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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1932-06-30, Page 2le • Murder at. Bridge By ANNE AUSTIN, 14444.44.44 -0.44444444414.4" -41 -0 -44444 -4? -44 4 r 4 0 6 SYNOPSIS. "Bonnie" Dundee, former member of Hamilton's homicide squad, now attach- ed to the district attorney's office, drives "Penny" Crain, district attorney's secre- tary, to the Saturday bridge -luncheon of the Forsyte .Alumnae Bridge Club, given by Juanita Selim. Dundee learns from Penny the story of her father's unfortunate attempt to start a subdivision in ;Primrose Mead- ows Addition, his failure, and his subse- quent flight.The house he has built is rented by Nita. from Judge Marshall. onalfright- ened Dundee meets is a detective.Du- de' is interrupted in his work athe office that afternoon by Penny, who in- forms him that Nita, has been murdered at bridge. CHAPTER IV. "Why, it's Mr. Dundee at last!" Penny cried, turning in the S-shaped seat before he had had time to finish bis mental inventory of the room's occupants. She jumped to her feet and thread- ed a swift way over Oriental rugs and between the two bridge tables still occupying the center of the big room, still cluttered with score pads, tally cards and playing cards. "I've been wondering if you had stopped to have dinner first," she stuck one of her little thorns into him. Then, laying a hand on his arm, she faced the living room eagerly. "This is Mr. Dundee, folks—special investi- gator attached to the district attorn- ey's office, and a grand detective. Re solved the Hogarth murder case, you know, and the Hillcrest murder. And he's my friend, so I want you all to trust him and—and tell him things without being afraid of him." Then, rather ceremoniously but swiftly, she presented her friends -- Judge and Mrs. Hugo Marshall, Mr. and Mrs. Tracey Miles, Mr. and Mrs. John. C. Drake, Mrs. Dunlap, Janet Raymond, Polly Beale, Clive Ham- mond, and— At that point Penny hesitated, then rather stiffly included the "Broad- way" man, as "Mr. Dexter Sprague— of-New York," "Thank you, Miss Crain," Dundee said. "Now will you please tell me, if you know, whether all those invited to both the bridge party and the cock- tail party are here?" Penny's face flamed. "Ralph Ham- mond, Cll.'ve' br ! s . # come a n a tent t aye And Ralph Hammondwasthe man who had once belonged rather ex- clusively to Penny, and who, accord- 1r.g to her own confession, had suc- cumbed most completely to Nita Sel- im's charms! Dundee noted and filed the reflection for future reference. "Please, Mr. Dundee, won't you de- tain us as short a. time as possible?" Lois Dunlap asked, as she advanced toward him. "Mr. Dunlap is away on a fishing trip, and I don't like to leave my three youngsters too long. They are really too much of a handful for the nurse, over a period of houes." "I shall detain all of you no longer than is absolute.y necessary," Dundee told her gently. "I am to conclude that no one has anything at all to volunteer?" - There was no answer, more than a barely perceptible drawing together in eelfdefence of the minds and hearts 4 . e-•-•-•4 he -. •+- of those who had been friends for so long. "Very well," Dundee conceded abruptly. "Then I must put all of you through a routine examination, s'nce every one of you is, of course, a possible suspect." "Goodby, dinner!" groaned the plump, blond little man who had been introduced as Tracey Miles, as he sor- rowfully patted his rather prominent' stomach. "Don't worry, darling," begged the thin, dark, neurotic -looking woman who was Flora Miles, his wife. "I'm sure Mr. Dundee will ask Lydia— poor Nita's maid, you know"— she explained in an aside to Dundee—"to prepare a light supper for us if he really needs to detain us long—which I am sure he won't." "How can you thinkof food now?" Polly Beale, the tall, sturdy girl with an almost masculine bob and a quite masculine tweed suit, demanded brus- quely. Her voice had an unfeminine lack of modulation, but when Dun- dee saw her glance toward Clive Ham- mond he realized that, in spite of ap- pearances, she was wholly feminine, where he was concerned, at least. "0f course we are all dreadfully cut up over poo: Nita's—death," gasped a rather pretty girl, whose most distinguishing feature was her crop of clinkly, light -red hair. "I assume that to be true, Miss Raymond," Dundee answered. ' 'But ev.. must lose no more time getting at the facts. Just when was Mrs. Selim murdered?" At the brutal use of the word a shudder rippled over the small crowd. Dexter Sprague, "of New York," dropped his lighted cigaret where it would have burned a hole in a fine Persian rug, if Sergeant Turner, on guard over the room for Captain St_awn, had not slouched from his corner to plant a big foot upon it. "We don't know exactly when it happened," Penny volunteered. "We were playing bridge, the last hand of the last rubber, because the men were arriving for cocktails, when Nita be- came dummy and went to her bed- room to—" "To•make herself 'pretty-pretty' for the men," Mrs. Drake mimicked; then, sulci. it .