HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1932-07-07, Page 2Murder at Fridge
Bl! ANNE AUSTIN.
SYNOPSIS.
"Penny" Crain, society girl, now the
district attorney's secretary, telephones
to "Bonnie" Dundee, special investigator,
that Juanita Salim, Broadway dancer,
has been murdered at a bridge given in
her home. Among the guests is Dexter
Sprague, typically Broadway and alien
to the group, while Ralph Hammond,
Once Penny's property but annexed by
Nita, is missing.
CHAPTER IV.—(Cont'd.)
Dundee's swift eyes took in the
varying degrees of whiteness and sick
horror that claimed every face in the
room.
"Of course you all rushed in when
Mrs. Marshall screamed?" he asked
casually.
Twelve heads nodded mutely.
"Did any or all of you touch the --
body, or things in the room?"
"Mr. Sprague touched her hair, and
—and lifted one of her hands," Penny
contributed quietly. "But you know
how it must have been! We can't any
of us tell exactly every move we made,
but there was some rushing about.
The men, mostly, looking for—for
whoever did it—"
"Mrs. Marshall, did you see any-
one—anyone at all --in or near that
room when you entered it?"
There was such a babel of answers
given and then hastily corrected that
Dundee broke in suddenly:
"1 .rant a connected story of 'the
events leading up to the tragedy.' And
1 want someone to tell it who hasn't
lost his—or her—head at all."
He looked allout the company, as if
apecu:atively, but his mind was al-
ready made up. "Miss Crain, will you
tell the story, beginning with the mo-
ment I left you and Mrs, Dunlap and
Mrs. Selim today?"
CHAPTER V.
"Just a minute before you begin,
Miss Crain," Dundee requested. "I'd
like to make notes on your story," and
he drew from a coat pocket a short-
hand book, hastily filched from Pen-
ny's own tidy desk. "Yes," he an-
swered the girl's frank store of am-
azement, "I can write shorthand --of'
a sort, and pretty fast at that, though
no other human being, I am afraid,
could read it but myself.... As for
you fonts," he addressed the uneasy,
ailed group of melt and women in
dea`jiia's living room, "I shall ask
irou nof'to interrupt Miss Crain unless
you .are very sure that her memory is
at fault"
Penelope Crain was about to begin
for the second time, when again Dun-
dee :interrupted. "Another half sec -
end, please."
On the first sheet of the new short-
hand book Dundee scribbled: "Sug-
gest you try to locate Ralph Hammond
immediately. Very much in love with
Mrs. Selim. Invited to eocketail
party; did not show up," and tearing
' the sheet from the notebook, passed it
to Captain Strawn, who read it,
frowning, and then dodded.
"Doe Price has done anis can here,'
Strawn whispered huskily. "Wants to
know if you'd like to speak to him
before he takes the body to the inor-
gue"
"Certainly," Dundee answered as he
grinned apologetically to the girl, who
tch lay.
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ISSUE No, 27— '32
was waiting, white-faced but patient-
ly, to tell the story of the afternoon.
Quickly suppressed shudders and
low exclamations of horror followed
him and the chief or the homicide
squadfrom the room.
"Well, Bonnie boy, we meet again,
for the usual reason," old Dr. Price
greeted the district attorney's - new
"special investigator." "Another
shocking affair this.... A nice clean
wound, one of the neatest jobs I ever
saw. Shot entered the back and pene-
trated the heart.... Very nicely cal-
culated. If the bull'.t had struck a
quarter of an inch higher, it would
have been deflected by -the—"
Dundae tried to liste,i patiently, b
he had heard all that was necessar
for his purposes in regard to the a
tual wound itself; besides, this col
blooded analysis of the path of th
bullet which had ended the life of
beautiful woman was acutely distast
:.u1 to the young detective. But a wor
it his own reflections caught him u
short.
"The path of the bullet doctor!" 13
broke in. "Have you made any tai
culations as to the place and distant
at which theshot was fired?"
"Roughly speaking ---yes," the cot
over answered. "The gun was fire
at a distance, probably, of 10 or 1
feet—perhaps closerbut I don't think
so," he amended meticulously. "As fo
the path of the bullet, I have fixed it
j't dging from the position of the body
which I am assured had not been
touched before my arrival, as coming
from a point somewhere along a
straight line drawn from the woman's
wound, with the body upright, of
course, to—here!"
