Show cu dent r r ao t e r n I 1 t y M ur d el IVA by MILTON 1931 1 by ottoa proper cHAPT CHAPTER EFI V 9 the jordan estate T MM next coining the seto soi ond after the murder ankin acm Ire bulted aled himself bt at the hit Idell ebbern bank to the mr ir I 1 arry he explained tits his in i andins n d in a account nut it lie could not aid in tracing le ie identity of the recipient of the lidid lid bys b y B noster lous monthly lucks rr fr four hundred dollars canceled chefs lie he related were returned to thedr makers mahers quarter ly y jord ins ilia most mom recent payment that of march second had not yet hen it appeared hy by ten jcck tile the detective was alack back ot at bead headquarters quarters there he mer to detective lester gor doll tile the task of finding the taxi nl alei ei i hae token taken from tile the lorton club to reach the mu AN beta bouse by eight forty he alne without VIt hOut tile the taxi tl lie he had nevertie less ample evi ae M e to justify an ar brebt and once aberdeen college re k ill illta to hn his inquiries there and oil gil igwe rn re he intended swear I 1 ing out nut a arrn nt but tills this gave kiihl in ili no etoise for neglecting so BO hits hIt js a link in his case anse as the alei rne file also instructed gor din to visit isil at tits his first to complete the integ bindon lie had find left unfinished A also iso there v was as the cleaning to tie he interviewed I 1 le e particularly thorough when ion tier her lester frankln adin someone Sor neone marked all of jor I 1 i in n a shoes with thu thumb nib tacks an and it vas a adne recent within a few fen d dais is balfore hl his murder I 1 want to know when hen ancone might have a clinnie chane to get tit at thern them also cheth er she baw uw uny tiny person about tits alej rooms acting the wasi I 1 tit it 1 clous A and ad jord bordins in a desk dek looks as it if it h and id been benr bed and ind out arni ali nip ati h anian it if she rhe observed in connection with that 1 I 1 a ela I 1 his chres and desk were both ered with at the same time bv tile banie person all right rommy I 1 ve got that all straight Rack lne colleague ind bia led ali AIK ther angle of the problem lern rankin decided to handle himself as soon as he could this was the with the graduate burfe I 1 en ra ford a companion of tues bues day night to get her confirmation of Ms his account of himself after gordn left he conferred alth ill tie coroner and superintend tit ni of I 1 olice ginright ain right about the inquest on jordan it was to be I 1 beld eld if tint at afternoon a purely rou tine altair affair it apt and little of would transpire oo on fits return to the central bu reau after tilt the consultation an oali jofh In finned him that two gentl genalo blen liar had called about the crime at tile the fraternity house one or of tl ti ena em said he was waa froni from the sir he be told frankln I 1 bald you would bp be bah back shortly I 1 thought it would be a ail right for tl ero to watt wait to in captain thomas offie As it was as close upon eleven 0 clock the detective e surmised that tits his visitors must be mr hir INar warwick wiek with jordans guardian who had just arrived 1 I 1 liar i has as 0 Is I 1 irson lie here re turned abrl briskly lly I 1 see bee them iro im in ill tie office the bupt supt rasor greet ed ban lind and presentia presen present tid Lo his complin ion on a vill nil well built middle aped aged mill man as chnard merrick Nier rik 1 ahe I he lengthy concur of his faie face was the only likeness to jord jordin in that lint iwankin could discern indicative of their re lie motioned both tits his callers to chairs tile the journey east cast must have been amther a strain he ad dressed mr air hier merrick hienrich rich lucilli and sat down don himself hid did you JUPA fierle directly from van dalla daila this tn 1 I 1 have haie blen here almost two iio hours now non the visitor replied after traveling twenty hours nat aurally I 1 went eni direct directly iv to mr hir ar wick ick at tile the university qs Is it was as from him film I 1 haird amt whit had bad hop hap bened I 1 and I 1 ahn accompanied sir mr derrll Merr Aler ll to the morgue the au buier per visor added to ia our last lam re to ohp boy that Is where we me hie cille from froin A h 1 1 or of anin tempered mr hir mer rick ricks 9 stern features f it Is my de sire eire mr air milikin to have I kunrt a rani tins pal home hoine us its sin on as pos 1 11 wait ant him hurled among stringers tied urn ea alf if hi it rat re I 1 temide lii ili I 1 ii rents X ni douht doubt that can he bp arranged at bous oui A and nd no now mr air myrrh k h rankin went on di tres ing RS tilt hp must be I 1 will ili n k tui ou to in lipar hear alb with auy q eions ni atut tit HIP toy hl hep and famila iii ill in n tilt this wn na ahn cnn we h it p to tile the inis tery of ilia his delith it r I 1 am counting on your sour SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS stricken during initiation 0 y into the mu beta sigma fraternity stuart jordan university student d dies 1 es aim bat I 1 immediately A physician declares he a was wag poisoned commy n nankin a n kin pill philadelphia lad alphia detective takes lakes charge of 0 the investigation rankin nankin fl finds n ds all the dead dead student a sh shoes oes are marked