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The Wingham Advance Times, 1931-11-26, Page 6AGE SIX Wingl*am Advance -Times.. P iblistted at WINGHAM OiNTARIQ Every Thursiay Morning W. Logan Craig - Publisher' subscription rates One year moo. six months $1,00, in advance. To U. S, A. $2;50 per year, Advertising rates m application. Wellington Mutual Fire Insurance Go. Established 1840 Risks taken on all class of instar» lace at reasonable rates. Head Office, Guelph, Ont. ,ABNER COSENS, Agent, Wingharn J. W. DODD :Two doors south of Field's Butcher shop. FIRE, LIFE, ACCIDENT AND HEALTH INSURANCE AND REAL ESTATE P. 0. Box 366 Phone 46 WINGHAM, ONTARIO J. W. BUSHFIELD Barrister, Solicitor, Notary, Etc. Money to Loan Office --Meyer Block, Wingham Successor to Dudley Holmes J. H. CRAW FORD Barrister, Solicitor, Notary, Etc. Successor to R. Vanstone '!Wingham Ontario J. A. MORTON BARRISTER. ETC. Wingham, Ontario gaziavms.0394 aseglaalmoloslaansoolistor DR. G. H. ROSS DENTIST Office Over Isard's Store H. W. COLBORNE, M.D. Physician and Surgeon Medical Representative D. S. C. R. Successor to Dr. W. R. Hambly Phone 54 Wingham DR. ROBT. C. REDMOND 7d R C.S. (ENG.) L.R.C.P. (Lond.) PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON DR. R. L. STEWART Graduate of University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine; Licentiate of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. Office in Chisholm Block Josephine 'Street. Phone 29 DR. G. W. HOWSON DENTIST Office over John Galbraith's Store. F. A. PARKER OSTEOPATH All Diseases Treated Office adjoining residence next to Anglican Church on Centre Street. Sundays by appointment. Osteopathy Electricity ''hone 272. Hours, 9 a.m. to.8 D.M. A. R. & F. E. DUVAL Licensed Drogles. ?ractitioners Chiropractic and Electro Therapy. 'Graduates of Canadian Chiropractic College, Tot00tat9; and N6tt9i I Cq( 1cge, Chie'ago ' int of tewtt and night calls res oonded to. All business confidential. i.. Ph9ne 344, ardl'Y` ' J. ALVIN FOX if 'egisteted t rttgless Practitioner 1 CHIROPRACTIC ANIS DRUGLESS P.RACTICDI! ELECTRO -THERAPY Ph,. Hours; 2»5, 4-6, far by, 4g'p'poiiitnten't. .,...»' Phone 191, THOMAS FELLS AUCTIONEER REAL ESTATE SOLD thorough knowledge of Farm Stock Phone 281, Wingham HE WING4A,114, ADVANCE -TIMES SYNOPSIS Six people, Horace Johnson (who tells the story), his wife, old Mrs. Dane, Herbert Robinson and his sis- ter, Alice, and Dr. Sperry, friends and neighbors, are in the habit of holding weekly meetings. At one of them, Mrs. Dane, who is hostess, varies the program by unexpectedly arranging a spiritualistic seance with {Miss Jere- my, a friend of Dr. Sperry and not a professional, as the medium. At the first sitting the medium tell the details of a murder as it is occur ring. Later that night Sperry learn that a neighbour, Arthur Wells, ha been shot mysteriously. With John son he goes to the Wells resident and they find confirmation of th medium's account. Mrs. Wells tell them her husband shot himself in fit of depression. The French maid admits she went cut at the time 'Wells was shut, tele- phoning from a nearby drug store. Johnson goes to the drug store where the clerk tells him the maid phoned to the Ellingham house, telling some- body there not "to call that night." At a second seance, Miss Jeremy adds details about a summer resort where Charles Ellingham was known to have been at the sane time tha Mrs. Wells .was there. She also tell of a pocketbook being lost which contained some important car tickets and letters. Mrs. Dane, alone of the women, seems thrilled by the investi- gation. Johnson goes, alone and investi- gates the deserted house. He is fri- ghtened by strange noises, as of an intruder in the house, but completes his investigation. He leaves the house and in his ex- citement carries off ,the fire tongs, leaving them in his olyn hall rack where his wife discovers them the next morning and reproaches him for his nocturnal wanderings. He also forgets to bring away his overcoat, which is carrier. off by the myster- ious stranger. Mrs. Dale learns of his peculiar actions and charges him with possessing an unsuspected sense of humor. He visits Mrs. Dane and tells her how he had carried off the fire -tongs and left behind his overcoat in his excitement. She then tells hire she had advertised for the finder of the pocketbook and turns over to John- son an answer she had received from one having guilty knowledge of the crime, Dr, Sperry announces he is to be married to Miss Jeremy when the club meats again. