Zurich Herald, 1932-07-21, Page 2Murder at Bridge
By ANNE AUSTIN.
SYNOPSIS
Juanita Selim is shot throught the
heart during a bridge -luncheon party.
Bonnie Dundee, special investigator,
contests the theory that she was shot
by a gunman. Nita went into her bed-
room w Tracey Miles atabout
had just Pari-
asking
rived, to make cocktails.
'Penny" Crain, society girl and secre-
tary to the district attorney, `ells Dun-
dee that Polly Beale was missing from
lunch. Dundee notes that the women,
with the exception of Lois Dunlap, are
hostile toward Nita. Dundee finally
asks each one to take the places they
occupied at the playing of the "death
hand."
wife's assistance, but Sergeant Turner
took it upon himself to lay a detaining
hand on the too -anxious husband's
arm. With no more than the uplift-
ing of an eyebrow, Dundee made Cap-
tain Strewn understand that Flora
Miles' movements were to be kept
under strict observation, and the chief
of the homicide squad as unobtrusive-
ly conveyed the order to a pla.n-
elothesman loitering interestedly in
the wide doorway.
CHAPTER VII.
" Shame on you, Bonnie Dundee!"
cried Penny Crain, her shall fists
clenched belligerently. "'Death hand,'
indeed! You talk like a New York
tabloid! And if you don't understand
that all of us have stood pretty near
as much as we can without having to
play the hand at bridge—the very
hand we played while Nita was being
murdered, then you haven't the de-
cency and human feelings I've credit-
ed you with—and told my friends
h.re that you have!"
A murmur of indignant approval
accompanied her tirade and buzzed
or for a moment after she had finish-
ed, but it ceased abruptly as Dundee
spoke:
"Who's conducting this investiga-
tion, Penny Crain, you Lr I? You will
kindly let me do it in me own fashion,
and try to be content who, I tell you
that, in my humble opinion, what I
propose is absolutely necessary to the
solution of this case!"
Bickering—Dundee grinned to him-
self—exactly as if they h
eandn
t ch other always, hadquarreled
made up with fierce intensity for
years.
"Really, Mr. Dundee," Judge Hugo
Marshall began pompously, embrac-
ieg his young wife protectingly, "I
must say that I agree with Miss
Crain. This is an outrage, sir—an
outrage to all of us, and particularly
to this frail little wife of mine, al-
ready half -hysterical over the ordeal
she has endured."
• "Take your places!" Dundee ordered
curtly. After .11, there was a limit
• 'to the careful courtesy one must show
to Hamilton's inmost circle of society.
Penny led the way to the bridge
r waves of �• ex brown
blas, the very waves �ritilwn
+•i" seoning to" Iris
finger. But she obeyed, Dundee ex-
ulted-. The way to tame this blessed
little shrew had been solved by old
Bill Shakespeare centuries ago.
As the women took their places at
the two tables, arguing a bit among
themselves, with semi -hysterical edges
to their voices, Dundee watched the
men, but all of then, with the excep-
tion of Dexter Sprague, that typical
sun of Broadway, so out of place to
this company, had managed at least
a fine surface control, their lips tight,
their eyes hard, narrowed and watch-
fri. Sprague slumped into a vacated
chair and closed his eyes, revealing
finely -wrinkled, yellowish lids.
"Where shall we begin?" Polly
Beale dernanded brusquely. "Remem-
ber, this table had finished playing
when Karen began to deal what you
Ball the 'death hand,'" she reminded
him scornfully. "And Flora wasn't
Lore at all—she had been dummy for
our last hand—"
"And had gone out to telephone,"
Dundee inter cipted. "Mrs. Miles,
v -i11 you please leave the room, and
return exactly when you did return --
or as nearly so as you can remember?'