• . : he explained unnecessarily, b'e auee the French doors had been thrown open. "Well, Nita blew me a kiss from her finger tips and ran out of the room. . , . Now, let's 'see,": he ruminated, creasing his sunburned forehead be- neath his carefully combed blond hair, "that must have been at exactly 5.30 that she left the room. 1 went on into the dining room, and Lois -2 ntean Mrs. Dunlap—came with me, be cause she said she was simply dying for a caviar sandwich and a sip of —of—" "0'f Scotch, Tracey," Lois Dunlap nut in, grinning. "I'm sure Mr. Duna doe won't think I'm a confirmed tip- pler, so you might as well tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.... Poor Tracey has a deadly fear that we are all going to lose the last shred of our reputa- tions in this deplorable affair, Mrs. Lundee," she added in a rather shaky version of the comfortable, rich voice he has heard earlier in the day. "I'm not going to pry into cellars," 'Dundee assured her in she same spirit. "What else, Mr. Miles?" "Nothing much," Tracey Miles con- fessed, with apparent regret. "I was still mixing—no, I'd begun to shake the cocktails --when I heard a scream." "Whose scream?" Dundee demand- ed, looking about the room, and dis- n.issing Miles thankfully. "It was—I," Judge Marshall's fair- haired, blue-eyed little bride volun- teered in a voice that threatened to rise to hysteria. "Tel me all about ite' Dundee urg- ed gently. "Yen, sir," she quavered, while her husband's arm encircled her shoulders in. courtly fashion. "As Tracey told cu, Nita was dummy, and I was de- clarer—that is, I got the aid, and 1.layed the hand. It—it was quite an exciting end for me to the afternoon of bridge for I'm not usually awfully lydky, so when Penny had figured up tie score, because I'm not good' at arithmetic, and I knew Nita and I had rolled up an awfully big score, I jumped up and ran into her hooin to tell her the ,.00d news, because she hadn't come back. And—and—there s}.t was—all bowed over her dressing table, and she—she was—was—" "She was dead when you reached her?" Dundee assisted her. "Yes " Karel: Marshall answered Eat this f;ne cheese room oftener! itarldrthgaree Arf + + (TRIPLE nus) No wonder millions love Draft Velveeta .... spread it, elite it, cook with it: Mellow, 'tempting ;flavor from fine old Cheddar cheese. Digestible as rnilic itself. Ap- proved by the Food Commit- tee of the American Medical .A.ssociatiazi. Merituig the high nutritional rating of plus, plus, plusl Get another package from your grocer today.. Made in Canada IfiltAFT elvel' The DeNeious (beet() Food ,S .)J: No. 26 . " 2 le self volubly: "0f course I Iiked Nita, but she did think so terribly much about her effect on men—and all that, and was always fixing her make-up, and besides you can't suspect me, because I was playing against Karen and Nita—" "Thank you, Mrs. Drake," Dundee cut in. "Does anyone know the exact time Mrs. Selim left the room, when e became dummy?" "I can tell you, because I had just arrived—the first of the .nen to get here," Tracey Miles volunteered, ob- viously glad of the chance to talk—a characteristic of the man, Dundee de- cided. "I looked at my' watch just after I stepped cut of my ear, be. cause I like to lie on time to the dot, a --d Nita—Mrs. Selim—had said 5.30. Well, it was exactly 5.25, so I had five minutes to spare." "Yes?" Dundee speeded him up im- patiently. "Well, I came right into the hall and hung my at in the closet out there, and then carne in here. It must have been about 5.27 by that time," he explained, with the meticulousness of a man on the witness stand. "I shouted, 'Hello, everybody! How's tricks?' ... That's a jokke, you know. 'How's tricks' ---meaning tricks in bridge—" "Yes, yes," Dundee admitted, frown- ing, but the rest of the company ex- changed indulger, smiles, and Flora Miles patted her husband's hand fond- ly and proudly, "Well, Nita jumped up from the bridge table—that one right there," riles pointed to the table nearer the arched doorway, "and she said, 'Good heavens! Is it half -past five already? I've got to run and make myself 'pretty-pretty' for just such great big men as you, Tracey—" "'Tracey, darling!'" Judge Mar- shall corrected, with a chuckle that sounded odd in the tensely silent room. Tracey Miles flushed a salmon pink, and his wife's fingers clutched at his hand warningly. "Oh, Nita called everybody darling, and didn't mean n nything by it, I guess," he explained uneasily. "Just one of her cute little ways— Well, anyway, she came up to me and straighteeed my necktie -an- other one of her fenny little ways— and said, 'Traces , my own lamb, won't you shake up the cocktails for poor little Nita?' You know, a, sort of way she had of eo.txing people-" "Yes, I know," Dundee agreed, with a trace of a grin. "Go on, as rapidly as you can, ple'r.se." "I thought you wanted to know everything!" 11'iilee was a little peev- ish; he had ividently been enjoying himself. "0! coutxuo, I said I'd make No riming of the Derby at Epsom Dowels is cenei!