Dundee and Strawn followed the
brisk little white-haired old doctor
across the bedroom to the window
opening upon the drive—the one near-
est the door leading out upon the
porch.
"I've marked the end of the line
here" Dr. Price went on, pointing to
a faint pencil mark made upon the
frame of the window—the pale -green
strip of woodwork nearer the chaise
lounge, which was set between the
two windows.
"I told you she was shot from the
window!" Strewn reminded Dundee
triumphantly. "You see, Doc, it's my
theory that the murderer climbed up
to the sill of this window, which was
open as it is now, crouched in it and
shot her -while she sat there powder-
ing her face,.
Dundee did not trouble to remind
Strawn of his previously expressed ob-
jections to this theory, for Dr. Price'.
was pointing gut:
"Not necessarily, Captain, not nec-
essarily. I merely say that this pen-
cil mark indicates the end of the line
showing the path of the bullet. Cer-
tainly she was not shot through the
frame of the window, but she might
have bean shot by anyone standing
st in front of it, or anywhere along
he line, up to, say, within 10 feet
of the woman.... Now, if that's all,
Captain, I'll be getting this corpse into
1 morgue for an autopsy. And I'll
end you both a copy of my findings."
"Just a minute, Dr. Price," Dundee
detained him. "How old would you
ay Mrs. Selina was?"
The Iittle doctor pursed his wrinkl-
d lips and considered for a moment,
yeing the body stretched upon the
haise lounge speculatively.
"We -ell, between 30 and 34 years
Id," he answered finally. "Of course
on understand that that estimate is
nofficial."
Dundee stared down at the upturn -
d face of the dead woman with startl-
d incredulity, Between 80 and 84
ears old! That tiny, lovely— But
he was not quite so lovely in death,
n spite of the serenity it had brought
o those once -vivacious features. Peer -
ng more closely, he could see—with-
ut those luminous, wide eyes to center
is attention—numerous fine lines in
he waxen face, the slackness of a
ttle pouch of seft flesh beneath the
ound chin, an occasional white haix
pon the shoulder -length dark curls.
.. Dundee sighed. How easy it was
or a beautiful woman to deceive men
ith a pair of wide, velvety black
yes! But he'd bet the women: had
ea been quite to thoroughly taken in
r her cuddly childishness, her odd
ixture of demureness and youthful
npudencel
Back in the living room, whose oa-,
pants stopped whispering and grew
ught with suspense, Dundee seated
mself at a little red -lacquer table,
s notebook spread, while Strewn set -
ed himself heavily in the clearest
erstuffed armchair.
"Now, Miss Crain; I ant quite ready,
you will forgive me for having kept
u waiting."
In a very quiet voice ---slightly
usky, as always—Penny, from her
at on a nearby sofa, along with Lois ,
unlap and, Janet Raymond, began
r story:
"I think it lacked two or three min-
es • of one o'clock when you drove
way. Nita, Lois and I went imme-
ately into the lounge of Ereakaway
n, where we found Janet Raymond,
l:t
y
d-
e
a
e-
d
p
e
e
d
5
r
Carolyn Drake and Mora Mike; wait-
ing for us. Nita soon left us to see
about the arrangement of the table,
and while she was away the rest of
the girls arrivea."
"Except—" .a woman's voice broke
in.
"I was going to say all eight of ;las
were ready for lunch except Pony.
Beale. She hadn't come," Penny we rt
on, her husky voice a little sharp with
annoyance. "When Nita came to ask
us into the private dining room, oktf;'
of the Inn's employes came and'` tel'
her there was a call for her, an:d
showed her to the private booth in the
lounge. In a minute Nita returded-;to
us, and told us that Polly wasn't com-
ing to the luncheon, but woulAe,loin `lis
later for bridge here." e_•
"Why don't you tell him how funny
Nita acted?" Janet Eaymend prompt-
ed, a strong suggestion of malice in
her voice.
Penny flushed, but she accepted the
prompting. "I think any of us might
have been a little—annoyed," she said
steadily, as if striving to be utter ;y
truthful. "Nita told us"—she turned
to Dundee, whose pencil was flying
"that Polly had made no excuse at all.;
in fact, she quoted Polly exactly:
'Sorry, Nita. Can't make it for tench.
I'll show up at your place at 2.30 for
bridge'."
