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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1936-04-02, Page 6PAGE SIX WINGHAM ADVANCE-TIMES Thursday, April 2nd, 193® ijCOst WOMAN REX BEAC-H THIRD INSTALMENT SYNOPSIS: Amos Ethridge is found murdered in a country lane with a crude cross of twigs on. his breast and a scented sheet of note paper in liis pocket. He was the richest man in the state with power and influence enough to make himself a candidate for Governor, With his death came hints of an unsavory private life, of scandal that might come to light 5f the murder is investigated too ■closely. . . , Mary Holmes, a former opera singer whose career was wreck ed when she lost her voice at the birth of her son, lives in squalor nearest the scene of the crime. . . . Gerald Holmes, her son, is both loved and hated by his mother, who tries to forget the past by drowning her sorrow in drink. . . . Gerald is engag ed to lovely Hazel Woods, actress and protege of the murdered Eth ridge. “Oh, dozens, I daresay! But I guess they , haven’t made much actual pro gress. My belief is they don’t want to discover who did the shooting.” “You mean on account of the—?’’ “Secret order nothing!” Mrs. Hol mes exclaimed. They didn’t kill Amos Ethridge.” • “Who did?” “A woman.” “What makes you so positive?” “Why, the circumstances; the evi dence; the things I saw on the spot.” The speaker seated herself and began to rock vigorously. As she bent her mind upon the task of visualizing the scene of the tragedy, her gaze be came preoccupied, her face changed. Her features were puffed and coars ened by drink, to be sure, but upon them now was stamped an expres sion indicative of more than ordinary mental power; it was as if a lamp had been lighted behind a dirty, cob webbed window-pane. “To begin with the number and location of the bullet holes told a story. There were seven of them—he was shot to pieces. She shot him twice, so close that1 there were powder burns on his shirt; then .she' stood over him and emptied her automatic into his body. It must have been an automatic, from the number of shots. For that matter, we picked up the empty shells where they had been ejected. Another thing, she must have known this back road well, and lane; she must have known he'd have to get out and open the gate. That proves she had often been to his house with him, doesn’t it?" “But why would he travel this road at all when, the macadam leads right up to his gates? The papers ask that?” “Political! He was in the race for the Governorship and he had enem ies. Probably he knew they were watching him, No candidate for the highest political office in the state could afford to have it known that his private life was corrupt.” “Min-m!Even yet I can’t see what makes you so positive it was a worn- an. “You’re as stupid as the police! If there had been one bullet hole, or even two, it would have indicated a man’s hand. But those other five shots were fired by somebody in a frenzy— somebody who was hysterical—com pletely out of his head. Or hers! It was the act of an insanely jealous woman—or—or a man like you.” “Mother!” Gerald protested, sharp ly. “Don’t talk like that, even in fun. The mere fact that a fellow can draw, has an eye for color, is no sign that he’s effeminate.” “Oh, don’t worry! This is just my own theory—” “Pretty weak, I’m afraid." “—and I don’t intend to tell it to the detectives. There are a lot of peo ple in Westland who’d rather see Amos Ethridge where he is today than in the Governor’s chair. And I’m one of them. Look at that cross over his heart and that letter in his pocket. D’you think a man would have stopped to make a cross out of twigs and lay it on his breast? No! More power to the woman, I say. The hand of God will protect her. If we had more women like her we’d have less unhappiness, fewer ruined lives and—and blasted careers. He had the'money and the,look's to do any thing. He was a whited sepulcher!” “He had the money to send me to art school, too,” Gerald countered, with some feeling, “And to pay my way for four years. Just because he saw one of my drawings on a paper bag—full of eggs! You never thanked him. You hated him for it, but—” “Thank him? For making an artist out of you? An artist?” Mary Holmes