Show anard laiq R caba SYNOPSIS paco vance famous detective and john F X markham d strict attorney for new york county are dining in vance a s apart biant when vance receives an anonymous tel telephone ephon m message informing him of a dis tl irbing psychological psychological tension at professor ephriam garden a apartment advising that he read up on radio active sodium consult a passage in the aeneid and c coun un eling that equanimity Is essential oro pro lessor assor garden is famous in chemical re search the message decoded by vance reminds him that professor garden a son floyd and his puny cousin swift ore re addicted to horse rae ng vance says that equanimity Is a horse running nex next Is day in the Ri vermont hand cap vance Is convinced that the message was sent by dr siefert the gardens family phys clan he a arranges to have lunch next day at the gardens penthouse vance is greeted by floyd garden and meets lowe hammie an elderly follower of horse racing floyd ex M presses ases concern over swift a queer actions mrs garden supposedly ill comes down stairs and places a bet on a horse gathered around an elaborate loud speaker bervice e race 1 to the racing are cecil kroon madge weatherby and zai zal a graem who bet varying amounts on the race there is tension under the surface gaiety zaila zalla and swift are not on speaking terms kroon leaves to keep an appointment be lore fore the race starts miss beeton a nurse and vance bet on azure star swift reck reek lessly bets 10 on equanis ty and goes to the root roof garden to hear the results floyd rloyd follows swift remaining away from the group several minutes zai zal a goes to the den to ans ver a telephone call boon soon after the announcement that azure star wins the guests hear a shot vance finds swift dead shot through the bead head with a revolver nearby he says swift has been murdered after caling call ng the police he finds the door of a vault aar ajar kroon returns and is sharply questioned by vance who finds he had not left the build ing vance orders miss beeton becton to guard the stairway and prevent mrs garden and zaila zalla from viewing swift a body CHAPTER IV continued 7 garden he began there are a few things that I 1 d like to have cleared up before the district at torney and the police arrive he turned about leisurely and sat down at the desk facing garden anything I 1 can do to help gar den mumbled lighting his pipe A few necess ry questions don t 7 know vance went on hope they won t upset you and all that but the fact is mr markham will probably want me to take a hand in the investigations since I 1 was a witness to the preamble of this dis tressin tragedy I 1 I 1 hope he does garden re turned it s a damnable affair and I 1 d like to see the axe fall no matter whom it might behead his pipe was giving him trouble by the way vance he went on quiet ly how did you happen to come here today I 1 ve asked you so often to join om our racing and you pick the one day when the roof blows off oil the place vance kept his eyes on garden for or a moment the fact is he said at length 1 I got an anonymous telephone mes ines cage sage last night vaguely outlining the situation here and mentioning equanimity 11 garden jerked himself up to keen er attention the devil you cayll say he ex claimed that s a queer one man I 1 or woman oh it was a man vance re plied casually garden pursed his lips and after a moment moments s meditation said quiet ly well anyway I 1 in damned glad you did come what can I 1 tell you that might be of help any thing you want old man first of all then asked vance did you recognize the revolver I 1 saw you looking at it rather ampre pensively ben when we came out on the roof garden frowned and finally an as it if with sudden resola tion yes yest I 1 did recognize it vance it belongs to the old gentleman your father garden nodded grimly he s had it for years why he ever got it in the first place I 1 don t know he probably chasn t the slightest idea how low to use it by the by vance put in what time does your father generally re turn home from the university why why garden hesitated and then continued on saturdays he s always here early in the after noon rarely after three gives himself and his staff a half holiday but he added father fathers s very ery erratic his voice trailed off nervously vance took two deep inhalations on an his cigarette he was watching garden attentively then he asked in a soft tone what s on your mind unless of course you have good reason for not wanting to tell me garden took a long breath and stood up he seemed to be deeply troubled as he walked across the room and back the truth is vance he said as he resumed his place on the dav elport I 1 don t even know where the pater is this afternoon As soon as 1 I came downstairs after woody s death I 1 called him to give him the news I 1 thought he d want to get here as as possible in the cir cum curn stances but I 1 was told that he d locked up the laboratory and left the university about two 0 clock CHAPTER V I 1 could not understand the mans perturbation and I 1 could see that it puzzled vance as well vance en deavo red to put him at his ease it really doesn doean t matter he said as if dismissing the subject by S S VAN DINE copyrights S vandine van dine cc ce it may be just as well that your father doesn doean t learn of the tragedy till later he smoked for a moment but to get back to the revolver where was it usually kept in the center drawer of t the he desk upstairs garden told him prompt ly and was the fact genera generally lly known to the other members of the household or to swift himself garden nodded oh yes there was no secret about it we often joked with the old gentleman about his arsenal and the revolver was always loaded so far as I 1 know yes and was there an extra supply of cartridges cartridge sl As to that I 1 cannot say gar den answered but I 1 don t think so and here s a very important question garden vance went on how many of the people that are here today could possibly have known that your father kept this loaded revolver in his desk now think carefully before answering garden meditated for several mo ments he looked off into space and puff puffed ed steadily on his pipe I 1 am trying to remember he said reminiscently just who was here the day zalia zaha came upon the gun what day was that vance cut in sharply it was about three months ago I 1 garden explained you see we used to have the telephone setup set up connected upstairs in the study but some of the western races came in so late that it began to interfere with the old gentleman s routine when he came home from the uni hersity so we moved the par apher nalia down into the drawing room As a matter of fact it was more convenient and the mater didn dian t object in fact she rather enjoyed it but what happened on this par nicular day insisted vance well we were all upstairs in the study going through the whole silly racing rigmarole that you witnessed this afternoon when zalia graem who always sat at the old gentle mans man s desk began opening the drawers looking for a piece of scratch paper on which to figure the she finally opened the center drawer