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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1936-05-07, Page 6for- REX BEACH “Copyright by Rex Beach” THIRD INSTALMENT WOMAN SYNOPSIS: Amos Ethridge is found murdered in a country lane with a crude cross of twigs on his breast and a scented sheet of note paper in his pocket, He was the richest man in the state with power and influence enough to make himself a candidate for Governor. With his death came hints of an unsavory private life, of scandal that might come to light if the murder is investigated too closely. . . . Mary Holmes, a former opera singer whose career was wreck­ ed when she lost her voice at the birth .of her §<?nt lives in, squalor "'"'ndafest the sceiie of the Crime. . . . on a small chicken farm where she ekes out a poor living and tries to find in drink the forgetfulness of past glories when she was Maria di Nardi, world-renowned opera singer . . . . Gerald Holmes, a talented young art­ ist, is hated and loved by his mother who is embittered because his birth caused the loss of her voice and wrecked her operatic career. He has "been befriended by the murdered Eth­ ridge, and is engaged to another of Amos Ethridge’s proteges . . . Hazel Woods, lovely and brilliant young actress, has been helped to success by Ethridge. She lives in a small cot­ tage owned by Ethridge . . . Jacob Riggs, eccentric old-time actor, now a doorman at the theater where Hazel Woods plays, has appointed himself her guardian and lives in a room ov­ er her garage. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY This was Mary Holmes's hour and she made the most of it. She took a tremendous satisfaction out of the evident embarrassment of these young men. They had maligned her and she hated them for it, but she concealed her feelings behind an air of modesty and simplicity which was anything but genuine. She would have enjoyed nothing more than to turn the vials of her wrath upon them, to "blister them with her scorn, but, real­ izing that through them she was talk­ ing to a vast audience, she rose to the occasion as she had risen to oth­ er roles. Vogel had cleverly stage-managed her appearance and she had rehearsed herself well. The result was all and more than either of them had antici­ pated—she scored a triumph. She was acting, of course, but what a part to play and what an audience to play to! An audience consisting of America, the world! The world that had gotten her! Well, it would remember her now and it would throb and sym­ pathize with her story. That story, to her mind, was infinitely more dra­ matic, infinitely more important, than the story of the Ethridge murder. Vogel had made her bring her scrap books of yellowed clippings and her photographs; he had also arrang­ ed for press photographers and cam­ era men from the news weeklies, for here was a subject suitable -for the screen reviews. When Mrs. Holmes left the building, she faced a battery of still and moving picture cameras, and a way for her had to be cleared through the curiosity seekers. Word quickly spread that an ac­ tual eye-witness of the Ethridge slay- iing had come forward with an incred­ ible story and a mob followed Mrs. Holmes to her hotel. It swarmed in­ to the lobby and up to the elevator gates, reminding her of the crowds that had followed her in Paris, in Vienna. She would have liked to step out of her room to some balcony, with her arms full of roses, and throw kisses to the street below. In a surprisingly short time, ex­ tras were out and Mrs. Holmes heard them being shouted. They contained little but headlines and a brief state­ ment of facts, but she read them avid­ ly and could scarcely wait of the big Chicago dailies the next morning. It fed her vanity to realize that in many quarters upon typewriter keys and telegraph instruments fast flying fin­ gers were pounding out her life story and that it was being cast into mol­ ten metal for the world to read. Those old photographs which had lain so long in the dark were being repro­ duced and new ones finished! Mary Holmes, “the goose woman,” had set the presses of the country a-spinning; Martha di Nardi, the forgotten darl­ ing of grand opera, was being re­ born. Sustained emotion, such as she had undergone today, demanded relief, and again she appealed to the matron for some whiskey. But the latter was firm. Mrs. Holmes was too excited to eat any supper, nor could she sleep when bedtime came. Habit had become fixed, restraint had only whetted keener her desire for drink and her outraged system clamored fiercely for its accustomed anodyne. She paced the floor until long after her companion had retired. She wondered why Jerry did not communicate with her. He must have heard those newsboys bawling “extra” ' WINGHAM ADVANCE-TIMES .........mi..................................... ..... ........................................................................................ . Thursday, May 7th, 1936 herself see her bellboy possible her the by this time and—But of course he was mad at her for getting into print; he abhorred notoriety, A shrinking violet, that was Jerry! Bah! He had offered to make her over if she’d let him! Well, she had made over. She wished he could tonight. Mrs. Holmes rang for a and asked him the earliest moment he could secure for morning papers, The boy volunteer­ ed to go to the offices and fetch the first copies^ off the press; that would probably be about three o'clock. This gave the woman an idea, and she in­ quired if by any chance, he could at the same time secure f6r her a little stimulant, preferably whiskey, al­ though gin would do, The boy as­ sured her that he could. He did. Mary Holmes found pictures of herself on the damp front pages. The stories that went with them were all that she could have desired. She smiled, to be sure, at Vogel’s posi­ tive assertion that he was on the trail of “the man in the robe” and that his arrest was merely a matter of hours, Vogel was a great grandstander. He amused the reader. She lowered the “You had better come clean,” the de­ tective warned. every word he uttered closed the net more tightly about him. The police began by asking him about his relations with Hazel Hoods, and he told them of his engagement to her, He also admitted ownership of an automobile and identified a linen | dust coat as his property, although why the police had taken pains to filch it from the car and bring it here he could not imagine. With equal readiness he admitted having driven out to his mother’s farm on the even­ ing of the murder and having left the car in the pine grove near the ep’ trance to the Ethridge lane. Yes, his right headlight had been out of com­ mission- To Gerald it seemed inconceivable that these men could actually suspect him of complicity in the crime. Not until he had gone over and over the story of his trip out and back and had detailed his every action on that night without in the least impressing them did he begin to appreciate the ser­ iousness of his situation. Why should they suspect him of the murder, he demanded to know- Why should he wish to harm the man who had done more for him than anybody in West­ land? What possible motive could he have for destroying his benefactor? They told him why, in language so plain, so brutal, that he was stricken dumb. Miss Woods had been Amos Ethridge’s sweetheart and the cottage she occupied was their love nest. She was the writer of that “Thursday” note which had been found on his body, and, after the show on the night of his slaying, he had called up­ on her, as was his frequent habit. He had gone directly from her arms to his death. Gerald leaped to his feet, a lie!” he shouted. In a struck at the speaker. No was made to quiet him; on trary his inquisitors undertook to capitalize his agitation. They goad­ ed him; they taunted him with being a fool; they told him things about Ethridge and the girl that would have driven any lover frantic. Vogel came in while this was going on but he took no part in the proceedings. When Jerry refused to be convinced, when again he called*- them liars and defied them to shake his faith in his fiancee, they shifted their tactics and read him his mother’s deposition. He listened while incredulity changed to. despair. When they had finished he told them, miserably: “You shouldn’t be­ lieve that. She’s—not altogether re­ sponsible. She drinks more than she should, and there are times when she’s apt to do or say, almost anything. She’s not a credible witness.” ‘‘She wasn’t to this.” “But—don’t enough truth make it all sound doesn’t know that I have an automo­ bile. I didn’t tell her because-----well, because she would have considered it an extravagance, so she doesn’t rea­ lize it was my car she saw pass the house. I did leave it at the grove and it did have only one headlight. Wellington Mutual Fire Insurance Co. Established 1840. Risks taken on all classes of insur­ ance at reasonable rates. Head Office, Guelph, Ont. \ ABNER COSENS, Agent. Wingham. DR. R. L. STEWART PHYSICIAN Telephone 29. Dr. Robt. C. REDMOND M.R.C.S. (England) L.R.C.P. (London) PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON DR. W. M. CONNELL PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON Phone 19. “That’s fury he attempt the con- liquor in her bottle and felt her tau­ tened nerves relax, felt a grateful ease and contentment creep through her. When the matron came to awaken her charge in the morning she found her lying across her bed with her clothes on, and with an empty flask beside her. There was a perfectly good reason why Gerald Holmes did not com­ municate with his mother that night; he was, for the time being, out of communication with anybody. Even while the evening extras were in pro­ cess of printing he had been taken to police headquarters and there put through an examination sufficiently rigorous to be termed the “third deg­ ree.” At first he was humiliated and bewildered, although scarcely alarm­ ed; he answered questions frankly and fully, not realizing in the least that W. A. CRAWFORD, M.D. Physician and Surgeon Located at the office of the late Dr. J. P. Kennedy. Phone 150 Wingham Dr. W. A. McKibbon, B.A. PHYSICIAN And SURGEON Located at the Office; of the Late Dr, H, W. Colbome. Office Phone 54, Nights 107 HARRY FRY Licensed, Embalmer and Fumeral Director Furniture and Funeral Service Ambulance Service. Phones: Day 117, Night 109. J. W. BUSHFIELD •Barrister, Solicitor, Notary, Etc. " Money to Loan. Office — Meyer Block, Wingham Successor to Dudley Holmes. .. i THOMAS FELLS AUCTIONEER REAL ESTATE SOLD A Thorough knowledge of Farm Stock. Phone 231, Wingham. J. H. CRAWFORD Barrister, Solicitor, Notary, Etc. Successor to R. Vanstone. i Wingham Ontario It Will Pay You to Have An EXPERT AUCTIONEER to conduct your sale. See T. R. BENNETT At The Royal Service Station. Phone 174W. R. S. HETHERINGTON BARRISTER and SOLICITOR Office — Morton Block. Telephone No. 66 J. ALVIN FOX Licensed Drugless Practitioner CHIROPRACTIC - DRUGLESS THERAPY - RADIONIC EQUIPMENT Hours by Appointment. Phone 191. Wingham F. A. PARKER OSTEOPATH All Diseases Treated. Office adjoining residence next to Anglican Church on Centre St. Sunday by appointment. Osteopathy Electricity Phone 272. Hours, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. A. R. & F. E. DUVAL CHIROPRACTORS CHIROPRACTIC and ELECTRO THERAPY North Street — Wingham Telephone 300. drunk when she swore you see, there’s just to what she says to