"Nita couldn't bea . the least hint
of being slighted," Janet Raymond
explained, with a malicious gleam in
her paleeblue eyes, "If it hadn't been
for Lois and Hugo -Judge Marshall,
I mean—Nita Selim would never have
been included in any of our affairs --
and she knew it!"
"Please, Janet!" Lois Dunlap cut
ia. "You must know by this time that
I make friends wherever I please, and
that I was extremely fond of poor Lit-
tle Nita."
"Will you please go on, Miss
Crain?" Dundee urged, but he had
missed nothing of the little by-play.
"Where was I?". Penny asked, "Oh,
yes! Nita cooled right off when Lois
reminded her that Polly was always
abrupt like that"—and here Penny
pe used to grin apologetically
at the girl with the masculine -looking
haircut—"and then we all went into
the private dining room, where Nita
had provided a perfectly gorgeous
lunch, with a heavenly centrepiece of
green -striped yellow orchids."
"Was there anything unusual in the
conversation—anything like a quar-
rel?" Dundee prompted, but "green -
striped yellow orchids" was underlin-
ed heavily in his shorthand notes.
"Oh, no!" Penny protested. "No-
thing happened out of the ordinary at
all-- No, wait! Nita received a letter
by messenger --or rather a note—
There was a low, strangled -in -the -
throat cry from someone --who had ut-
tered it, Dundee could not be sure,
since his eyes had been on his note-
book. But what had really interru t-
ed Penny Crane was a crash.""
(To be continued.)
Absurd! '
The man who had received. a notice
from the tax -collector was both in-
dignant and mystified. He was called
upon to pay £50 forthwith. He hadn't
a X.
He wrote back as follows:
"Dear Sir,—On my Income -Tax re•
turn I clearly stated my profession
which you appear to have n isunder-
stood, You demand £50 forthwith. I
said I was a contractor --not a con-
jurer!"
Swedish Population Up 20,000
Stockholm. — Sweden's population
was 6,162,300 at the beginning of 1932,
the government statistical bureau an-
nounces.
"The foundation of real business is
service."—Henry Ford.
This Week's
Science Notes
Effect of Electrical Storms—
Golfers' Swing Meas-
ure
In the early days of electric power,
public utility companies stopped their
machinery when a thunderstorm loon -
ed' up because of the rick they rani
fro Iightning strokes. Most houses
had combination gas and electric fix-
tures. Although no central station
no stops. the generation of electric
energy during an 'electric storm—such
is• the: adequacy of the protective de-
vices introduced in the past two de-
cades ---lightning .is still a menace,
perhaps the only menace that the elec-
trical engineer fears. With more than
1800,00,01000 spent annually for exten-
'sidhs'o'existing transmission and dis-
tribution 67.4e'zns and'for intercon-
nections required to carry out a vast
super -power program, the problem of
lightning is of such economic conse-
quence that industrial research was
„called upon to' solve it.
Thus Is to be explained the work
that F. R. Peek Jr. has been doing for
the last twenty-five years, of which
more than halt have been spent in a
high-voltage research laboratory main-
tained for him at Pittsfield, Mass., by
a great electrical manufacturing com-
pany. Recently he gove there a de-
monstration of his latest apparatus by
causing giant bolts to clash between a
sixty -foot spark gap at a pressure of
10,000,000 volts. Never before had
any one produced artificial lightning
on such a scale.
Study Peek's complicated apparatus,
The 40th m iry sar'y
of
"SADA TEA
L66
For 40 years $ALARA had
given thefinest quality in
teas Present rices are the
lowest in a A, ars,
professional. On his first attempt
Reynolds made a drive which had a
speed of 106 miles an hour. His sec-
ond established a high mark of 125
miles. Mclntyre's driving speed var-
ied from 70 to 97 miles an hour.
Lord's apparatus shows that driving
speeds depend not only on the driver
but on the club. Lightness rather
than weight of club -head and length
of shaft have much to do with the at-
tainment of the hinger driving speeds.
W. K., in. The New York Times.
A Connacht Man's Philosophy
I watch'.d the rain come peltin' down
An` peltin' down for fun.
For days and days the clouds stood
up
An' blotted out the sun.
