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Show THE MAY DAY MYSTERY By OCTAVUS ROYCOMCN SYNOPSIS AntoliwtU Pyton. Ur t th I'nlvei.Uy l Mai Una, in(i Ptrou Thyi' n-ttont n-ttont to Ivy WK-h. vw.it..-yr-oltl cwl, and thr U itormr :, lh tuin bmi tncred by M Vrnon, another ttvxJnl. rprovKtn Ivy tor "trkui a iUU" with fcun. Tfcyr and Vrnon tKrwtn ancK otncr. Larry YJvk, Ivy'a brother. proicor at tha univrity, appll to by Tony to and his iatr'a triandahip with Ttiyr. WeKh and Tony ara In lov. VUh Uoa not what ha c&n da in tha matter. Tony than tails him aha U married to Thayar, but ta hia wit only In Mun. Larry datarminaa to aao Thayer and nd hta aaMK-latlon with Ivy. Tony paiauadaa him ta wait until aha has appealed to har hus-bmi. hus-bmi. Sha vialts him at a fraternity houaa. Max Vamon, living In tha aama housa, ar-rivoa. ar-rivoa. Tony and har viait to Thayer and d-parr. d-parr. Vernon leave tha honsa aliuoat Immediately Im-mediately atlerwarvl, h a mtate. of xvitomant. Wakh a ppal to Ivy la fruitleu. Ha datarminaa datar-minaa to Thayer. Despite Ivy's protestations, protesta-tions, ha dora so, and altar ha laavaa, Car-micino, Car-micino, frat house anitor, finds Thavar dead, fobbed. Tha Marland bank is robbed, tha robber eacapinj with $100.CH0, alter beinx shot and apparently battty wounded. Jim Hanvey, Han-vey, Ummis detecttva, g roleauety obese, and good natured. conies to invest ig.ta tha robbery. rob-bery. Randolph Fiske, tha bank president, telU Hanvey ha believes Max V ar :ion was driving the car in which tha robbar got away. CHAPTER VI Continued 9 "Ue meant It; yes. Rut 1 know he'd never Jo It. I v:i merely trying to snap lilm out of his despondency. All his lightness ami hrislitnoss were disappearing. l!ut there was nothini; I could do about It." "And ho?" "Xo one In the world eouU! have , needed or wanted money more than Max Vernon thought he did. Kemem-ber Kemem-ber that! The last time I saw him was April twenty-eight when he begged me for a Kan and I again refused. re-fused. "On May first, a little after two o'clock, this hank was rohhed of more than one hundred thousand dollars. I am terribly afraid that Max Vernon was Implicated In that holdup." "Because you recognized his car?" "That Is only the beginning. Han-vey. Han-vey. When I remembered after the excitement died down that the car had looked like Vernon's, I paid mighty little attention. Then I recalled the man at the wheel and it seemed to me that even In the brief gllu.pse. It was Vernon." "You couldn't swear It. though?" "Certainly not But I Investigated, and now, Hanvey, comes the rotten part of my chain of evidence. That night Max Vernon did not return to his room in the Psi Tau Theta house. He did not come back until late yesterday yes-terday afternoon." "Yes. . . T Fiske frowned, then looked up at Hanvey's expressionless face. "I'm trying to be fair to the boy and to you. He went to his room at the fraternity fra-ternity house. Put, Hanvey, there was something else that I didn't hear until this morning.' "What?" "He didn't come back in the car he was using day before yesterday !" Jim blinked slowly, lighted a fresh cigar and blew a cloud of the rancid smoke across the table. "Xo?" he asked with depressing lack of interest. "What did he come In?" "A new car," said Fiske. "A brand new and very expensive one." "Hmm. . . ." Hanvey puffed thoughtfully, but said nothing. To the banker It seemed that he was not even bothering to think. Just a great human hu-man bulk occupying space. Fiske was considerably irritated. '"I don't want to be misunderstood. Hanvey," he said, with a hint of acid in his tones. "I'm fond of that boy. I don't believe there's anything radically wrong with him. I've told you everything, hoping that I've overlooked over-looked some point which may prove to be In his favor." "Maybe," suggested Hanvey softly, "maybe you have." "I hope so. I don't want to see Max Vernon get into trouble." "Gosh!" Hanvey uncrossed his legs with considerable difficulty. "It seems like what you've told me Ind'eates that he's In trouble enough. Everything Every-thing links him up with a bank robbery." rob-bery." "I realize that." Randolph Flrke spoke In a low, strained voice. "And perhaps I'm doing him a favor." "How?" "Because," explnlned the banker, "I'd rather see Vernon convicted of complicity in a holdup than electrocuted electro-cuted for murder." Hanvey scratched his head. "I'm all up In the air, Mr. Fiske. You're talking about murder, and I don't know anything about any murder. Who got bumped off, and what has Vernon got to do with It?" "It happened at the college Mar-land Mar-land university Just before this bunk was robbed day before yesterday. Max Vernon was arrested for the killing