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Show F Synthetic x Gentleman CHANNING I I j POLLOCK- Jjg? : 'RIGHT, CHANMN6 POLLOCK WNU SERVICE could've been, too. But the old man found he was taking lessons. 'I don't want any jazz-banders in my family,' he snorted. 'You're going to take my place when I die.' "That started it. He'd always been hard on Jack. Bossy, the old man is. And you can't boss Jack. He got another fiddle. He was good on it, too. When he went up to Harvard, Har-vard, he used to play it at parties. "When his father heard about that, he threatened to cut off Jack's allowance. So Jack stopped fiddling, fid-dling, and began to drink. And, one night when he was awful drunk, he wrote the old man's name on a check. He tried to get it back the nest day, but the bank had turned it down, and the guy he'd given it to was sore, and had Jack arrested. "Jack had sold his second fiddle to make good. He never got another anoth-er one. The old man cut Jack loose. He came up to Boston, with a newspaper that printed the story in his hands. Cold as ice, he was. 'You've disgraced me,' he said, 'and you'll go on disgracing me, if I'll let you. I won't. You can go where you like and do what you please, but not with my name. If you ever use that again, you can starve." Peggy turned to the window. Then, abruptly, "How are we going go-ing to get in to see him?" she asked. "You're his wife," Barry answered. an-swered. "And you?" "I'm his friend. And my name's Itidder." Even Peggy's story didn't quite prepare the Duke for that meeting with his other self. He'd rather expected to see one of those weaklings who find the. world a vast conspiracy against them. John Clarke Kidder, Jr., proved to be merely a frightened youngster. young-ster. A slim, rather frail lad in his early twenties, with soft, dark hair, and large, dark eyes, and a peculiarly sensitive mouth. His hands were soft and sensitive, too, but there was nothing effeminate about the boy. "Gee, I'am glad to see you, Peg," he blurted out. "I was getting a little bit worried." Peggy's presence reassured him. Evidently, he counted on her, and felt safe while she was with him. "Jack," she said, quietly and significantly, sig-nificantly, "I've brought your friend, Mr. Ridder. He's going to help us." "That's great," he observed. Fortunately for them, the guard had other things on his mind. He kept disappearing, and coming back, SYNOPSIS ,!ule, Barry Gilbert, a likable , f twenty-three, jobless and i nters an unoccupied summer i; Southampton, seeking shel-;i shel-;i a storm. He makes him-,.iome. him-,.iome. He is startled by the , ( a butler, Willetts; and a !r, Evans. He learns that the l ie owner of the house, Jack -horn the servants had never Expected. He decides to bluff !His supposed parents have tGermany. Next morning he iletter for his "mother," and j,.nessage from the real Jack, , , ie could not come, and re-a re-a hundred-dollar bill. The Giher had pensioned him into Barry pockets the money, to return it later. On the ;';Iontauk, where he intended linear, he meets Judge I-Iam-,A his daughter, Patricia. Be-le Be-le is Jack Ridder, she in-i in-i to dinner the following Barry returns to South-pjeciding South-pjeciding to stay a bit longer. , pi. or, Sr., through his news-he news-he Globe, accuses Judge of taking orders from 1 ft Hall in a condemnation . p g. Barry meets Peter Wins-1 Wins-1 ninent attorney. Winslow Io;,ry tnat judge Hambidge an accident in which a ,s,as killed by a taxicab. At rry finds the wife of the ' Itidder awaiting him. Her St is in jail in New York, Sncwith the murder of Mike : Tammany boss. The girl, ,11s Barry how she had met llKll'iorida and married him, as dvcrrs. Jack lost his job, and : to New York, where she at the Cocoanut Bar. There accused of trying to pick t of Mike Kelly, and was rl-Jer husband went to Kel-V Kel-V face hiiu- to drop the charge. lly was found dead, his "hed by a decanter. Barry e can help as Jack Ridder. ampton. We'll have to smuggle It out of here, I suppose. Now, tell me exactly what happened the night before last." The story differed very little from the one Barry had heard, but it was full of shrewd questions that hadn't occurred to him. "Did you ever see Kelly?" "No." "He was enormous. Must have been six-feet-two in his stockings. I'm five-feet-five in mine. I'd've had to stand on a chair to hit him on top of the head." "Unless he was sitting in one." "The body wasn't anywhere near a chair. It was up against the door to the hall. The paper says so. The Filipino got in through the dining din-ing room. I got out through the hall door. He saw me. How did I do that, if Kelly was lying against it?" "I don't know." "Two more things: The lights were burning full tilt when I left. I could see Kelly's shadow on the blinds as I passed the house on my way home. Were they still burning when the butler came in the next morning ! And, if not, who turned 'em out?" "What's the other item?" The other item's the crux of the whole business," Jack answered. "Hike rushed me out because the phone rang, and the fellow that rang it was coming over to talk to him. Did he come? If not, why not? And if that fellow did come, isn't it likely that he's the guy that killed Kelly?". CHAPTER IV IT WAS long after one o'clock when they walked out of the Tombs. Peggy was all in now. Barry splurged on a taxi to take her "home" to the dingy boarding house where the disowned Ridders lived, in the upper Forties. In