To Galway Fair because o' rain
I knew I couldn't go
I took .a pull at my ould pipe
An' left the matter so,
consisting of a generator, capacitors, For weeks an' .reeks a blazin' ball
transformers, aluminum spheres and Went wheelin' round the sky;
insulators, and its resemblance to na It rose an' set, an' set an' rose
ture's thunder clouds and the electri- An'all the well's ran dry
cally strained atmosphere is not ap- What time the wells might fill again,
parent. Two aluminum balls between For one I didn't know—
which lightning rends the air who I took a pull at my ould pipe
would take them and the capacitors An'left the matter so.
behind them for cloud and earth? And I set me out to ax.a wife
yet that is what they are, in a sm.An' up the Cold boreen
bolte manner of speaking. (I mind the day—the sky was blue
Putting Lightning to Use An' all the trees were green).
Now that Peek has found out so A redhaired woman crossed my path,
ranch about lightning, what can be So back I turn'd nor slow,
done about it? "Harnessing," that An' took a pull at my ould pipe
frayed word of the romancers of An' left the natter so.
question.science, is out of the question. Light -
n
ntWhen o
i tb Wh D ht Ptth d
g eanno a anted. It must be c er a e acent elan,
detoured and given a. chance to Comes round the little road
spread itself out and trickle away. To grip my fist an' shake his head
Peek bas placed it on an engineering I'm throwin' down my load.
basis. Designers and builders of cen-
tral stations now know the height at
which conductors should be strung,
the nature of the "grounding" the best
method of shielding insulators, and
how lightning rods and towers may
be used to advantage in regions that
Are especially. exposed to lightning.
Golfers' Swings Measured
The photoelectric cell, which now
has about a thousand and one uses,
has been made part of a highly sensi-
tive apparatus, devised by H. W.
Lord, vacuum -tube engineer of Schen-
ectady, N.Y., to time th eswing of a
golf club in the hands of an experi-
enced driver. Standing on a platform,
the driver swings at the ball placed
on a tee and cuts two beams of light
at right angles to the path of the club
—the first a minute fraction of a sec-
ond before the ball is struck and the
second immediately afterward. The
momentary interruption of the beams
is enough to affect electrical circuits
of an apparatus so sensitive that with
its aid speeds up to about 1,000 miles
an hour can be measured.
Two practical golfers were tested,
the one being James Reynolds, winner
of the national driving championship
at Chicago in 1930, and the other
Alexander M^intyre, a country club
Three English Nymphs
Three fairy dancers who tools part in a garden fete a'•d ant
at Clapham Common in aid of. the South Lo 'ctron hosphan men,
take a few ininutee respite between rehearsals.
I'm throwing down my load, my boys,
But once before I go,
I'll take a pull at my ould pipe
An' leave the matter so.
—By Padraic Kelly in Irish Travel
(Dublin).
World's Wisest Dogs
At the most remarkable school
i
the world dogs are being trained t I
lead the blind. This experiment
the interests of the blind was starte
a few years back by a Mrs. Harriso
E..stis, an American, and has me
with much success.
The school lies near Lausanne, and
its pupils are German sheepdogs, be-
cause this breed has shown a remark-
able capacity for "mothering" blind
nen. To be led by one of these train-
ed dogs is almost like' going out with
a human companion,
Hoiding his "lead," the blind roan
can feel each movement of the dog
ahead. The animal has learned .,o
give a number of signals. She will
pull on the lead to guide hien round
larep-posts, pillar -boxes, and other ob-
stacles. She will not take him under
a low obstruction which plight catch
his head.
When it comes to crossing a road,
she stands still until her master ;s
properly balanced to step offthe kerb.
If steps have to be negotiated she
signifies their presence by sitting
down,
These dog -pupils from L'cil qui
Voit (The Eye That Sees), as the
school is called, are now leading thou-
sands of blind men about in Germany
and Central Europe. The dogs have
proved themselves very lovable ani•-
mais and are highly popular with all
who know them in those countries.
In fact, they are sa intelligent and
well behaved that blind men are per-
mitted to take then, free of charge, in
trams and trains,
Of course, these results are only ob-
tained after a long spell of very care-
ful training. First, the dog must be
taught her duties, then the man and
dog must practice together until he
understands her methods, Not until
then is the good work complete.—Lon-
don Answers.
0
n
d
n
t
Just So t
The man who had just returnc•c!
from prance was relating a thrilling
experience at the dinner table.
"Yes," said he, "an Apache sprang'
at me in one of the streets of Paris,
snatched my pocket -case of notes, and
bolted!. The gendarmes chased hint,
and, when cornered, he leapt into the:
river,,,,_r
"Ah!" said a listener. "Guilty but
in Seine."
