Show he cwm DAY BA AV J MY ITI L i sf TERY B tl kaaa r za J by OCTAVUS ROY COHEN C by R ch ael ae l CHAPTER VI continued 8 taking that for granted we can understood understand that even a chap like vernon could go crazy arnzy the worm having tta its inevitable turn turm we do know positively that shortly after their campus quarrel vernon went to the fraternity house where he and thayer both lived and made no secret of the fact that he was bitterly angry with thayer A little later vernon left the place in his car and still later body was discovered lie ile had been stabbed in the throat and even without knowing what you know about the money situation they spotted vernon ns aa the man eh eb yes if they heard about this im worried about the lad ind fla llan vey maybe he killed thayer and maybe he if he did im sure it was the result of a quarrel and a ight the boy needs help we have the loss of what must have appeared to him as aa an tn inexhaustible fortune his desperation oyer over finances the five thousand dollar note covering a debt of honor and we have a staggeringly strong reason why he must have become mixed up in the robbery of this bank im afraid vernon did one or the other and frankly flandey llan flan vey id rather see him tied up with the robbery than the murder the detective lighted another elgar cigar there was wag a silence for a few minutes and then the door opened miss seward placed a card on randolph flakes dealt flake glanced at it and passed it across to hanvey who la is john reagan asked jim chief of the marland detective force rep if rather not have him come in golly 1 iles hes the 0 one ne man id like to talk to two minutes later reagan snapped into the room trim and efficient tie ile paid no attention to the banker e r but advanced on the vast bulls bulk of jim flandey flan vey 1 I want to shake hands with yon llan vey tie he said heartily all ray my life ive wanted to meet a real detective tec tive 11 flandey grinned like a kid what cha doing brengan taking roo me tor for a buggy ride 1 I menn mean it the local chief turned on flake do you know who tills this teller feller Is mr briske ties iles the cops delight lie ile never makes a mistake say wait a minute reagan I 1 guess ive missed more easy ones than tiny man in the country lion est I 1 have tint but my people dont advertise the failures so awful prominent Il looey I 1 said reagan v ft ith hearty admiration and the minute I 1 heard beard you were in town I 1 followed you liere here I 1 want you to do m roe fi favor a ill big one onel yell yeh take charge of two cases here the robbery of tills this bank and the murder over at the college altin I 1 I 1 never not fool around with 1 4 I 1 never fool around with killings too doggoned dog boned messy killings too doggoned dog I 1 messy youre handling this bank thing aint you sibbe SIn be then hare to talce take on oh the other aw why hy 7 lecause Il cause announced reagan crisp ly they theart the rt tied up tight together I 1 dont kouw how flow they were done but ive got the baby who did ent cm both or knows who did this feller killed thayer and then ame over here and copped the mill pay roll what s hla his name vernon maxwell ell vernon randolph riske make smoked pleadingly at Ha hamey anti and the gargantuan detec detective tiva slowly extended ills his hand to reagan done with n ith you yot i said jim if you pully really want ant me in ill take charge hut but if I 1 do are to be bandied ray my way oh boy I 1 V reagan was enthusiastic take my word for it han vey youre the boss bosa I 1 wont do nothing but hang bang around and listen wrong grinned jim youre gonna tall and start right now well that abeln the case ill say wat that like to bu be in this kids bids shoes I 1 guess you want to know all the dope ive got on vernon dont you sure Ra raldolph udolph flake started to interrupt 1 I told A big fleshy paw was raised in admonition id rather hear this direct from reagan if you dont mind the blinker nodded and reagan proceeded first the robber was using gMax max vernons Ver car and tta its a ten to one bet vint that vernon was driving it second after the robbery occurred ver non drove right through binning tenn and on to steel city ive just juat come back from there how far Is city eighty KIg lity miles from birmingham A hundred miles from here ile he carried his car to a dealer and dickered for a new one on oil a trade in basis next morning they closed the deal and vernon turned in his old car on a new one and paid the difference twelve hundred smack ers in cash now the tunny funny part ingvey Inn IRn vey Is that from all I 1 can gather vernon has been broke for about a month what makes you yon think that ue he tried to borrow money sev THE STORY FROM THE BEGINNING antoinette peyton senior at the university ot of marland mariand resents paterson thaders Th ayers attentions to ivy welch seventeen year old coed and there to in a stormy scene the tension being increased by max vernon another student reproaching ivy tor for br breaking taking a date with him thayer and vernon threaten each other larry welch avys brother the university ver sity Is appealed to by tony to end his sisters friendship with thayer welch and tony peyton are in love tony tells him she Is married to abut Is his wife only in name larry determines