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY the police, to find if he had really been out of the 'Wells house tha night, now almost two weeks 'ago when Arthatr Wells had been killed That evening. I went to Sperry' house, after telephoning that I was coining. On the way, 1 stopped in at Mrs. Dane's, and secured something Born her, She was 'wildly curious, and made me promise to go in on my way back and explain. I made a compro- mise. ed. in a way, I felt sorry for Sperry, t , Here he •avast on the first day of. his I�engagennent, protesting her honesty, ? I her complete ignorance of the revela- tion she had made and his intention to keep her in ignorance, and yet be- Itraying his own anxiety and possible doubt in the same breath. "She dill not even know there was a family named Wells. When I said that Hawkins. had been employed by the Wells, it meant nothing to her. I was watching." So even Sperry was watching. He was in love with her, but his scientific mind, like my legal one, was slow to accept what during the past two ,weeks it had been asked to accept. 1 left him at ten o'clock. Mrs. Dane was still at her window, and her far- sighted old eyes caught me as I tried to steal past. She rapped on the win- dow, and I was obliged to go in, Obliged, too, to tell her of the dis- covery, and at last, of Hawkins being in the Connell house. "I want those letters, Horace," .she said at last. "So do I. I'm not going to steal them." "The question is, where has he got them?" "The question, dear lady, that they are not ours to take." "They are not his, either." Well, that was true enough. But I had done all the private investigating I cared. And I told her so. She only sinned cryptically.' • The following day was Monday When I came downstairs I found a neat bundle lying in the hall, and ad- dressed to- me. My wife had followed me down, and we surveyed it togeth- er. It was my overcoat! My overcoat, apparently uninjured, but with the "I will come in if I have anything s to tell you," I said, Sperry was waiting for me in his s library, standing by the fire, with the $ e e s a t s Sperry turned to me when he had gone out. -"That was Hawkins, Hor- ace," he said. 'You remember, don't you? The Wellses' butler." "I knew him at once." "He wrote to me asking for a posi- tion, ,and I got him this. Looks sick, poor devil. I intend to have a go at his chest." °'�Totiy I,9n has' he been here?" grave face and slightly bent head of his professional manner. "I wonder," I said, "if you kept the letter Hawkins wrote you when he asked for a position." He was not sure, He went into his consulting room and was gone for some time. I took the opportunity to glance over his books and over the room.. Arthur Well's stick was standing in. a corner, and I took it up and exam-, ined it. It was an English malacca, light and strong and had seen service. It was long, too long for me: it oc- curred to me that Wells had been about my height, and that it was odd that he should have carried so long a stick. There was no ease in swing- ing it. From that to the memory of Haw - kin's "face when Sperry took it, the night of the murder,. in the hall of the Wells house, was only a step. I seemed that day to be -thinking con- siderably about Hawkins. When Sperry returned I laid the stick on the table. There can be no doubt that I did . so, for I had to move a book rack to place it. One end, the handle, was near the ink - collection of keys I had made an"ass» ing, The address, was printed, not mit. ten, in a large, strong, hand, with a. stub pen. I did not, atthe time, not- ice the loss of certain papers which had been in the breast pocket.'{ am rather absent-minded, and it was not until the night after the third sitting that they were recalled to, nay Mind.: At something after eleven ,Herbert Robinson called Inc up at my office. He was at Sperry's house, Sperry having been his physician during his wrecent illness. I say, Horace, this is Herbert, "Yes, How are you?" "Doing well, Sperry says, I'm at his place now. I'm speaking for him. He's got a patient." „Yes.,, "You were here last night, he says. Do you happen to .have noticed walking- stick in the library when you were here?" "Yes, I saw it." "You didn't, by aty chance, take it home with you? "No," "Are you sure?" "Certainly I'm -sure." "Suppose we'll see you tonight?" ' "Not unless you .ring off and let me do some work," I said irritably. He rang off. I was ruffled, I ad- mit; but I was uneasy, also. It was that day that I discovered that I was being watched. I did not tell my wife that evening After dinner