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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1933-01-05, Page 2aJ r at L.ft•idg By (INNS AUSTIN, S1 N•)t'HIS. JL.tu)ila Selitn is murdered at lat.:se. p..1011 rests on Lydia. Qurr, the maid: Miles. i0 Nita'a duvet at the tine i the ,, under, rtaditlp tt letter wltlah ?)ethinks 14 11'0111 her hu.,band to Nita, )U1 i' 1'etllly 11•.',',1 1)exte. sp1'tguk. l,rob- tidy N11u s true, arid partner 11 black - nail dual on it.t1Ph 111 mond, l ug:wed o Nita. ;;lu-•ial Ititt.tiiiga,or Dundee wants to ';now who tabid Nita $10.000 in Uantllton an 1 .thy. l)unt1 k learns from Lydia 4 n Lenin• Clain. the district attorney's sec- retary whose father one,. owned the �eliai house that there is probably e > erret hiding p1ave In the house. 1 Ydia •ay - She doesn't Iu)w '‘.1-14.1t11 Nita Nita teara 1, and tells of a bell iprag .5 :ion:rived neat dial's bed which ..logs in 1 Alt's rot m i zhers may ha, a known • thls. Duthie,: goes to look for the ▪ 111aee. 1A Traveller Views England After Twenty Yeas Absence After twenty years I have seen Eng- drab old walls and I heard the band landagain, and I am not disappointed. play. I watclied the orderly crowd of A11 the lonely things T remeixl'bered men, women and children lined up out - and hoped to see once more are still side the iron rails and gathered around there and have remained the same, the entrance. It interested nte, having, itnessed less tactful methods in, t,nlateurish look. This elotet was lot solar -:fined, as` was Nita's, but was painted throughout in soft ivory But it was the back wall of the closet in which Dundee was interested. Unlike the other walls, which were of plaster, the back was constructed of six-inch wide boards—the cheap es of the lumber not concealed by its coat of ivory paint. No self-respect:.ng build- er had put in that wall of braise, hori- zontal boards... . And then, directly benesen. the shelf hich was set regulation height, just above the pole on Which swung .a dozen coat hangers, Dundee found what he was looking for. A short length of the boare, cheap board, a queer scrap to have been used even in so shoddy a job as that wall was... Eight inches long. lend set square in the centre of the wall, just below the shelf and pole, Sure of the result, he pressed with his finger tips upon the low& end of that short piece of board. And slowly it swung inward, the top pert slant- ing outward. He lad foute. the secret hiding Dance. And pundee silently agreed w' Judge Marshall that it was "the simplest and n.ost ingenious arrange- ment you ever saw," for it was no- thing less than a shelf set between the two closets, in hese 11 inches of unaccounted-for space. But how did Judge Marshall know of its existence? The only answer Dundee could think of. e s that Crain, overseeing the building of his house, had 'tipped one of the earl enters to carry it out, bragged to Clive or Ralph Hammond of his 'clever inventicn, and they in turn had passed on the infor- mation' to Judge Marshal?. But the shelf was bare except for a small brass box, fastened only by a clasp. In his acute disappointment Dundee took little interest in the col- lection of pretty but inexpensive jewe elry- Nita's trinkets, undoubtedly— which the brass box contained... No wedding ring among them. . In spite of his ch•tgrin at not find- ing the gun, Dundee studied the sim- ple mechanism which Roger Crain's i' •genuity had conceived. From the outside, the eight -inch length of board fitted smoothly, giving no indication 'whatever that it was otherwise than what' it •seemed—part of a cheaply built wall. But Dundee's flashlight played upon the beveled edges of bath the short board and the °wo neighbor- ,ing Blanks between which it . was fit- ted. The pivoting arange.nent was OT. the simplest, the small nickel -plated 1 eces being set into the sltoxt board and tht other two planks with small screws which slid not pierce their painted outside surface. His curiosity satisfied, Dundee step - ted out of the closet into the tiny foyer. He was about to leave when a terrific truth crashed through his mind and froze his feet to the floor. Of cturse the gun and silencer were not there! This was the guest closet! In it had hung the hat of every person who had been Nita's guest, either for bridge or cocktails, that fatal Saturday after- noon! And to this closet, to retrieve .hat, stick, or—in the case of the women, summer coat and hat—had come every person who had been questioned and then searched by the police. Dundee tried to recapture the pic- ture of the stampede which had fol- lowed upon his permission for all guests to go to their homes. But it was useless. ,He had stayed in the living room with Strawn, had taken not the slightest