spite of her protests, Barry kept his word as to giving her most of that hundred hun-dred and fifty. "It isn't mine," he declared. "We'll eat together Monday, after I've talked to Winslow. I'll be around about six o'clock." It was two now a warmish Saturday Sat-urday afternoon. Nearly forty-eight hours before he could hope to find the attorney. Any inexpensive hotel would do. He registered at one a few blocks from Peggy's. "Barry Gilbert," he wrote. From his new residence, Barry went to the Astor, and cabled Mrs. Ridder. The message read : "Making good stop water-wagon and on track of a job stop friend of mine met in Florida locked up for murder didn't commit stop can you arrange credit here up to two thousand thou-sand dollars stop won't use unless necessary for friend and will return every penny stop wire Peter Winslow lawyer for confirmation if desired stop this is my big chance to do something worth while stop writing details all's well don't hurry back love. John." "I'll need that two thousand quick," Barry thought. "Winslow'll want a retainer, and there'll be a lot of other tilings." Barry wondered won-dered what to do with his forty-eight forty-eight hours. "I'll stroll down to Kelly's place," he decided, "and give it the once-over." From Sixth avenue, he turned Into Sixteenth street, and stopped before what the tabloids were calling "the scene of the murder." It was an old-fashioned red-brick house, with a bay window, and a heavy front door. A policeman stood guard, and a group of curious loiterers as near as they dared. Remarkable, Barry thought, how people could stand staring at anything any-thing connected with a tragedy. There was another little group at the corner, where workmen were putting in a new traffic light standard. stand-ard. Broken off short, Its predecessor predeces-sor lay on the pavement. Having nothing better to do, Barry asked, "What's the excitement?" "Taxi smash." "When?" "Just before two o'clock yesterday yester-day morning. Killed a woman. Crushed her right up against that post. Broke it off short. Don't seem possible." No wonder the Judge was "upset." "up-set." Curious, Barry thought, these two violent deaths within a few yards and a few hours of each other. Curious, too, that the Judge's stroll should have brought him so near the house in which Kelly lay murdered, mur-dered, but no more remarkable than the series of events tiiat had involved in-volved Barry in the whole affair. "Life's full of coincidences," Barry mused. "It's only in fiction that ppople pay much attention to 'em. Winslow said the Judge went for a walk, and that's the simplest explanation ex-planation of the whole matter. He was at the attorney's office before ten o'clock on Monday morning, morn-ing, lie was ushered into the pleasantly pleas-antly furnished corner room that was Teter's. The lawyer rose, as Barry entered, and came forward, one hand outstretched, and the other oth-er holding a newspaper. "The early bird, eli?" (TO BE COTIM'ED) "No. But that's one reason I want to get back. You better come with me, too. I think you're on the level, but I'm not so sure Jack's going to think so." "O. K.," Barry assented. "Breakfast "Break-fast at eight. Good night, Mrs. Rogers." Rog-ers." "Good night, Mr. Ridder." She smiled, a wan ghost of a smile. Standing before the dying fire, Barry exclaimed: "What a damned fool I am !" and stuffed the letter into his pocket. The newspaper lay before him, and, with it, he came back to the hearth. "Let's see what it's all about," he said. The story filled the first page, and overflowed onto the second and third. Judge Hambidge's eagerly-awaited eagerly-awaited decision was crowded Into an upper corner of the fourth page, with a two-column picture of the Judge. There was no editorial comment. com-ment. Evidently, there hadn't been time for that yet. "For some unexplained un-explained reason," the paper said, "the murder wag not reported to the police until nearly noon." The body had been found by the Filipino Fili-pino servant shortly after eight that morning. Mike Kelly's skull had been fractured by a single blow with a heavy cut-glass whiskey decanter de-canter that lay close by, its contents con-tents still undisturbed. There was no sign of a struggle. The Filipino boy's yarn was straight enough. Kelly had come home just before eleven o'clock. He was a little drunk, the boy admitted. admit-ted. He had let himself in with his latch-key, and gone straight to the dining room, where he rang violently. vio-lently. -The boy had responded, and got out the liquor and the glasses. Then a young man had called. His name was Rogers, the boy remembered, and he said he had known Kelly in Palm Beach. Kelly had said, "All right ; show him into the drawing room," and the boy had done so, and brought in the tray. Then he had gone back downstairs. A little while later, he had heard angry voices in the drawing room, and had listened outside, In the hall. What he had heard was pretty pret-ty much what the girl had repeated, but there were a few additions, in the way of threats from the visitor. visi-tor. The Filipino decided that it was none of his business, and returned re-turned to his room. Ten minutes later, anxious in spite of himself, he remounted the back stairs. As he reached the top, he heard the drawing room door closed noisily, and saw the caller hurry into the hall and through the front door, which he banged after him. It was then nearly midnight. The Filipino