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Show By MILTOM PB0PPEE Copyright. 13. Mil ton e I Proppar CHAPTER VII 10 Hell Night The middle aged, faded woman with mother!, gentle features In the farmhouse along the Snrin Mill road paused In her account to glance at her bard bitten, ungainly husband, then continued for Rankin the Ute of Monday night's incident "When this fellow first knocked on the door," she related. "It was so late we was going to send him about his business. Imagine waking up good folk, who's In bed two hours already. Just to make a phone call ! And he looked like a regular tramp, wearing torn clothes, a pair of dirty overalls and boots. But after he began explaining who he was, I sort of took a liking to hlin. because he was young and seemed to be telling the truth ; so I Insisted on Pa opening the door for Mm. The young chap said he was from the college In Philadelphia and aome other college boys. In a kind of Initiation, had stranded hlra out here, He had no money to get back with and wanted to use the phone to call up aomebody who would come for him and drive him home. The crazy things these students is for ever up to, nowadays!" she concluded emphatically. There ain't no sense In It at all !" "I quite agree with you, Mrs. Bellows," Rankin nodded solemnly. "You eay the boy roused you about midnight? Have you any Idea who this other person was or the phone number the boy gave?" "The exchange was Oladwyne, I know that, and he asked for some lady be called Misses or Miss Fletcher, I didn't catch which. But I didn't pay much attention to the rest of the number." The detective concealed the satisfaction he felt at Mrs. Bellows' statement. "Then you heard the conversation between them?" "Yes, we stayed right beside the young man while he talked," Mrs. Bellows admitted. "In fact, Joe and I had to help him tell this Fletcher woman exactly where the house was and how she could reach it After that, he hung up." "What Is the distance from Oladwyne to your home, Mrs. Bellows?" Rankin asked. "It Isn't very far. It only takes twenty minutes either by way of the Spring Mill road or along the Montgomery pike." These facts were precisely what Rankin had deduced and expected to Since Jordan and Mrs. ascertain. Fletcher could not have met before the basing, they must have communicated with each other afterward; that was the only means by which their rendezvous on Monday night, to which Mrs. Fletcher's letter referred, could have been managed. Manifestly, she had proposed It at the dance, because of her husband's absence on Monday. When informed that the fraternity spree made it Impossible, she questions Paul Whltaker to learn what was in store for the pledgees. For of that, Stuart himself was ignorant. And on succeeding, she had arranged to rescue him from his predicament W17 fa Couldn't We Talk Out Here? My Husband." I as soon as he could let her know where he was abandoned. But that could be done only from some dwelling In the vicinity of his desertion. Using that spot as the center of radiation, Rankin had for two hours scoured the neighborhood in his car inquiring at one scattered house after another for the late Monday night visitor, before he finally discovered at the Bellows home the connection he was certain existed between young Jordan and the lawyer's wife. Mrs. Bel At about twelve-twentlows concluded, a youngish, well dressed and attractive woman had ar rived at her door for the boy In a sport-mode- l Mrs. roadster. yellow Fletcher was at the wheel herself and , unaccompanied and drove off Immediately with the boy. That was all the farmer's wife knew; and only the lawyer or his wife, Rankin realized, could supply the subsequent develop meets. ' ' F L WVUSerric) It was nine o'clock when he depart ed from the dwelling himself, bound for Edward Fletcher's residence In Gladwyne. At Gladwyne he had to In quire at a store the direction to the It proved to be a lawyer's home. low spacious titone structure in colonial style, set on a knoll within a sizable estate. Parking his car outside the grounds, the detective went In on foot, as he did not want his arrival to attract attention. Less than a minute after the butler answered the ring and took bis professional card to Mrs. Fletcher, she appeared at the door herself. But Instead of inviting him in. she shut it quickly behind her and spoke in strained hushed tones. "Couldn't we talk out here? I . . . my husband . . . the warm house has given me a headache. I need some air; on the veranda, I might feel a little better." She was not surprised to see hlra; but the spirit with which she had tried to trick him out of the letter that afternoon was gone. Her fingers Intertwined nervously and she moved away from the closed door apprehensively. "Certainly, Mrs. Fletcher," Rankin agreed, thus apprised of the attorney's presence within. Her caution suited him even more than it did her. In the shadows of the porch he sternly proceeded to take advantage of her alarm. "I needn't tell you why I am here, Mrs. Fletcher. By your effort to bribe the postmaster this afternoon, and your lies to me, you obstructed my Investigation Into Stuart Jordan's murder. That Is a serious charge; now I have come for the true explanation of the letter you wrote the boy." "No explanation Is necessary, Mr. Rankin," the woman returned. "The truth Is that I didn't want such a foolish note to fall Into my