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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1927-5-11, Page 7THE BRUSSELS POST • e essisses‘AW41.1irit''WIty•-re1i7:::11ii7a7141•AsisAtfsiste:t•ststastii WEI/NE:41 ‘Y, MAY 11, I 114 +. The Copyright 1913. uf IC ---11'y MARY BODIfiltTS ItINHITAIIT • They took him quietly upstairs then and let him look ti•utotigh 11,. lieriA•ope. He identifier!' Mr. Litilley absolubdy. 11-11,-11 and Mr. Graves had rattle ;Mo. and Were left tion i• the it(1‘..!0•11. neleoilihe leaned over and ',lats.') Poter he lay In his hasitet. "We've got 11111, old l:,-,'' ho o1. chain is just about conmiete. 11 '1! never kick you again," But Mr, Holcombe win( wrong-- uot about kiclitat although I don't, believe Mr. Lailley over that again, but in thl,iihing We 1111(1 111111. 1 01: 1!f that ?mgt. 'ate:sling, 1\ ion - deg, but all the time I wa.; rubbing and starching and hanging out, my mind was with j,•111111.- Therm Thy sight of Melly )181'uire -sext door at the wiselow rubbing mid brushing az th, -far emit only made things. viairsp. At noon when the magnire yon-ag- ster, tame home from school ed 'fonmiy, the youngest, inca the kitchen with the promise of a dough - "I your mother has 0 new far coat." 1 said, with zne plate of doughnuts just beyond his reach, "She didn't buy it?" "She didn't buy It. Say, Mrs. Pitman, gimme that doughnut." "011, so no coat washed in." "No'm. Pap found it down by the point on a cake of ice. He thought it was a dog and rowed nut los it." Well. I hadn't wantad the coats as ter as that goes; I'd iminaged well • -11,80,1 wi ot furs tor tle;aity '.(..earo or nt -• ,. But it Wan a lotion to to hien,: that it had not float- ed into Mrs, Maguir,•'s kitchen and spread a self at her feet, as one may say. Iletv,•ver, that was not the question after an. The real issue was that if it Was Jennie Brio ' oat and was found across the river on 0 cake of ice, then one or two things was certain: Either Jennie Brice's body wrapped in the coat had boon thrown into the water nut ie the current, or she herself, hoping to in- criminate her lialsballd, flat! nung her coat into the river. I told Mr. Holcombe, and hi in- terviewed Joe Maguire that after- noon. The upshot or it was that Tommy had been correctly informed. Joe had witnesses who nad lined up to St, 11141) rescue a dog, and ban oe- herd his return in triumph with a wet and soggy fur coat. At 3 o'- clock Mrs. Maguire, instructed by Mr. Graves, brought the treat to me for identification, turning it about for my inspection, but refusing to take her hands elf it. "11 her husband says to me that ho wants It back, well and good," she said, "but I don't give it up to no- body but him. Sono folks I know of would be glad enough to have it." I was certain it was Jennie Brice's oat, but the maker's name had been ripped out. With Molly holding one arm and I the other we tool: it to Mr. Ladley's door and knocked. rie opened it grumbling. "I have asked you not to interrupt me," he said, with his pen in his hand. His eyes fell on the tient. "What's that?" he asked, changing "I think it's Mrs. Ludley's far coat," I said. He stood those looking at it and thinking, Then: "It can't be here," he said. "Sho wore hers when she went away." "Perhaps she dropped A in the water." He looked at me and smiled. "And why should she do that " 1.c asked mockingly. "Was it out of fashion?" "That's Mrs, Ladley's coat," I persisted, but Molly Maguire jerked -it from me and started sway. Ho stood there looking at me and ,smil- ing in his nasty way. "This exditement is telling on You, MUM Letterheads Envelopes Billheads And all kinds of Business Stationery, printed at The Post Publishing House. We will do a job that will do credit to your business, Look Over your stock of °Mae Stationery and if it requires replenishing call us by telephone '81, The Post PubHshiug House it Pitman," hi, suet coolly, "1 ou are too entothintil for deieetiv, w4.' Thsii went in and Anil the door. 1Vinal 1 wilit downstairs atoll 3Illettire WaS WaitlreO ie the ki*,,h,o, and luid the audacity to • ask In6 thhught the coat 1 11 a 111111? ru- ing; • It was on Mali lay svenlne tea' to strangest event 10 1111r.olt- -.1 to 111. 