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I( AH, MN GOOD FRIEND 1 . WELCOME 1 . \ 3 C THAT FOOL OF A ) ENOUGH, CHIQUITA’. YOU iMV DAUGHTER, SHE EES EXPECTING ) RtCiMN, 1 WEEL ( HAF HEARD Ms WEESH. , —TtHmfWrfTnnri NOT ste M,M - \ se/Cor tubbs ees the I mill i’lll 111 i! 1“ pfrrrrrrTfltflljT HE EES ABSURD, \ GRILN- CABALLERO, ■soon ]-r i| 'l!li , !ill'li 111 =* stupid, elmposshle.l we sell the wanderful heseeng uke leenuention, and become - ; lWi| |*’"F SHrln ~ the mooing of a / v)tu\ vjer.’ reech, goI Is! lyH HE ENCOURAGE^ OFTEN,HE CALLS IN PERSON, BUT ✓ JjlffiS! V-' W&L IT SEEMS THAT, IF IT WERE NOT FOR GOOD \[ / ffUsfil WSSL OtO PAYA.POOR WASH WOULD NOT FARE SO UIEU. " |p||g

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(BUT it happens That cm ONe pvoi HE DID J £/ //oioeH? vuecL, t Z—WVNISH H 6. HAD .

—By Edgar Rice Burroughs

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The collar of gold and the golden chain that held Tartan in leash to the chariot of Caesar imparted to his appearance no suggestion of fear. He walked proudly with his head erect, like the jungle beasts who drew Caesar’s chariot. Behind him were the Bagego captives, chained neck to neck, and stalwart gladiators resplendent in new aripr,

PAGE 11

—By Williams

—By Blosser,

—By Crane

—By Small

—By Martin