Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 194, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 December 1930 — Page 6

PAGE 6

Murder At Bridge ,:,k l *nn£ AUSTIN sutiAoj.U "the slack pigeon* ■)

BEGIN HERE TODAY JUANITA SELIM is murdfred at brlclae. Possible suspect* include LYDIA CARR, the maid; JOHN C. DRAKE JUDO* MARSHALL. Nlta'S landlord, to *aon she paid no rent, and owner oI the irun and silencer with which 6he was shot; POLLY BEALE and CLIVE HAMMOND. FLORA MILES, in Nitas closet at the time o t the murder reading a note which she thinks is from her husband TRACEY: JANET RAYMOND. RALPH HAMMOND, who was engaeed to Nita. but found out that DEXTER SPRAGUE, who did write the note, was her loter. and probably Nlta's partner in blackmail. Lvdia practical!? has been cleared, and furnished an alibi for Sprague. Ralph Hammond is r.o longer under great suspicion. SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR DUNDEE wants now to find out who paid Nita SIO,OOO since her arrival In Hamilton. Lvdia has arranged for Nlta's cremation. as Instructed, and Is given permission to take from the house the dress which Nita chose for her shroud and which Dundee suspects is a wedding dress. Dundee Intends to photograph the bodv In the dress. Lydia says she doesn't know where Nita kept her jewelry, but that It was some secret place in the house. ELMER RAWLINS. Nlta's odd-job man. volunteers the Information that he made the footprints under the window that led the police to think the shot was fired from outside, and say a that papers were burned in the furnace the night before the murder NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE (Continued) “That’s right, sir,” Rawlins agreed eagerly. “You know what kind of ashes a mess o’ paper leaves—layers of white ashes, sir, that kinder looks like papers ylt.” “Yes, I know , . . And you found layers of white ashes, which you took particular pains to clean out?” Sanderson asked bitterly. “Yes, sir. So’s I could build a new fire .” “Did you speak to the maid—ask her if she’d been meddling with your drafts? “Yes. sir, I did!” the man answered with a trace of belligerence. “She said she didn’t open no dampers, claimed the heater was the same as usual when she left Friday night to go to a movie. “So I reckin it was the poor lady herself burnin’ up love letters, maybe, or some such truck .” “You’re to keep you ‘reckins’ to yourself, Rawlins,” Sanderson cut in emphatically. “Remember, now, you’re not to tell anybody else what you’ve told just told me. “If that’s all, you can go now, and I’m much obliged to you. Leave your address with the young lady here. You’ll be needed later, of course.” tt tt tt THE relieved man hurried out of the room on Penny’s heels. Sanderson shrugged, then, when the door had closed, began heavily: “It looks like you’re right, Bonnie, about that blackmail business. Os course it all fits in with your theory that Nita had made up her mind to reform, marry Ralph Hammond, and be a very good girl indeed. “All right! You can have Penny in now. I think I know pretty well what you’re going to ask her. And I may as well tell you that when Roger Crain skipped town with . ome securities he was known to possess, he hadn’t got them from a safe deposit box, because he didn’t have one.” Sanderson pressed a button on the edge of his desk. . . . Dundee was flushing as he put his question to the district attorney’s private secretary: “Penny, do you know whether there is a concealed safe in the Selim house?” The girl, startled, began to shake her head, then checked herself. “Not that T ever saw, or knew of when dad and mother and I lived there, but ” She hesitated, her cheeks turning scarlet. “Out with it. Penny!” Sanderson urged, his voice very kind. “It's just that, if you really think there’s a secret hiding place in the house, I believe I understand something that puzzled me when it happened.” Penny confessed, her head high. “I was at the Country Club one night—a Saturday night when the whole crowd is usually there for dinner and dance. “I’d been dancing with Ralph, and when the music stopped we went out on the porch, where several of our crowd were sitting. It was—just two or three weeks after —after my father left 1 own. Louis wouldn’t let me drop out of things. "Anyway, it was dark and I heard Judge Marshall saying something about ‘the simplest and most ingenious arrangement I ever saw. Os course, that where the rascal kept his securities ” “I knew they were talking about iad. from the way Jucffl Marshall shut up and changed the subject is soon as he saw me.” “Who was on the porch. Penny?” Dundee asked tensely. “Why, lets see Flora, and Johnny Drake, and Clive,” she

54 55 50 s^™ “ fegsfiKfe *1 1 m I fffl I L

34 To recede. 87 Rills. 88 To dine. 40 Fish eggs. 41 Wrath. 42 Kindled. 43 Capital of Irak. 44 Largest isle in Mcditer-

HORIZONTAL 1 Where is Mecca? 6 River boundary between V. 8. and Mexico, Rio ——? 9 Relative. 10 Fence rail. 12 To help. 13 Rodent. 14 Ghastly. 16 Fin. 17 Sait*. 19 Neck barks. 22 Prepared lettuce. 25 Smallest. 26 Stem of grain. 27 Speedily. 29 Finished. - 31 Lx* miner*.