Dundee was sure that Mrs. Miles'
sallow face took on a grayish tinge
she staggered to her feet and
wound an uncertain way toward the
hall. Tracey Miles sprang to his
"Now," he was answering Polly
Beale's question, "I should like the
remaining three of you to behave ex-
actly as you did when your last hand
was finished. Did you i:eep individual
score, as is customary in contract?—
or were you playing auction?"
"Contract," Polly Beale answered
curtly. "And wren we're pleying am-
ong ourselves like this, one at each
table is usually elected to keep score.
Janet was scorekeeper for us this
afternoon, but we all waited, after oar
last hand was played, for Janet to
g:ve us the result for our tally cards."
Dundee drew near the table, picked
up the three tally cards --ornamental
little affairs, and rather expensive—
glanced over the points recorded, then
asked abruptly:
"Where is Mrs. Miles' tally? I don't
see it here."
There was no answer to be had, so
ee let the _natter drop temporarily,
though his shorthand notebook receiv-
ed another deeply underlined series of
pothooks.
"Go on, please, at both tables,"
D� ndee commanded. "Your table—"
ho nodded towaed Penny, who was al-
.eady over her flare of temper, "will
please select .he cards each held at
the conclusion of Mrs. Marshall's
deal."
"Oooh, I'd never remember all my
c rds in the world," Carolyn Drake
walla, "I know I had five clubs—ace,
ing, queen—"
"You had the jack, not the queen,
for I held it myself," Penny contra-
dicted her crisply.
"Until this matter of who held
which card after 1NIrs.Marshall's deal
is settled, I shall have to ask you all
to remain as you are now," Dundee_
said. to the players "seated at the.
��>:,,
other table
At last it was threshed out; largely
between Penny Crain and Karen Mar-
shall, the latter proving to have a
better memory than Dundee had ex-
pected. At last even Carolyn Drake's
querulous fussiness was satisfied, or
trampled down.
Both Judge Marshall and John
Drake started forward to inspect the
cards, which none of the players was
trying to conceal, but Dundee waved
them back.
"Please—I want you men, all of
you, to take your places outside, and
return to this room in. the order of
your arrival this aftenoon. Try to
imagine that it is now—if I can trust
Mr. Miles' apparently excellent mem-
ory—exactly 5.25—"
"Pretty hard to do, considering Ws
now a quarter past seven and there's
still no dinner in sight," Tracey Miles
grumbled, then brightened: "I can
come right back in then—at 5.27, can't
I?"
That point settled, and the men
sent away, to be watched by several
pairs of apparently indolent police
eyes, Dundee turned to the bridge
table, Nita's leaving of which had pro-
vided her murderer with opportunity:
"The cards are 'dealt,'" Penny re-
minded him.
"Now I want you other three to
scatter exactly as you did before,"
Dundee comnrauded, burry a
citement in his voice,
Lois Dunlap rose, laid down leer
tally Bard and strolled over to the re-
maining table. After a moment's hesi-
tation, Polly Beale strode rnanniehly
out of the room, straight into the hall.
Dundee, watching as the bridge play-
ers certainly had not been earlier that.
afternoon, was amazed to see •. Clive
Hammond beckoning to her froin the
open door of the solarium,
So Clive Iianrmond had arrived
ahead of Tracey Miles! Had somehow
entered the solarium unnoticed, and
had managed to beckon his fiancee to
join him there! Prearranged? And
why had Clive Hammond failed to
er ter and greet hisoptess first?
Moreover, how had he;,`;. entered the
solarium?
But things were happening in the
lev'ng room. Janet Raymond, flush•
ing so that her sunburned face mit-
did her red ha:r for vividness, was
slowly leaving the room also. Through
a window opening upon the wide front
corc!, Dundee saw the girl take her
position against a pillar, then—a,
thing she had not done very probably
—press her handkerchie.. to her
trembling lips.
But the bidding was going on, Kar-
en Marshall piping up in her treble
voice:
"Two spades."
Dundee took his place behind her
chair, then silently beckoned to Penny
to shift from her own chair opposite
Carolyn Drake to the chair Nita Selim
had left to go to her death. She nod-
ded understandingly.