interest in the scramble for hats, coats and sticks, For Strawn bad previously assured him that the guest closet had been thoroughly searched. So quickly that he felt slightly dizzy, Dundee's thoughts raced around the new discovery. This changed everything, of course. Anyone of half a dozen persons could have arrived with the gun and silencer—not screw- ed together, of course, because of the ungainly length—and seized the op- portunity presented by. Nita's being alone in her bedroom to shoot her. What easier, then, than to hide. the weapon on this secret shelf? And what easier than to retrieve the wea- pon after permission had been grant- ed to all to return to their homes? It had been vitally necessary, too, to re- trieve the weapon, since any innocent member of that party might have re- nlanbered later to mention the secret hiding place to the police—secret no longer since Judge Marshal; had gos- siped about it.... Then another thought boiled tip and'. demanded attention. In the new theory, what place dict, the "bang or hump" have—that noise which Flora Miles, concealed in Nita's closet, had dimly heard? Dundee had been post tive, when Lydia had discovered the shattered electric bulb :t. the big bronze lamp, that its position in Nita's room indicated the progress of the flight of the murderer—flight di- agonally across the room toward the bath. hall. But now— . Jitte dashed, Dundee .returned to CHAPTER XXXi. .tart a solid hour of hard and fruit' --s: work, Bonnie Dundee was ' forced to admit ruefully to himself '.a at his parting words .'c. the district attorney had sol nded like a youthful tart. Arid so far it had proved to be s woefully empty boast. For nowhere in the house Roger Grain had built and in which Nita Seiini had been murdered could the 1 teetive find anything remotely re- ;etabiing a oncealed safe. The two plainclothesmen Strawn had detailed to guard the house and to continue the search for the missing gin. and sil- ncer looked on with unconcealed amusetmnt as Dundee tapped walls, floors and ceilings in a horse that seemed tt: be exceptionally free of rchi;.'ctural eccentricities. Finally he grew tired of their ri- bald comments and brusquely ordered them to make a new and exhaustive eearch of the unused portions of the basement—those dark, unfioored re- gions, with their networks of water and sewage pipes, heavily insulated t.bles of electric wires, cobwebby rafters, sloping banks of earth, and 'rough'shelves holding empty fruit jars and liquor bottles—which contrasted 'rarpiy with the neatly-ceiled and 3ernent-floored space devoted to fur- aace, laundry and maid's room. Dun - lee himself ,had given those regions only a cursory inspection with his flashlight, for it was highly improb- sble h Nita Se1.im would have made use of a secret hiding place for her jewelry and valuable papers, if that ,riding place .were located in such dark, awesome surroundings. No. The hiding place, if it really existed—and it must exist—had been within easy reach of Nita dressing and bedecking herself for a party, orycI rr t µ, T.a Cacould not have been kept in complete ignorance of its location, With that conviction in mind, "Dun- aee returned to Nita's bedroom, to which` he had already devoted at least half an hour. Nothing in the big clothes closet, where Flora Miles had been hiding * •hile Nita was being murdered. No secret drawer. in desk or dressing table or bedside table. No false bottom in boudoir chair or chaise lounge... He had even taken every book out of the four -shelf bookcase which stood against the west wall near the north corner of the room, and had satisfied himself that no book was a leafless fake. His close inspection of the bathroom and batt: hall, upon which Nita's bed- room opened, had proved as fruitless, although he had removed every draw- er from the big linen press which stood in the hall, and measured'°spaces to a fraction of an inch. As for the walls, they were, except for the doors, unbroken expanses of tinted plaster. And yet— He stepped into the clothes closet again, Lammer in hand for a fresh tapping of the cedar -board walls. No- thing I ere... And then he tapped again, his ear against the end wall of the closet—the wall farthest from the side porch.. Yes! There was a faintly hollow echo of the hammer stroes! Excitement blazing high again, he tcok the tape measure with which he had provided himself on his way out, and calculated the length of the closet from end to end. Six feet.. , Emerging from the closet he closed his eyes in an effort to recall in exact detail the architect's blueprint of the lower floor. Yes, that was right! The inner end wall of Nita's clothes closet was also the *tack of the guest closet in the little foyer that lay. between. Nita's bedroom