1 Wont to my siAter'it 'mined And the 'feet that I was i:11- ilted at a side entrain, math, it evsn stranger, It 1: 1101 el 1 way: Sapper Was over. rind I was chn. log U. when an autonicite came to tp; doOr. It was Alcoa'! car. The ehauffeur gave 111>1note. Pear 'Ali's. P1ti11ans-----1 ant not 10 n11 well mid very anxious. Will you i'orne to emi Die at 011? My Meth- ee out 10 dinner, and I am (.1n. svill bring, you. Cordially, Lida Harvey. I put on my beet clothes at orce and gut into the limousine. , Half the neighborhood was out watching. I loaned back in the upholstered ssat, fairly gli:ecering %VIM excitement. This was Alma'a ear; that was Al- ma's card ease; the lifite clock had her monogram1 on it. Even the flowers in the flower holder, ycllow tulips, reminded me or ....Mill, a trine howy, but good to Toe.. at. And I was going to her house. 1 was not iaken to the main en- trance, but to a side door. The queer dreamlike feeling was still there. In this back mut, relegated from the Mere conspicuous part of the house, there were even pieves of furniture from the old home, and )l1 father's picture in an old gilt Creme hung over my head. I had, not seen a picture of him for twenty years, 1 went over and touched it gently. er, father!" I said. Under it was the tan hall chair that I had climbed over as a child and had stood on many times to see myself tn the mirror above. The 1 011810' was newly finished and looked I the better for its age. I glanced in the old glass. The chair had stood time better then I. I was a middle aged woman, lined with poverty and ease, shabbly, prematurely gray, a little hard. I had thought my father an old Irian when that pietism 01114 taken, and now 1 was oven older. "Father!" I whispered again and fell to crying in the dimly lighted hall. Lida sent for me at o-nce. T had time to dry my eyes and straighten any hat. Had I met Alna on the stairs I would have missed her with- out a word. She would not have known vie. Put I saw no one. Lida was in bed. She was lying there with El rose shattea lamp be- side her and a great bowl of spring flowers on a little stand at her el- bow. She sat up when I went in and had a rnatil place a chair for me beside the bid. She looked very childish with her hats in ca braid on the .piIlow, and her slim young arms and throat bare. "Pen so glad you: came!" she >111(1 and would not be satisfied until the light was just right tor my eyes 011(1 (111' coat unfastened and thrown open. ' "Pm not really 111," she Wormed me, "Pm -Pm just tired and ner- vans, and -and unhaPPY, Mrs. Pit- man." "I am sorry," 1 said. I wanted to lean over and pat her hand, to draw the covers around her and mother Tic r a little -I had had no one to mother for so long -but I could not Sho would have. thought it queer and presumptuous -or 110, not that. She was too sweet to have thought that, "Mrs. Pitman," she said suddenly, "who was this Jennie Brice?" "She was an actress. She and her husband lived at my house." "Was she -was she beantiful?" "Well," 1 said slowly, "I never thought of that. She was handsome in a large way," "Was she young?" "Yes. Twenty-eight or nine." - "That ian't so very young," she said, looking relieved. "But I don't think men like young women. DO you?" "I 'know one who does," I said, smiling, But she sat up in bed sud- denly and looked at me with her clear, childish oyes, "I don't want hint to like me," she flashed. "1---1 want him to hate 1110." "Tut, tut! You want nothing Of the sort," "Mrs, Pitmen," she said, "I sent for you 'because Pm nearly crazy. Howell was a friend of that woman. He has acted like 1. maniac „,.. AnCe 1110 411,1a1111(.1111,11. 