husband's hands or those of the police. I swear It has no connection with Stuart's tragic death." Despite her distress, she was alert not to yield the account Rankin sought from her. "It isn't so simple as that," he countered. "As I was certain, even before I read the letter, you were fond of him. And you were with him twice. On Saturday night, at the fraternity dance, several witnesses saw you upstairs together; then again late on Monday. If your letter isn't enough proof, I have also found the farmhouse on the Mill road from which he phoned you after being stranded. You picked him up there in your roadster." Momentarily, Rankin's knowledge shocked the lawyer's wife into silence and she wisely recognized the futility of trying to maintain her claim. "But I only did It to help him out," "He was practically she insisted. marooned; he had no money and couldn't have got back to town otherwise. I drove hlra directly to the fraternity." "He had not returned there by Tuesday morning" Rankin pointed out significantly. "And so late at night, you could easily have covered the distance to town In a two-thirt- y half-hour- ." Mrs. Fletcher hesitated. "Xo . . . we . . . that was because we had u breakdown along the State road. It delnyed us for. . . ." "I am very sorry, Mrs. Fletcher," the detective cut curtly acress her explanation, "you persist in refusing to be frank with me. Perhaps you would prefer to make your letter and your relations with young .Ionian public in court." His voice rang impressively. "Remember, you nre attempt ing to cover a crime; and the coroner and Jmlse won't be easily deceived." Her gasp of fear, as she caught her breath, told him his threat had been effective. "Court? A Judge?" she exclaimed. "But I tell you that what I wrote Stuart has no connection whatever with his death!" "I'm not convinced ahout that." Ran kin pressed his advantage mercilessly. "Your husband was close to him when he collapsed right beside him. In fact. He had opportunity enough to harm him." "Surely you don't suspect Edward of murdering him?" Mrs. Fletcher's fear deepened to horror and she clutched at the pillar of the veranda for support The detective bit off his words. "Isn't even that possible, under the circumstances? You, yourself, dreaded how far he might go for satisfaction. And your admission would do much to Influence a jury. In fact, your actions today were prompted by the fear he might be responsible for the tragedy." no," the woman protested vehemently. "He had absolutely no motive for killing Stuart There was nothing improper In our friendship. I swear; what I wrote proves that my interest in him was perfectly innocent." "But unfortunately. Mr. Fletcher couldn't tell that," Rankin declared. "He was guided by the apparent evidence of your unfaithfulness. It must have seemed to him that . . ." "But he never found us together! When he got back, he only saw me and had no idea my companion was "So, Stuart !" The detective was swift to seize on her first acknowledgement of the true facts; nevertheless, bis question held a note of uncertainty. "He didn't know Stuart? How was that possible? He had plenty of cause to remember hlra from the dance." Too late to retract, she manifestly regretted her panic; but having made the tell-taladmission, she saw she had no choice but to explain it "Xo, what I mean was that Edward saw him only from a distance; Stuart slipped away without encountering him, before he arrived. So that he discovered me all by myself. That is why I am sure he couldn't have harbored any real anger against him, Mr. Rankin." Rankin disregarded her conclusion. "Where did all this happen your husband's Interruption and the boy's escape?" he queried. "You brought him back here, I suppose, after you picked him up at the farmhouse?" "Yes, we went . . . upstairs ; Stuart and I were In my . . . boudoir, part of the time." Mrs. Fletcher paused, discomposed for an Instant, then hurried on as If in "Of course, that was Just to give us a chance for a confidential chat; I wanted to learn something about him." "Just what made you so confident," Rankin inquired astutely, "your husband would not return home Monday night, and the rendezvous would be safer' "Because he never did come back the evenings he went to town for the meetings of some re&l estate board," Mrs. Fletcher replied. "He attended regularly, once a month. And they always ended so late that even with a machine that night, he drove the limousine in he remained at some hotel." "But for once he changed his mind," the detective commented grimly. "At what time did he arrive, Mrs. on Fletcher?" "It was about quarter past two In the morning, when Stuart and I were just about to leave for the fraternity. He couldn't have returned because of any suspicion of our plans, I'm almost positive; it was Just an unlucky accident." "And what occurred then?" Rankin wanted to know. "Your letter Intimates there was more to It than Just Stuart's escape before Mr. Fletcher caught him." The lawyer's wife plunged Into her I narrative. had "Unfortunately, parked the roadster at the turn In our drive while we were Inside," she related. "It would have been foolish to garage It, since we Intended to use It again. And Edward must have noticed the lamp lighted In my room, when he drove In from the highway In the limousine. That and the parked car made him stop his own machine below the turn, out of sight, and