the minute he returned to the campus yesterday evening." "I see. . . . Who arrested him?" "The local police." "Mm-hmm! They sure are h 1 on makln' arrests. Guess they feel they've got to keep in practice. Whose murder mur-der was Vernon arrested for?" "A man named Thayer Puterson Thayer. They call him I'at." "College student ?" "Yes. I guess you'd call him that. He came to Marland two years ago and entered the junior class. He would have graduated next month. L'gly rumors followed him here. They said he had been Invited to leave the two northern colleges which he had attended. He was a picturesque fia- lire: tall, handsome, huhvo. worldly nothing collegiate about him." "How old?' "About twenty three or four." "And his connection with Vernon?" "That's what worries mo. They he-.came he-.came friendly from the mart. Max looked up to Thayer, and I think Thayer hail n supreme contempt for Vernon, lint that didn't prevent the older man from bleeding Max." "How?" "Cards, I believe. And If any credence Is to h. given I he. rumors which followed 'Ihayer to Marland, he was quite export In manipulating them. In the past two years, Hanvey, about forty thousand dollars' worth of checks drawn by Vernon In favor of Tat Thayer have passed through this bank." llanvey was silent for a moment. "Interesting chap, this Thayer. Kif-ular Kif-ular college hustler, "hi" "I think so. He must have had a rather hypnotic manner because every time I suggested to Max that perhaps their two handed game wasn't entirely straight, I found I'd stirred up a hornet's hor-net's nest. He bitterly resented any criticism of his friend. And I'm sun that the five thousand dollars Vernon owed when he came to me was represented repre-sented hy a note he had given Thayer to cover a gambling debt." "And It was because of this that Vernon has been arrested for Thayer's murder?" "No-o. You see, no one but myself knows how deeply Involved Max Vernon Ver-non was. Financially, that Is. He was arrested largely on circumstantial circumstan-tial evidence, snd because It developed devel-oped that they had had a bitter iuar-rel iuar-rel on the campus less than an hour before Thayer was killed." "About what?" "The Idea seems to be that Thayer stole Vernon's girl." "Mmm! Nasty business. Thayer must have been an awfid careless young man." "It doesn't look good for the boy, Hanvey. Thayer gets all his money and a note that he can't possibly pay. Then Thayer steals the one thing left to Vernon his girl. Of course we can smile, but I fancy that even to a W? Iff f ' TO1 "Man! I Never Fool Around With Killings. They're Too Dog-Goned Messy." youngster like Vernon, the loss of a lady's affections could cut pretty deeply. But we'll go a step farther: We'll say that it not only makes him furious, but also opens his eyes. It makes him understand that I'at Thayer is unscrupulous. Suppose he gets the idea that Thayer has beeu cheating hiw at cards?" Fiske paused for a moment and Hanvey looked up Interestedly. "Durned If you ain't clever, Mr. Fiske. Lenune hear some more." "Taking all that fur granted, then." went on the banker, obviously pleased by Jim's approvul, "we can understand under-stand that even a chap like Vernon could go crazy. The worm having its inevitable turn. We do know positively pos-itively 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 Thayer's body was discovered. He had been stabbed In the throat." "And even without knowing what you know about the money situation, they spotted Vernon as the man, eh?" "Yes. If they heard about this . . . I'm worried about the lad, Hanvey. Maybe he killed Thayer and maybe he didn't- If he did I'm sure It was the result of a quarrel and a fight. The boy needs help. We have the loss of what must have appeared to him as an Inexhaustible fortune; his desperation despera-tion over finances; the five thousand-dollar thousand-dollar note covering a debt of honor . . . and we have a staggeringly strong reason why he must have become be-come mixed up In the robbery of this bank. I'm afraid Vernon did one or the other, and frankly, llanvey, I'd rather see him tied up witti the robbery rob-bery than the murder." The detective lighted another cigar. There was a silence for a few minutes and then the door opened. Miss Seward placed a card on Randolph Fiske's desk. Fiske glanced at it and passed It across to llanvey. "Who Is John Iteagan?" asked Jim. "Chief of the Marland detective force. If you'd rather not have him come in " "Golly! He's the one man I'd like to talk to." Two minutes later Reagan snapped Into the room: trim and efficient. He paid no attention to the banker, hut ad vanced on tho vnit bulk of Jim llnuwy. "1 want to shako hands with you, Hanvey," he said heaiilly. "All my llfo