"Challenge!" quavered Carolyn
Drake, next on the left to the dealer,
and managed to raise her eyebrows
meaningly to Penny, her partner, who
had not yet changed places.
Penny, throwing herself into the
spirit of the thing, scowled warningly
No exchanging of illicit signals for
Penny Crain! But the instant she
slipped into Nita Selim's chair her
whole fee and body took on a differ-
ent manner, underwent almost a
physical change. She was Nita Selim
now! She tucked her head, considered
her cards, laughed a little breathiees
note, then cried triumphantly:
"And I say—five spades! What do
you think of that, partner?"
Then the girl, who was giving an
amazing imitation of Nita Selim,
changed as suddenly into her own
character as she changed chair.
"Nita, I don't think it's quite bridge
to be so jubilant about the strength
of your hand," she said in her firm,
husky voice. "I pass."
Karen Marshall pretended to study
her hand for a frowning
ralninginstni
under Penny's P,announced then,
firm a treble:
"Six spades!"
Carolyn Drake flushed and looked
Marching Song
"I've taken the billing and sworn
and signed
And I've learned to shoot—
But I'iu sorry for all must leave
behind,"
Saki. the young recruit,
"When the transport's in and the
stores are in
and the troops fall in
You'll perhaps be saner,
For there's women and glory and
gold to win,"
Said the old campaigner.
"But what shall I do when we've
Jost the fight
And I've dropped my loot
And I creep iu•to camp, with a wound.
at night?"
Said the young recruit.
"When your money is spent and
your courage is spent
and your strength is spent
You are still the gainer
If you learn what a little can bring
content,"
Said the old campaigner.
"But suppose I lose trust in mY fel-
low men
And myself to boot,
Is there anything left for a soldier
then?"
said the young recruit,
• nen }T ,to�v and Penn•
� "� "'iii �I1'un2lee }coli d
lay whi see
figured in the original game. Then
she bridled and shifted her plump
body in her chair, as she must have
done before.
"Double!" Then, still acting the
role she had played in earnest that
afternoon, she explained importantly:
"I always double a little slam on prin-
ple!"
Penny, in the role of Nita, redoubled
with an exultant laugh, then as her-
self, passed also, with a murderous
glance at Carolyn Drake.
"Let's see your hand, partner,"
Karen quavered, addressing a woman
who had been dead nearly two hours.
(To be continued.)
"When your faith is gone and your
friends are gone
and your honor Is gone—
And I can't speak plainer—
You can do like the rest of us; carry
on,"
Said the old campaigner.
—Colin Ellis in The London Mer-
cury.
No snbstttute
can be
good enough
Your Mother's Mother gave
her children. "Christie's"..,
Arrowroots, Canada's original
Arrowroot Biscuits; baked in
Canada by Christie's since
853. There is nothing
better for your children,
Psychologist Studies
Animal Brain Operation
Evidence that constant repetition of
even an intelligent act may put an
individual into a rut and lead him
to continue performing the same act
long after it ceases to tie intelligent
and is aotnally foolish has just been
reported by the department of psy-
chology of the of the University of
California.
Working on the experimentally
established principle that the reac-
tions of the animal brain, though
much less complex, are comparable
to similar reactions in the human
brain, I. Ktechevsky and C. H. Hon-
zik, graduate students in psychology,
have demonstrated the tendency of
intelligent acts to became "fixated"
by experiments on rats.
The university students selected
three groups of rats which displayed
sufficient intelligence to choose the
Shortest of two maze paths; in reach-
ing 'their daily •ration of `food:• One
group of rats was sent through this
maze for four days, another for
eight days and the third for twelve
days.
At the end of these periods the
short and long paths were reversed
so that a rat entering what had for-
merly been the short path would find
it to be the longer of the two. The
results showed that the rate who
were accustomed to the maze for
only four days were better able to
change their habits when the long
and short paths were interchanged.
