© Ben Ames Willams.
SYNOPSIS
Barbara Sentry, seeking to sober up her
escort, Johnnie Boyd, on the way home from
a party, slaps him, and attracts the atten-
tion of a policeman, whom the boy knocks
down. As he arrests him, Professor Brace
of Harvard comes to the rescue and drives
Barbara home. On the way they see Bar-
bara’s father driving from the direction of
his office at 12:45, but when he gets home
he tells his wife it is 11:15 and that he's
been playing bridge at the club. Next morn-
ing, while Barbara is telling her mother
about her adventure, an urgent phone call
comes from Mr. Sentry's office after his de-
parture. Arriving home in the late after.
noon, Sentry reports his office has been
robbed and a Miss Wines, former temporary
employee, killed.
CHAPTER II—Continued
fee
“Not much here!” Mr. Sentry
said and then: “The police think
she was one of the robbers. They're
looking for a young Italian who has
been paying her some attention; a
wild youngster whose father is one
of our customers. They found a
key in her pocketbook that fits the
lock on the back door.” He spoke
to Ray again. ‘There are back
stairs,” he said. “Mr. Loran and I
use them on Sundays or when the
place isn't open for business. This
back door admits to the stairs and
our offices. She had this key.”
Mrs. Sentry realized that Arthur
somehow found comfort in thus de-
tailing the day's events; and she
felt a dry scorn at Neil Ray's ob-
vious desire to escape. “Afraid of
being compromised,” she thought;
and she thought defiantly that a
good many people would be mali-
ciously pleased because the old firm
of Sentry and Loran was thus in-
volved in sudden sensational publici-
ty.
Ray had nodded uneasily, and Mr,
Sentry went on: ‘‘She must have
remembered the combination of the
safe. It's just an old iron box,
bought in my father’s time. We
never had enough cash on hand to
need a real one; and a safe-cracker
could have opened this easily
enough. But it was opened last
night by someone who knew the
combination. She probably learned
it last summer when she worked for
us.”
He hesitated, added then, “The
police seem to think she let this
fellow in, opened the door for him,
and opened the safe, and then for
some reason they quarreled and he
shot her.”
Mary said: “It sounds like the
sort of ruthless, reasonless things a
cocaine addict might do. Don’t you
think so, Neil?”
Ray did not answer. Mrs. Sentry
said, “Don’t be so medical, Mary!”
She thought: Mary is playing a
part! Pretending! I wonder why.
And she added: “The office tele-
phoned, Arthur, just after you left
this morning. 1 suppose it was
about this?”
“Yes,”” he assented. ‘Miss Ran-
dall found her, when she got there
at eight o'clock.”
Mrs. Sentry wondered, shivering
in spite of herself, whether any of
the women at the Furness luncheon
had known: wondered whether they
had been watching her to see how
she took it.
“It must have been just a few
minutes past when they phoned,”
she said. ‘Didn't anyone hear the
shot?”
Mr. Sentry shook his head. ‘No.
Or at least they haven't found any-
one yet who did,” he amended.
“You see, she was in the hall on
the third floor. The hall has no
windows, and there's a brick wall
between it and the next building,
and if the office doors happened to
be closed—" He added, “And of
course there aren't many people
around on the streets down there
till early morning.”
Mary said: “The poor girl! I hope
they get the man. Father, did she
have any family?”
“Not in Boston. She came from
Dennis; but she'd been living in a
room out in Somerville, in a private
home, where the husband was out of
a job so they had to take in board-
ers. She'd had work at odd times,
a day here, a week there, filling in;
but no steady job. The police say
she’d been running around with this
young Italian; and he was missing
today. His father claims he’s up in
Maine buying cider apples, but they
haven't located him. And—apparent-
ly there were other men with whom
she was intimate, too.”
He shook his head, poured an-
other cocktail, said, as though think-
ing aloud: “I suppose she was hard
up, and desperate. If we'd had any
jdea, we might have made a place
for her, given her something to do.
That's the tragic thing about living
in a city. Terrible things happen
all around you, perhaps even to
people you know; and till they hap-
pen, you never even suspect. Peo-
ple are all actors, aren’t they? They
wear a mask, put up a good front,
pretend that everything's all right—
till suddenly everything is all
wrong!”
“No need to make speeches, Ar-
thur!” Mrs. Sentry commented dri-
ly.