l'vo wanted to meet a real detective." detec-tive." Hanvey grinned like a kid. "What-cha "What-cha doing, Iteagan - taking mo for a buggy ride?" "1 mean It." Tho local chief turnod on 1'isko. "lo you know who Ihls feller Is, Mr. l'isko? He's tho copM' delight. Ho never makes u mistake " "Say, wait a minute, Reagan. I KUens I've missed more eaKy ones than any man In the country. Honest I have. Rut my people don't ndvertlse the failure! so awful prominent." "Hooey!" said Iteagan with hearty admiration. "Ami tho minute I heard you wero In town 1 followed you hero. I want you to do me a favor a big one?" "Veh. . . ?" "Take charge of two cases hero: the robbery of this bank and the murder mur-der over at tho college." "Man! I never fool around with killings. They're too dog goneil messy." "You're handling this bank thing, uln't you?" "Maybe." "Then you'll have to take on tho other." "Why?" "I'.ecause." announced Iteagan crlnp-ly, crlnp-ly, "they're tied up tight together. I don't kaow how they were done, hut I've got tho baby who did 'em both or knows who did. This feller killed Thayer and then came oer here and copped the mill pay roll." "What's his name?" "Vernon. Maxwell Vernon." Randolph Fiske looked pleadingly at Hanvey. and the Gargantuan detective slowly extended his hand to Reagan. "Pone with you," said Jim. "If you really want me, I'll take charge. Hut If I do, things are to be handled my way." "Oh, boy!" Reagan was enthusiastic. enthusias-tic. "Take my word for It, llanvey you're the boss. I won't do nothing but hang around and listen." "Wrong," grinned Jim. "You're gonna gon-na talk and you'll start right now." "Well, that beln' the case. I'll sny that I wouldn't like to he In this kid's shoes. I guess you want to know all the dope I've got ou Vernon, don't you?" ".Sure." Randolph Fiske started to Interrupt. "I told Hanvey " A big, fleshy paw was raised In admonition. ad-monition. "I'd rather hear this direct from Reagan, If you don't mind." The banker nodded and Reagan proceed pro-ceed (Hi. "First, the robber was using Max Vernon's car and It's a ten to-one bet that Vernon was driving It. Second, after the robbery occurred Vernon drove right through Birmingham and on to Steel City. I've Just come back from there." "How far Is Steel City?" "Eighty miles from Birmingham. A hundred miles from here. He carried his car to a dealer and dickered for a new one on a trade-in basis. Next morning they closl the deal ud Vernon Ver-non turned In his old car on a new one, and paid the difference twelve hundred smackers in cash. Now the funny part, llanvey. Is that from all I can gather Vernon has been broke for about a month." "What makes you think that?" "He tried to borrow money several places and didn't get It. Now I ask you this: If a man is dead broke one week, how does It happen that the next weok he buys a new expensive car nnd pays twelve hundred iu cash on the deal?" Hanvey nodded. "Sounds queer, Reagan. And then what?" "Plenty. " Reagan's face was beaming beam-ing with pardonable pride. "I disco; dis-co; ered that when Vernon traded in his car, there was something missing, the Moor rug !" "Floor rug, eh? What does that mean?" "It means this: I'm sure Mr. Fiske, here, has told you all about the robbery rob-bery and how Mr. Burke and the stick-up stick-up guy pot-shotted each other. The feller must have been hit pretty hard because there was blood on the floor of the bank and a trail of blood between be-tween the front door and the curb. Ain't that so. Mr. Fiske?" "Yes. It was rather plentiful, too." "I'll say It was. Now, then, It's natural nat-ural to suppose, ain't It, that this palooka was bleeding pretty free and easy when he piled Into the back of Vernon's car." "If it wns the boy's car." "We'll take that for granted. Any-way. Any-way. he was bleeding. That blood would have gone over all the floor rug, because we got to remember that a man who has Just robbed a bank wouldn't be fool enough to sit on the bnck seat of any car. Chances were he was curled up on the floor. Now, then, I 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 If they hadn't." Hanvey blinked. "Y'ou nlu't nobody's no-body's damfool, John Reagan." "Thanks. Now, there's one more tie-up. I looked nt the car Vernon traded In, and Jim there was blood right by the sills, just where it would have been left If It had run over the floor rug before the rug was thrown away. Get what that means? It proves that there was a floor rug there originally." "Sure does, John." "Then," Interrogated Randolph Fiske hopefully, "you're positive, Mr. Reagan, Rea-gan, that Max "ernon was mixed up in the robbery of this bank?" "The case against him looks about two hundred proof, Mr. Fiske." (TO BE CO.NTt.VLKD.l |