uttered a scornful sound. “You were enough like your father without that.” Gerald sighed and shook his head in discouragement. His mother was indeed dicicult —- a queer woman, “Let's not talk about him or about father,” said he. “What I came to see you about is the case itself. I—I wish to Heaven I’d been here, so I could have prevented those wretched news- papers’—I’m afraid you’ll be called as a witness next.” “Well, what if I am called?" “Why—think! You must have been hurt by what they said. If you go on the stand they’ll want to know all about us, past history, everything. The lawyers will dig it out and the newspapers will make the most of it" “Humph!! Maybe they’ll treat me differently when they know who I am.” Gerald stared at the shapeless fig ure in the rocking chair for a mom ent, then reluctantly he made Up his mind to speak as gently as possible, but as plainly as necessary. “Mother, dear, you don’t under stand what it would mean, for you can’t see how you—well, how you have changed! It hurts me to say it, but I’m afraid the papers wouldn’t treat you as sympathetically as you imagine, or as you deserve. It it so much easier to ridicule than to sym pathize or to condone.” “Oh, I see! Meanwhile, you’re speaking more for yourself than for me." “I’m speaking for both of us! Can’t you understand that I’m having a hard battle to make something out of myself? Why handicap me more? Westland isn’t a large city—” “Mother, you don’t understand.” I JOIN IN REJOICING ILTALIAN VICTORIES “And of course you couldn’t be known as the son of the ‘goose wo man’! Your friends would sneer at you!” Gerald defended .himself hotly: “I’m not a cad. I’m not ashamed of our poverty. But I do have some pride, some decency, and I associate ■with the best people: I can. It shocks me, it breaks my Heart to see you steadily deteriorate. I’ve done what I could to stop it—” “What have you ever done, except King Vittorio Emmahurie of Italy (LEFT) stands beside the larger fig ure of Dictator Benito Musfolin'i in the Piazza Venezia. Clad in helmets and military uniform, they participat ed in the solemn mass Wore the Emmanuele statue, for the Italian of ficers and men who lost their lives In the first battle of Adowa, 40 years ago. Italy was also rejoicing at the Italian victories at Enderta and Mount Alaji in Ethiopia. preach?” Mrs. Holmes broke out, angrily, “I never preached! Please, please don't let s quarrel, or at any rate let me say what I have to say first. You resent my profession because my talent—what little I have—came from my father. You actually hate me at times, because when I was born your voice went. As if that were my fault! I can understand that, after a fashion, but other things I can’t understand. For instance, why have you always tried to strangle what ever there was in me? Oh, you have! When I used to sing or play, it threw | you into a rage and you whipped me. I Why, just think, I might have in- | herited your musical talent! When j I tried to draw pictures you slapped I my hands. Thank God, Mr. Ethridge | Saw something in my drawings and ' encouraged me to defy you and—and Tmake something of myself! You yield- ! ed finally because you felt sure I’d ! fail. When I made good you refused j to let me come home; threw me out; j said you never wanted to see me again." “When you’re like this I certainly do hate you,” Mrs. Holmes admitted in a Voice totally without feeling. “You are your father all over again, “I know! And you blame all this” —with a comprehensive gesture Ger ald indicated the ugly, squalid, dis orderly kitchen—“on him. But I dont. He isn’t to blame. It’s the liquor, mother. And the terrible part of it all is that—you’re getting worse. Noth ing I say seems to have any effect and of course you don’t care what I think. But it makes you mad when the newspapers say it. Well, they’ll say it again, and a lot more, if you become a witness in this Ethridge case. Your story will be published from one end of the country to the other. That would end me—my career, I mean.” “Your career! What do you know about a career?” “Not—hot as much as you know, of course. But, mother, you must have some pride left in that career of your, in your name. Surely drink hasn’t entirely killed your selfrespect. Even though my feelings