plausible? She PRINCES ELIZABETH RIDES WITH HER FATHER Elizabeth’s tenth birthday. Jail. Erf Yes, and she saw the tracks there the next morning. But she didn’t actu­ ally see the murder, or she’d have told me. Why, we talked it over when I got back from Chicago and she never said a word about it! Bring her here. Take me to her. She’ll set Ihis thing­ straight.” “You better come clean,” one of the detectives told him. “It’ll save a lot of trouble and you’re not doing yourself any good raving like this. You may save yourself from the gal­ lows.” In spite of himself Gerald flinched. “Pretty rotten to kill the man who befriended you. The jury won’t be out twenty minutes. Why, listen to this and do a little thinking for yourself. Ethridge likes you, pays your way through art school, and one day he introduces you to his gal. You fall for her, like any sucker, and want to marry her until you discover she’s his sweetie. But she knows a good thing when she’s got it and. she stalls you. All those Janes have a young fellow on the side! Of course you’re familiar with Ethridge’s habits; you kn.ow how he drives home that back way every night after he’s been to see her, so nobody will get wise, and you know he has to get out to open that gate. You know every inch of the ground out there, having been raised on the spot. You buy a cheap car so you can get around — people on trolleys are likely to be seen and recognized, late at night. What’s a guy like you,, a picture-painter, want of an automobile, ch? All right. One night when Ethridge has a date with your gal—his gal—you beat it out to see your mother. You’re a nice, duti­ ful mamma’s boy, only you’re not living at home. No, you've got your own place in town and you leave her alone with the chickens. You park your flivver where,it’s handy to the lane; then you frame an alibi by call- iing on the old lady. But you take pains to duck just before Ethridge is due home. Fine! It’s a wonder you didn’t set the clock back when she wasn’t looking and call her atten­ tion to it. They usually do. “But you get a break — one in a thousand. Your mother goes up the road in time to see you give Eth­ ridge the works. Tough for you she wasn’t close enough to recognize your voice or see your face; she’d have kept her mouth closed if she had, no doubt. Women are like that. But, not knowing you had a car, she spills and he the papers triumphant edge of a a day and sign on the dotted line.” Gerald spoke, quietly, listlessly: “You almost make me believe I did it, but there’s one thing you can’t make me believe and that’s what you say about—Miss Woods.” That night while his mother greed­ ily read about herself in and drank herself into a stupor Jerry sat on the bunk in the city prison. Westland was in a furore. There was but one topic of conversation. The Ethridge case had “broken” fin­ ally and the explosion rocked the city, for nothing so fantastic as the true facts had been conceived in the most imaginative mind. To begin with, the story of Ethridge’s “love nest” and its charming occupant—which, by the way, the paper featured in screaming headlines—was sufficiently scandalous to delight the prurient minded. Then, too, the identity of the slayer was a genuine surprise. A wicked roue, a seductive actress, a Cupid’s bower, and a jealous young lover! It was the" oldest, the most hackeyed situation known to paper reporting: it was hokum highest quality, sure-fire stuff, body could write it, everybody read it. To have the lover prove to be a base ingrate was an added touch and a tasty morsel. But the thrill, news- of the Any- would The Duke of York, heir-prCsUmp- himself and his older daughter, Prim sor Great Park. The picture was tak-l live to the British crown, gave spe- cess Elizabeth, second in the succes- co just before the celebration at the tial permission for this photograph of sion, as they rode together in Wind- Royal Lodge, Windsor, of Princess everything to Mr. Vogel, plays her just right. We have you covered before"he brings town. And by the way, remember the two wops that talked to you the night you went back to hide your tracks in case she suspected you? headlight was olit that Why, man, even to the aS she calls colored dust ain’t exactly white and it ain’t a ’robe’, but it’s close enough. I never saw a cleaner set-up. Better call it her into the drama, lay in the fact that the in­ grate’s mother had actually witnessed the murder and, in absolute innocence of the part she played, had brought him to justice. Here was something stunning; here was a coincidence truly uncanny; here was the hand of God. Yes, and the final denouement, coming right on top of the discovery of her real identity, was piling sen­ sation upon sensation. To the general mind it was a pe­ culiarly satisfying case because the motives were plain and, understand­ able and because the persons involv­ ed, outside of the unfortunate mother, excited no spmpathy whatever. Mr. Vogel came in for great praise for the expedition with which he had solved a baffling mystery; the chain of evidence he had forged was so strong and so complete that nobody questioned it. xOn Sunday, the day after Gerald’s arrest, more than one sermon had for its text “The wages of sin,” and from pulpits, not alone in Westland, earnest preachers thun­ dered against rich men of evil life, the ingratitude of youth, and the scar­ let women of the stage. . Continued Next Issue “Do you carry B-eliminators?” “No, sir, but we have roach powder and some fly swatters.” The Lon$ Life Lamps HYDRO LAMPS mmI guaranteed Ovfow of Six Lampe Le ma Honea Wingham Utilities Commission Phone 156-Your right night, too. checks u*p. or ‘mantle) everything white robe, it! We find this light coat in your cat. I Crawford Block.