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The Brussels Post, 1927-5-18, Page 7THE BRUSSELS POST Th Copyright 1913, thrie Brice -1 By MARY ItO 13Elt IS RINEHART apreading. Now that I had a chance to aye him I was ahocIced. The rims of his eyes were rod, hie collar black and his hair hung over his forehead, But when he finally sat back and looked at me hta color was bettek. "So they've canned him!" he said. "Time enotigh, ten," said I. He leaned forward and put both his elbows on the table. "Mm. Pit- man," he said earnestly, "I don't like him any more than you do.. But he never killed that woman." "Somebody killed her." "How do you know7 How do you know she's dead?" Well, I didn't, of course—I only felt it, "The police haven't even proved a crime. They can't bald a 0100 for a suppositious murder." "Perhaps they can't, but they're doing it," .1 retorted. "If the wom- an's alive she won't let him hang." "I'm not so :ure of that," he imid heavily and got up. He looked in the little mirror over the sideboard and brushed back his hair. "I look bad enough," be said, "but I 'feel worse. Well, you've saved my life, Pitman. Thank you." "How is my -----how is Miss Has- vey?" I asked, 09 we started out. He turned and smiled at the in hie boyish way. "The best ever!" he said. "I haven't seen her for (says, and it 8001(15 like centuries. She—she the only girl in the world for me, Mrs. Pitman, although 1—" He gimped and drew a long breath. "She is beemiful, isn't oho?" "Very :i.utiful," I answered. "Her mother was always—" "Her mother!" he looked at me eurioualy, "I knew her mother years ago," 1 said, putting the hest face on my mistake that I could. "Then I'll remember you to her, if she ever allows me to see her again. Just now l'm persona non grata. "If you'll do the kindly thing, Mr. Howell," I said, "you'll forget 7110 to her." He looked into my eyes and then thrust out his hand. "All right," he said. "I'll not ask any questions. I guess there ere some curious stories hidden in these old houses." Peter hobbled to the front door with him, He had not go so far as the parlor once while Mr. Ladley was in the house, They had had a sale of spring !lowers at the store that day, and Mr. Reynolds hml brought me a pot of whits tulips. That night I hung my mother's picture over the mantel in the dining room and put the tulips beneath it. It gave me 0 feeling of Comfort; I land never seen my ))loth er's grave or put flowers on it. CHAPTER IX. I have said before that I do not know anything about the law. 1 be- hove that the Laldey case was un- usual in several ways. Mr, Ladley had once been well known in New York among the people who frequent the theatres, and Jennis Brice 07118 even better known. A good many lawyers, I believe, said that tho pol- ice had not a -leg to stand on, and I know the case was watched with -much interest by the legal profes- ation. People wrote letters to the newspapers protesting against Mr. Ladley being held. And I boll ate that the district attorney in taking him before the grand jury hardly hoped to make a case. Bnt he did, to his otaes (surprise T fancy, and the trial was set fot May. But in the meantime many curious things had happened. In the first place, the week follow- ing Mr. Ladley's arrest my house was filled up with eight or 142.11 mem- bers of a company from the Gaiety theatre, very cheerful and jolly and 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 Office Stationery and if it requires replenishing call ua by telephone 81. The Post POW* Noose 1.? well behaved, Three men, I think, !and the rest gills. On., of the men wag named Ile/lows, John liellowa, and it turned out that he 11011 1C110011 Jennie Brice very well, From the moment It, learned. thet Mr. Holcombe hardly left him. He sealked to the theatre with him and waited to va11 home ;man. Be took him out to restaurants and far long street 0111 1..:109 in the mornings