and the moan hall. Within ten minutes, much laying on of the tape manure had produced a startling result. Instead of having a wall in common, the guest closet and Nita's clothes. Closet were separated by exactly 11 inches! Why the waste ,space? The blueprint bearing the im- print of the architects, Hammond & Rammond, showed no such walled -up cubbyhole! Exultantly, Dundee again entered Nita's closet and went over every inch 44 the farrow, hoy.'izort . cedar boards which formed the end wall. But he met with no reward. Not through this workmanlike, :validly cons strutted wall bad an opening been made. But it the foyer closet he read a different story. Its baa: wall had an It is as though 1: had. returned to other countries, to notice the good gaze upon an exquisite tapestry' that humored English "Bobbie" admonish had hung for many centuries .;iu the the crotivd when they pressed in too same honored place, Here and there closely toward the big gates. Every- a thread has been broken or 'worn one opened up again with pleasing away, perhaps, but it has been 1e' grace, as he waved them hack into Paired so thoroughly that the design place. Ile did it with a slight motion is undisturbed. The background was put in with such solid, painstaking el• of bis hand and a smile on his face. 1 tort that it has stood the test of;years; like these London policemen; they are friendly souls,, ready to give, you in - and, if tears have sotnotimes dropped orked stitches, the formation or prepared to stretch out on those closely we been a protecting hand when the traffic have gold and silver threads n v notsurges too heavily. tarnished. While I am on the subject of the Looking at London with eyes that had longed for many Years, I did not handling of traffic, 1 would like'to com- search for nor count the new build- went upon a condition that impressed ings; in fact, I must confess that there me very much — theabsence of were some of which I was not even "don'ts" in the traffic rules. This is cog nizant. This sort eee progress has not peculiar in London; my companion and I observed it all over England. been going on all over the world and there are some of us who absorb the Motorists are requested, not command - results unconsciously. Regent Street ed; admonished, not threatened. Even has maintained its crescent end the the signs on the road are worded po- flower women still rest their 'takets litely. A reckless driver of the most of fragrance at the feet of Eros. Strut- harclee.ed caliber would find it impos- ture by structure a more modern set- Bible, I think, to resist the appeal: ting is being built around Westmin- "Gently, please." ster, but those delicately wrought pin- We bad previously decided that the nacles, ethereal against the smoky most interesting way to renew our London sky, still grip ones hearte for, acquaintance with the English coun- unless a frame is so unfitting .eilee be tryside would be to hire an automobile noticeable, the picture rematideieu.clis- and drive ourselves whither we would. The courtesy shown us by our fellow ISSUE No. 53 '32 turbed. The morning sun11l plays upon the fountains in Square and on the steel gray e pigeons wheeling around the Nelson's Column. In Kensi_ng dens the sheep move lazily asi neath the trees, cropping the they go, and one may still ima`. music of a pastorale or the R echo of Peter Pan's voice, cal I shall not soon forget an raw still ?Agar 'gs of e of Gar - ,'r be- es as >ib the `waY :ring one Morning—the firstmorniee in Before long we gave ourselves up to London. Our windows looked Kiat to the joy of the moment. Could any - Whitehall Court and very early, erbile thing be lovelier than England in Sep - the light was still faint, I heard the tember? The trees were green and sound of bagpipes skirling. Nearer leafy, with no suggestion, as yet, of and nearer it came along until I was winter; for the seasons still seem to impelled to run to the window. Along the street, his tartans swirling around him, came a stalwart piper, followed by a detachment of red -coated guards. Thep kept perfect formation and marched with all the pomp and cere- mony of the centuries that lie behind the pageantry of London, Noteven the sonorous chiming of Big Ben, close at hand, had thrilled me more. The changing of the guard at Buck- ingham Palace still goes on, •SII. saw the gay scarlet of the uniforms mass- ed against the background , of .those motorists was most gratefully re- ceived, for we were conscious that this was our first experience in many years of driving on the left-hand side of the road. We left London with the feel- ing that everyone traveling toward, or with us, would be instantly aware of our inexperience and perhaps consider us objects' of annoyance. But a few miles brought