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Show MfW T ifiSL bobby VSIf lvQ SmsSSS ESStfasgp I town 1 1 n u wisv w.u sox Lr ;v5s s'hl " - ' AL l ft JkVSw w it- HPlV mm f'ifT) X ' chapter xviii m1 1 M I I xhis piggy bank has a small built-in burglar alarm." I "ibis piggy bank has a small built-in burglar alarm.' "We'll wait 'til he gets to an interesting story and won't like to argue THEN we'll ask him for movie money. NANCY By Ernie BusKmiller GET ME A JAR. OF A JAR OF WHY DON'T YOU BUY THE J: & I COLD CREAM AND A COLD CREAM LARGE ECONOMY SIZE?mS& LJ70fAY 1 BUY YOURSELF V ??) AND A " f-V C2c Ar LITTLE REGGIE By Margarita "7 COSH THAT CusoX L"' ") I IWU VV ft tfi j WOULD COME VALil U0U SA$t (JST ' 3 V .N HANDY FOR 'ORTAStf CMAAGP 7 VN,WRAP nK. ' V&-Z I X 1 ' MUTT AND JEFF By Bud Fisher ITS A SIMPLE QUESTIOH! V HOW OLD IS A ) f WELL, THEN, J YoU LITTLE IDIOT.' MwHY?)A RFA.icr HOW LONG DID THE p ,TEM YEAR OLD J Ho LONG I DO YoU KNOW WHY I "- t'M THIRTY YEARS' WAR J BOV? DID THE - I CALLVoU A r- H$fcjJ SMALLER i?8T!7n ifevT THIRTY sjm little.ot?T W, than JITTER By Arthur Pointer REG'LAR FELLERS 4 By Gen Byrnes lJSW L- .tJ-n " p'' fiP, w fi " i , YfS0!!. By Len Kiel. In I LET'S SEE -I EMPTIED ) OR TEASED ANV NEI6HB0RS-J t COM6 HOME 1 WRTHPAYI TH' 6ARBA6E CLJT TH' WT ' V ( KN0WIN6 I WONT ) yL T(? f 6RASS-P1D EVERYTHING ) ' 7 6ET A SPANKIN6 & Tf m I SILENT SAM J r)DD bit his Hp thoughtfully, "As vou say. These are still jrour innings. But" "She's safe, and that's all I care about Let's just leave." "Well go in a minute," his calm voice said. "We can be on our way before you know it. D'you think a nice quiet wedding would take your mind off your troubles or doesn't this feel like a lucky day? "It'll be a long time," said Georgine slowly, "before any day will be lucky enough. Todd, don t hold me, or I can't say what I have to. Don't you see we can t be married." She never realized until he grew pale how much color usually underlay the even brown of his ikin. He took his hand from her wrist "Barby, please go into the sewing room and look at your book for a few minutes. Close the door between. Go on, cricket "I don't see how I can give you up, but I'll have to." "Postpone the wedding again?" "Just about indefinitely. I never thought I didn't foresee anything like this, Todd. Of course there's danger in your profession. If you had anything to do with crime, even just writing writ-ing about it, you're bound to get mixed up in horrors every so oiten. I could accept that for myself, if I tried. I could take it for you; It's your life, so you have a right to risk it But I never thought of its touching Barby. How can I let her in for this sort of thing? She hasn't the choice; I have to make it for her." "Georgine," Todd said, "you're nsing the one argument I can't combat I can only point out that a situation like this may never come up again." "You can't say that it never will. You can't promise that, can you?" "No. I can give you odds: about ten thousand to one." THREE days, she remembered dimly, could seem very long. "I didnt say I could givj you up forever," she told him dully. "I don't believe I could. In time I might even get used to this awful riskiness, and maybe you could go on writing. I know you love it, it's your real work, what you were meant for. But I can't I can't accept it right away." "Dear Georgine," Todd said, "can't you manage to get mad, and sail into me? Tell me this is all my fault that I got you into this and caused you a lot of suffering suf-fering out of pure selfishness. I've got that coming, God knows. Then, maybe,, when it was off your chest " . "How can I say that, Todd, when it isn't true? Barby got herself into that mess, and you got her out again. I can't be grateful enough. But it's just the way things are. Let's not discuss it any more, please. We'll drop it for a while; we'll leave right this minute, and just go home." Todd came slowly to his feet When he spoke, she looked up at him, startled; his voice had a queer metallic clang that she had heard only a few