to end thaders Th ayers association with ivy tony persuades him to wait until she has appealed to her hu husband band she does doe BO a ghim at a fraternity house tony ends her visit to thayer and de departs decarl parl vernon leaves the house almost immediately afterwards welchs appeal to ivy to end her affair with thayer to Is fruitless ile he determines to see thayer lie ile does to so and after he leaves carmicino trat frat house janitor dead stabbed in the throat the marland bank la is robbed of the robber escaping with the money after being shot and apparently badly wounded jim hanvey famous detective comes t to 0 investigate the robbery randolph flake the bank president tells til him m he believes max vernon was driving the car in which the robber got a way away thayer flake says has been systematically robbing vernon of large sums in cards games and vernon has finally realized it eral era places and get it now 1 I ask you tills this if a man Is dead broke one week how does it happen that the next nest week he buys a new expensive car and pays twelve hundred in cash on the deal hanvey nodded sounds bounds queer reagan and then what I plenty lenty reagans face was beaming with pardonable pride 1 I 1 discovered that when vernon traded in its car there was something missing the floor bugl floor rug ell eh what does that meana mean it means tills this im sure mr flake here tins has told you all about the robbery and how mr burke and tile the stick up guy pot each cacti other the teller feller must have been lilt hit pretty hard because there was blood on the floor of the bank and a trall trail of blood between the front door and tile the curt curb now then its natural to suppose aint it flint this was bleeding pretty free and easy when he piled into the baek of vernons Vcr Ver car if it was the boys cor car well take that for grunted anyway tie he was bleeding that blood would anve gone over nil all the floor floo r rug because we got to remember that a i man who has just robbed a bank bo be too fool enough to sit on tile the back bach seat of any car chances were he ans curled up tip on oa the floor now then I 1 just naturally believe it would have been common sense for vernon and the other guy to have lost that blood stained rug because it would have looked pretty queer it they lind nt hiney hanvey blinked you nent no blodys dam fool john reagan thaties now theres one more tle tie up I 1 looked at the car vernon traded in and jim there was blood right by the sills just where here it would have been left it it had run over the floor door rug before tile the rug nig was thrown away get what that menns means it proves that there was a floor rug there originally sure does john then interrogated randolph Han dolph fiske hopefully youre positive mr beagon ren nn that max mas vernon was mixed up in the robbery of this bank the case against him looks about two hundred proof mr flake im glad said the batik banker er simply because if vernon helped rob this bank then he be have killed paterson thayer thaler good G dl 11 keagan it reasonable youve seen this boy does he look like a i person who could murder a man land and so go straight from that crime to the robbery of a bank and then calmly return to college the next day with the idea of resuming his big regular life lie ile does docs not answered reagan promptly but jim hanvey will tell you what im saying Is true mr fiske you cant tell from a tellers fellers looks just what hell do if he gets plenty desperate aint that so jimal yell yeh john it sure Is you seel sald said reagan trl tri antly he produced a little notebook from his pocket and consulted its paged pages heres as near as I 1 can get to the happenings of day before yesterday may first shortly before noon pat thayer and max vernon meet on the campus thayer Is walking with ver girl they have a row lots of the students see it about the same time two tellers fellers come in from classes clashes and start wasting time on the porch of the taw theta fraternity house a sort of college secret society like the ma sons or elks or something like that these are a lot of crazy college kids but pretty nice at that theres a long tall bird with a sad face and a big mouth and lots of sense ills name Is farnum the other guy Is his buddy skinny little runt ru nt named philip gleason I 1 got to them when things were still hot and they gave me a fistful of real dope about halt half past twelve pat theyer thayer strolls down the hill from the college and enters this house the guess Is that he went right to ills hla room because nobody saw him anywhere else in the building A few minutes later max vernon drives down the street in his car climbs out and goes busting it in looking sore as a couple of goats farnum and gleason trying to be pleasant and chatty call out to him that his buddy pat thayer Is up stairs in ills room and then they get the shock of their lives beca because e u vernon swings around on the them and says he dont give two hoots in h 1 where thayer Is then vernon goes upstairs leaving my two kids goggle eyed then before they get over tills this shock something else happens theres a girl in school antoinette peyton and they call her tony who from all I 1 can find out Is one regular teller feller this peyton kid boges walking down the