Those rats accustomed to the maze
for eight days found it almost twice
as difficult to change from one path
to the other when the paths were
reversed; and the twelve -day rats
found it almost four times as diffi-
cult.
In other words, the rats, once hav-
ing made an intelligent decision and
having learned to act accordingly,.
found it increasingly difficult to
change their actions when conditions
changed in geometric proportion to
the time spent in accustoming
themselves to the old conditions.
Escaped Minks Return to Eat.
Lowest Pile in 15 Years
"FreshT E A
from the Gardens""
�..—'
Priz,,Motor Will
Receive $40,000
Paris.—A prize of 1,000,000 francs,
$40,000, has been offered by M. An-
dre Citroen, French automobile
manufacturer, to any motor builder
who produces a machine which, be-
fore October 1, next, will break the
endurance record established by his
six -cylinder Rosalie II.
The offer was made when the car
bad completed its 100,000th kilo-
meter of continac'us driving, having
covered in 40 days, a distance equal
to 2% times the circumference of
the earth. The car continued its
course, and will keep on until it
breaks down,
The record established at the 100,-
000 -kilometer mark doubled the pre-
vious record for continuous driving,
and broke 31 world records and 62
international records.
The Rosalie II started its long
course on the track at Monthlery,
near Paris, on March 5. Driving
continued day and night, with relays',
of experienced drivers employed. A
brief halt was made every four
hours for refueling. The average
speed maintained was 104,3331 kilo-
meters, or about 66 miles -an hour,
and the maximum speed was 100 kilo-
meters. Under the rules establish-
ed for the test, no important part
of the mechanism can be replaced.
British Scientist Designs
"Almost" Silent Motor
London.—An engine that will make
motor cars almost noiseless has been
designed by Professor A. M. Low,
noise -hating young British scientist,
who has for reany years specialized
in the design of internal combustion
ergines.
Professor Low's latest design pro-
vides for the nearest thing to a com-
pletely noiseless car engine yet creat -
eta It will have only two gears and.
one- of those is for emergencies only,.
the car supposedly • running on one
gear in normal circumstances. Objec-
tionable sound is eliminated on the
continuous noise theory.
The idea occurred to 'Professor Low
while studying the causes of mine ex-
plosions. He r oted that there were
usually several separate explosions in
a mining accident, not a single loud
detonation, as often believed. After
considerable experimenting, he suc-
ceeded in tracing the manner in which
sound travelled through mine tunnels
during an explosion.
Then he conceived the idea of build-
ing an engine, the explosions of which
were to be "controlled" as nature Con-
trols the explosions in a nine, and in
the same manner as they are control-
led in a Diesel engine. But whereas
Diesel engines are too heavy for use
in the average automobile, Professor
Low's engine' can be built for even
the smallest ears at no greater cot.t
thee the every -day engine is built to-
day. The new Low engine also is ap
proximately the same size as the ordi-
nary automobile engine.
They Named It a
"Vacant Lot"
Whatever else they said, for who
The city charts, white -veined on
crackling blue,
Named it a "vacant
not true
could pass
Such gracious trees,
fingered grass,
Breathe in the pulsing
it all
From tiptoeing spring
the flaming fall;
Feel wings . stir arching
ow•elhead,
And still deny tbe
. anted!
lot"—that was
or touch cool_
fragrance of
an
place
262
Journey's End
No matter how long it takes me
to find
The finch -haunted, wood, the mead-
ows I knew,
Until they again greet my heart and
mind
No port is a refuge,
through.
through
branches
ten -
was•
Wbether a year
now,
Whether my eyes
in pain,
I'll handle the haft of the
plow
That waits for the song
hands again.
no journey
is
or a dozen from
are in peace or
Hoarse -voiced the builders came,
with jangling chains,
Trees crashed to earth, dark sweat-
ing men dug drains,
Stripped sod, gouged pits, poured
clattering streams of bricks,
Set up in naked rows their ugly
sticks,
Made boxes to imprison beds and
chairs
And pibonograPhs and arguments
and cares:
Now, whether they
or not,
On those blue charts it is a' vacant
lot.