enter the house quietly, so as not to attract our attention. "We didn't renli.e he was anywhere about, until he opened the door in his room and knocked thunderously on the connecting one between our chambers. Fie had heard Stuart speaking from the hall, and demanded to ! let in at once. For a moment, we were paralyzed with astonishment ; i!' the door hadn't been locked. I could never have got Stuart away in time, I instructed him quickly to go through my bathroom and down the servants' stairs to the rear entrance; then he was to take the roadster, before Mr. Fletcher could Interfere and drive himseK hack to town. Otherwise, he would have been rash enough to prefer facing my husband. The racket Edward caused, and wanting to rattling the door-knoknow who was with me, covered his escape." "Still, Mr. Fletcher did know," Rankin pointed out smoothly, "that a man was locked in your bedroom with you at two o'clock in the morning. He could scarcely avoid Interpreting the fact in Its worst light." The woman agreed reluctantly. "Yes, I suppose not; especially since Stuart forgot his cap In his hurry and left It in my room. It was an old cap b though, and didn't belong to him: there was nothing to identify him a the owner." "But your husband must have recognized the boy's voice." Rankin returned. "And earlier Monday evening, he saw the pledgees at the fraternity clothes. dressed In rough second-hanThe cap suggested to him part of such an outfit" He shook his head. "No. Mrs. Fletcher, regardless of what you believe, it's pretty certain he had a shrewd idea whom you were shielding." At this pronouncement, Mrs. Fletcher was silent. And he wisely refrained from asking more about the scene that d It Is vinced of your faithlessness. futile not to face the facts; you must realize I cannot escape the conclusion that ..." In the midst of big statement, he broke off suddenly; imperceptibly his For at that instant body stiffened. digging into the bottom of the dashboard pouch, his hand encountered a thin, long, roundish object of glassy smoothness that tapered to a fine point He withdrew it in the cup of his hand to hide the discovery from Mrs. Fletcher; but even before he looked at it cautiously, he had recognized its Importance. It was a hypodermic needle, deliberately secreted away in a compartment of the lawyer's car, where prying eye would be unlikely to find It! Bending over to screen the act, he carefully dropped the tube Into an inner pocket; his voice did not betray him as he continued: the conclusion that your ". . . husband is implicated in Stuart Jordan's murder," Tommy Rankin finished in an even tone, as if nothing had happened. It was Rankin's discovery of the d needle in Mr. Fletcher's car that his belief that the lawyer was the criminal he sought. As he pointed out to Mrs. Fletcher, he had ample opportunity to commit the crime; and Monday night's developments, supplementing those of Saturday, supplied an effectively plausible motive. Nevertheless, doubts of his guilt assailed Rankin. But there was no denying the significance of the hypodermic needle. In contrast to purely circumstantial evidence, it Inescapably connected Mr. Fletcher with the murder. For the detective did not wait long to establish the fact that It was the weapon with which Stuart Jordan had been poisoned. That same evening, he returned with it to headquarters and demanded of Mr. Sykes, the city chemist, a prompt, microscopic examination Mr. Sykes anIn the laboratory. nounced that the syringe had last held a solution of conine. The chemist's experiments removed Rankin's last misgiving about suspecting Mr. Fletcher. At the same time, he gave Mr. Sykes to analyze and measure, the two vials Ned Patterson had concealed In the tobacco pouch in his bedroom. And then, after leaving the chemist, he received another report which Implicated the lawyer still more deeply In Jordan's death. This was the product of Detective Gordon's visit to the dormitories to interview the charwoman and the student occupants in Croft hall With the students at the dormitory, he had been unsuccessful ; they knew no intimate details concerning Jordan's past. But the questions he was Instructed to ask the cleaning woman, a Mrs. Molly Hogan, had resulted in startling information. "You mean, Lester, with regard to someone getting at the boy's shoes to Rankin input In those thumb-tacks?- " quired eagerly, at this statement. "Did she ever notice any person around his rooms she thought suspicious?" "Yes, she did, Tommy," his colleague replied. "Personally, I can't decide how important it is; I don't know enough about the case to judge. Still, It was mighty curious." Gordon produced a note-booand began his recital in a routine, mechanical manner. "It seems," he narrated, "that on Tuesday morning at eleven-fifteesoon after Jordan quit his room to go middle-ageto class, a gentleman appeared in the hall and knocked on his door. Hearing him, Mrs. Hogan, who was straightening the next room, hurried out to tell him the boy had left. At that, the visitor identified himself as Jordan's uncle and claimed he was to have met him there at eleven. But If he came late, he was to get the charwoman to open the door for him and wait for the boy In his rooms. Accordingly, she unlocked the door." Rankin heard with growing astonishment this unexpected intimation that Howard Merrick was in Philadelphia the day of his nephew's