tool on the last night of their atay. Saturday, they got gloriously drunk together—Mr. Holeombe, 110 (101)1A, in his character of la1(1l0y-401.1 tame reelieg in at 3 in the singing. Mr. Holcombe was eery sick the next day, but by Mondaa 11 was all riglit, and he called me into the room. "We've got him, Mrs. Pitsnan," lj- 1711(1, looking mottled, bet onpprui. "Am sure as God made little flahes, w e've got him." That wa0 all le would say, however, it aesroed he was going to New York and might he gono for as month. "I've no family," he said, "and enough money to keep me. If I find my relaxation in hunt- ing' down eriminals, harmless aid cheap anmaement, and—it's my n1111 1111- 1 10 0001: 1111'11y that night, and I (11081 admit I missed him. I rented the, parlor bedroom the next day to a sehool teacher, and I found the Periscope affair very handy. I could ape just how much vas :the used, and although the notite, on each door for- bids cooking and washing in aooms, found she was doing. both; makiote coffee and boiling an egg in the morning, and rubbing out stockings and handkerchiefs in net we:41110'M. I'd 111 11011 rather have men as hoard - era than women. The women are 710' ways lighting alcohol lamps on tha bureau and wanting the bed turned into a cozy corner so they can 8011 their gentlemen friends in their 1001119. Well, with Mr. Holcpmbe gone and Mr. Reynolds busy all day and half the night getting out the summer silks and preparing for remnant day, and with Mr, Ladley in jail and Lida out of the city—for I saw in the papers that she was not well, and net' mother had taken her to Bernmda— I had a good bit of time on my hands. And so 1 got in the habit of thinking things over ants trying te draw conclusions, as I nad seen Mr. Holcombe do. I would sit down and write things outasthey had happen- ed and study them over, and espec- ially I worried over how we could have found a slip of paper in Mr. Ladley's room with a list, almost ex- act of the things we had discovered there, 1 used to read it over, "rope, knife, shoe, towel, Horn"—and get more and more bewildered. "Horn" might have been a town, tr It might not have been. There as such a town, according to Mr. Graves, but apparently he had maae nothing of It. Was it a town that was 11100111? The dictionary gave only a few words, beginning with "horn"—hor- net, hornblende, hornpipe and horsy —none of which was of any assist- ance. And then one morning 1 hap- pened to see in the personal column of one of the newspapers that a woman named Eliza Shaeffer of Hoy - nor had day-old Buff Orpington and Plymouth Rock chicks sale, and ft started me to puzzling again. Pew haps 11 (111(1 been Horner and poesib, ly this very Eliza Shaeffer - 1 suppose my lack of experience was in nay favor, for, after all, Eliza Shaeffer is a common enough name, and the "Horn" might have stood for "hornswoggle" for all I knew. Thu story of the man who thought of what he would do if he were a horse came back to me, ana for an hour or so I tried to think I was Jennie 13ric,0 trying to get away and hide from my rascal of a husband, But 1 macie no headway, I would never have gone to Horner or to any small town if I had wanted to hide. I think I should have gone around the corner and taken a room in any own neighborhood or have lost myself in some large city. It was that same day that since I did not go to Horner, Amu came to me, The bell rang about 8 o'clock and I answered it myself, for with times hard and only two or three roomers all winter I had not had it servant except Terry to do Odd jobs for some months. There stood a fresh faced young girl, with a covered basket in hes' WA. "Are you Mrs. Pitman?" she (salt- e d, "I don't need anything to -day," I said, trying to shut the door, Ana at that minute something in the bas- ket 'cheeped. - Young women selling poultry are not tommon in our not- ghbokhood. "What have you there" 1 asked snore agreeably. "Chieka, day old elnelti, but 1 n, not trying' to sell you allY. 1. -----nay 001110 ill?" 11, 01L5 dawning on -100 13111 that perhaps this waa Eliza Shaeffer. 