Show THE STUDENT fraternity q MURDER 7 V mhoon AAU 9 CHAPTER VI continued 12 and that was nil all that was said or done between them the detective voiced tits regret at the meagerness meager nesa of whitakers disclosure and account all I 1 saw whitaker answered promptly when they tame ame downstairs I 1 took mrs hirs fletcher etcher iri away for a lance to relieve the strain but I 1 never dover let on I 1 had any idea of the trouble ups upstairs taira we talked mainly about the pled gees how we haze anze them and have fun with them the last few days before initiation rankins features suddenly displayed a fresh animation and he shot tits hla question at tile the boy did you yon mention to mrs fletch er the annual practice of taking the pled gees for a ride late into on the night preceding the initiation and losing them in the file country yes in some detail the tho boy replied 1 I 1 described the way we dressed them in old clothes clot lies made surp sure they had find no money with which to return ant and separated them in some deserted spot outside the city to get back the best way they could tile the detective turned to ted stanton what time did lit you drive out to the country with tile alie initiates arid ari anu unu d cheru did you eventually strund them well we started from the house with them at ten thirty by machine stanton compiled unreservedly three cars in all went out belonging to the boys each carried three pled gees and the same number of brothers before that at what time did the earlier arlica hazing of the night begin klught after supper mr air rankin the president returned tit alie a pled gees had all been instructed to report here by supper slipper on monday they know knew in advance it would be a hectic beetle evening for them tile the detective how about mr air pletcher fletcher old did he take taka any part in the activities only as a spectator it was the president who replied we could scarcely scantly ride a person in his bis position lie ile was invited to attend the whole affair but he could just drop in for n few minutes around nine on his way to town lie ile said he nad had business which would detain him so late inte that flint hed probably silly in town overnight lie left about nine thirty who composed the party that drove stuart out of tile the city itan kin inquired wallace lloyd answered 1 I 1 did for one we went in ceorge vat int dersons ter sons car he deorge Dru drummon ninion unit and myself the rhe other pled gees beside stuart wera veto roy liny martin and alex ahi ilke hoth freshmen in the business school 1 then I lien you should be able to locate the tie exact spot where you final ly deserted d him how far out was it and by what route did you reach it As lloyd lloid described the lie complicated comell course followed three nights before jotted joffe it down lit in his notebook not until he full fully y understood the he students tion lid did tie ask how late inte was it when you iou reached rein lied tills this pince nir mr lloyd rind and left stuart to shift for himself nearly eleven thirty sir the recorder replied anti and how long lid did it take him to get back tu to file fralc fraternity have you tiny iden idea ot of what time of the night he turned up here for his clothes Flot lips hut but of tills this lloyd was ignorant tie he had retired immediately upon returning to the house nor could any other brothers enlighten llan kin on this point jordan had lot told no one timy how he had fared the night before at length convinced that tie ho had learned all he could about the fletcher incident rankin shifted to lo his second mission tit nt the fro fra ter tilt that was to kun gilin private access to ned mod pattersons Catter Patter sons bed room as a gilge he requested to speak again to lurry lubier luu ier whose chambers adjo adjoined loed the sponsors srun sora palmer aft er beltie among others find gono to it it As for pal terson himself he had been absent all afternoon so that the detective knew tie he could safely make the at tempt ill call tarry down for you mr stanton volunteered 1 I 1 suppose he Is still upstairs lie he said he had find some studying to do before supper rankin was equally quick to re fuse tile offer never mind both ering him film he halted stanton ill just run up for a few minutes ini I 1 want to to mr palmer alone I 1 know which room lie occupies before they could follow lie he hastened from the chamber and ascended the stairs to the third floor door but in the long rear halfway instead of entering palmers halmers Pal mers door he paused outside the closed one adjoining the third from the right lie ile turned pattersons Patter sons doorknob door knob soundlessly slipped into the room unobserved and closed the door as silently behind him the most promising place of concealment ceal ment for the poisons stolen from the chemistry laboratory was tho the desk rankin iwankin tackled this first but a careful if hurried scrutiny of many objects books and the welter of th themes phenies enies pictures and ciscel miscellaneous laneous items that filled the drawers and pigeonholes proved unproductive nor at first glance did ill ills I 1 e exploration of the bureau seem to justify justl fy his thorough search in a corner of the bottom container beneath a soiled