| Show FICTION “Take lessons from your wife” they said and his grisly result But could he get away with So long' as there were no eyewitnesses you wouldn't suppose there I was any difficulty about pushing your wife over the side of a cliff and getting away with it would ' I Vj STOMACH? ji Alka-Seltz- er you don't know how speedy relief can be! y ’ When you have an upset stomach there’s nothing quite 'Tike ' 7 contains r a soothing stomach alkalizer ready to go to work instantly to soothe and settle upset stomach Headache too? Alka-Seltze- r provides the effecsodium tive acetylsalicylate in a compain-reliev- pletely dissolved solution Eric In the first ten minutes— when you really need it— the system quickly absorbs more of this Alka-Seltze- r pain-reliev- tabTake two lets before bed and wake up feeling better! Alka-Seltze- g one-wa- y Alka-Seltz- Alka-Seltze- ness and that you apbe to peared very much in love with her But there it is — it just happens to be one of the most difficult forms of murder Remember that old chestnut about the husband who took his wife to the sea on a day trip pushed her over the cliff without anyone seeing the act and then went happily back to his home town by train — and would have got away with it except that the clerk at his home station remembered that on the morning of the trip the man had bought a return ticket for himself and a ticket for his wife? Well Eric Passmore wasn’t as short sighted or as mean with his money as that But he made his mistake too As ' a matter of fact let’s remember this about murder — you can rehearse the thing in your mind as much as you like but once the show goes on — then it’s got to be word perfect ever-lovin- If youVe never tried j you? Particularly if it were known that your wife was subject to fits of giddi- r ' Passmore’s wife was quite wealthy Eric ran a small chain of shops which his wife had inherited from her father: — and looled to all the world like a happy married man In fact for the first ten years of his marriage with Margaret his wife He was But then the thing happened that put murder into his e mind And once it was there Eric found himself in an ideal situation to get rid of her You see they lived in a lovely villa with a beautiful garden of about three acres perched on the edge of a clifT about two miles outside town The garden ran right down to the clifT edge and then there was a nice drop of about three hundred feet to the sea Eric Pass-mor- SPEEDV 18 ITS MIDDLE NAME B it? Passmore had everything right on his doorstep And it began like this One Sunday morning when they still loved one another Margaret said to him "Darling why don’t I learn to play golf so that I can join you on weekends?” It seems a simple enough remark — unless you’re a married man who has a fourball with three other men whick has well longer than been going on for of th£m cared remember If you to any are it’s a remark which just turns a man cold inside To Eric’s credit it must be said he gave a soft and evasive answer and added that if Margaret really wanted to learn he would take her round the course some time in the week But you know sweetheart” he said been never "you’ve any good at games is Gardening your forte Why don’t it?” stick to you But Margaret wanted to try golf and try she did Now it must be made clear that Eriq was no Arnold Palmer1 lie had a handicap of sixteen which he played to about once a year a swing which was so that it was painful to for the game enthusiasm watch but an — which like his hope of improving — was unbounded Margaret when he took her out during the week showed no promise whatsoever However she persisted in her ambition and Eric passed her on to the professional — which in more ways than one was the start of the trouble — and forgot all about it For three months that is until one day at the club the professional said to him "You know Mr Passmore your wife’s game is coming on Terrible all nerves to begin with but now she’s relaxed and getting it Going to be a real natural” This last was the hardest part for Eric to take He’d have given anything to be a natural That his wife might be really hurt him Anyway he played with his wife after this — and it during the twitch-ridde- n mid-wee- k revolted with this duffer-prid- e VECTOR CANNING She was a the from attractive different creature beauty at home Her handiwas already down to twenty-fou- r cap Eric gave her six shots and she beat him five and four She hit the ball harder than any woman he knew and because she hadn’t realized yet how difficult putting really is she was sinking thirty-antwenty-foo- t putts in a way which made him want to tear his hair out Well that was the beginning but it Margaret had invaded his got worse domain and went on invading Within a year she was giving him strokes and beating him and she had won the club’s championship for women She was modest about it but she had been bitten by the golf bug and — under the professional’s tuition — she went on improving She became a scratch golfer made a name for herself and their sideboard was loaded with the cups she won At weekends now she went off playing in regional competitions while Eric hacked and twitched his way around with his local weekend fourball’' was a humiliation to him blond-haire- d d Naturally he got a lot of ribbing from his friends who advised him to give it up or take lessons from his wife And Eric again to his credit took it all in Never once did he show good part signs of the deep abiding jealousy which was growing in him He was outwardly proud of his wife full of love for her and to the rest of the world a happier couple didn’t exist And it might have stayed like that the smoldering fires banked down forever but for one thing Eric began to suspect that his wife and the golf professional — who usually drove her to tournaments and often partnered her in the events — were not only interested in each other’s golf The professional was younger tian Eric virile and a pleasant comand he and Margaret often spent panion weekends away playing in tournaments' Eric hired an detective to watch them on these trips and suspi- amateur-profession- good-lookin- g out-of-tow- n THIS WEEK Mi tin Novnbr 24 1943 i |
