Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 July 1936 — Page 17

DAILY SHORT STORY: Long-Distance Alibi

By Frank Burnett

HE headlights’ beams swung around ,the tree-fringed bend pnd picked out an automobile lying ‘bn its side in the ditch. Carter stepped on the brake pedal, jerked the wheel sharply to the left. The par lurched sickeningly and swung past the wrecked machine. Carter's foot shifted back to the pccelerator. The car picked up speed and shot along the road that

wound through the woods. Carter |“

had no time to investigate a ditched automobile, for he had just killed a man! Presently, he slowed down and swung into a narrow side road. A quarter mile farther on, he came to. his log hunting cabin. He stopped the car beside the building and climbed out with a sigh of relief. Inside the cabin, he lit an oil lamp and hurried to the squareboxed, old-fashioned party telephone. He turned the crank and waited impatiently for the operator's voice. At last it came, tired, sleepy -sounding. a ss 8 = . PERATOR, this is Olin Carter. I'm at my cabin on the Pine Ridge Road. T want to put in a longdistance call to Kansas City.” He gave the number. “I'll ring you as soon as I get the connection,” came the operator's reply. Carter hurried into the kitchen. ‘A moment later, he returned to the telephone with the cardboard back of an old calendar, which he had rolled into a cylinder. Over the rolled cardboard, he slipped a wide rubber band, then placed one end of the cylinder into the transmitter. Again, he called the operator, and spoke through the tube: “Operator, this is Frederick Paygon at Pinetree Lodge. I'm cleaned _out—broke, I'm alone, so please “send some. one up here after my body. . . . Quickly, he hooked a finger under the heavy rubber band and stretched it several inches. He released the band, and it struck the cardhoard cylinder with a resounding pop. To the operator, it would sound like the crack of a revolver.

” ” ”

ARTER listened a moment to the voice of the excited operator, then quietly took the cardboard from the transmitter, removed the rubber band, and took both back into the kitchen. When he returned to the front room, the phone was quiet. Carefully, he replaced the receiver on its hook. He smiled with satisfaction, sat down, and began leafing through a magazine, Five minutes later, the telephone Jangled. + “Sorry, Mr, Carter’—the operator was wide awake now—“but no one answers at that Kansas City number. Shall I try again, later?” “No, let it go tonight,” Carter - paid, and hung up. He hadn't expected to get that ‘number, because it was his office number, and no one wag there at this hour of the night. He undressed leisurely, went to bed and almost immediately fell asleep,

8 # ”

E awoke to the pounding of a heavy fist on the front door. For a moment, he lay there, eyes staring into darkness, fighting for control. He cursed himself for a fool. Afraid when there was nothing to fear. The telephone operator would furnish an airtight alibi for him if one was needed. He slid out of bed, groped for the Jamp and lit it.. He opened the door and loked out at the heavy, broadshouldered man who blinked foolishly: in the light. “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Carter,” the big man said gruffly, “but I'd like to use your telephone.” “No bother at all, sheriff. Come

| the guy that took over your fac-

in,” Carter invited. “Aren’t you out rather late?” Sheriff Hoops stomped into the room. “Late is right,” he growled. “Trouble always seems to come in 2a bunch.” Carter lifted his eyebrows. “Trouble?” The sheriff moved ponderously toward the telephone. ” 2 2 BOUT 9, just as I was gettin’ ready to go to bed, I got word that some fool drunk, speeding around Pine Ridge Bend, had piled up against a telephone pole, an’ I had to go out an’ logk things over. ‘Then, at 10:30 a fellow by the name of Paysoh called central and said he had took a notion to shoot himself.” “Payson? Not Frederick Payson of the Payson Loan Co.?” “Yeah, that’s the guy.” The sheriff's red face puckered into a frown. “Umm, seems like I remember seein’ yours and his names connected in the papers. Wasn't he

tory ne Carter nodded. “That's right. I'd borrowed from him and couldn’ pay, so he took over my property.” Hoops shrugged, and dropped a heavy hand on the telephone crank. “Well, he’s dead now, up at Pinetree Lodge. I stopped ‘here to ‘phone the undertaker ’cause——"

‘ » n » UDDENLY, Hoops’ hand dived from the crank to his pocket and flashed up with a gleaming revolver, “Good gosh” he exploded, leveling the gun at Carter. “You killed

Payson, an’ I almost didn’t catch on! Youre under arrest, Carter, for murder!” Carter. eyed the sheriff coolly, laughed confidently. : “Don’t be a fool, sheriff. You just said that Payson telephoned at-10:30. If you'll check with the operator, you'll find that I put in a long-distance call for Kansas City from here at about that time.” Hoops shook his head. “That don't make no difference. You killed Payson at Pinetree Lodge, unhooked the receiver from his phone without cranking it, then come back here an’ made a longdistance call for an alibi. Then you faked the call from Payson right here. This is a party line, and the operator couldn't tell the difference.” “You're crazy, sheriff!” Carter shouted wildly. “Why, I »

pair of handcuffs over Carter's wrists. “This is a party line, an’ you're the closest to town on the line. Remember that drunk I mentioned? Well, he knocked down a telephone pole—broke the line just beyond here. Yours is the only phone that those calls could've come from!” THE END. (Copyright, 1936, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.) (The characters in this story are fictitious)

TICKET SALE TO BEGIN

State Fair Admissions at Half Price Available Tomorrow.

Admission tickets for the Indiana State Fair here Sept. 5 to 11 are to go on sale tomorrow at half price, the State Agriculture Board announced today. Only 125,000 of the tickets are to be sold, officials said. Last year the allotment was sold 12 days before the exposition opened. . Tickets are to be sold by county agents, farm bureau secretaries and Indianapolis stores of the Hook Drug Co? The regular admission fee is 50 cents.

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