11, .1...A4.0. ,•fflo,. to 4 nic; hi, nas 0,iv,•11 lid 1 work11 the paper, aoil i, -lay 011 the Ano..14 od.4, Hi., 14 That put me to thIrcdrig. "He might have 1),0en 1 fri(at,9," I ,altnitted, "although 0, fur know h.- wa, 11o1r1.0. thl. 1108.1. 1)10 awl 1110) li 11 1,,0 01 01: 1:4.11." "WitOtt 0011., that 1" "8,14olay morning, :le, dny 1., fors lie disappeared, They wets, arguing CHAPTER VIII, She looked at me attentiveiyi -Yen know more than you. are tell+ les! Miss Pitman," she said. gyms sdo you ihink Jennie Brie: la rlead and that Mr, Howell knows 011 did 'iit?" "T think die is dead, and I think pos,-11,1y Mr. Howell suspects MIL/ dtil 1 Bo dooe IlOt lirloW, or he mimid have told the police." "Yen do not think he 01a.4-steas in love with 381)ie Brims lo you?" "Pm crtain of that," 1 ud. "He is, very much in love with a, foolish girl, who 01(0,101 10 have more faith in him than she has." She colmael a little and smileil at that, but the nest moment she was sitting forward, tense and (itieS(lari- ille: 11411111. "If that is true, Mrs. Pitman," she sniff, "who was tbe veiled wmunn nit.t that Monday miirrimg at day, light and took acmes the bridge to Pittsburgh? I believe it Was 3110010 Brice? If it WaS not, who was it?" "I doe't believe 01r. took any WOO:I- na 01roe's the bridge at that hoar. Who says he did?" "Uncle :Jim saw Nun. He had been playing cards all night at one of the [dubs and was walking home. He says he met Mr. Howell face to face and spoke to him. The woman was tall and veiled. Uncle Jim sent for him a day or so later and he rei'ured to explain. Then they forbade him the house, 'Mamma objectedto hi111 ltnyhow, and In, only 00.:11e on suffer( mice. He is a college man of good family, but without any money at all save what he earns, And 11001--" I had had some young newspaper men with me, and I knew what they got. They were ni,re boys but they intide $7 5 a week. Pm afraid I smiled a little as I looked around the room, with its gray grass cloth valla, its toilet table spread with iv- ory and gold and the maid in 11111')- (18111 in her black cress and white apron, collar and cuffs. Even the little ntglitgown Lida VMS wearing would have taken a week's salary or more. She saw my smile. "It was to be his chance," she said. "If he made good he was to have something. better. My Uncle Jim owns the paper, and lie promised me to hap hi101. But-" So jien MIS running e eewspaper! That was a cerious career ,for Jim to choose -Jim, who wits twice ex- pelled from school and who could never write a letter without a dic• tionary beside him! 1 had a pang all the years; for I had written to when I heard his /101,10 again after Jim from Oklahoma after Mr. Pit- man died asking for money to bury him and had never even had a roolY• "And you haven't seen him since?" "Once. 'I didn't hear from him and I called hint up. We -we met in the park. He said everything was' all right, but he couldn't tell me just then, The next day he resigned from the paper and went away. Mrs. Pitman, it's driving 1110 crazy, for they have found a body, and they think Ads hers. If it is and he was with her-" "Don't be a foolish girl," I pro- tested. "If he was with Jennio Brice then 1 have a right to know who it was," she declared. "He was not like himself when I met him. He said such queer things -he talk- ed about an onyx clock and said he hacl been made a Tool of and that no matter what came out I was always to remember that he ilea stone what he, did for the best and that -that bei cared for me more than for any- thing, in this world or the next." "That wasn't so fooliehl" I couldn't help it. I loaned over and drew her nightgown up over her bare white, shoulder. "You won't help anything or anybody by taking cold, my dear," I said. "Call yens' maid and have her put a dressing gown around you." I left soon after. There