1 led her back te tho dining roma with Peter sniffing at the basket. "My alma ita Shaeffer," he 4•0,1, "I'vo your mime in the napers, and I believe I know ammithinis• 01)010 1,11111ilrjr0," llin Shaefferta ory WEL, 0011011,,, She 'Mill 7 lila 9110 0114 Horner and lived with her mother in a farm a mile out of tho town, deiv- ing in and, out each day in a hug -2:y. - On Monday efternoon, March 5, a 15010111) 11011 lighted at the atation from a train and had taken luncheon :it the hotel, She told the clerk she was on the road, eorset,s, and was much diaappointed to find no tore of any $ize in town. The wom- an, who Iml registered as Mrs, Jane Bellosita, (mill she was tired and would like to rest for as (lay or two nri 0 farm. She was told to arta Nigh Shaffer at the po.itoffice, nnd 11 result drove out with her to the f,sfer m the last ail came in that ,li.slnin13. Asked to describe her ---she was over medium height, light Indeed. quick in her movements and wore t37 black and white (griped dreas with 3 red collar and a hat to match. She earried 01 small brown valise that Miss Shaeffer presumed contained her sago -des. Mrs. Shaeffer had made him wel- ;tome, although they did not tinselly take hoarders until June. She nad not oaten much supper, and that night; she had asked for pen and ink and had written a letter. The letter was not mailed until Wednesday. Al of Tuesday Mrs. Bellows had spent in her room, and Mrs. Shaeffer held driven to the village -rues/lay '11101'. (101)11 wilPi word that she had bee -1 crying all day and bought some head- ache medicine for het On Wednesday morning, howeger, she had appeared at breakfast, eaten heartily and had aakea atIss Shaffer to take her letter to the postoffice. It was addressed to Mr. Ellis Howell in care of a Pittsburgh newspaper. That night when Miss Eliza went home, about half past 8, the woman was gone. She had paid for her room 011d had been driven as foe as Thornville, where all trace of her had been lost. On account of the disappearance of Jennie Brice being published shortly after that, she an I her mother had driven to Thornvifia, but the station agent 101001' 009 Surly as well as stupid. They had learned nothing about the woman. Since that time three men (sad made enquiries about the 00111011 in question. One had a pointed van - dyke beard; the second, from a de- scription, I fancied must have been Mr. Graves. The third,without a doubt, was Mr. Howell. Eliza Shaef- fer said that this last man had (teem- ed half frantic. I brought her a photograph of Jennie Brice as "Top- sy" and another as "Juliet." She said there was a resemblance ,but it ended there. But of course, 311) Mr. Graves had said, by the time an ac- tress gets her photograph retouched to suit her it doesn't particularly re- semble her. And unless I had known Jennie Brice mystelf I should hard- ly have recognized the pleturea. Well, in spite of all that, there seemed no doubt that Jennie Brie° had been living three days after her disappearance and that would clear Mr. Ladley. But what had Mr. How- ell to do with it all? Why had he not told the police of the letter from Horner? Or about the woman on the bridge? Why had Mr. Bronson, who was likely the num with the pointed beard, said nothing about having traced Jennie Brice to Helm- er? I did as I thought Mr. Holcomoo would have wished me to do. I wrote down on a clean sheet of note paper all that Eliza Shaffer said—the de- scription of the black and white dress, the woman's height and the rest—and then I took her to the courthouse, chicks and all, and she told her story them to one of tho as- sistant distriet attorneys. Tho young 1111E1 was interested, but not convinced, He had her :story taken down and sho signed it. He was smiling as