us reassurance. the bedroom. The big lamp was where he had first seen it—about a foot be- yond the window nearest the porch, and at the, head of the chaise lounge which was set between the tw„q_,west windows, where, according td Lyda, the lamp ,always stood. The too -long cord lay slackly along the floor near the- west wall, and extended to the double outlet on the baseboard behind the bookcase.... A slack cord! Down on his hands and knees. Dun- dee went, to peer under the low bot- tom shelf of the bookcase. Yes! The pronged plug of the lamp cord had been jerked almost out of the baseboard outlet! It was easy to vis- ualize what had happened.: The mur- derer, after firing the shot, had invol- untarily taken a step or even several steps backward, until his foot had caught in the loop of electric cord, causing the big lamp to be thrown violently against the wall near which it stood.... But who? Anyone of half a dozen people! But —who? (To be continued.) Superb Quality Always E A "Fresh from the +Garden r Bell -Ringing in Italy When you conte to think of it, it is really astounding Ito r much individu- ality Were is in hells and bell -ringing throughout Italy. Used as we are to the peals and the well -ordered tradi- tions of bell -ringing in England, per- haps we are apt at first to be a little contemptuous of what seems to be the harunl-scarum jangling of • bells in Italian towns. But hearken patiently and eventually you will find something like order emerging out of chaos and, before you know it, you will find your- self becoming fond of what you first regarded as nothing but a cacopho- nous din. The bells are uiimistakably different in tone from English bells. They are not so mellow and, as a matter 0f fact, some of them are positively harsh .and raucous. Not a few of them are cracked and hoarse. But, in some subtle way, they fit into the picture as nothing else could and you would miss them terribly were they silenced. The method of ringing—or, perhaps, you prefer 'to call it the lack of method— come less violently here than in some parts of the world. Not until we found ourselves much further north did we discern any yellowing leaves. The quiet, low-lying meadows of Bucking- hamshire and Oxfordshire looked so verdant that we wondered if we had forgotten their green, or if they were more green this year than ever before. We meanderedthrough villages—re- joicing to find familiar landmarks -- passing the lovely old ivy-covered houses of Chalfont St. Giles and the unspoiled red brick and timbered cot- tages ,of Wickham End. There was a common where I had once, as a little child, gathered wild foxgloves; and still farther along a signpost, pointing to a, 'footpath across the fields, remind- ed us of a place where we had both s'pent'_many happy hours. And -so -on all the way to Oxford.. We found no perceptible changes here. Perhaps we did` not look for them. We seemed to be, as it were, turning the pages of a well -loved book. We knew so much of it already by heart that we were sure of the enjoyment to be found on each page. It seemed fitting that nightfall should find us in Stratford -on -Avon, the little town that nestles in the very heart of England and yet belongs to all the world. To sleep in an old four -post bed, in a room with lattice windows, appeared a right culmination to a day into which so many memories had been crowded. We found ourselves, one Sunday evening, beneath the turrets and bat- tlements of Ludlow. We walked through the quiet streets of the tittle town that still appears to shelter un - A Romance? Rumor has it that Mr, "Tarzana." Johnny Weissmuller, the f, tn.i is r tirinimer Is a great deal iii, the Company of Lupe Velez, screen slur. IZere wee see him teaching the Lupe to cycle. Stiffen; in every city and town. Vette tian bell -ringing is not to be confound- ed wit:. Florentine bell -ringing, any more than the note of the Meme'-ona could bo mistaken for the voice of the major bell of the Duomo in Florence. Rona u bells, again, are every bit as individual in tone, and the manner in. which they are rung, as are the bells of either Florence or Venice, Whether it be the Marangbua's deep -throated crash that sends Saint Mark's pigeons circling upward from the Piazza, or .whether it be the snarling roarof the great bell in Giotto's tower, with all the lesser bells of Florence following in chorus, Italian bell music adds much to' the complex charm of the land. At San ,Sepoicro'the campanile and bells make a very characteristic feature of the town, and,one is glad to hear the metallic clanguor as many times a day as it pleases the ringers to pull tate ropes.