Fili-pino had been on duty since seven that morning, and, reassured, he tiptoed down the stairs, and went to bed. That was all; he knew until, un-til, eight hours later, he came upon Mike Kelly's body lying face-down on the floor. The Duke was just about to go to bed himself, when he noticed a small headline. "Artist's Wife Crushed by Taxi." That would be the accident that upset Judge Hambidge. Ham-bidge. "I might talk to Winslow at the Hambidges," he thought, sleepily. "But I guess Peggy's right. Better see Jack first. I've got a date with Winslow at his ollice on Monday." The hall clock struck three. Nevertheless, the Duke was up an hour before breakfast. He shaved, and bathed, and tossed a few thiitgs into an overnight over-night bag he'd seen in the closet. Emerging, he ran into Willetts. "Breakfast for two," the Duke ordered. or-dered. "Mrs. Rogers and I are taking tak-ing the 0:27 to New York." lie thought the butler looked at him sharply. As their train left Southampton, Teggy looked even shabbier in her cheap black dress and her little red beret. Her face was very white, for want of make-up or sleep. "It's funny," she said awkwardly, "but I sort of feel that everything's going go-ing to be all right now." "Wliy don't you and the boy move out here?" "To stay, you mean?" "Sure. I can square it with Willetts. Wil-letts. Come along, the end of the week, Peggy. After all, it's where you belong, you know." "I belong with Jack," she said. "And, anyway, has It struck you that the old man might come back unexpected? He's been mad six years. What's he going to do when he finds out about all this?" "Well," Barry hazarded, "if we've got his son out " "He won't care," Peggy interrupted, interrupt-ed, her voice again hard and pitiful. piti-ful. "He never did. "He smashed Jack's fiddle. Jack wanted to be a violinist. He Mi 'TER III Continued edS the a"Kwer if lie don't?" ' swer then is that a noble low, named John Clarke . and that's me gets a ""interested In an unfortu- jamod Jay Rogers. Why? e believes him to be in- that's why. And, don't mistake, a guy like Rid- Jng it's going to start a r people believing It, too. fiedr mother that I've got to . Qiy to carry or) the light, 1 It, because the old man Rholian't be so bad, after all. gets his newspaper into ml, nt for his own son, niu-rUln't help much, but for ind'i Whether that happens get a job and a lawyer, HA7(oi both for you. I'll use Salitnily Influence for you. )3 h.c it's over, and your hus-jt hus-jt lifted, I'll be In some po-alk po-alk to the old man for he Isn't acquitted?" ot to lace that chance, Did" oked at him with hard it a pretty smart fellow," niPlf lctty sm,lrt lf y" can ill'hlo keeping my mouth you get the money, and n, and everything my ight to have." get it lf I don't? Use m 'eggy. What do I gain? J Pi the beans tonight, what it do you? And what It do me? Maybe I go City a f(-'w weeks. But It our husband out of jail, . ''his way might, and it's 'ay. Think It over." 'l answer me one ques- ',,'lrl asked. aairf nothing to gain, why 1 had been pacing the , topped short now, and 'jjjj bauds fell limp at his 35lf I know," ho respond-t-at's the truth." ll0ar tho clock ticking SSii'.M ruck two. iWS IVggy said, at last. Sffi.S-.-S t0 nlay " Sour way. iri-',-;.;e P from here?'' Sv':t!ou'd l,rtter go to bed," "jiio'swered. 3. J-5?'' grinned the Duke. whole lot more right """""lave. There's a guest-Willetts guest-Willetts always keeps T(1esitated. ' can I get back to New r isked. good train around nine -jned a door the other SU library, and switched tante'' "Tliere J'ou are," he ;sT r ruck me," he remarked, -suppose your husband gglven his real name?" Quickly He Mapped Out His Plans. and looking away from them to a paper that someone had given him, and that seemed irritating. In a low voice, Peg outlined what had happened, hap-pened, and the conclusion that had been reached. The boy turned to Barry. Young, frightened, and soft, he could reason quickly, and talk-straight. talk-straight. "I don't understand," he said to the Duke. "If these people will do things for you, because they think you're Jack Ridder, why won't they do 'em for me, when they know I'm Jack Ridder?" "Because they like me. They've never met you. And because my record's clear. I'm not accused of murder under circumstances that well, they don't sound pretty, at first, do they?" "They do not." "And, of course, there's your mother." The sensitive mouth tightened. Barry gave him the letter he had shown Peggy. The lad read It "The old man's got her buffaloed," buffa-loed," he remarked; "same as he's got everybody else. O. K. I wouldn't have used my own name, anyway. Letting you use it's another an-other thing, but Peggy thinks you're straight, and site's never been wrong yet It's a queer game, but I'll sit in. What next?" Barry was relieved. The guard had been showing his paper to a colleague. Quickly, he mapped out his plans so far as he had any. "I've got a dale with Peter Winslow Wins-low on Monday. And I'm going to cable your mother for money. We've got to have that. I hope to get a job pretty soon, and make my own way. but, just now, there's less than a hundred and fifty dollars dol-lars In the kitty, and I'm going to give most of that to Peggy for current cur-rent expenses. You'd better write your mother, too the kind of a letter you'd write in answer to that, if you were in my shoos. I'll bring yon the stationery, and. of course. I'll mail your letter from Soutli- |