a
Copyright 8. 8. Van Dine
WNU Service
CHAPTER XIV—Continued
wD
Zalia Graem glared defiantly at
Vance.
“I asked Mrs. Garden what I
could do for her, and she requested
me to fill the water glass on the lit-
tle table beside her bed. I went
into the bathroom and filled it;
then I arranged her pillows and
asked her if there was anything
else she wanted. She thanked me
and shook her head; and I returned
to the drawing-room.”
“Thank you,” murmured Vance,
nodding to Miss Graem and turn-
ing to the nurse. ‘Miss Beeton,”” he
asked, “when you returned last
night, was the bedroom window
which opens on the balcony
bolted?”
The nurse seemed surprised at
the question. But when she an-
swered, it was in a calm, profes-
sional tone.
“I didn’t notice. But I know it
was bolted when I went out—"’
He turned leisurely to Floyd
Garden. ‘I say, Garden when you
left the drawing-room yesterday aft-
ernoon, to follow Swift on your er-
rand of mercy, as it were, after he
had given you his bet on Equanimi-
ty, where did you go with him?”
“I led him into the dining-room."
The man was at once troubled and
aggressive. ‘I argued with him for
a while, and then he came out and
went down the hall to the stairs. I
watched him for a couple of min-
utes, wondering what else I might
do about it, for, to tell you the
truth, I didn't want him to listen
in on the race upstairs. I was
pretty damned sure Equanimity
wouldn't win, and he didn’t know I
hadn’t placed his bet. I was rather
worried about what he might do.
For a minute I thought of follow-
ing him upstairs, but changed my
mind.”
Vance lowered his eyes to the
desk and was silent for several mo-
ments, smoking meditatively.
“I'm frightfully sorry, and all
that,” he murmured at length, with-
out looking up; ‘but the fact is,
we don't seem to be getting any
forrader. There are plausible ex-
planations for everything and every-
body. Assuming—merely as a hy-
pothesis—that anyone here could be
guilty of the murder of Swift, of
the apparent attempt to murder
Miss Beeton, and of the possible
murder of Mrs. Garden, there is
nothing tangible to substantiate an
individual accusation. The per-
formance was too clever, too well
conceived, and the innocent persons
seem unconsciously and involuntar-
ily to have formed a conspiracy to
aid and abet the murderer.”
Vance looked up and went on.
“Moreover, nearly everyone has
acted in a manner which conceiv-
ably would make him appear guilty.
There have been an amazing num-
ber of accusations, Mr. Kroon was
the first victim of one of those un-
substantiated accusations. Miss
Graem has been pointed out to me
as the culprit by several persons.
Mrs. Garden last night directly ac-
cused her son. In fact, there has
been a general tendency to involve
various people in the criminal aetiv-
ities here. From the human and
psychological point of view the is-
sue has been both deliberately and
unconsciously clouded, until the con-
fusion was such that no clear-cut
cutline remained. And this created
an atmosphere which perfectly
suited the murderer's machinations,
for it made detection extremely dif-
ficult and positive proof almost im-
possible . . And yet,” Vance
added, ‘“‘some one in this room is
guilty.”
He rose dejectedly. I could not
understand his manner: it was so
unlike the man as I had always
known him. All of his assurance
seemed gone. Then he swung round
quickly, and his eyes swept angrily
about the room, resting for a brief
moment on each one present.
“Furthermore,” he said with a
staccato stress on his words, “I
know who the guilty person is!”
There was an uneasy stir in the
room and a short tense silence
which’ was broken by Doctor Sie-
fert's cultured voice.
“If that is the case, Mr. Vance—
and I do not doubt the sincerity of
your statement—I think it your duty
to name that person.”
Vance regarded the doctor
thoughtfully for several moments
before answering. Then he said in
a low voice: “1 think you are
sir.” Again he paused and, lighting
a fresh cigarette, moved restiessly
up and down in front of the window.
“First, however,” he said stopping
suddenly, “there's something up-
stairs I wish to look at again—to
make sure . You will all please
remain here for a few minutes.”