times before. "No, by God, we won't!" he said. "There were two'reasons I wanted to stay here, and I seem to have wrecked one of 'em pretty thoroughly. That being the case, so help me 111 have a go at the other one." T)DD turned toward the bed. "What made you faint on the stairs, Nella?" She spoke, her lips barely moving. mov-ing. "Awful crash in attic, I forgot for-got I was so frightened I began running up." "I believe that's true," Todd aid. "You could scarcely have been the person we encountered in the attic; you hadn't the strength to balance that heavy weight nor quite the agility to climb down the lattice work from the widow's walk to one of the second-floor balconies." The others were exchanging perplex ed glances. He went on soberly, "Did yen see anyone as you came ud the stairs?" Her head moved negatively. You hadn't a suspicion of who might have been there V Todd asked her softly. "Yet for months you've known that something was going on up there, some kind of a search, and you never morHnnxi It to anyone until we turned tip strangers, who wouldn't know aooux tne background of this fam. uy. Georgine," he said, lifting his tyes, "I should like a closer look at that identification disk Nih wears. Will you lift it out of her oresa ciear out" Georgine went to the side of the u u sae were moving in i cream; she detached Nella'n f.,. gars, which had flown defensively to the neck of her dress, and drew surer ask on it long CvnfViiner else followed it; a thin strong cord of silk, flesh-colored, flesh-colored, whose connection with the chain had been hidden by the silver plaque. On the end of the cord was a tiny bag like a sachet Its .contents were hard. Nella's head fell to one side, and she let her arms relax. "Open Se bag," Todd said. "We've all guessed what's in it, but we may as well be sure." There they lay in Georgine's hand, six perfect bluish stones, unset, of perhaps two carats, weight each, "She had them!" Mary Helen cried furiously. "She had them all the time!" She swung round toward to-ward her cousin. "It's too bad, Mrs. Crane," said Todd McKinnon soothingly. "All that trouble you took coming home on nights when you were supposed to be out of town, so that Nella wouldn't necessarily associate the sounds in the attic with you; you knew she'd be too timii to investigate alone, and that she'd call Horace to look instead, in-stead, and that he'd insist the noise was made by rats. Startling, wasn't it, to find that there'd been strangers in the house on one of the niehts you ..hose to search. I'm afraid Georgine and I ruined your plans. When Horace told you we were here, and you remembered remem-bered some of the stories you'd told to interest my cephew, it made you nervous didn't it? You followed us when we came home from Dr. Crane's" 1 1 ! someining niaaen. Tw, 1 wouldn't rattle. I mi,u nave iuuuu uiem myself that the jar broke." Mary Helen Crane w. pitched laugh. " 51 "xou gone crazv. Jefferson?" Mrs.' manded sharply. Her bkrt 1 swerved round. ' INDEED she hasn't Hp bare," Todd saiiHfM: of his silent chuckles. "V li'le rash of conspiracy brolf wiicu we cauie u town, it You probably didn't v. the jewels were still aroundv where, until Mary Helen top yesterday afternoon. Yon J have warned Mrs. Peabodvl "ic "6"io iu me aiuc: VouY been bd them vnnrni i. '11 hand Mary Helen this -J -V- - J.. . Diie waa reauy 10 gjyj search if her grandfather been willing to finance her E wood venture, but since he" she turned to you as a last n What did she do, offer tost proceeds? What wouldn't have done for a share hi s or fifteen thousand dollars Labare?" He leaned towar across tne table, and tij were ugly and formidable. T you've enough of your care ive on, because I can't fc anyone's giving you another now when they hear that threatened to kill a small ct the course of your search," "Stand still, right where you are, said a harsh .hisper. MARY HELEN looked at him sullenly, her naive-seeming mouth closed into a thin, hard line. "They were mine!" she said furiously. "Aunt Adeline's jewelry waa