—Froin "Down the Tiber aka Up to Rome," by Harold Donaldson Eberlein, Geoffrey J. Marks, Frank A. Wallis, der those dominant walls, and then our steps led us to the footpath that follows the outer line of the castle. In contrast to the peaceful valley of the Tenie, these mighty stoneworks tower- ed above us like cliffs and eve were re- minded of the part this great castle had played in the history of the Bor- der. Gradually the dusk crept over the Stretton hills beyond the river and the shadows deepened beneath the arches of the old stone bridge. Little groups of people . passed us. sauntering; a band of youths, a mother taking her small flock home to bed; an aged couple, a boy and girl, arm in arm. We felt ourselves slipping into place with those people and once again we felt ourselves a part of England. Waiting there in the twilight, we talked no more of those old warlike Lords of the Marches, but into our thoughts crept some lines from Hous - man's lovely poem: "Oh come you home of Sunday When Ludlow streets are still And Ludlow- bells are calling To farm and lane and mill. "Leave your home behind you, , Your friends by field and town; 00, town and field will mind you Till Ludlow tower is down." —Gwen. Castle, in The Christian Science Monitor. . The Future of Britain By STANLEY BALDWIN There are times when you think you can see some way ahead, but I think the man who says he can see some way ahead is a charlatan. We must not begin to think what we are going to do in the future un- til we have got this country a great deal straighter than it is now. We have got our economic !Jolley through as a national government in a way we never could have got it through as a party. We have got it working now with the approbation of practically the whole country, and for that reason it is very unlikely to be upset by any future government unless' it falls of its purpose. If it fails—well, then I cannot see what lies before this country., Every- thing, except what we have done, has been tried, and the attempts have all ended in failure and in dis- aster. Don't let names "distract you. There are things happening in the industry of the world today that -sill undoubtedly lead in the course of the next generation to some form of con- trol, and :international control. Don't run away with the idea that this is socialism. Socialism has no mean- ing today in the economics of this country. First Politician—"I suppose you have said things that you were sore ry for?" Seemed politician—"Oh, yes, but I have always managed to show that I was misquoted," Each of the unemployed men in, Bo- livia is ehtftled to obtain from the Government the gold washing rights tit five acres in La Paz area. New Gloves Mystery gloves, fashioned of extra thin black silk lace, are all the rage in Paris at the moment. They are said to enhance the whiteness of arms and hands. Map Making Today Making a map of the world is no longer simply a matter of cloistered draftsmen,• difficulties encountered by. the National Geographical Society in completing their recently published world map demonstrated. Stopping the"presses three times in the final weeks of publication of the map in order to make ,changes neces- sitated by new developments in the complicated maze, of international re- lations, and by unexpected changes in names of cities, was only one of in- numerable obstacles faced in the society's task of trying to make an up- to-the-minute picturization of the world, Probably the most trying task of the numerous preliminary details, the society said, was that of obtaining the correct spellings of names of cities and countries. Tile Japanese Embas- sy, on one occasion, in order to deter- mine whether` a final "0" should be placed on the word "Manchukuo," wars forced to cable half way around the world. The answer was "yes." Many names, which have been .fa. miller to the world at large for ceu' turies, fail to appear on this latest map. In their place appear other names, unrecognizable to most people, For example, "Nizhni Novgorod," famed for centuries as a great Russian city, now appears as "Maxim Gorki," The Hague is now "'s Gravenhage," although ,the former name is listed in parenthesis to help, the reader. SwYr" no is listed under its newest name- "Izmir." The physical problem of printing the map and distributing it was in ie self no mean task. More than forty two tons of a particular kind of paper were used in making it, and more than 5,000,000 impressions were made, dur- ing which process the sheets traveled an estimated -total distance of more than 2,569 miles. Nearly two tone of special inks were used, Wit is an unexpected eyploeioii of thought. "What do you think of aur mural tablets?" asked the cathedral verger. "Waal," drawled the Amerlean visi- tor," "I put a penny in tho box over there, but nothing Came out; so guess 1 didn't get a chance to tr,y, them."