smoking jacket lie he uncovered an oilskin tobacco pouch lie inspected tilts tills with the rest on tile the verge of replacing it as being barren tits his sensitive fingers felt the hard smooth surface of some round thin articles in its folds eagerly he dug once more into the shreds or of tobacco two tiny test tubes both tightly corked had been concealed in the pouch one held an almost infinitesimal finItes linal quantity of a yellow fluid and the other a minute amount of some grain like substance uncorked the fluid gave forth furch a cepul mousy odor without any analysis rankin had not th the slightest doubt that here was a portion of tile the missing conine and atropine and it was equally certain that patterson was responsible for their theft continuing his canvass with wit the closet and trunk the detective failed to find anything like a hypodermic needle with which the student might have injected the condne into jordans wrist there remained only to procure a sample of his fluger prints to io compare with those the fingerprint finger fanger print expert might locate in tile the laboratory the surface of a razor tit blade de held between thumb and fore foren ger nger re salris balna impressions admi admirably raby fro from pattersons Iatter Patter sons initiated initialed gold lit plated ted box lie he abstracted three with distl I 1 marks bhat in use and two others these lie he placed in an envelope and pocketed CHAPTER VII hell hall night THIS maddle ayed ased faded woman with motherly mot lierly gentle features in tile lie farmhouse along the spring mill fill rond road continued for iwankin the tale of monday nights slits nl incident when tills this callow brat knocked on tile tie door she re related lived it was so late we was its going to send lond hini him about his as imagine waking up good folks folka chos in bed two hours already just to make inake a phone call I 1 and lip lie looked like a regular tramp heiti lug torn clothes liea a pirir or of dirty 0 mills tills and bouts tauta hut but after tie lie he be gan explaining who lie he was I 1 sort of t toik ook a liking to film because lie he 1 wits was boling arid and affined to lu be telling the truth so I 1 insisted on va in open ing the door foi him film the young chap said lie was from froin the college in philadelphia and soine oine other buys boys in a kind of initiation had stranded hin ailin out here lie had no money to get back with and wanted to use tile the fallone to call up tip somebody who wo would IM I 1 come for him film and drive him film honie home ilive you any idea who tilts this other person was or the phone num her the hoy boy gave ave the exchange wits was gladwyne Ola dwyne I 1 I 1 know that thal an and lie he asked for some lady lie called misses or miss alias fletch er I 1 catch which jut hut I 1 pay much attention to the rest ul of the hie number the detective concen concealed led tile the sat he felt at mrs hollows bellows statement then you heard the conversa conversation timi between them yes we stayed right beside the young man when he talked mrs bellows admitted in fact joeand joe and 1 I had to help him tell this fletcher woman exactly where the house was and how she could reach er that he hung bung up what Is the distance from gladwyne to your home mrs bellows rankin asked it 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 deducted and expected to ascertain since jordan and mrs fletcher Fletch pr could n not 0 t have met bafo before r 0 the ha hazing zing t they it e y must have communicated with each other afterward tant was the only means by which their rendezvous on monday night to which mrs fletchers fletcherr Flet chers letter referred could have been managed manifestly she had proposed it tit at the dance because of tier her husbands absence on monday when informed that the fraternity spree made it impossible she questioned paul whitaker to learn what was in store for the lie pled gees for of that stuart himself was ignorant and on succeeding she had arranged to rescue him from tits hla predicament ns its soon as he could let her know where lie he was abandoned but that child be done only from some dwelling in the vicinity of tits his desertion using that spot is as the center of radiation rankin had for two hours scoured the neighborhood lit in hla his car inquiring a at t one scattered house after another for the late monday night visitor before he finally discovered nt at the atie bellows home the connection he was certain existed between young JO jordan adan and the lawyers wife at about twelve twenty mrs bellows concluded a youngish well dressed and attractive woman had arrived at tier her door for the boy in a sport model yellow roadster mrs fletcher letcher I was at the wheel herself and unaccompanied aled and drove olt off immediately with the boy that was all the farmers wife knew and only the lawyer or tits his wife rankin realized could supply the subsequent developments it yas was nine when he departed it from the dwelling himself bound for ledward Flet fletcherr fletchers chers residence in gladwyne Oln dwyne it proved to be a low spacious stone structure in colonial style set on a knoll within a sizable estate parking his car outside the grounds the detec we talk out here I 1 my husband tive