—Molly Anderson Haley, in "The
Window Cleaner and Other Poems"
Hash
The farther you are from hone the
surer you are to run into the last per-
son in the world you want to see. A
pian is really never famous until he is
interviewed on his birthday. Why is
It every mother expects her son to
turn out better than his father did?
The same story told by two different
.A. fur farm on which there are persons is frequently two different
about 200 thriving minks is owned stories. Paying court to the beautiful
and operated at Spruce, Wash., by dumb bell is like carrying around an
Charles Lewis, says Cecil Feifentlia- empty bag. Every bride expects her
ler in The Sunday Oregonian. One busband to become a big man. But
day not "long ago the mines found she usually is the one who gains the
a hole in the wire netting and they most weight. A doctor says the hard -
marched out in single file to free- est work should be done just before
dom. Lewis gave them up as being breakfast; such as getting up, we sop -
permanently lost. But come feeding pose. Ask me another: What is one
time that day, every one of the ani- thing that can always be counted on?
mals marched back single file into Answer—Your fingers. The hard part
the pen. Lewis repaired the netting of religion to understand is why it
and all is well at the fur farm. makes people so mad at one another.
ETERNAL. BEAUTY
I� I
n Hawthorne says that "the depths of the human heart are bright and beautiful; the gloom and terror may
lie deep, but deeper still is the eter-
nal beauty." One would gladly be-
lieve this true of life itself. One
would gladly think that tbe more we
study its depths the more we shall
find then brightened by soine light
of happiness,
SELF -CONQUEST
admit the truth
I'l1 drink of the winds
forget,
Rekindle the
light,
Stand where the dew
is wet,
As gay in my
• bright;
friendly
of my
I couldn't
hearth to a sunset
on the clover
heart as the day is
Firm -rooted at last—as
be—
Ten jumps from a stream and next
door to a tree!
a man should
—Bert Cooksle in the N. Y. Times.
ANGER
Just to be good, to keep life pure
from degrading elements, to make it
constantly helpful in little ways to
those who are touched '?y it, to keep
one's spirit always sweet and avoid
all manner of petty anger and irri-
tability—that is an ideal as noble as
it Is difficult. — Edward Howard
Griggs.
Fear
So long as a man fears, it matters
little what he fears; whether it be
t' "'"" "'> or his next door
death, ar ttoverty,
neighbor, It Is all one so long' as the
fear is vital. So long as a manic a
Mose, it Is of comparatively little im-
portanee whether his master be a
sugar planter, or a creed, or public
opinion; there are only the two eiass-
02, the slave and the free. -- 0, D.
Wheeler.
Poet—"I lived three weeks on
that last poem of mine."
Painter --"Then the editor took
it."
Poet—"Oh no, but he throw me
down six fights of stairs and I was
in the hospital three weeks,"
One moment of self=conquest, one
good a.etion really clone, one 'gener-
ous deed actually performed, yes,
ane effort to do right really made,
has the seal of time put on it, and
no power in heaven nor all the fires
of heil can melt that wax from the
One-third of the world's papula- eternal bend. --- James Freeman
Lion suffers from malaria, which Clarke.
causes 2,000,000 death every year,
There le ono man who knows
London's bill for pollen protection more about beer than any other in
during the • last financial year was l ngland; he has boon a beer -taster
£8,854,378, Police lanterns alone for thirty years. Outside besirross
Cost 28,580, hours he is a teetotaller;
.i.....neggew—mmeasu
Originated
dor the fines
tales
K AFT
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H
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If housewives only realized they
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nYthing but the best. Here is one place
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Don't bo satisfied with anything but
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At good stores everywhere. For your
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ISSUE No. 29--'32