And he moved swiftly toward the
door. At the threshold he hesitated
and turned to the nurse. ‘‘Please
come with me, Miss Beeton, I think
you can help me.”
The nurse rose and followed
Vance into the hall. A moment
later we could hear them mounting
the stairs.
Fully five minutes passed, and
then the tense silence of the room
was split by a woman's frenzied
and terrifying cry for help, from
somewhere upstairs. As we reached
the hallway the nurse came stum-
bling down the stairs, holding with
both hands to the bronze railing.
Her face was ghastly pale.
“Mr. Markham! Mr. Markham!"
she called hysterically. ‘Oh, my
God! The most terrible thing has
happened!”’
She had just reached the foot of
the stairs when Markham came up
to her. She stood clutching the
railing for support.
“It's Mr. Vance!" she panted ex-
citedly. ‘‘He's—gonel!”
A chill of horror passed over me,
and everyone in the hall seemed
stunned.
In broken phrases, interspersed
with gasping sobs, the nurse was
explaining to Markham.
“He went over—Oh, God, it was
terrible! He said he wanted to ask
me something, and led me out into
the garden. He began questioning
me about Doctor Siefert, and Pro-
fessor Garden, and Miss Graem.
And while he talked he moved over
to the parapet — you remember
where he stood last night. He got
up there again, and looked down. I
was frightened—the way I was yes-
terday. And then—and then—while
“Miss Beaton, I Think You Can
Help Me.”
I was talking to him—he bent over,
and I could see—oh, God!—he had
lost his balance.” She stared at
Markham wild-eyed. *‘I reached to-
ward him and suddenly he
wasn't there any more . . . He had
gone over! . . .”
Her eyes lifted suddenly over our
heads and peered past us transfixed.
A sudden change came over her.
Her face seemed contorted into a
hideous mask. Following her horri-
fled gaze, we instinctively turned
and glanced up the hallway toward
the drawing-room . . .
There, near the archway, looking
calmly toward us, was Vance.
“I told you last night, Miss Bee-
ton,” he was saying, his eyes rest-
ing sternly on the nurse, ‘‘that no
gambler ever quits with his first
winning bet, and that in the end he
always loses.” He came forward a
few steps. “You won your first
gamble, at long odds, when you
murdered Swift. And your poison-
ing of Mrs. Garden with the barbi-
tal also proved a winning bet. But
when you attempted to add me to
your list of victims, because you
suspected 1 knew too much--you
lost. That race was fixed—you
hadn't a chance.”
The nurse, who had been staring
at Vance as if petrified, suddenly
relaxed her hold on the stair rail-
ing, and her hands went to her face
in a gesture of hopelessness and
despair.
“Yes!” she cried at Vance; “I
tried to kill you. Why shouldn't I?
You were about to take everything
—everything—away from me."
She turned quickly and ran up the
stairs. Almost simultaneously
Vance dashed forward.
“Quick, quick!” he called out.
“Stop her before she gets to the gar-
den.”
But before any of us realized the
significance of his words, Vance was
himself on the stairs. Heath and
Snitkin were just behind him, and
the rest of us, stupefied, followed.
As I came out on the roof, I could
see Miss Beeton running toward the
far end of the garden, with Vance
immediately behind her. Twilight
had nearly passed, and a deep dusk
had settled over the city. As the
girl leaped up on the parapet at
the same point where Vance had
stood the night before, she was like
faintly glowing sky.
disappeared down into the deep
shadowy abyss, just before Vance
reach her.
CHAPTER XV
> -§
£
dit
for a few minutes. Then he spoke,
“1 asked all of you to stay be-
cause 1 felt you were entitled to
an explanation of the terrible events
that have taken place here, and to
hear why it was necess'ry for me
to conduct the investigation in the
manner I did. To begin with, I
knew from the first that I was deal-
ing with a very shrewd and un-
scrupulous person,
“] was inclined to suspect Miss
Beeton almost from the first, for,
although everyone here had,
through some act, drawn suspicion
upon himself, only the nurse had the
time and the unhampered opportu-
nity to commit the initial crime.