and my fut ure are matters of indifference to you, do you want the world to know that you were deserted by your husband and became a—well, a drunkard apd a woman of ill repute, as the papers had it? Do you want them to know Jhat the notorious ‘goose woman in the Ethridge, case is really the once glorious Maria di Nardi?" The object of this appeal rose and tramped about the room, In spite of the fact that she was not very sure of her movements, in spite of her un tidy appearance, heightened by the drab, stringy hair that drooped care lessly upon her neck and forehead and the'slipshod manner in which she wore her garments, there was never theless an air of importance about her and a dignity to her carriage.- “So! I’m a drunkard, a common woman, a low character—all those rotten scandal sheets said! And my own son agrees—tells me so with his own lips!" The speaker’s voice was hoarse with passion, vibrant with dis like. “You dare to say such things to my face! ... You want to know what ails me, what has become of my pride, what has driven me down into the mud and keeps me there, Well, it isn’t the liquor. It’s—it’s you!" .. “Mother!” “Oh, I mean it! D’you- think I drink because I like the stuff? I drink to kill what’s in me here'!’’ Mrs. Hol mes clutched fiercly at her bosom. “It stupefies me so I can’t think, so I can’t remember. I’d have died, other wise. You took my voice—” Again Gerald uttered a cry of pro test, but the speaker ran on, “You robbed me of my one great talent, my glory. Yes, I was glorious! Every body said so. Kings and Queens were at my feet, the world worshipped me. ‘Career’! I had a career—but you kill ed it. You! When you were born you changed me from a nightingale into a frog. Where would I live if not in the mud? D’you wonder I detest you when I think of what you d.id? . . . You’re beginning to understand what a career means and it frightens you to think of losing it. You’re begin ning to understand that it means more than money, more than friends, more than love, more than anything in this whole world. That it’s bigger than all of them. Well, it ought to make you feel like an assassin, for when you killed my voice you did more than ruin Mary Holmes, your mother; you murdered Maria di Nardi the opera singer, the artist, the great est contralto in Europe. In the Heav en’s name, haven’t you done enough, taken enough, without robbing me of what little comfort is left? A chicken farmer. Me! A—a ‘goose woman’!” Mrs. Holmes threw back her head and laughed wildly. “What a joke!” She sank heavily into her rocker and swayed her body from side to side. “Oh, my God! What a joke!” Gerald rose and laid a -hand upon her drab, uncombed hair. He could remember dimly, as if in some child hood dream, when that hair had been shiny and fragrant and almost golden in color and when it had been proudly worn. That memory left him low in mind and sick in body. “Is it alto gether fair to hold me responsible for the loss of your voice?” he in quired. Mrs. Holmes shook off his hand, cryng: “Don’t paw me!.‘Fair’? Is any thing fair. Has life been fair to me?” “Perhaps I shouldn’t have spoken as I did. But don’t misunderstand me. I’ve lived long enough to learn that there are forces outside of ourselves that are too big, too resistless, to be overcome, so I dont’ blame you for the way you feel, mother, for what you’ve done or for the dreadful , change that has come over you. J ! don’t even reproach you. I only I pity—” | “I don’t ward pity!” the woman I cried, furiously. The gin she had' drunk earlier in the evening had ) failed this time to stupefy; it had merely deadened what was gentle in | her and roused what was savage and I hateful. Emotionally she was in tur- I moil. The truth . of Gerald’s accus ations had engendered blind resent ment and a fierce impulse to defend herself, to fight back, to hurt him as he had hurt her. A rat will bite when crushed. “I had something in mind to tell you the last time I came out.” the boy was saying, “but you were in no m6od to listen. I must tell you now, in view of what has happened this week. I’ve been working Hard and getting ahead slowly. It won't be Business and Professional Directory HARRY FRY Licensed Embalmer and Wellington Mutual Fire Insurance Co. Established 