was little I could de. But I comforted her as. best I could and said good -night, My heart was heavy as wont down - stales. For, twist things as I might, it wa5. clear that in some way the Howell boy was mixed up in the Brice • case. Poor little troubled Lida! Poor distracted boy! I had a curious experience down, stairs, I had reached the feet of the stairease and was taming to go back and along the hall to the side ens trance when I came face to face with Isaac, the -old 'colored Instil who had driven the family earrings when it was a child and whom I had seen at intervals since I came back polder-. big Ablies hottec. The old 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,4,444.0.1-04.0+00 600+0 00+00 4.1. WANTED 11!:!, :t market prlres for ofin (r YoMek 1' • + + • 4,4* 11. 01 11, "41:.4. lir 4.1..ly .3-'1..- 4 4-7O.., 1.,r Iwo- + 4 (.;;';' h, 31 11 ts .14..) Itt ".1 tilt I .71 r. for all te 1-1E Industrial Mortgage and 1(1111" 1.0( 011 1• 1 0,10/11 101! 11001." lhr floieoiele-40 114 ,ti <1,1 111 141' 011111•11 leel ++4.3 l 1 r -0,11 0 11' +01 +11, .... 4. 0, 1 110, . ire 4,11 01 th, ih.• 41.• • 01. ti 0 01, it.' 0l.`1,, '111 11/1 '1 flIto hal ,..al 1 11 /t 111." ( 1,0 e. 1111, 111- .•otoya 11 • . it Wit 'I/ 1 i:...'4...." 10;111 AVat bent and foirlde. Ile cam, slov.ily clown the 111111 wlth a bland; Or Ito0,:4 in band. 1 1141d ...wit) 0!,i. 11y 1 1.1 :14Id 11r,t,4, pi., of th, 1,;; o. Savings Company, of Samoa »,),.l',, lye pr./NINA lo advent. 111/.1 " i't -../1 '11,1101III 1 11111,1 ,11ct" `,) ti1111117, 111.1 <i'(Ifl1l 1 1 ' 11" 0111 f ott,,, fenrhoo..1,0, Tho Industrial hilortw,n 0 /..11(2 501)0110 (0' p0 t hat 1,.. h. 1, 0,ie it ‘,r 1 10•..w 4. I../ I" 41..:1, ti) - 11r- to•i.' W, J. DOVVID 11•! 101,, 11 b 1110,t, 13 11' 7 '47., 0.1, Cial1+1.111'S Orflift'liti Life Insurance CO, • • Assurance 5zo oo ,if 00001 311ji 1)1,1 fu,d,...." (.4. AfiiRAI-IAM "Wliv1,, ,on ":. 44. ikd the same thing' mealy times,. 1101 11'.1 34 IL,V.•,1 He steeped when he 1110 ti', and 31 Shrank 1.111:1k room the flail:: and had seen me. ":`,IisiLi 10,,s1" "Foh Gawd's sake, miss Besse+ "You are making a mi.dake, try friend," I said, quirt,riseg as not `Miss Bess'!" Ile eturs, elom to mi, and stared into my tme. And from that he honked at my cloth eltives, at my coat and he shook his white head. +,1 sure thought you was Mil,(s Dess," 1)0 said and mad, no further effort to detain. me. He hid the way hack to the door, where the machine waited, his head shaking with tho palsy of age, muttering as he went. He open- ed the door with his best slimmer and stood aside. "Good night, ma'am," In, quaver- ed. 1 had tears in my eyes. I tried to keep them back. "Good -night," I said. "Good night, Ikkie." It had slipped out, toy baby name for old Isaac! "Miss Bess!" he cried. "Oh, praise Ctawd, s Miss best; 1)0,1(1)1 11 caught my asm and ladled me hack into the hall, and there he held nw, crying over me, muttering prais- es for my return, begging me to come hack, recalling little tender things out of the past that almost killed me to hear again. But I had made my bed and must Be in it I forced him to swear sil- e/1011 about my visit; I made him promise not to reveal my identity to Lida; and I told him -heaven for- give 1110 -that I was well and pros- perous and happy. Dear old Isaac! I would not let him come to see me, but the next day there came a basket with six bottles of wine and an old daguer- reotype of my mother that had boon his treasure. Nor was that basket he last. The coroner held an inquest over the headless body the next day, Tuesday. Mr. .Graves telephoned 1110 in the morning and I went to the morgue with him. I do not like the morgue, although soine of my neighbors pay it weekly visits. It is by way of excursion, liko nickelodeous or watching thio circus put up its tents. I have heard them threaten the children that if they miebehaved they would not be taken to