I went into our re- ception room, which is not lighted unless we are expecting guests, and peered out of the window, The de- tective,• or whoever he might be, was walking negligently up the street. As that was the night of the third seance, 1 find that my record covers the fact that Mrs. Dane was house- cleaning, for which reason we' had not been asked to dinner, that my wife and I dined early, at six -thirty, and- that ndthat it was seven o'clock when Sperry called me by telephone, and asked me to accompany him to the Wells' house to sere. if we could find the oth- er overcoat. He slipped an arm- through mine when I joined him, and we started down ,,the street, "I'm going to get to Thuars., November 6th, 1931 the bottom of this, :Horace, old dear," he said. "Rtmeniber, we're pledged to a l"y investigative chic in. tive only. esti aa�� "Rats!" he said rudely, "We are going to find out who killed Arthur Wells, and if he deserves hanging we. will hang hint," "Or her?" "1 t wasn't Elinor Wells,' 'he said positively, "Here's the point: if lee's been afraid to go back for his over-, coat it's still there, I don't expect that, however, But the thing about the curtain interests ,me,. l've been reading over my copy of the notes on the sittings. It was said, you remem- bcr,, that curtains—some curtains -- would have been better places to hide the letters than the bag," I stopped suddenly, "13y Sperry," I said. "I remember now. My notes of the sittings were in my overcoat," "And they are gone?" ' "They are gone," • He whistled softly. "That's unfor- tunate," he said. "Then the other person, whoever he is, knows what we know!" "Just where does Haivkins come in, Sperry?" I asked, "I'm damned if 1 know;" he re- flected. "We may learn tonight." The Wells house was dark and for- bidding, but I led the way With coin- parative familiarity. "In case the door is locked, I have a few skeleton keys," said Sperry. We had reached the end of the nar- row passage, and emerged into the square of brick and grass that lay be- hind the house. While the night was clear, the place lay in comparative darkness. Sperry stumbled over some thing, and muttered to himself, The rear porch lay in deep shadow. We went up the steps together. Then Sperry stopped, and I advanced to the doorway. It was locked. The lock gave way to manipulation at last, , and the door swung open. There came to us the heavy odor ;of, all closed houses, a' combination of carpets, cooked food, and floor wax. "Now, friend Horace," he said, "if you have matches, we will look for the overcoat, and then we will go up stairs." As vee had anticipated, there wan ne overcoat in the library, and after' listening a moment at the kltchee door, we ascended a rear staircase lee tlie upper floor. I had, it will be re-, membered, fallen • from a chair on a., table in the dressing room, and had., left them thus overturned when X. charged to the third floor•. The room.,; however, was now, in perfect Qrder,,, and when I held my candle to the ceiling, I perceived that the bullet, hole had again been repaired, and this time with such skill that 1 could not; even locate it. "We are up against someone clev- erer loyerer than we are, Sperry," I: acknow- ledged. "And who has nno`re to lose th- re: we have to gain," he added cheeal_• ly. "Don't worry about that, Hot4ace- You're a married man and I'm not. If „a woman wanted to hide some let- ters from her husband, and chose a. curtain for a receptacle, what room would she hide them in., Not in his dressing -room,' eh?" He took the candle and led theway to Elinor Well's' bedroom. Here, however, the draperies: were down„ and we would have been at a loss, had I not remembered -my wife's custom of folding draperies when we close the house, and placing then, under the dusting sheets which cover the vari- ous beds. A Little Humor The brideniaid was speaking to. the bride: "And where are yott .going to spend yonr honeymoon, my dear?". .The bride blushed her answer be- comingiy: "In France." "How lovely." "Isn't it? Harry told me that as. soon as we were married, he would !AK show me where he was wounded inr the war. His Biggest Worry "Yes," said the lawyer, "You go. through bankruptcy and it will re- lieve you of all your financial bur- dens."' "That so" said the man who was• in trouble. And what becomes of her?" "Her? What do you mean?" "My wife, of course." well, and the ferrule lay on a copy of /// metanzan imis/manin/S//aimm/u/////i/////ummin ////// muni ///////mimit Gibson's "Life Beyond the Grave, " ■ which Sperry had evidently been readili - III ies.IS I Sperry had from the letter: As I Lli .