•r c c,:r :everything was y r r the cocktuilsshe said That's the the "Pearly Iillags,' who bring 'their wives and lids and me i:0 .t 1../ ready oht the. sideboard dinil>'I'g ;worn right behind this rooni,r' , of it, These little lassies saw the race from a vantage point. Is Your Pet Superstition Here? How One Man Saved- His Life With a Pinch of Salt To celebrate the occasion of his silver wedding, a man invited some friends to dinner. The guests were seated .when it was discovered that two of those invited had not arrived. "Quickly the host rose from the head of'the table; get from the room,, and the dinner ,Irreceeded in his absence not one'sugested that he should return to the table." This I ppareiit breach of courtesy ie explained by' Sir Charles Igglesden in his fasoineting book "Those Super- stitions." The host had realized that his party numbered thirteen—the 111 - fitted number—and to relieve his guests' anxiety he gently effaced him- self. - The late Lord Roberts had no steel fears, and used to boast that just be. fore the Afhan War twelve officers and himself, braving superstition, dined together. Eleven years after- wards they were all still alive. "EVIL WOULD BEFALL" Those who believe in this supersti- tion will recall the curious fact that the late President Doumer, whose tiagie end has shocked the world, was the thirteenth President of the French Republic—elected on May lath, and died thirteen hours after the dastard- ly attack of the fanatic. Sir Charles' Igglesden traces the prejudice aainst thirteen people sit- ting down at the same table to the Last Supper, when Judas Iscariot, the traitor, was the thirteenth man. Why do we superstitiously throw salt over our shoulder to prevent bad luck, if we spill it? The writer tells us that it niay originate from the fact that salt was used in reliious services and, because of this, received special recognition. To eat salt with anyone spelt immunity from danger. An Arab bandit had captureda prisoner and, as he could not pay ransom, he was to be executed. The captive, looking eagerly for a charm to escape, saw salt on the table, ready for the ban- dit's meal. He rushed forward, seized a pinch of salt and thrust it into his mouth. He was saved! faintly, and turned to hide her face "Let him go," commanded the ban - against her elderly husband's breast. dit chief. "Evil would befall us if he died at our hands:' To see two magpies is lucky—but to see one is not. Long ago the killing of a magpie was supposed "to bring down the wrath of heaven," for the magpie was a sacred bird, "supposed to represent the creation of day and night." ,,One day Sir Charles. Igglesden came. MSS ; a sti erstitioils woman,wlt,11.? two fingers crossed; agitatedly hurry- irg along a London street towards a dog fancier's shop. The moment she saw a puppy sleeping in the window she unclasped her fingers with a sigh of infinite relief. To see a dog is to break the spell, and thereby avert the evil ,result of walking under a ladder! The author was salmon fishing in a Scottish loch and was just going to cast the line with the rod held in his left hand. The ghillie hastily asked him if he were left-handed. When he replied that he wasn't he begged him to change the rod to the other hand or there would be "no luck" that day. Dr. W. G. Grace, Sir Charles says, always declared that if his name in the batting list was opposite an even number he could make no runs. The untimely end of those men who explored Tutankhamen's Tomb—sev- eral workmen whose names were never revealed also died—Sir Charles (To be continued.) The Grand Canyon The ground ends abruptly. Yon find yourself looking over the Edge of the World, gazing on a beauty that makes imagination reel. Twisted, convulsed, titanicall 41440,V$444,404141 ' oranges,: yellows, brute's; vie els', rui+l' Ales, --•all the colors of the' spa+ , unix rise out of a vast abyss, filled with a gauzy haze of palest mauve. Over all is a deep brooding silence, eo solemn and awe-inspiring that one feels like an intruder and instinctively treads softly. Such a silence must have brooded over the new -made world in the dawn bf time. As one gazes entranced, it scents to be a vision, not of the everyday world we know, but of a strange wild planet in a strange universe that is still being forged by its maker. The eye refuses to find a scale to measure these vast depths and distances. There seems to be something so stupendous, so overpowering and unearthly about it all, that one can only sit stunned and listen in the vast silence. Santiabo in Volcanic Crater Santiago, Cuba's second city, lies in the crater of a volcano. Mira, Pear'lies The 40th Anniversary of - "SALADA' TEA 265 For 40 years SALADA has gives! the finest quality in tea. Present prices are the lowest in 15 years. Along a Country Road Whatever doubts and anxieties I may have had about the inconvenience of the Beggs' high wagon for a person of Mrs. Blackett's age and shortness, they were happily overcome by the aid of a chair and her own valiant spirit. Mrs. Todd bestowed great care upon seating us as if we were taking passage by boat, but she finally pro- nounced we were properly trimmed. When we had gone only a little way up the hill she remembered that she had left the house door wide open, though the large key was safe in her pocket. I offered to run back but my offer was met with lofty