1840, Risks taken on all classes of insur ance at reasonable rates. Head Office, Guelph, Ont. ABNER COSENS, Ag-ent. Wingham. Dr. W. A. McKibben, B.A. PHYSICIAN And SURGEON Located at the Office of the Late Dr, H. W. Colborne. Office Phone 54. Nights 107 Fuaeral Director j Furniture and Funeral Service J Ambulance Service. I Phones: Day 117. Night 10». DR. R. L. STEWART PHYSICIAN Telephone 29. J. W. BUSHFIELD Barrister, Solicitor, Notary, Etc. Money to Loan. Office — Meyer Block, Wingham Successor to Dudley Holmes. THOMAS FELLS AUCTIONEER REAL ESTATE SOLD A Thorough knowledge of Farm Stock. Phone 231, Wingham. Dr. Robt. C. REDMOND M.R.C.S. (England) L.R.C.P. (London) PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON / ■ ... . . J. H. CRAWFORD Barrister, Solicitor, Notary, Etc. Successor to R. Vanstone. Wingham Ontario It Will Pay You to Have An EXPERT AUCTIONEER to conduct .your sale. . See T. R. BENNETT At The Royal Service Station. Phone 174W. DR. W. M. CONNELL PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON Phone 19. R. S. HETHERINGTON BARRISTER and SOLICITOR Office — Morton Block. Telephone No. 66 J. ALVIN FOX Licensed Drugless Practitioner CHIROPRACTIC - DRUGLESS THERAPY - RADIONIC EQUIPMENT Hours by Appointment. Phone 191. Wingham W. A. CRAWFORD, M.D. Physician and Surgeon Located at the office of the late Dr. J. P. Kennedy. Phone 150 Wingham F. A. PARKER OSTEOPATH All Diseases Treated. Office adjoining residence next to Anglican Church on Centre St. Sunday by appointment Osteopathy Electricity Phone 272. Hours, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. A. R. & F. E. DUVAL CHIROPRACTORS CHIROPRACTIC and ELECTRO THERAPY North Street — Wingham Telephone 300. MONUMENTS at first cost Havihg our factory equipped with the most modern machinery for the exe cution of high-class work, we ask you to see the largest display of monu ments of any retail factory in Ontario. All finished by sand blast machines. We import all our granites from the Old Country quarries direct, in the rough, You can save all local deal ers’, agents’ and middleman profits by seeing us, B. J. Skelton & Son at West End Bridge—WALKERTON long, I hope, until I can make a home for both o'f us—for all three of us. I’m going to—get married.” Mary Holmes stared at him dully. Here was another shock—to think of Jerry as no longer a boy, but as a man old enough to consider marry ing. “You can’t get married. Who’d marry you, the ‘goose woman’s son?" she inquired. “That’s-what I’m getting at. I don’t propose to be known as the ‘goose woman’s son. I propose to take you out of this if you’ll let me. I propose to have you come and live with us and leave all this behind, if—” “Then you’ve picked out the girl?” Gerald nodded. He flushed, and his sensitive, eager face slowly illumin ated, glorified by an expression his mother had never seen it wear. It was an expression, by the way, that caused the years to roll back" and remem brance to smite her. He was, for the moment, the living image of his father. ’ (Continued Next Week) “When I was a boy,” said a gray haired' physician, who was in a rem- iniscent mood, “I wanted to be a sol dier, but my parents persuaded me to study medicine.” “Oh, well,” consoled his sympa thetic neighbor, “such is life. Many a man with wholesale ambitions has to content himself with a retail busi ness.” “Dear teacher, the next time our Willie is a bad boy,” ran a letter to a school-mistress, “smack him on the face, because he wears his pants out soon enough without you helping him.” Subscription Renewals 2.60 1 Phone 34Box 473, Wingham NOTICE! Due to an advance to us of the rates of some of the various daily papers with which The Advance-Times offers clubbing rates it is necessary that the new schedule of prices listed below go into effect at once. You may renew your subscription to your favorite daily with your facili-Advance-Times subscription and effect a saving. Use the ties we offer you: The AdvanceTimes and the Toronto Daily Star ...... The Advance-Times and the Toronto Daily Globe....... The Advance-Times and the Daily Mail & Empire . .... The Advance-Times and the London Free Press.......... The Advance-Times and the London Advertiser ...... 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