street axi looting g not much happier than vernon did and she turns in at the sa same me fraternity house that gives I 1 the two kids alls a jolt because they explained to me that its against all a 11 rules for n girl to go anywhere near it a fraternity house a 11 chaperon but that aint all either jim because it seems that this miss peyton rambles up on the porch nod and asks where pat thayer Is they say any hes up in hla his room and offer to call him she says not to bother shell go right up tip that knocks cm for a goal and they sit bach gasping like a couple osh fish while she calmly starts a big scandal by walking upstairs to see thayer you gittin it all straight jim believe so reagan you sure have found out a heap yeh yeb and theres a heap more about a quarter past one Ils sPey ton comes downstairs and walks hway she nods to the two kids put but dont stop for cor any conversa conver sn tion at about a quarter before iwo ocl dek max vernon comes busting downstairs and stamps across the porch without so much as a hello ile he tins has on a different stilt of clothes and there Is a bundle under ills his arm arin ile he bents beats it out to his car which la Is parked in tile yard heaves this hundle bundle in the back and goes down the hill at about forty turning in the general direction of this his bank later ill tell ell you yon some more about that bun dle die he had pont dont forget it 1 I wont promised Firt firtzen pen minutes inter farnum and gleason find and out still not immune to shocks when an other guy comes down the hill to the fraternity house and inquires for pat thayer gosh I 1 murmured jim they roost must have thought he was a popular guy who vibo was this new teller A professor I 1 and a whale of 0 a tine teller feller too ile he only graduated last june and before that he be was the best athlete tills college ever had ills his name Is welch larry welch and while I 1 hate to land it on him hes got a pretty rotten tie up tip with thayer how flow in the first place this miss peyton who had just been to thaders Th alers ayers room Is supposed to be welchs girl everybody at the college says saye puts nuts about each other in the second place welch Is the brother of the girl that pat thayer and max vernon are supposed to have quarreled about lorry larry welch remained upstairs only a few minutes continued rea gan the boys say he looked kind of worked up and queer when he came out and he be bustled back up tile the hill to the college five or ten minutes after larry welch left the two boys on the porch heard all h 1 bust loose inside yelling telling and screaming and all and they hear bear a teller feller coming down the steps so fast that hes almost falling out on the porch comes the janitor a named carmicino hes darn near cuckoo but they finally get out of him that he saw thaders Th ayers door partly open and could see thayere Thay erf legs thought thayer was most probably drunk or maybe sick alch went in to straighten him out and discovered that he was dead and you think that that max mas vernon killed him 1 I almost think he did but a minute ago you sald said the rotten part of this c nse case hanvey ive got too much dope against too many folks I 1 could convict vernon in a minute it if it for two other people who are they miss peyton and larry welch thaders Th ayers other visitors 1 I see hanvey was absorbed in his toothpick where are they bobill reagan looked up brightly under arrest too he announced the huge detective nodded all ill hand you ones one thing john you sure have made a complete P lete job of it reagan mopped his forehead with a lavender bordered handkerchief 1 I had to jim ive got those three and I 1 know im right on one of em which one what puzzles me one time I 1 think it was vernon then I 1 come to believe it was miss pey ton and just when im sure of that that I 1 get a hunch that it must have been welch of the three id rather it be vernon why inquired fiske sharply sharp ly would you vou p pick ck max mas vernon as a murderer out of this bunch yes that Is maybe im darned if I 1 know hanvey was wag slumping clumping slum ping in his chair absorbedly absorbed regarding hl his huge hands ile fie spoke without bot bothering bering to look up what does miss altos peyton say reagan nothing she admits visiting pat thayer but that Is all of course she denies killing alm she sure site she says they had n talk fall and she edme away leaving him perfectly happy and healthy but that aint nent the point jim theres there r something queer between her and thayer I 1 asked her about it and she got right white but she say any boo I 1 accused her ber of holding something thIng buck back find and she allowed she care to discuss the case any further and this chap welch it dont look a bit healthy for him first of all thayer was run min ning around with ivy welch velch larrys kid sister pretty little trick just seventeen years old whether there was anything between them there be I 1 cant say any and welch wont nut but even if there and he thought there was I 1 reckon welch wo bild be a pretty find bad hombre what else you ROI got against him welch was the last person kown known n to have been in Th thaders Thay ayers crp room before mike Carm leino th ohp e janitor discovered the body tie lip seemed sore when he went to |