()cal ®� ® n glanced at i I recognized the writing It at once, thin and rather sexless, Spen- i , al Our " Ill ell us about Youtselves cerian.Lee Dear Sir: Since Mr. Well's death I am out of employment. Before I took the position of butler with Mr. Wells I was valet to Mr. Ellingham, and before that, in England, to Lord Condray. I have a very good letter of recommendation from Lord Cond- ray. If you need a servant at this time I would do my best to give sat- isfaction. (Signed) Arthur Hawkins. I put down the application, and the anonymous letter from the bag from my pocketbook, "Read this, Sperry," I said. "You know the let- ter, Mrs. Dane read it to us Saturday f night. But compare the writing.". He compared the two, with a slight lifting of the eyebrows, Then he put them down. "Hawkins!" he said. ,13 "Hawkins has the letters! And the ai bag! The question now is to whom All was it written?" ■ 5 5 mmm�mn�,.oa+>a►us.no.®.o.esumamo�a,oara�nomnmow�no,rmu�.n.,-.owne.>asoaaua-amo.�u,smm�a.na-.o.-rou.a�ro,�„m„memo.sr>_n�.nrs.:r.rrn.�uwrnr.,wn 5 - An advertisement addressed to the manufacturers of our town - 5 t We pondered that, ta no effect. That Hawkins had certain letters RICHARD E. JACKSON AUCTIONEER Phone 613r6, Wroxeter, or address R. R. 1, Gerrie, Sales conducted any- where, and satisfaction guaranteed. DR. A. W. IRWIN DENTIST — N -RAY Office, McDonald Block, Wingham, A. J. WALKER FURNITURE AND FUNERAL SERVICE A. J. WALI(E1 Licensed Funeral Director and Embalmer. Office Phone 106. Res. Phone 224: 'Latest Limousine; Funeral Coach. Sperrq handed mit the letter. "More than a week, I think?” As I drank 'my tea, I pondered. After all, the Neighborhood Club must guard against the possibility of fraud, and I felt that Sperry had been indiscreet, to say the least, From the time of Hiwkin's service in Miss Jer- emy's home there would always be the suspicion of collusion between them. I did not believe it was so, but Herbert, for iastanoe, would be in- cTineul to suspect her. Suppose. that Hawkins -knew about the crime? Or knew somethingand surmised the rest? I was tirneasy all the way home. The element of doubt 'always so irn- minent in ottr dealings with psychic phenomena,had me by the throat. How rnttch did . Hawkins know?' Was there any, eway, without going to 'which touched on the Wells affair, that they were probably in his pos- session in the Connell house, was clear enough: But we had no poss- ible authority for trying to get the letters, although Sperry was anxious to make the attempt. "Although I feel," he said, "that it is too late to help her very much. She is innocent; I' know that, 1' think you know that, too, deep in that legal mind of yours, It is wrong to dis- credit her because I did a foolish. thing." He warmed to his argument. "Why, think man," he said. whole first sitting was practically co- incident with the crime itself." It was true enough, •Whatever sus- picion might be cast on the second seance, the first at least remained ins explicable, by any laws are recogniz-' is 5 i ■ 5 r15 55 5 5 5 5 5 5 ■ ■ 111■ Ell m ■. 5 ■ m VIM ramarssomnmamou,.n¢®nuruoanm..nm®ov�oamamnmomomnmummm�.mann.�wwenrmomn.*o+soncxnomoam., momomnuwnraeuasnssnarwussmm0en4111..oa.a•40.n.1•-nzcaua,na.511,n 'ED all fee much better if yott± would tell us, periodically, in this newspaper, about your activities. Where do your products go? How are they used? What makes them attractive to those who buy them? What classes of dealers distribute them! These are some of the questions you can answer. Then, too, you can tell us about the processes of manufacture and about any wonderful machines used. How does chemistry enter into your activities? Do changing fashions'or changinlgconditions make it. hard for you to operate your business profitably? sYe 1vaati. i3 kit i♦ a . i l♦ ■ ■ a Win You see, when we know a lot about what you are doing and attempting, we feel much more friendly toward you, and our II friendliness is, probably, something which you want always to have. Then, too, if we know a good deal about your enterprise, we can taik about it—pridefully. • ■ 0, periodically, publish in this newspaper. answers to the questions as above asst q ed, and so earn our . �. gratitude, and make us better able to tot and g , ' • talk to others about your enterprise about its value to 141 A our town and territory, 1▪ ' y c y t 'wapapers' Association. Issued b the Canadian VV ealr; ids il�oll ll immitsumatiossrlr//l manasaiiil a Alii'/ii/l ll� � �/���It M� ��1N/lrl���imen