and saw the revola er she brought it out with a flour ish and laughing like a silly school girl pointed it around the room I 1 reprimanded her rather rudely I 1 m afraid and ordered her to put the revolver back in its place as it was loaded and just then a race came over the amplifier and the episode was ended most inte interesting murmured vance and can you recall how many of those present today dext wext were likewise present at miss graem s little enar acte I 1 I 1 rather think they were a all there if my memory is correct vance sighed A bit futile eh what no pos sible elimination along that line garden looked up startled elimination 9 I 1 don t understand we were all downstairs here this afternoon except kroon and he was out when the shot was fired at this moment there was a slight commotion in the hallway it sound ed as if a scuffle of some kind was in process and a shrill protesting voice mingled with the calm but determined tones of the nurse vance went immediately to the door and threw it open there just outside the den door only a short dis tance from the stairway were miss weatherby and miss beeton the nurse had a firm hold on the other woman and was calmly arguing with her As vance stepped toward them miss weatherby turned to face him and drew herself up arro gantly what s the meaning of this she demanded must I 1 be mauled by a menial because I 1 wish to go upstairs 9 miss beeton has orders that no one is to go upstairs vance said sternly and I 1 was unaware that she is a menial but why cant can t I 1 go upstairs I 1 the woman asked with dramatic em I 1 want to see poor woody death is so beautiful and I 1 was very fond of woody by whose orders pray am I 1 being denied this last communion with ane de parted by my orders vance told her boldy furthermore this lar death is far from beautiful I 1 assure you and the police will be here any minute until then no one will be permitted to disturb any thing upstairs then why she demanded with histrionic indignation was this this woman she glanced with ex ag contempt at the nurse coming down the stairs herself when I 1 came into the hall vance made no attempt to hide a smile of amusement I 1 in sure I 1 don t know I 1 may ask her later but she happens to be under instructions from me to let no one go upstairs will you be so good miss weatherby he add ed almost harshly as to return to the drawing room and remain there until the officials arrive the woman glared superciliously at the nurse and then with a toss of the head strode toward the archway the nurse obviously embar turned to resume her post but vance stopped her were you upstairs miss bee tona he asked in a kindly tone she was standing very erect her face slightly flushed she looked vance frankly and firmly in the eye and slowly shook her head I 1 haven t left my post mr vance she said quietly I 1 un der stand my duty vance returned her gaze for a moment and then bowed his head slightly thank you miss beeton he said he came back into the den and closing I 1 osing the door addressed garden again now that we have disposed tern tem pora rily of the theatrical queen he smiled somberly suppose we continue with our little chat garden chuckled mildly and be gan repacking his pipe queer girl madge always act ing like a tragedienne but I 1 don t think she s ever really been on the stage you heard her tell me she was particularly fond of swift re marked vance just what did she mean by that garden shrugged nothing at all if you ask me she didn dian t know that woody was on earth so to aspea speak k but dead woody becomes a dramatic possibility yes yes quite murmured vance which reminds me what was the tiff between swift and miss graem about I 1 noticed your little peacemaker peace maker advances this after noon garden became serious I 1 haven t been aole adle to figure that situation out myself woody was pretty deep in the newtown new mown hay as far as zaila zalia went hovered round her all the time and took all her good natured bantering without a murmur then sudden ly the embryonic love affair or whatever it was went sour ob something had happened but I 1 never got the straight of it it may have been a new flame on woody s part I 1 rather imagine it was something of the kind As for zaila zaha she was never serious about it anyway and I 1 have an idea that woody wanted that extra twenty thousand today for some reason connected with zaha zalia garden stopped speaking abruptly and slapped his thigh by george georgel 1 I 1 t be surprised if that hard bitten little gambler had turned woody down because he was comparatively ively hard up you cant can t tell about these girls today they re as practical as the devil himself vance nodded thoughtfully Y your our observations rather fit with the remarks she made to me a little while ago she too wanted to go upstairs to see swift gave as her excuse the fact that she felt she was to blame for the whole sordid business garden grinned well there you are then he remarked judicially but you can never tell about women I 1 wonder vance smoked in si lence for a moment then he went on there s another matter in connection with swift which you might be able to clear up for me could you suggest any reason why when I 1 placed the bet on azure star for vu beeton this afternoon swift should have looked at me as if he would enjoy murdering me mea I 1 saw that too garden nodded 6 1 I cant can t say it meant anything much woody was always a weak sister where any woman was con berned it took little to make him think he d fallen in love he may have become infatuated with the nurse he d been seeing her around here for the past few months and now that you mention it he s been somewhat orne what poisonous toward me on several occasions because she was more or less friendly with me and ignored him entirely but ill say this for woody it if he did have ideas about miss beeton his taste is im lm proving she s an unusual girl diffee diffrient ent f f vance nodded his head slowly and gazed with peculiar concentta con centra tion out the window yes he murmured quite Quit edif dif ferent then as if bringing himself back from some alien tram train of thought he crushed out his ciga aciga rette and leaned forward how ilow ever we U 11 drop speculation for the moment suppose you tell me something about the vault upstairs garden glanced up in evident sur prise there s nothing to tell about that old catch all it s neither ous nor formidable and it s really not a vault at all several years ago the pater found that he had ac cumulated a lot of private papers and experimental data that he didn dian t want casual callers messing in so he had this fire proof storeroom built to house these scientific treasures cf rf his the vault as you call it i built as much for mere privacy as for actual safe keeping it s just a very small room with shelves around the walls has everyone in the house access to it ita asked vance anyone so inclined replied garden but who in the name of heaven would want to go in there really y know I 1 haven t the groggiest notion vance returned except that I 1 found the door to it unlatched when I 1 was coming downstairs a little while ago TO BF CONTINUED 1 i i JL |