went in on foot as he did not wont his arrival to attract attention less than a minute after the butler answered the ring and took his professional curd card to mrs fletcher she appeared at the door herself hot instent ot of inviting him in she shut it quickly behind tier her and spoke in strained strul ned hushed tones we talk out here I 1 my husband the warm warin house has given me a headache I 1 need some air on the veranda 1 I inight reel feel n little better she was not surprised to see him but bill the spirit with which she hall had tried to trick him film out of the letter that afternoon was gone gon e tier her dingers intertwined nervously and site she moved away from the cosed closed I 1 door apprehensively certainly mrs fletcher rankin agreed thus apprised of the attorneys attorney tor s presence within her caution cantlon witted suited him even more than it lid did her in the shadows of the porch he sternly proceeded to take advantage ot of her alarm 1 I 1 t tell you why I 1 am hero here mrs fletcher by your effort to bribe the postmaster this after i noon and your ties lies to me you ob strutted ted my investigation nto into SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS stricken during initiation into mu aeta yiema sigma fraternity stuart jordan university student dies almost immediately A physician declares dc lares he wax was polo poisoned ned rommy iwankin philadelphia detective takes charge of the investigation fhe dead students only relative is 1 his uncle Ill howard oward merrick st louls louis banker also his guardian and lila his heir an injection of conine Is I 1 shown chown to have been the cause ot of jordans death two students from the vicinity ot of vandalla III jordans home town helph buckley auckley and walter waller tt It andall figure in the investigation A prominent philadelphia I 1 lawyer er edward fletcher present at the initiation has also en engaged bankins nan kins a attention A student larry palmer mu mil uela sigma member was drugged by bl aalph buckley on the night ot 0 the initiation and a key of the fraternity house stolen from him jordan has been paying by check a month to some unknown person but the canceled checks are not among his e f facts fecca howard merrick Merr lck as jordans guardian had supervision of hla his c conduct 0 n until he was twenty two years old when the boys boya largo fortune became his own the name of 0 dr arrold arnold prince st louls phYsic physician lan Is brought into the investigation conine to 1 stolen from the university laboratory A student ned patterson Patte raon to Is suspected of purloining it A woman seeks an undelivered letter to jordan but rankin secure si it the letter la is irom edward fletcherd fletchers Flet cherB chers young wife and reveals that fletcher has ban been of jordans jordan attention to her stuart jordans murder that la a serious charge now I 1 have come for the true explanation of 0 the letter you wrote the boy no explanation Is necessary mr rankin the woman returned the truth la is that I 1 want such a foolish note to fall into my husbands bands or those of the police I 1 swear it has no connection with stuarts tragic death despite tier her distress she was alert not to yield the account nankin sought from her it so simple as that he countered As I 1 was certain even before I 1 read the letter you were fond of him and you were with him twice on saturday night at the fraternity dance several beveral witnesses saw you upstairs together then again late on monday if your letter enough proof I 1 have also found the farmhouse on the mill road from which he phoned you after being stranded you sou picked him up there in your roadster 11 momentarily rankins nan kins knowledge shocked the lawyers wife into silence and she wisely recognized the futility of trying to maintain her claim nut but I 1 only did it to help him out she insisted ile he was practically marooned he had no money and have got back to town otherwise I 1 drove him directly to the fraternity lie ile had not returned there by two thirty tuesday morning itan ilan kin pointed out significantly and so late at night you could easily have covered the distance to it town own in a half hour mrs lira fletcher hesitated no we that was because we had a breakdown along the stone road it delayed us for 11 1 I 1 am very sorry mrs fletcher the detective cut curtly across her explanation you persist in refusing to be frank with me perhaps you would prefer to make your letter and your relations with young jordan public in court ills his voice rang impressively remember you are attempting to cover a crime and the coroner and the judge wont de be easily deceived her gasp of fear as she caught her breath told him his threat had been effective court A judge she exclaimed gut but I 1 tell you that what I 1 wrote stuart has no connection whatever with his death 1 im not convinced about that rankin nankin pressed his advantage mer cl ci lessly your husband was close to him when be collapsed right beside him in fact ile he had opportunity enough to harm him surely you dont suspect edward of murdering him mrs bleachers fletchers Blet Flet chers tear fear diep deepened ened to horror and she clutched at the pillar of the veranda for support tile the detective bit oft off |