the morgue that week! I failed to identify tne body. How could 1? It had been a tall woman, probably five feet eight, and I thought the nails looked like those of Jennie Brice. The thumb nail cs one was broken short off. I told Ms. ! Graves about her speaking of a brok- en nail, but ho shrugged his should- ers and said nothing. There VMS a curious sear over the heart and he was making a sketch of its it reached front the center of the chest for about six inches across the left breast, a narrow thin line that one could hardly soe. I felt sure that Jennie Brice had had no such scar, and Mr. Graves thought as I did. Temple Hope, called to' the inquest, said she had 110101' heard of one, and Mr, Ladley himself, at the inquest, swore that his wife had had nothing of the sort. I WU watching 111111, and I did not think he was lying. And yet the hand was very like Jennie Brice's, It was all bewildering, Mr, Ladley's testimony at the ia- quest was disappointing. He' was cool and collected; said he had no - reason to believe his wife was dead and less reason to think she had been drowned; she had left him in St rage and if she found out that by hiding she was putting him in an unpleasant position she would probably hide in- definitely. To the disappointment of every-, body the identity of the woman re- mainecl a mystery. No one with such a scar was missing, A small woman of my own age, a Mrs. Murray, whose daughter, a stenographer, had disappeared, attended the inquest. But her daughter had had no such sear and had worn her nails short because of using the typewriter. Al- ice‘liturray was the missing girl's nartie. Her mother sat beside me and cried most of the timo. One thing was brought out at the inquesis---the body had been thrown into the river after death. -There 1 was no water in the lungs, Tito 1 on 1 Iv' "nor.. lo' .1 r4Itoid..,1 tt, did 34,, 1.44.11,1 '1 I10144:1 POO 1113: .14' 11,11e eat her throat." "Or hininsd her with my nay): (dock," 1 :..11411 with :it1 0 :tirlt. the (dock more and Mori'. Ho WontdOWn rockot, 4"nd Op a key, "I'd tor,g.R. la. said. "it shows you wen. right -that the (dock was there 101, 1, the Laineys took th, room. I 1,.01111 this in the yard this morning." - It when I got home .from 111) imm,A that I found old hot waiting.. 1 am not a crying 101., an. 11111 1 MUM hardly sv, my inotle el.'s picture for tears. Well, tifter all, that is not the Brie,. story. 1 :an not writing the sordid tragedy of my life. That was on Tuesday. Jennis Brice had bion missing nice clays. In all that time, although elle Was rest fOr the piece at the theater that week, no one there had hoard from r,,dativ,•s had bail no 0014, had gone away, if she heti :our on a cold March night, in a striped black and white dress with a rod col- 1 lar and a red and black hat, without ; her fur coat, which she had worn all winter. She had gone very early in the morning or during the night How had she gone? Mr. Ladle' said he had rowed her to Federal strest at half after 13 and had brought the boat back. After they had quarrel- ed violently all night, and ween she was leaving him, wouldn't he have allowed her to take herself away? Besides, the police had found no trace of her on an early train. And then at daylight, between '5 and 13, my own brother had seen a woman with Mr, Howell, a woman who might have been Jennie Brice. But if it was, why did not Mr. Howell say so? 11411. Ladley claimed she was hiding in revenge. But Jennie Brice was not that sort of W01111111. There was sainething big about her, something that is found ofen in large Wolnell- lack of spite. She was not petty or malicious. Her faults, like her WI 0 T,1 -'111 1/.1, 1!:C. Cir:T 0!00 1!,(0, •11.1,,t 41 On' 1... )'• I.' 01 :lot 0, 00,' W' Ind o01 : 4, 044:1 1,4, 1111 114, la date and ''0,,,11 ,1a.11a1" 1(ir t111/111 ‘,.11111' 01• r."1(.,. V."1, 1.4:•-, ''«''11170 14. 1 toly tho 1 a nein s!" ro,1.