will ith thumbtacks ilia his only cnown relative Is hla his uncle howard st sat louis banker also his guardian and lila big heir an injection ot of coning la Is shown to have been the cause ot jordan a s death two students from the v vicinity of vandalla ill jordan a home town ralph buckley and walter randall Rani lall figure in the investigation A prominent philadelphia lawyer adward pletcher present at the initiation has haa also engaged ranking 8 attention randall divulges circumstances which seem geem to point strongly to ralph buckley as having a motive for or the murder A student larry I 1 laimer aimer alu beta sigma member was drugged drui eed by ralph buckley Bucl on the night of 0 the initiation and tile his keys including a key ot of tile the fraternity house stolen from hlin him co operation alist let me under stand your position ilou oi tire are the bo hoys a guardian I 1 believe hibits ill it s right the visitor an soberly I 1 mr air jordan a will appointed me guardian and execl tor as 09 well ell aly batik bank la is the trus tee of the property which cohues conies to him under tinder its ter ins when he reaches lie pursed his tight ened lips and corrected himself he hc would have reached awen ty ta 0 stuarts stuart a late mother ans as my felster bister and only immediate rela alve and as mr jordan aliso albo find no near lin he placed the boys inter ests in my aly lands hands 1 I see rankin nankin mused slowly sou tire are in the banking business tn in Nan vandalla dalia 1 I 1 atil am the president of the first exchange bank it la Is a position my father held before roe me for many years flow long has it been since sir air and mrs birs jordan died mr merrick Merr lck my aly sister passed away anny in tile the v minter inter of 1922 the guardian in formed anken slie she was barely thirty six and stuart a boy of mr air lordan followed her five years piter liter lie ile was as forty five for a brief period the detec the tle was nas thoughtful that makes lour ner nel hew hev twenty one sears nears old now lie commented presently lie was an only child I 1 yes in fact we are the only members of our family remaining I 1 am a bachelor and have no de pen dents rankin glanced toward mr war silent but attentive before continuing please ilease tell me about stuarts parents I 1 he requested something about who aho they were ere and their life together I 1 d like to get an idea of his youth and tile the character of tits his home influences with tits prompting mr merrick supplied a lucid summary of the environment in which young jor dan grew grem up ills fattier father edward adward jordan had find been a self made man tile the son of a mechanic in vandalla vandalia and he worked strenuously to give stuart the college education he had locked lacked As a rising young his marriage at twenty seen to alice aherrick caused prophetic comment in the town for she was the daughter of its foremost banker and a grent great beauty with anity for a more brilliant match but the union proved harmonious un til his mother died stuarts home life had b bf n normal enough with out particular change and after he was mas sent its as iwankin had and already learned to a private scho school 0 I 1 hdean meanwhile atille chard jordan had readied reached the leak eak of his profession ills architectural work waa vias lecog nihed the country oyer over for its sym metry and muei efty so bo that he bet became ame quite wealthy accumulating property well orth north over a quarter of a 8 million dollars this coupled with alint mrs jordan had bad left her ber husband in her own right brought ohp th value alue of the estate close to half a ni million lillon I 1 and most of it rankin asked at tills this point in the guardians ac count stuart would have inherit ed on tits t twenty enty second hirth iny 7 air merrick Merrl cli a reply held a shadow of boult INN ell yes he liesl hosl fated bated as if undecided how to ex plain that Is it would probably become his rut but not for certain the bequest held a restriction and vh whether ether he received it all or only an income from it entirely on himself to obtain the property at twenty vio two he tad to deberna it that is he could not disobey my rca reasonable orders or do anything while hile under that age of which in ID effect I 1 would disapprove disappio e at least that was the gist of the condition the will nill constituted me the final judge of hla his deportment until my trust was as an aou ou specia the terms more inore particularly iwankin asked search angly As its BS I 1 remember the hanler hanker conil cu rolled lied carefully stuart ua was to berehe ari income of 0 ninety ti five e hundred 6 hirs a 5 liar lar up to his maconi any income t tamed arnel oyer over that ant ani v went pat bidi bich into the bulk of hie file estate then at ament two the of it uld be bild over oer to him hut but sub jt to tilt this thIt llon it that before that time he belied in no w y in in nn im ns p er cr or indie i ted aih 11 h a lark inch or I 1 re or of ch chancier arneter as to tykp majle hira unworthy of the leg icy acy if lie he violated the clause he lost the principal though lie he artill retained the alie income if I 1 considered him undeserving I 1 could deprive him of his inheritance by notifying certain officers of my bank