She was entirely unobserved when
she put her plan into execution;
and so thoroughly familiar was she
with every arrangement of the
household, that she had no difficulty
in timing her every step so as to
insure this essential privacy.
“Subsequent events and circum-
stances added irresistibly to my
suspicion of her. For instance, when
Mr. Floyd Garden informed me
where the key to the vault was
kept, 1 sent her to see if it was in
its place, without indicating to her
where its place was, in order to
ascertain if she knew where the key
hung.
actly how to get into the vault at a
guily of killing Swift.
“Incidentally, one of my great dif-
ficulties
act in such a way, at all times, that
her suspicions would not be aroused
at any point.”
“Her motive was not clear at
first,” Vance explained, “and, un-
fortunately, I thought that by Swift's
death alone she had accomplished
her purpose. But after my talk
with Doctor Siefert this morning,
I was able to understand fully her
whole hideous plot. Doctor Siefert
pointed out definitely her interest
in Floyd Garden, although I had
had hints of it before. For instance,
Floyd Garden was the only person
here about whom she spoke to me
with admuration. Her motive was
based on a colossal ambition—the
desire for financial security, ease
and luxury; and mixed with this
twisted love. These facts became
clear to me only today.”
Vance glanced at young Garden.
“It was you she wanted,” he con-
tinued.
assurance was such that she did not
doubt for a minute that she would
be successful in attaining her goal.”
Garden sprang to his feet.
“Good God, Vance!" he ex-
claimed. ‘You're right. I see the
thing now. She has been making
up to me for a long time; and,
to be honest with you, I may have
said and done things which she
could have construed as encourage-
ment—God help me!" He sat down
again in dejected embarrassment.
“No one can blame you,” Vance
said kindly. ‘She was one of the
shrewdest women I have ever en-
countered. But the point of it all
is, she did not want only you-—she
wanted the Garden fortune as well.
That's why, having learned that
Swift would share in the inher-
jtance, she decided to eliminate him
and leave you the sole beneficiary.
But this murder did not, by any
means constitute the whole of her
scheme.”
Vance again addressed us in gen-
eral.
tor Siefert brought out this morn-
ing during my talk with him.
toms have increased
Doctor Siefert informed me that
tive sodium, and had often come to
the apartment here for the purpose
jently be performed at the univer-
sity.
the household here about two
months ago, to take personal charge
of Mrs. Garden's case. She had,
however, continued to assist Pro-
fessor Garden occasionally in his
work and naturally had access to
the radio-active sodium he had be-
gun to produce.”
Vance turned his eyes to Profes-
sor Garden.
“And you too, sir,” he said,
“were, as 1 see it, one of her in-
tended victims. When she planned
to shoot Swift I believe she planned
a double murder—that is, you and
Swift were to be shot at the same
time. But, luckily, you had not re-
turned to your study.”
“But—but,”’ stammered the pro-
fessor, “how could she have killed
me and Woody too?”
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Nature Esteemed by Chinese
Nature is close to the life of every
Chinsse, says Nature Magazine. All
the feathered folk that go to make
By WILLIAM BRUC
NATIONAL PRLSS BLDO
Washington.—The government's
silver policy again is attracting at-
tention. Several
things have
caused it. First
among these
things is the matter of rising prices
for foods and other necessaries of
life, but attention seems to have
centered on the silver question
again as a result of the Treasury's
newly arranged agreement to trade
some of its gold for some of the
Silver
Question
Probably the silver question is not
there are not too many people who
I cannot refrain at this time, how-
wrote in these columns a prediction
that the country sooner or later
I re-
I mean by that, it will not
Public
cy has a lot to do with the high
bacon, his slice of beefsteak or a
thousand and one items that he buys
at the grocery store. He will feel
suit of clothes
shoes.
about it: The affect of inflation
brought about by a perfectly ridicu-
lous silver policy is upon us.
Early in July, the Chinese minis-
or a new pair of
ury to express the appreciation of
the Chinese government for the sat.
isfactory conclusion of negotiations
At the same time, however,
Chinese minister
fact that the Treasury has been go-
ing along, buying silver from for-
eign countries in order to maintain
an arbitrary price which the Wash-
administration contended
should be the world price for silver.