he bowed us out. I Wilted in the doorway, "This will free Mr. Leaky, 1 sup- pose?" I asked. "Not just yet," he said pleasaht" ly. "This makes just eleven places where Jennie Brice spent the firat three days after her death." "1311t I can positively identify that dress," "lIy good woman, that dress has been described to the last stilted arch and colonial volute in every newsma- per in the United States!" That gaoling the newspapers an, flounced that during it conference at the jail between Mr. Ladley ancl James Beonson, btisiaess manager at the Liberty theatre, Ladley had attacked Mo. 13r0118011 With a chair and almost brained him . 0 0 0 a 4.4•4•411+•+ 4 •+++++..4+++1104,4+ 4+ + i All .1. if 40 + ft ffr + + _ • • + High. , market prices for oth- t • ' ie + cm bens. o • + te * • • • M. Y Ilier, + .4. eagegeat+ *ea. a-o-faceaezgiesegehaeat *4..4 - fl • • .1* 0 WANTED t I r Eliza 'Shaeffer went back to 'limn- er after delivering her chirka .tonsig where in the city. Things went on as before. The trial was set fee May, The dietrict attorney's Mlleo had all the thinia we had feued lit the house that Ilonday afternoon— the stained towel, the broken knife and its blade, the slipper that had been floating in the parlor and th.i rope that had fastened my boat to the staircase. 'Somewhere—when- ever they keep such things—we the headless body of a woman, with a 1100041 missing, and with a curious sear across the left breast. The slip of paper, however, which I hitt! found behind the baseboard, was still in Mr. Holcombe's possession, nor had he mentioned it to the police. Mr. Holcombe had not come back. He wrote me twice asking me to hold 1138 room, once from New York 4111.1 01100 from Chicago. To the fags - end letter he added 11 postsliript: Have not found what I wanted, hut tun getting warm - If any nawa, address Ane at Des Moines, 100., gen- eral delivery. H. It was nearly the end of April when I saw Lida again. I had ssen by the newspapers that she and her mother were coming some. T won- dered if she had heard Lam Mr. Howell, for I had nor, and I 117011- (101011, too, if oho would send fer me again. But she came herself, on foot, late one afternoon, and, the school teach- er being out, I took her into the par- lor bedroom. She looked -thinner than before and rather white. My heart ached for her. "I have been away," she explain- ed. "I thought you might wonder why you did not hear from me. But, you see, my mother"—she stopped and flushed. "I would have written you. from Bermuda, but—my mother watched my correspondence, so I could not," No. I knew she could not. Alma had once found a letter of 1111110 to Mr. Pitman. Very little escaped Al- ma. "1 wondered if you have heard anything?" she asked, "I have heard nothing. Mr. How- ell was here once, just after I saw you. I do not believe ho is in the city." , "Perhaps not, although—Mrs. Pit man, I believe he is in the city, hid- ing!" "Hiding! Why?" "I don't 101007. But last night I thought I saw him below my window. opened the window, so if it were ha he could read some sign. But he moved on without a word. Later, whoever it was came back. I put out my light and watched. Some one stood there 111 the shadow until of - ter 2 this rnorning. Part of the time he 10718 looking up." "Don't you think, had it been 110, he would have spoken when he 8110 you?" She shook her head. "He is in trouble," she said. "He has not heard from me, and he—thinks that 'I don't Care any more, Just look at me, Mrs. Pitman. Do I look as if don't .c0tre?" She looked half killed, poor lamb. "He may be out of town searching' for a hotter position," I tried to com- fort her. "Ho wants to have ;some- thing to offer more than himself." "I only want him," she said, look- ing at me frankly. "I don't know why I tell you all this, but you are so kind, and I must talk to some one." She sat there in the cozy (smer the school teacher had made, with a pottiete