“It has disturbed me a lot,” he
confessed.
Mrs. Sentry said: “Nonsense! It
doesn’t concern us! It happened in
your office, of course; but it might
as well have happened anywhere.
It doesn’t concern us at all!” She
was speaking more to herself than
to him. ‘““We know no more about it
than anyone else,” she declared,
shaping for herself the attitude she
would present like an armor to their
friends.
He nodded, said no more. Doc-
tor Ray moved toward Mrs. Sentry
to say good-by. But before he could
speak there were voices in the hall,
and Mrs. Sentry recognized Barba-
ra’s. .
Then Barbara and Linda Dane
appeared in the wide doorway. Bar-
bara had an afternoon paper in her
hand.
When the sempstress was done
with her that morning, Barbara
went home with Linda Dane for
luncheon. These two and Phil Sen-
try—Mary, the older sister, had al-
ways held herself aloof from their
cheerful exuberances — had since
childhood been much together; and
now that Phil was at Yale, Barbara
and Linda were devoted. They went
after lunch, in Linda's car, to a
moving picture theater; and later
“And father, too!’ Barbara shiv-
ered uncontrollably. “Golly, Linda,
I'm scared.”
“Bless you, there's nothing to be
afraid of!”
Barbara nodded. ‘Of course not!
I'm not afraid. It's just—upsetting.
I'll have to cheer them up at home.
They'll be pretty low! Linda, come
in with me when we get there. We'll
have to put on an act, make them
laugh somehow, make them see the
funny side—"’
“Steady, Barb!
bling!"’
“I can’t help it.
keep chattering!”
“You poor kid!"
“For Heaven's sake don't sympa-
thize with me or I'll bawl! I've got
to laugh or I'll scream, Linda. I
am scared, 1 guess! Golly, I wish
Phil was home.”
“He'll come when he sees the
papers. But Barb, it's nothing. A
week from now everyone will have
forgotten it. Of course it's pretty
tough right now, though.” And Lin-
da urged: “Throw that paper away,
Barb. Don’t look at it any more.”
Barbara began to cry without a
sound, sitting bolt upright, her eyes
You're trem-
And my teeth
they met Bill Cates and Rod Hep-
burn at the Ritz for tea.
When they came out on Newbury
Street afterward, screaming news-
boys pushed extras in their faces.
Barbara saw a headline:
PRETTY TYPIST SLAIN
One of the boys bawled: ‘Produce
House Murder! Read all about it!”
And Bill Cates looked at the paper
which the boy held, and said softly,
in a startled tone, “Hullo!” He
bought a paper, folded it in his hand,
said: “Barbara, Linda, come along.
Let's get out of this.”
They followed him toward Linda's
car, and Barbara asked gaily,
“What is it, Rod? Why the big mys-
tery?”
But he did not laugh. He opened
the paper again and looked at it,
and they all looked over his shoul
der: and Barbara as she read felt
something inside her body contract
into a crawling, shuddering knot.
She thought she was choking, and
her eyes ached; and Linda's hand
was tight in sympathy and reassur-
ance on her arm, and Bill said,
“Gosh, that's rotten!”
Barbara when she spoke did not
recognize her own voice. She said,
“Give it to me, Bill.” She took the
paper, read the unbelievable lines
again.
“Steady, Barb!’ Linda whispered.
“It's all right.”
Barbara was husky. “I've got to
go home, Linda. Mother will need
me. She ll be wild. Can we, please?”
“Of course. Here's the car.”
Bill and Rod helped them in. Bill
said lamely: “Don’t let it get you,
Barb. Just the damned tabloids,
making a sensation out of nothing!”
Rod said, “Keep smiling, Barb.”
“Of course,” she told them.
“Thanks for a lovely tea. See you
i The car was moving. “Good-
yi”
On the way home, Linda drove
and watched the traffic, and Bar-
bara read the story in the paper,
reciting to Linda the essentials.
But she was cold with terror at
her own thoughts. When she and
Professor Brace emerged from the
Tunnel last night, her father had
passed them in his car, coming from
the direction of the office. The dead
girl had been found in the office this
morning. Killed when? She could
find in the paper no answer to that
question, and her eyes blurred so
that she could not read.
Linda said: ‘Don’t worry, Barb.
It just happened to happen there! It
might have happened anywhere.”