This price
ounce, and it is a most profitable
price for silver producers in Mexico
and Canada and some other foreign
countries. It is not as profitable,
pays to American producers—which
is seventy-seven and one-half cents
an ounce.
But, one may ask, what has this
thing to do with the cost of beef-
steak, ham and eggs or shoes?
it as I have watched the picture un-
finance may see the thing in its true
First of all, the policy of the ad-
lions of gold into
the Treasury to be
stored as so much
dead weight has
many thousands of
in American cor-
their bonds being
bought by foreigners who gave gold
President Roosevelt
How It
Works
Consequently, the
Now, we are
sending some of that gold to China
in trade for China's silver. I think
most everyone will agree that the
silver is just as useless because we
have no need for it in our currency
structure. People do not want to
carry silver dollars around in their
pockets,
Assuming that the exchange was
simply an even trade of two ob-
jects, neither of which was usable to
us, one probably could dismiss the
matter with a wave of the hand.
Regrettably, such is not the case.
The additional silver frankly is add-
ing to our troubles because of the
Silver Act of 1934 which permits the
Treasury to issue currency-—silver
one-dollar bills—against it.
So, instead of being sterilized and
stored away in vaults, the silver ac-
cession results in a prompt increase
in the amount of currency in circu-
lation. That action tends to increase
the excess reserve—unused money
—of the banking system. As this
money becomes available for cir-
culation, its value necessarily and
obviously is cheapened. Or, to say
it another way, the things you buy
a silver certificate occupies exactly |
the same place in our currency |
structure as does a bill that is |
backed by gold or one that is is-
sued by the Federal Reserve banks. |
Therefore, it seems to me to be a
fair statement to say that the whole
currency structure is tainted by this
deluge of silver certificates now and
heretofore coming from the Treas-
ury. And it’ is equally a fact
that prices of every kind are going
to increase exactly in accordance
or in ratio with the new money that
is put out from the Treasury.
1 do not know how long it will be
until the voters wake up to the ne-
cessity for repeal of the silver act.
It probably will not be long before
there is a wave of public indigna-
tion against the policy if the aver-
age person realizes that the pro-
gram is actually a tax upon the
American public. Surely, if the sil-
ver policy were labeled, ‘‘tax to sup-
port the silver program,’ the atti-
tude of the country would change
overnight. That really should be
the name of the Silver Act of 1834
because that is its effect. The tax
results from the fact that the Treas-
ury is paying foreign producers as
well as American producers prices
for silver that are higher than the
This
means that any article of silver that
you buy in a store costs you more
than it would if producers
and in the United States
were not being subsidized. The ad-
Tw
suver
just as much as though you had
paid the tax directly into the Treas-
ury.
It may be interesting to know that
the Treasury has issued nearly
eight-hundred million in silver cer-
tificates. In addition something like
seven million silver dollars have
been coined, and these still re-
main in the package in which they
were wrapped at the mints. Be-
sides all these, there is silver bul-
lion that cost $375,000,000 piled up
in the. Treasury, Silyer certificates
éan be issued against this.
The silver act of 1834 provided
that the Treasury could buy one
dollar's worth of silver to three dol-
lars’ worth of gold for what is called
On the basis of
the gold now held, the Treasury
can buy under that law a total of
$4.125,000,000 in silver. At the pres-
amounting to
lies ahead—how much
a sound
United
restore
the
is done to
icy in
Some Democrats who are not too
friendly with Postmaster General
Jim Farley, along
Just Good, with the Republi-
Clean Fun
cans in congress,
are having fun
these days with the Democratic Na-
tional committee. They are also
succeeding, it appears, in making
President Roosevelt's political seat
uncomfortably warm. Nothing will
come of it except that the subject
will fill many newspaper columns of
attack and defense as the politicians
shoot back and forth.
To review the situation, it should
be recalled that the Democratic Na-
tional committee found itself in debt
to the tune of about $650,000 at the
end of the 1836 campaign. Some
bright mind in the Democratic Na-
tional committee conceived the idea
of selling Democratic campaign
handbooks to corporations at $250
per book, or more, as a means of |
raising money.