and some cushions; and saw she was about Toady to break down and cry. I went over to her and took het hand, for she Was my own niece, although she didn't sus - Peet it, and I had never had a child of my own. But, afteis all, 0 could not help her mob, I could only assure her that he would come back and explain ev- erything and that he Was all right and that the last time I had seen him he had spoken of her and had said she was "the best over." My heart fairly yearned over the girl, and think sho felt it, for she kissed • me shyly when she was laving. With the newspaper files before me it is not hard to give the definite of that sensational trial. It commene- 0(1 on Monday, 1)110 7th of May,. but it was late Wednesday when the jury Was finally selected. tt. was at tho courthouse early 017 Thursday, and , eti 00.7 Mr. ih,y1101(19, The di-itrirt attorney 1110f10 short meads. "We propeae, gentlemen, to preve that the prison, r, l'hilip Lad - ley, murdered hig wire," lie ',mid in wet.. "We will abow lirat that a erines was eommitted; then 00 Will .4100 11 11101871 for this crime, and fatally we expert to :hew that trig ;104 00..110rf 0,11010 41 1,.0 Wick Hs, 104' tie• tourtb.red woman and ties eeta3,11-11 heyotel doubt gtflit," CHAPTER X. lit-. !galley d with atten- tion. lie won, the brown Alit dlut loolo,41 well and elsetrful. lie was much nun', iiito :meirotor Beni a prison -r, and he was not 8nervous 113 1 was. Of that flat day 1 71.-1 not 04.0111 much. 1 3'.'a87„cal1'1 ,•nrly in the day The di trim attorney questioned int". "Yolle 11111(o3'' ".F.:11Zttin111 Mario Plinlan.0 "Your oecupt1tien3" "I ke..p 31 hoardine la))ls!! eft 42 Lmon :greet." "You keow the prhoner?" "Yes. He was a 110nrclOr 011 My 11011So." "For how long?" "From Dee. 0 He and hit wife (tame at that time." "Was hie wife the actress, Jeanie Briee?" "Yes, sir." "In what part, Of the house?" "They rented the double parlors, dovanstaira, hut on account of the flood I 'sawed them epAaira to the afrond them front." at,414-.; WEDNESDAY, MAY 1343, 1927. about that?" "I laid never 101l0wn it to happen Intfore." "State what lissp1senet1 later." "1 ilia not pp to sleep 04gaio.. At a 'mailer after 1 1 heard the 1)0111 ewe, lee 3.. I ',ed.. 111111. 100/11 '-r 110 Ir.,. 37 1i'0 113Y, 1.101- 1 10 011 100 110,1 .,,,011 t'fa hia 'Led you 1,h0t '0, tp the hoot ?” "1 Vol 9'711 011 17-r.n" 7.1137 511147,011 the rope?" "I did not netiel, atty." 'Whitt wa. the tn:11,11,•1' rat that "I thought be Iva.; surly." 'ha,w, Pitinea, 011 •tfoolit Oh. Ioliowitio 1171')' -I saw Mr. Ladley at a (Mart r 111 for, 7. 0 „.:,,k1 to bring breakfast for ene. Ilia wife had gone aster. adoel if ale. vats not ill and h hsid sof (301 Ase leaf „taw away parte; that he had reseed her so Federal Aries, and that :he would I back Sat 121)37(91 It veat ehertly after that that the dog Peter beetsgat etre •••,' Air-. Ladley'a allopms, water :soak- ed." -You ft:coal-taxed the Flipper?" "Poaltively. 1 hall oft,n." "What did you do with it?" "I took it to Mr. Loney." "What did he say?'' "1•i4. said et first that it watt got her.;. - Then he said if It Wes ein• Wotad 0:3or IV,Nir t lt;!:Oiti---itIld then add,•41 became, it vats ruined." "Did he offer any es:gement as 'a, when, his wife was?" I "No, :ir; not at that time. Be• "That was en Sunday? You mov- ed them on Sunday?" "Yes, sir." ".At what One (10(1 you retire that • night?" "Not at all. 'The water was yeas. high. I lag down, Ores (I, at 1 o'- clock and dropped into a doze." "How long did you sleep?" 'An hour or so. Mr. Reynolds, a boarder, roused me to say he alau heard some one rowing a boat in the lower hall." "Do you keep a boat around dur-' ing flood times?" "Yes, sir." "What did you clo when Mr. Rey- nolds roused you?" . "I went to tho top of the atairs. My boat was gone." • "Was the boat secured?" "Yes, sir. Anyhow, there vela in current in the hall." "What did you do then?" "I waited a time and went hack to my room." "What examination of the house did you make—if any?" "Mr. Reynolds looked around." "What did he find?" 