to that effect of course I 1 had to act in good falth faith and not or if lie he could appeal to the courts to proe I 1 had abused my trust I 1 these stipulations precluded him from becom luj the owner of ills fits fattier father a fortune until his birth day this year mr his bis bead heild on the contrary he contradicted rank in they devised it t to stuart imme dla dia tely land and it belonged to him as soona soon as sAIr air jordan died The they yonly only postponed his receipt of it until he led a decorous life up to twenty ta two 0 and after he reached twenty wo two his right was uns free 0 of all re rankin asked that a right my power as a trus tee came to at an end the detective bit his lip 1 I 1 see and just how soon mr air Merrl cb would stuart have become twenty two in less than two tino months MODUIS ills his birthday I 1 bellave Is in may the sixth who gets the estate now that the boy died before attaining the age of twenty two obviously his heirs mr mpr aler reek pointed out ills death makes his ownership absolute since he can no DO longer bodger misbehave it removes the single contingency by which aich he lose it therefore it passes to his heirs at law or if he has also made a will to the beneficiaries named la in it 11 the detectives ajea narrowed and lie he spoke in even deliberate tones I 1 and you are the heir at law mr mir aherrick Merr lck it if as you say he had no other relatives I 1 1 I les es aa 08 it happens I 1 BID am stuarts nearest of kin the admission was vas casual it Is rather unlikely that fit at his age tie he made a will altos ing of it elsewhere I 1 llave have you any connection with the fraternity bour our nephew was about to join if the di discerned scerne d the 11 V and you are the heir at law mr merrick trend of bankins Rati lins speculations he gae no sign of perturbation no mr rankin nor any other fraternity he ri ponde I 1 coolly I 1 in my college daas at the state utiler eity in iowa was never affiliated with ill oue one gut but then they were ere not so prevalent as today are you acquainted with till a phy named arnold prince ran kan kin asked mr merrick knit his brows brom a in con cent ration dr arnold I 1 rince 0 no o I 1 have alener be heard beird ird of him who Is hl he 71 k member of the mu beta sigma from the chapter cli apter at hawthorne uni versify at fort wayne lie ile seems to take have known something of stuart the chapter here we me that he notified it of tits presence at philadelphia as a loal alumnus he recommended as a pros pro candidate I 1 hoped limped you could tell roe me 1 I ere te fe gal his a knowledge I 1 thought perhaps he ains ans a friend of your family rhe hie bankers fen features tures brightened its as at ai a sud lin li n recollection recollect lon ile he rl dald nt jouve auve ju anit zt slid sald re reminds MI ads me that I 1 did meet doctor irinne once tint thit might explain the soured of his bis information lie ile Is a st louis bouts man isri I 1 be ue lie called at my bank some time ago purely on a matter of bustness business he ba requested to see roe me personally about a loan lie he hoped to float through us hie yen ven ture must have fallen through for after that luten lew I 1 heard no nothing further of if it and lie he never called again ow eer er during our con he happened to mention that he had attended HaM hawthorne horne and naturally I 1 told him I 1 had dad a nephew studying this year at adelph adelphia la I 1 met litell only that once an aej that meeting was wholly for tullous 11 do you remember when doctor consulted you ou about this loan proposition ll lost last year in tile the fall mr air merrick replied the early fall somewhere about the middle of septem her kanlun grunted tn in accord ac chiding to ted stanton it was waa to in october that the physician had written the PL philadelphia chapter about young jordn jordan after a pause lie he abruptly fous Lil tits hla inquiry on another subject hat caused stuart to change schools this year had lie he any cla reason for wishing to leave ab erdeen at tile the end of hid bli sophomore year none that I 1 know of the bank er lepley beyond an understand able preference to go to a school with a more complete college life ably too he be figured on more free dom farther from home lie he fin dished with an austere effort at light ness in the lie beginning I 1 opposed the idea of shifting but finally I 1 agreed to let urn have his way fly anas aa stuart ever guilty of gs as rious alous misconduct I 1 dinkla liin klu quert queried ed anything gross or unprincipled enough to justify the exercise of your authority to deprive him of his file inheritance no he never caused me the least difficulty ever allowing for or youthful follies lie ile had good train ing and if not impeccable he was decent and honorable still appearances are often de cep cestive tIve nankin pursued you see bee mr merrick Merr lck I 1 made a peculiar dis covery esterday ester dav while searching his rooms at the dorr dormitory altory I 1 found certain stubs of tits his check books in that he ha was paying regu regil barly to some unknown person the suin bum of four hundred dollars collars a month do you know of anything that might explain them unless mr merrick was uns a skillful actor tits his startled ettres mon betokened his ignorance four |