death. "And he declared he was Jordan's uncle?" he asked, wonderingly. "What was he like? Of course, you obtained a full description from Mrs. Hogan." "She placed his age at fifty; he had a thin furrowed face, a bony nose and piercing eyes. Though of medium height, he seemed rather short. What impressed her the most was his severe wrathful look that made her hesitate to displense him. His hair was gray and straggling, tending to baldness." The detective's frown of perplexity deepened. "Gray hair and not tall? That doesn't sound like Mr, Merrick. Are you positive his hair wasn't white?" "Xo, Tommy," Gordon shook his bead emphatically. "Mrs. Hogan described It as steely gray. And he was certainly not a large man." "And she first noticed hlra In the hallway at quarter after eleven?" "About that or five minutes later," Gordon answered. "He left at e or so." crys-talize- "But Your Husband Must Have ognized the Boy's Voice." Rec- must have followed Jordan's departure. Having obtained the details relating to the crime, the subsequent quarrel between the lawyer and his wife was Immaterial; Rankin did not care to arouse her antagonism again. Instead, he said: "I appreciate what you've told me, Now I should like Mrs. Fletcher. permission to look at the roadster. I suppose it Is in the garage." Without demur, Mrs. Fletcher led him from the footwalk to the drive on the left, following It to the garage She switched on behind the house. a light and the detective saw both cars inside, the limousine parked beside the roadster In which he was Interested. Rankin climbed Into the roadster and lifted the right pocket flap. He ran his fingers deftly through the contents of the pocket, and then that In the left door, bringing to light a box of bulbs, a license, assorted road After that, maps and a searchlight. he hunted through the tiny pouch below the dashboard. While thus occupied, he questioned Mrs. Fletcher about the roadster's return. "What did Jordan do with the car after taking It to town?" he asked. "Do you know where he kept it until morning?" "In the Shawnee garage, where he had his own machine," the lawyer's wife replied. "Tt's on Thirty-seventHe street, In West Philadelphia. phoned me to tell me where it was; he said he'd either bring it back after hours, or If I preferred, my chauffeur could call for it." "And who did go for It? Mr. Fletcher went to the fraternity in it, the same evening." "Oh, he got It himself," Mrs. Fletcher said. "Right after Stuart's call the same morning, in fact. You see," she explained, "his taking the ." she paused, seekcar like that . . upset Edward ing a word, "well almost as much as his jealousy. If It wasn't for the scandal, he would have had it traced and Stuart arrested. To prevent that, I promised to get in touch with him as soon as I heard where it was. Before eleven I phoned him at his office, where the chauffeur had driven him In the limousine. And nothing would suit him except calling for it himself." "Obviously to settle the last question as to Jordan's Identity," Rankin commented. "The garage employees were acquainted with him and knew he had brought In this car." At this damning proof of his contention, the woman's eyes reflected a fresh dread. "I . . . that's right," she stammered. "I never thought of that If he Interviewed them, he'd have positive proof that It was Stuart he caught" Rankin nodded briskly. "Exactly, Mrs. Fletcher. And once that last doubt by which you might have fitted disappeared, he would be con- h THE STORY FROM THE BEGINNING Stricken during Initiation into Mu Beta Sigma fraternity, Stuart Jordan, university studtnt, die almost Instantly. Tommy Rankin, Philadelphia detective, take charge of the Investigation. An injection of canine ie ahown to have been the cause of Jordan's death. Rankin finds all the dead student's shoes marked with thumbtacks. His only relative is his uncle, Howard Merrick, St. Louis banker, also bis guardian. Two students from the vicinity of VandaUa. IU, Jardan's horn town, Ralph Buckley and Walter Randall, figure m the A prominent Investigation. lawyer, Edward Fletcher, present at the Initiation, engages Rankin's attmiwn. Check stubs show Jordan bad been paving $400 a month to some unknown person, A student, Larry Palmer, Mu Beta Sigma member, was drugged on the night of the initiation and the key of the fraternity house stolen from him. Ralph Buckley had been Palmer's companion of the evening. Howard Merrick as Jordan's guardian, had of his conduct untU hs was twenty-tw- o years old, when th boy's largs fortune became his own. Th nam of St. Louis physician. Dr. Arnold Prince, Is brought Into the tnvoatirarion. Conine is stolen from the university laboratory. A student, Ned Patterson, is suspected of purloining It. A woman seeks n undelivered letter to Jordan, but Rankin tecum It. The letter Is from Edward Fletcher's young wife, and reveals that Fletcher ha been 'ms of Jordan's attention to her. On th night before th Initiation th pledgees war taken to an Isolated nTr"! best they could. The stolsa poison Is found in Patterson's rdona. spot, and abandoned, to g k well-dresse- "x PATRONIZE aleven-thlrty-fiv- j HOME IKDl'BTST IT HELPS THIS WEEK'S PRIZE STORT Oar latermountaia resources, rich In mountain Produced states are rich h man rich power, a) energy and ability. Intermountaiu worken willing and capable. 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