'He found Peter, the Ladleys' dog, shut in 11 1oon1 on the third floor." "Was there anything unusual for, h,• had said Althad gene :100:0 101 a 200 flay .1" "1.011 no jury about the brokets knife," 'The hlog found it floating' in the parlor with th, blight fook. n." "Yee had- not le: t it down.tairs?" sir. I had used it upstairs the night before and left it on the manbd of the room I was using as a temporary kitchen." "Was the door of this room lock- ed?" - "No. It was stending open." "Where you not asleep in this room?" "Yes." "You heard no one aome in?" "No one — until Mr. Reynolds roused me." "Where did you find the blade?" "Behind the bed In air. Ladley'a room?" "What else did you find in the room?" - "A blood stained towel behind the. washstond; also my otayx clock was miming." "Where was the clock when the Ladleys were moved up into this 100111? "On the mantel. I wound it just before they came upstairs." (Continued Neal Week) 'THE Industrial Mortgage and Savings Oornpany, of Sarerila Ontario, aro oroo-‘rod 0 i -Ivan!, money or seaesa len 11.. 11111,18 Ein0 Molloy roost stor1,.va009 will lorore appiv hors. ratan, Monfort -ll, Ont iv/in will 111,415 fin:4,11ml other sari leolarri. Tho Industrial allartgatro and a.vintrn company W. Li. DOWD AUCTIONEER (”....:„,..:lotimOrij..,,111.ort or with 1/104. 01) 4.7111 019000 yon. 1799r of ot ,11rio Pox 87 Lisrowat. r- 24), Canada's Greatest life Insurance Co. S ri Lil fe 0ofcsa 4:.surance ce C. W. ABRAHAM 111743 )101 Representative C. C. RAMAGE, BRUSSELS, ONT. Graduate Royal College of Denta1 Surgeons and Honor Graduate Ifni- versity of Toronto. Dentistry in all its thanches, Office Over Standard Bank, Phone 200 WM. SPENCE 1.111, Ont, Conveyance, Commissioner and C. .1. Agent for The Imperial Life Assurance Co. of Canada. and Ocean Accident Guarantee Corpora. tion, Limited Accident Inaurancia Automibile 1318 suranee, Pane Glass Ingurstice, eth. Phone 2225 si:thel, Ont. a I's I. 41W L a at rY AUENT FOR fire Automobile Wind los, COMPANIES For Brussels and vicinity Phone 64 JAMES ItirFADZEAN Agent Huila Mutual Fire Insurance Comport, Also Hartford Wiastorm and Tornado InsurancE Pismo 42 lint 1 Turobtrry Street Brureel J140, SUERU & SON LIMITED "XS rivaxar GDP.MSPI9 D. M. SCOTT kiloariZA arvriremessof PRICES MODERATE rtfeuriIt any pereNi0E147i1 asmilrttgio28 T. T. Ar RAE B.. fut. C. P.. el S. O. M. 0. EL, Village et 131•018eli7 Phietoian, Surgeon, Aocoucheur 0 coat residen,.?7,1,1110,:,,f;o:g:etl.iolvilje oburolt, fr. al. Urczaze BARRISTER, SOLICITOR, CONVEYANCER, NOTARY PUBLIC 1 LC OCK - BRUSSELS WAROLAW Herter graduate of the Ontario Veterinary Oollege. DRY and night calls. Oftlee opposite PlOtir S5111, Ethel. , t4 117161E0=1512111111113ZSIMMOLIVEMISIMSZEIMEW 1? l, t. ... Al,..1„ipt ',.1,.er Firrri ,- .•ut Apf Business Just one of the news items which are appearing in papers ' (suite too often these, days throughout the Dominion. And' 1! li ' what is the reason? There 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 and salaries in one place, never- ti ' Useless send a large proportion of this money ant of the community for questionable bargains, thus depriving such community of that much neceasary working capital. (• 1 BUSi ess Mr..,n ti s Do thr Same They have local firms who are able and toady to supply them with all their requirements, yet for the most trivial reason or excuse they Will commit to extend this patronage to outside Arms, thug helping to build up distant citiert 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 thewith whom they should have loft this business. Therefore, when in need of printed matter of , i i , ' any kind, whether fernier, business man or professional man, always extend first consideration to . .. f . The Post t , ,.„ .. Publishing House „ .