•11 fon yut 3 think 11111/11111/iy 1!(,1,1,.;11 11, effie..;.:i had erel. joi.n. They hardly knew what to anahe 011, 21r. Rcynold: aloi had a ciP) ita slicer ;ill einditem-lot and .littltion: at the dining roto diiinking it when fin- hell rang. 11 was Mr. How,•11, 11 half staggered into the hall when T '1' cd the ',loot' :mil was for going into Nu. parlor 1,..drootn without a word. if you want hi:m." I said. I thought hi:. face • :rid. "1,171ter,•`2" Ile did not reply at once,. 11, stood there, tapping, the palm of on, hand Lith tin, forefinger of tIte oth- er. He was dirty' and unshaven. 11 clothes looked as if he had been sleeping in them. "So they've got him:" he mu+ me. 01 filially, and turning was abOtit to go out the front door without anoth- er word, but 1 caught his arm. "Yon're sick, 11.1r. Howell," I said "you'd better not go out just yet." - "011, I'm all rights" He shook his handkerchief out and wiped his face. 1 Salk' that 1115 hands were shakings "Cone beck and have a cup of tea and a elice of hotncinaile bread." He hesitated and looked at his watch. "I'll do it, Mrs. Pitman," he said. "I suppose I'd better throw a little fuel into this engine of 111414.44, 1t' 11o011 going hard for several Ile ate like a wolf. T cut half a loaf into slices for .hhn, and he drank the rest of thi• tea. 111r. Reynolds creaked up to bed and -left hirn still -eating, and me still cutting and (Continued Next Wec,k) C. C. RAMAGE, D.D.S., L.D.S. BP.USSF.I.S, ONT. Graduat.. Royal Co1.1(.?.:.. of Dental 0,100 '''200 and Honor Graduate 140- 1. rsity Toronto. Dentistry in all its branch,?s. Office Over Standard Bank, Phone 200 ----- --- WM. SPENCE Eth..4, Ont. Conveyance, Commissioner and C. 3. Agrlit. for The Imperial Life Assurance Co. of .Canadb. and Ocean Accident Guarantee Corpora- tion, Limited Ac‘•id..‘ti Aa'91n1hile In - .11r,411,(1, 1ir.10 Glass Insuranee, etc. Phone 2225 .t:thel, Ont, akha.7i, a. bthmoxy, AGENT FOR Fire, Automobile mid Wind ins, .GOMPANIES For Brussels and vicinity Phone 64 - - JAMES NI' FA DZEAN &gent HMICii Mutual fire insuraoce Compant Also Hartford Windstorm and Tornado Insurance Phone 42 Box 1 Turnherry Street Brnesel JNO. SUTHERLAND & S3 LIMITED 1,1475 liax 1 eBANPr CON 2".I.611 D. M. SCOTT 1 cxxsNA) gr/:m PRICES MODERATE For Irrit:ZISA:nilitt. anr p'Illioi1C1101;286a1 T. T. !VP RAE 13., M. O. P., 6 S. O. of IBussela Phyeician, hargaun, Ate...no-hew O0ioeat reeidencarod els Ills Church,4=et S.revazaze BARrts7 F sosiciroR, sesOER, NOTARY PUBLIC LO 4 .11.001( - 8,i1JSSELS an. 111141,201 -AW Honor grade..ae (Citern- t.441an5,ary College. Pas and ins 0 tells lttnte tnora 1 11111 ourAitn,Rt-th,l. 4 ssmsasscamesseassesseersnuarseramsstesuezumstessesmanosesumacitcseisseseasoisoecisastassesssessoissst Anothe ut Firm f Business Just one of the news items which are appearing in papers quite too often these days throughout the Dominion. And what is the reason': Th TO is only one, and that is lack of loyalty to home institutions and the lure of the flashing publicity of the large city establishments. Many . citizens, while earning their wages mid salaries in .one place, never- theless send a large proportion of this money out of the community for questionable bargains, thus depriving such community of that much neceseary working capital. Business Men D. the Same They have local firms who are able and ready to Aupply them with all their requirements, yet for the most trivial reason or excuse they will 00115011t to extend this patronage to outside firms, thus helping to build up distant cities at the expense of their home town. They seem to forget -that this money so sent out Might otherwise have been largely returned to them by those with whom they. should have loft this business, Therefore, when in need of printed matter of any Icincl, whether farmer, business man or professional man, always extend 'first consideration to The Post Publishing House