YKSTERDAY’S ANSWER r-| T l A i?lj Igl [fftPPTSL humane omelet] IpJonlatTel M I NER - T EL ODpyj^NSOte||E S'pf Nl * N _f ACII NAT IVE LOCALE eraser elopes

answered slowly. “I think that was all, besides Judge Marshall. The others hadn't come out from dancing. ... Os course, I don’t know whether or not it was some arrangement' in the house —” “Where are you going, boy?” Sanderson checked Dundee, who' already was on his way to the door. “Well, if it’s tucked away m the ‘simplest and most ingenious arrangement,’ it will stay put for awhile,” Sanderson said. “Lydia’s due here within half an hour, and you don’t want to miss her, do you?” CHAPTER THIRTY IT was exactly 12 o’clock when Lydia Carr, accompanied by Detective Collins of the homicide squad carrying a small suitcase, arrived at the district attorney’s office. “I kept my eye on her every minute of the time to see that there wasn’t no shenanigans,” Collins informed Dundee and Sanderson importantly, callous to the fact that the maid could hear him. “But I let her bring along everything she said she needed to lay the body out in. . . . Was that right” “Right!” agreed the district attorney, as Dundee opened the suitcase upon Sanderson’s desk. The royal blue velvet dress lay, neatly folded, on top. Dundee shook out its folds. It looked remarkably fresh and new, In spite of the years it had hung in Nita Selim's various clothes closets, preserved for only God knows what tender memories. Perhaps the beautiful little dancer had intended all those years that it should be her shroud. . . . “Oh, it’s lovely!” Penny Crain, who was looking on, cried out involuntarily, “It looks like a French model.” “It’s a copy of a French model. You can see by the label on the back of the neck,’’ Lydia answered, her one good eye softening lor Penny. “So it is!” Dundee agreed, and took out his penknife to snip the threads which fastened the white satin, gold-lettered label to the frock. “ Pierre Model. Copied by Simonson’s—New York City.’” he read aloud, and slipped the little square of satin into the envelope containing the murdered woman’s will, for temporary safekeeping. "Well, Penny, I’m glad you like the dress, for I’m going to ask you to do the mannikin stunt In it as soon as Carraway arrives with his camera.” Penny turned very pale, but she said nothing in protest, and Dundee continued to unpack the suitcase. His masculine hands looked clumsy as he handled the costume slip and miniature “dancing set”—brassiere and “step-ins”—all matching, of filmiest flash-colored chiffon and fine lace. His fingers flinched from contact with the switch of long, silky black curls. . . . “She bought all them after we came to Hamilton,” Lydia offered in her harsh, flat, voice, pointing to the undergarments. “Them black moire pumps and them French stockings are brand new, too. . . . Hundred-gauge silk, them stockings are, and never on her feet ” tt tt tt T? EADY for me?” Carraway had XV. appeared in the doorway, carrying his biggest camera and tripod. “Yes, Carraway. .. . Just the dress. Penny. ... I want fulllength front, back and side views of Miss Crain wearing this dress, Caraway. “Flashlights, of course. Better take the pictures in Miss Crain’s office,” Dundee directed. “You stay here, Lydia. I want to talk with you while that job is being done.” “Yes. sir.” Lydia answered, and .accepted without thanks the chair he offered. “I suppose you have read the Hamilton Morning News today. Lydia?” Dundee began, when the door liad closed upon Penny and Carraway. “I have!” “May, I have that paper, chief? . . . Thanks! Now Lydia, I want you to read again the paragraphs that are headed ‘New York, May 25,’ and tell us if the facts are cor- ; rect.” Lydia accepted the paper and her single eye scanned the following lines obediently: New York, May 25. Mrs. Juanita Leigh Selim, who was murdered Saturday afternoon in Hamilton, , was known along Broadway as Nita Leigh, chorus girl and specialty dancer. Her last known address

broadly. 6 To doze. 7 To perish. 8 Rimmed. 11 Dry. 14 Tenants. 15 Wiping cloths. 17 To act upon ejfth other. 18 Merits. 20 High mountain. 21 Vegetables 23 Boy. 24 Reverence* 27 Sour. 28 Venus. 80 Song. 82 Slipped. 83 Orbs. 35 Snake. 36 To implort* 38 Prophet. 39 TO trouble.

ran ©an. VERTICAL 1 Home of largest airship hangar. 2 Inlet. 3 Social insect. 4 To border. 5 To smile