"Oh, darling, Iook what's happened
to my first pancake!" "Never mind,
dear, it may not be a complete failure.
Let's try it on the gramophones"
Shipwrecked man (to another vic-
tim who wants to share his raft) r
"!}afore you get on, old chap, I think
it's only fair to warn you I have
rather a nasty cold,"
Safer Than Houses
Flying is now becoming very much
safer, even in the worst weather conn
ditions. Miss Earhart's great feat
one recent proof of that. The storm!
which she flew into aver the Atlantic'
might easily have meant a tragic tere
urination for an earlier ocean flight,
but she weathered it successfully, and
b'':came the first woman to fly the At-
lantic alone.
This isn't an isolated case. The
other day the air liner Horatius was
struck by lightning while flying over
Tonbridge at a height of 2,000 feet,}
The wireless equipment was the prin-
cipal sufferer trona the shock, being
put out of action, and the aeroplane
1 ad therefore to return to Croydon, it
being an Imperial Airways rule that
machines must not continue a journey
without wireless. But the air liner `
was never out of conte of for a moment,
and 'cone of its occ-■pants felt the
slightest shock.
About the same time the United
States dirigible Akro.i, the largest air.
ship in the world, was weatherin
successfully a seven tIlunderstorni,';
during a flight from New Jersey; to-"�`
the Pacific Coast. The whole of ono
night she was completely surropnded
by severe lightning. In the end she
emerged unscathed from a two days'
fight against the worst weather condi-
tions
ondi tions a rigid airship has ever been
called upon to face.
3,000 FEET UP IN 30 SECONDS.
The way in which the Akron, behaved
throughout her ordeal is particii1 -earl"
encouraging because of the sei'ure:
strains which a violent thundereterin
puts on the comparatively vulnerable
structure of an airship. But that
structure is not quite so Mete--
layman
ragile`layman may think; R-100 proved this 'It' n
on her last voyage to Canada, when
she was caught in vertical air currents
during a thunderstorm over the St.l
Lawrence, and shot up 3,000 feet i'
less than thirty seconds n
It was a tremendous test, hut:
the tail-tn fabric w?s t 4 and
was repaired, by membe MI, i
who crawled along inside the fin while.
the airship was kept head on to the,
gale.
In the case of aeroplanes, there has'
been a great improvement in design}
during recent years, and the great
passenger air liners can now, as the'
ease of the Horatius showed, practic-
ally laugh at lightnil.g,
There is, indeed, practically nothing
about an aeroplane that attracts light -f
ning now, unless, indeed, the trailing'
aerial of the wireless set.
Taking it all round, an aeroplane,
especially one of the crack passenger
air liners, is probably safer in a
thunderstorm than a good .many of
our houses. It is built to defy light-
ning.—London Answers.
Guest (departing at last) : "Goode
bye, Hope haven't kept you out of `
bed." Host (politely) : "That's quite
all right. We should have been get-'
ting np soon in any Case."
Stops Summer Odors—
The heavy smell which warm
weather brings to many people is
largely prevented by regular bath-.
ing with a free lather of Baby's
Own Soap,
The delicate aroma dispels all
unpleasantness and the skin feels
so refreshed, cool and sweet.
Baby's Ovs sells at .10c. a cake
at dealers everywhere.
3:1.15
"Best for you aitd Bab, too"
Only wealthy people
on afford dog til,
says lubrication expe
Ono kind of oil is as good as au -
other in the container. It's actual
service that makes the difference.
Cheap oil is never worth' the price
yott .pay. For it leads yon into think
lug you are getting proiter lubrication
for your sewing machine, lawn mower,
washer, electric, fan, vacuum cleaner
and other expensive ecjnip;sleni—when
you are not
If yon watt to get the best possible
service from your household equip-
ment, 3•in-One is the oil to use. This
recognized lender is a scientific blend
of high ,grade a.niuiai, minor& and
vegetable odes and contains properties
}tot possessed by ordinary oil. it
cleans and protects as well as Inbri-
catea. Don't fake a elMee., IIJsiSt
on the old reliable 3 -in -One. At .good
stores everywhere. For yonr protec-
tion, Intik for' the trade' iunrk
One" printed in lied ou vt ci.y package,
•
1