scorn, and we lightly dismissed the matter from our minds, until two or three miles farther on we met the doctor, and Mrs. Todd asked him to stop and ask the nearest neighbor to step over and close the door if the dust seemed to blow in the afternoon. We had just passed a piece of wood- land that shaded the road, and come out to some open fields beyond, when Mrs. Todd suddenly reined in the horse as if somebody had stood on the roadside and stopped her. She even gave that quick, reassuring nod of her head which was usually made to ans- wer a bow, but I discovered that she was looking eagerly at a tall ash -tree that grew just nside the field fence. "I thought it was goin' to do well," she said complacently as we went on again. "Last time I was up this way that tree was kind of drooping and discouraged. Grown trees act that way sometimes, same 's folks; then they'll put right to it and strike their roots off into new ground and start! all over again with real good tour' age." "There's sometimes a good hearty tree 'growin' right out of the bare rack, out o' some crack that just holds the roots"; she went on to say, "right on the pitch 0' one o' them bare, stony hills where you can't seem to see a wheel-barrowful o' good earth in ar place, but that tree'll keep a green top in the driest summer. You lay your. ear down to the ground an' you'll hear. a little stream runnin'." The woods stood close to the road on the right; on the left were narrow, fields and pastures where there were. as many acres of spruces and pines as' there were acres of bay and juniper`, and huckleberry, with a. little tuft be- tween. When I thought how we were: in the heart of the inland country, we; reached the top of a hill, and suddenly; there lay spread out before us a won -i derful great view of well -cleared fields that swept down to the wide water of; a bay. Beyond this were distant shores like another country in the, mid-day haze which half hid the hills; beyond, and the far -away pale blue• mountains on the northern horizon. There was a schooner with all sails set coming down the bay from a white village that was sprinkled on the. shore, and there were many lifeboats Sitting about. It was a noble land- scape, and my eyes, which had grown, used to the narrow inspection of a shaded roadside, could hardly take it in.—From "The Country of the Point- ed Firs, by Sarah Orne Jewett. attributes to fumes of poisonous gas with which the Egyptians permeated the atmosphere when they sealed up the tombs as a protection to their sacred dead. Crushed snails are still given in many villages to children suffering from whooping cough. One Kentish woman: told the author that she had. 'variiibetiMlt •to keep the Evil One aeray, She bo=' u ed she had brought up seventeen heal- thy children. In Wales if you have a toothache it can be cured by putting your stock- ing on the opposite foot to the usual one! A nutmeg carried in the purse is a safeguard against almost any dis- order! One day a Sussex woman engaged a new maid. Just before five o'clock next morning she heard voices under her bedroom window. The maid had arrived, with her wooden box carried by her father. Tho mistress said she would comc down and let the girl in. "Oh, you musn't do that, ma'am." came the voice from below. "I'll wait out here and sit on the box until after twelve o'clock"—and she did! If she had one in before then disaster would have fallen on her employers and her- self, so she averred. WHEN SATAN ROARED. If we spring-clean later than May it is unlucky! If we drink hot water when we go to bed we must never leave any in the glass or jug. The reason, according to the servant whom the writer questioned, is that boiled water will not freeze, and the devil might want it to and it would .vex his Satanic Majesty to be thwarted! So it's safer to leave none in at all. We must not open an umbrella in- doors or disaster follows, or give a bootlace to a friend unless he gives us the broken one in return! Birthdays do not escape supersti- tion. Seven is a lucky number. If the date of birth is divisible by seven then you will -be the luckiest person on earth. The seventh child of a seventh child has second sight, and can foie - tell the future. Sir Charles traces the reason the horseshoe is an emblem of good luck to the 'egend of St, Dunstan and the devil. 'The saint was a blacksmith, and one day his ,Satanic Majesty pre sented himself and asked to have his hoof shoed ... St. Dunstan recogpis ed his visitor and went to work up .n his hoof and deliberately gave him such pain he roared for mercy. Before releasing him, St. Dunstan exacted a promise that he visaed never enter a place where he saw a horseshoe dis- played." The horseshoe rnust be hung right way up—or the ince "falls out." Nel son hacl a horseshoe en the Victory, nailed to the nail, We must not talk when going undr'r a railway bridge, or eat an apple without rubbing it—as that challenges ;.he Evil One.---"T.ondon Tit -Bits." Vtlo Solitude Net a trace of man's existence, Biot a sign of man's abode But tate church spire in the distance Links the solitude with Gad. 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