In New York was No. West Fifty-fourth street, where she had a three-room apartment. According to the superintendent, E. J. Black, Miss Leigh, as he knew her, lived there alone except for her maid, Lydia Carr, end entertained few visitors. Irving Wein, publicity director for Altamont Pictures, when interviewed by a reporter in his rooms at the Cadillac hotel late today, said that Nita Leigh had been used for “bits” and as a dancing “double” for stars in a number of recent pictures, including “Night Life” and “Boy, Howdy!” both of which have dancing sequences. Musical comedy programs for the last year carry her name only once, In the list of “Ladies of the Ensemble” of the revue “What of It?” Miss Eloisc Pendleton, head mistress of Forsyte-on-the-Hud-son, mentioned in the dispatch from Hamilton, confirms the report that Mrs. Selim, as she was known there, twice directed the annual Easter musical comedy presented by that fashionable school for young ladies, but could add nothing of interest to the facts given above, beyond asserting that Mrs. Selim had proved to be an unusually competent and popular director of their amateur theatricals. tt tt tt “'V7'ES, that’s correct, as far as it goes,” Lydia commented, resentment in her harsh voice as she returned the paper to Dundee. “Have you anything to add?” Dundee caught her up quickly. “No, sir!” Lydia shook her head, her lips in a grim line. Then resentment burst through: “They don’t have to talk like she was a back number on Broadway, just because she was tired of the stage and going in for movies!” District Attorney Sanderson took her in hand then, pelting her with questions about Nita’s New York “gentlemen friends,” but he made no more headway than Dundee. “We know that Nita Selim was afraid of someone!” Sanderson began again, angrily. “Who was it—some one she’d known in New York, or somebody in Hamilton?” “I don’t know!’ Lydia told him flatly, “But you do know she Tvas living in fear of her life, don’t you?” Dundee interposed. “I—well, yes, I suppose she was,” Lydia admitted reluctantly. “But I thought she was just afraid to live out there in that lonesome house away off at the end of nowhere.” “Was she afraid of Dexter Sprague?” Sanderson shot at her. “Would she have asked him to stay if she’d been afraid of him?” Lydia demanded scornfully. “And would she have asked him to rig up a bell from her bedroom to mine, if it was him she was afraid of?” “A bell?” Dundee echoed. “Yes, sir. It has a contraption under the rug, right beside her bed, so’s she could step on it and it would ring in my room, which was underneath Nita’s room. . . . Mr. Sprague bought the wire and stuff, bored a hole through her bedroom floor, and fixed it all hisself.” “Did any one know Nita had taken this precaution to protect herself?” Dundee asked. “Mis’ Lois did, because one day not long ago she stepped on it accidentally, when she was in Nita’s room. The bell buzzed in my room and I came up to answer it, and Nita explained it to Miss’ Lois.” So that was why no attempt had been made to murder Nita while she slept! Dundee told himself triumphantly. For of course it was more than probable that Lois Dunlap innocently had spread the news of Nita’s nervousness and her ingenious method to summon help instantly. .. . There was a knock at the door. “Come in! . . . All finished, Carraway? . . . Fine! I’l like to see the prints as soon as possible, and now I’d like for you to go over to the morgue with Lydia, and wait there until she has the body dressed in these clothes, and the hair done according to the instructions Mrs. Selim left. “I’ll leave the posing to you, but I want a full-length picture as well j as a head portrait.” tt tt a AS Lydias work-roughened knuckly hands were returning I the funeral clothes to the suitcase, ; another question occurred to Dun- ; dee: ! “Lydia, did you know, before I questioned you at the Miles home : yesterday, that Sprague had reI turned for that bag he had left in j the bedroom upstairs?” Her scarred cheek flushed livid, ■ but the maid answered with defiant honesty: “Yes, I did! He spoke to me through my basement window j just before you come running down ; to talk to me. (To Be Continued)

‘Sticklers’ Will Be Found on Page 11 Today

TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE

‘•Habet! Habet!” cried the crowd, and thousands of closed fists were outstretched with the thumbs pointing downward. Tarzan ignored them and waited for his opponent to recover. The bewildered brute rose with a growl of rage and charged again, only to nave the terrible reverse heatjtock held damped once more upon his neck.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

OUR BOARDING HOUSE

SAV, MRS. McoPLE., -fills %|pf W£U— r GLAD MA3iR IS i) Vs 15 OME Cf/RIS-fMAS SEASOAife "To UEAR-‘“TtK-f'? ilx A CARBckl L ) EAS TOWV 5Ay AMVrMoJa, I COPY OF MY lELD If Birr I'm Gk/UUCj /j uMcle lerj/ i<(M A Mew UMCLE Jf UUMiGUiG "Robe: lew was like [Q 1 Ffeß CHRISTMAS * 1 A PAIR OF i-rte )\ rr’s worr exactly A suoar-Tomos OCT” Am! !MCEKiTIL/i£! TOR fl |M A LUMBER Welzs’ /( be up awd camp ~~MEA-r _Y Jr Do'Mic* —BirT. AS M’ PousHep 7 MiCaf V ”Trt£ -TWUB WAS /V, Btf-r ALWAYS

FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS

engine's •/19U3E hkteYi GTZEW ELMERS -ffcu. Clem && FRIEND (10 SEE fHE ] j-tOBUMPLE FRECnUES UP —l } SOY LEAVE.) fIRECKLEi usrs . f ft* * ®ir . WEB SnSs? m&b ,-r j A UIS GiG surprise-/ SNAPPY—AJjp WE'LI J \j /y

WASHINGTON TUBBS II

YvioNTGfcT OOT* A VIEMMT dealing) QmJ [ REfOStt STOP!! TWVS AH \HSULTp) DON’T BE (V TOOL. \ NEED WvVXOUR. KIND REPRESENT BVG BUSINESS -1 M* THE MOST NOOR INVENTION. Witt I OE CROOKS. RAISE MX OFTER. COME -1 EITHER SOU CiET ——. , —" I’LL PAN VOO THREE / OUT, SOW, OR 1 \l f >s' HUNDRED MILLION , \ I'LL THROIN JKg V’ '

SALESMAN SAM

S A'S&'wS&l fcesT * pmue compuui *oout>| LOBSTER, v ATe EER. UUNCH is RAISIN') VJRoNc> virm t- To j 1 T PUPIC^-H

BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES

MlVja, fcA@< ? I WAW va* vt NStVTWfcs! VTS N f 9>A9S. MX At?t TOE.SIM S9IVL VT NXWS OGI OUST TjS SWEVX —Oft, A XVTTVfc XOViWOt _ 1 TXR\fcVL NEWS? I PTC VXAST , OVJXt? AT AH* -ft J J X HOVE TOo’u_ *'FXVIN/ fcOOTS" .1... 11.

''^/7f N% _j|L

As the murderer lay unconscious upon the sand the crowd cried for his death. The apeman looked up Into Caesar's loge. “Is this not enough?” he demanded. “While that man remains alive in the arena you are not victor,” the master of the games announced. “Good!” said Tarzan. "The rules if the contest shall be fulfilled.”

—Bv Ahern

He stooped and seized the unconscious form of his antagonist and raised it above his head. “Thus I carried your emperor from his throne room to the avenue,” he shouted to the audience. Screams of delight came from the crowd, while Caesar went white with rage. He half rose from his seat, but whak he .contemplated was never fulfilled. v Jk -

OUT OUR WAY

/^Gooo -TLIEQE/S *UO \ use. VAuvj-T'wjOr “TOO AY —'TUEReS. / \ "Too mauy ooT- / > —\ L wto.-p.9-w cro ARMED wc.

MTShenliheacomet RACTN<i THCOuGH IWS Ii SKY 7 PILFY -tears for freckles'UOMf , SWEET HOME/ nil *" ■ —■—■

I Hotl tmCTCU 1 ILL Dill*! Vl C UPX’\ COULDN’T HEW IT. SUH. RATS UVjf\ ( ™ ) MX BOV, 1 HIM BURN ME UP. A FINE v IIX CRUSH VOUU / FEAR NO u American vie is. wants to A\ V I*l I— USLVI Jy HAVE MADE USE OUR INVENTION SO HE CAN nc, I A OREADFUL POT A PACK O’CROOKS IN mrjfLfW / MISTAKE. HE OFFICE AND STEAL GOVERNMENT V ,v\ XVJ r n- l L3'-)U o J Will NEVER. TIMBER RIGHTS. BLAZES, I , I FoW * V>£ ~ 1 VP GOT UOLW’ J

' SAV, \<YO ••• ( \V<b f 6£t WW i MCE OV 1 VES WREt'.THktS TH OH , VOE. > THAT’'?, MATORAX v <t>O,B\otAA , .”Po‘Kt ! REAX HO*JEST TfeoSH THOO6HT 07 6WEAT ! ! 1 CAUA’ AV.WATS SOME CHRiOTMAS SP\T , v <oo TH .-v|: | | v.

—By Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan swung the body of the murderer up and down like a pendulum and then upward with a mighty surge, hurling it full into the loge of Sublatus, where it struck Caesar, knocking him to the floor. T am alive and alont in the arena.” shouted Tarzan, “and by the term* of the contesC as Just announced, I am victor!'’

.DEC. 2?, 1930

—By Williams

—By Blopser

—By Crane

—By Small

—By Martin