To make the book attractive, a
single sheet bearing the autograph
of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was
inserted. Hundreds of corporations |
were solicited, and hundreds bought
the books—theoretically, because of |
the autograph of the President. Mr. |
Roosevelt stated he did not know |
he was autographing the blank
sheets for the purpose for which
they were used.
Republican Leader Snell, of New
York, introduced a resolution in the
house of representatives, propos- |
ing an investigation of the sale of
these books to corporations. He con- |
tended that it was a violation of the |
corrupt practices act.
Mr. Snell remained determined, |
however, and sought to harrass the |
New Deal further by asking Attor-
ney General Cummings for an offi-
cial opinion. At the same time, he
read on the floor of the house a long
paign, together with a list of prices
they had paid.
These facts cut deeply into the
Sth
Zhuimks aboul,
This Business of Golf.
AKLAND, CALIF .—As I sit
writing this, I look out
where elderly gentlemen, in-
tent on relaxing, may be seen
tensing themselves up tighter
than a cocked wolf-trap, and
staggering toward the
clubhouse with every nerve
standing on end and screaming
for help and highballs.
I smile at them, for I am one who
has given up golf. You might even
go so far as to say
golf gave me up. 1
tried and tried, but
1 never broke a ty-
phoid patient's tem-
perature chart —
never got below 102,
I spent so much
time climbing into
sand-traps and out
again that people be-
gan thinking I was
a new kind of her-
mit, living by pref-
erence in bunkers—
the old man of the link beds, they'd
be calling me next.
And I used to slice so far into the
rough that, looking for my ball, I
penetrated jungles where the foot of
man hadn't trod since the early
mound builders. That's how 1 add-
1y rare specimens to my col-
Irvin 8. Cobb
t straw was when a
after morbidly
told me that
at any rate there was one thing
about me which was correct—I did
have on golf stockings!
* * *
Congressional Boldness.
W ARNING to pet lovers: If you
own guinea pigs or tame rab-
bits or trained seals or such-like gen-
tle creatures, try to keep the word
from them that some of the majority
members of the lower branch of con-
gress actually threatened to defy
their master's voice. i
The senate always has been
ional
ional,
erative body—and, week by week
and month by month don't those
elder statesmen know how to delib-
erate! But these last few years the
house has earned the reputation of
being the most docile legislative
outfit since Aesop's King Stork ruled
over the synod of the frogs.
So should the news ever spread
among the lesser creatures, hither-
to so placid and biddable, that an
example had been set at Washington,
there's no telling when the Bel-
gian hares will start rampaging and
the singing mice will begin acting
up rough and the grubworms will
gang against the big old woodpeck-
er.
* + *
Professional Orators.
\ J E HAVE in Southern Califor-
nia a professional orator who
long ago discovered that the most
dulcet music on earth was the sound
of his own voice. He'll speak any-
where at the drop of the hat and
provide the hat.
What's worse, this coast-defender
of ours labors under the delusion
that, if he shouts &t the top of his
voice, his eloquence will be all the
more forceful. The only way to
avoid meeting him at dinner is to
eat at an owl wagon. But the other
night, at an important banquet, he
strangely was missing from the ar-
ray of speakers at the head table.
One guest turned in amazement to
his neighbor:
“Where's Blank?"
naming the absentee.
“Didn’t you hear?” answered the
other. “He busted a couple of ear
drums.”
“Whose?” said the first fellow.
®» - ®
Foes of Nazidom.
T HE veteran Rabbi Stephen Wise
of New York has been reason-
ably outspoken in his views on Nazi
he inquired,
and the practitioners of other faiths
And one of the most ven-
church in Europe, while discussing
the same subject, hasn't exactly
pulled his punches, either.
So what? A friend just back from
heard a high government officer
fiercely denounce these two distin.
About the mildest
Some-
maybe by orders from on high.
Well, far be it from this inno-
tian clergyman’s state of health, al
though, judging by his utterances,
nothing particularly wrong
mind. 1 do know Rab-
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