leu 10 me. "Not quite." Todd smiled eentlv. "The jewelry in the safe deposit was yours: the contents of this house belong to Gilbert You had to find them without Nella's knowledge, otherwise you'd be in ior a long leeal battle. Onm srPt them out of the house, and no- Doay could prove they'd been here, And wella," he added, "realized that the same thing , obtained from her side. She couldn't let you or anyone know she'd found mem.' "She could do nothing," Todd was continuing, "until her husband hus-band came home to stand by her, because the whole family was in league against her. I think she was wrong, that even Judge Tillsit would have to admit that in law these diamonds belong to Gilbert A pleasant li'le leeaev twn make, too; it's the way his aunt must have wanted this, when she arranged to keep her stones here. How much would they be worth?" About two thousand apiece. wnen Bne bought them," said aiary Helen, smoldering. arrvi . . am, lodd waited a minute Deiore ne added pentlv. "Ppu have been murdered for less than mat." "She wasn't!" she screamed. "I nad nothing to do with her death. you can't pin it on me. And now you re trying to talk me out of mv property. Just you tell me, Nella, where did you find 'em?" Nella turned her head, and the gray eyes opened languidly. "We must all have looked straight at them a hundred times, Mary Helen, in those days after Miss Adeline died." A slieht smile curved her lips. "Thev wer !n nn of those cut crystal jars on her bureau, that seemed so transpar ent nobody would look inside for "TT'S all imagination.' X Helen said quietly. "He's guessing, that s what he's about all of this" "How'm I doing with my z work?" Todd asked the doc: John Crane's long face tJ haggard with distaste. "J well, I'm afraid. There are . never mind, this is some can deal with. And now, thi patients waiting for me, c must get back. If there s aie more, Mr. McKinnon" "Just a minute, doctor, ; Nella may still need voir: Now, this document "He I the vellow sheet from the S: the pile and tapped it witlri finger. You must decicu you, whats to be donee Should the guilty party bt to sign it,- and end all m- ty?" "Why not if hell do it' ace inquired. He had been in a straight chair ces.: table, his eyes moving fro: face to another, somberly ested. "Not that it'd be of value." "Verv li'le: only let hum that people are sure of his; He can choose, after that,' course to pursue. What do; think?" In his turn he searched: face. "You're agreed, I see. said, and drew a heavy e "Very well." H nut down the sheet of: and slid it gently across the you aim it." he saia,anu C r ., stony eyes to meet noroT sirs. Met" TTnrarn Said. - "Man, are you off your Sign that stuff about tt dio " t, sheet, and his sentence 4 mid-air. There was no muscles; Horace i.ad his under control; but the blooc crimson to his neck ana Marv Helen looked ah mi Trior in prpdilloUSlV. his fiction?" she saia plonr miw. and began aloud. As she read, the" the words. . , "I had prepared a single; luminal, intending to i Miss Tillsit during iw ... ifotVier'a illne unable to find the opp; then, but on the afternw" ft T l i r.r. fVia tlftrty a, ueai u, r. .vr formed him that Judge i had a relapse and was and wished to see n"" Frnm th rear window pharmacy 1 could bert's movements. gone, I caught the oj- knowing that it would m0. UU LUC BllCHM ' g.fl ties and sound as u ; J The cat scratched m-v Kinter and Rose BacB ticed my twenty-minut" I had another story toe but this was not neces. great-aunt had no JP me wnen i -- wearing, to make her .turn i " . nurse a cap " jnt 'i from the clean laundry J of the stairs. She too .... . tailing . willingly on mj rtlg:.) Ul t N com teas with lyou .type jerv !grec n-hii tice. I C( gori reel lor ;in ft jiavf jtast; who ting f C( 'cess look .don' icubi ?ou othe For levi the whe 1 I E drin with S I V. t c Bl iruil the inel fan. pror i I C t ; i, ! t ( jlc, iPt lievi BiiH drin red lerv . it cnec - it was a new type 1 cine " (to bx cowri $0 Co tot ' ten, ith tta fas: feed lint Se es Wst t tj ' Or ti |