“Mother will be just sick!” Bar.
bara whispered. ‘“She’s so proud,
Linda! And she hates newspapers!”
“They'll forget all about it in a
day or twr" -
streaming, the paper in her hands.
“That's it, go on and cry,” Linda
approved. “Then you'll feel better.”
And when presently they came with-
in a block of the Sentry home she
stopped the car. ‘Now, powder your
nose,” she directed. ‘You can't go
in looking like a wreck!"
Not till she was satisfied that Bar-
bara had repaired damages did she
drive on. Outside the door Barbara
pleaded:
“Come in, Linda. Back
Mother will be just sunk. I'll play
the idiot, till I either make her
laugh or maker her so mad at me
she'll forget this mess. Ready?”
“Well—if you want,” Linda said
doubtfully.
They went in; they came to the
living-room door. But Barbara,
when she saw her father here, re-
membering last night, was shocked
and still for a moment, stammered
doubtfully, “Oh, you're home, fa-
ther!” She saw the Transcript in
his hands.
Mrs. Sentry said stiffly, “Don't
be obvious, Barbara!”
Barbara hesitated; but then
she became suddenly animated.
“You've seen the papers! Darn it,
I wanted the fun of telling you!”
She cried: “Isn't it all thrilling?
Mother, don’t you think it's the most
me up.
exciting thing? We came out of the
Ritz with Bill Cates and Rod Hep-
burn and there were two newsboys
just screaming and pushing papers
into our faces, and Rod saw your
name in one of the headlines, fa-
ther.
think it's perfectly exciting.
love murders,
her pictures? 1
ing one right in the family! Look!"
She opened the paper, read the
headlines aloud:
slain. Police seek missing lover of
dead girl. Robbery and murder—'"’
Her mother said sharply:
pyr
i
family
er!’ Barbara protested. ‘I mean
witnesses at the trial.
be scared to death. I wonder if he's
don’t need to pretend you're all so
calm.
1 am, really.”
No one spoke for a moment. Then
Neil Ray said uncomfortably, “I
really must go.”
He rose; and Linda cried as
er six o'clock! So must I!"
Mary went with Doctor Ray into
the hall. Barbara looked beseech-
ingly at Linda; but Linda shook her
head, so Barbara and Linda fol-
lowed the others. Mrs. Sentry and
her husband were left alone.
He twirled the cocktail glass in
meeting Mrs. Sentry’'s eyes.
heard the good-bys at the door;
heard Mary and Barbara hesitate,
and whisper, and start upstairs.
Then she heard Mary say in a low,
indignant tone: “You're outrageous,
Barbara! This isn't a joke!”
“1 know,” Barbara agreed, softly.
“But you all looked so glum! I
tried to put on an act, cheer you
up—""
Their voices trailed away. Mrs,
Sentry thought that was like Bar-
bara, to seek to make a jest out of
this. And in very poor taste, she
decided. She said to her husband,
“Arthur, we must just ignore this!”
“1 don't know why it should hit
me so hard,” he confessed. ‘‘But—
she looked so little and pitiful, lying
there. And of course there were po-
lice, and photographers, and report
ers around all day. Gus is in New
York, so it all fell on me. It wore
me down."
“In New York? Mary's going
there to dinner tonight.”
“He went over yesterday. Didn't
expect to be back till Sunday.”
Oscar came to say that dinner
was served, and Mrs. Sentry re-
membered that an afternoon paper
was delivered to the kitchen, so the
servants already knew; and every-
one would know, either tonight or
in the morning. All their friends . . .
She said quietly: “Will you call
the girls, Oscar? They're upstairs!”
He disappeared, and she asked her
husband, ‘Are you ready, Arthur?”
“I'll wash my hands,” he decided.
She had not, since returning from
hearing Sarah Glen, had time to
order her hair; and she went to do
go, and she thought she and Arthur
might go down to their summer
home in York Harbor in the morn-
ing, and stay till this sensation died.
But it would be better not to seem
to run away . . .
Mary sat with them while they
dined, waiting for Jimmy Endle to
call for her. She proposed making
excuses, staying at home; but Mrs.
Sentry said: “Of course not, Mary!
After all, this doesn’t touch us! Cer-
tainly not any more than it does Mr.
and Mrs. Loran, and they're giving
the dinner.”
(TO BE CONTINUED)
The sort of railway station that
only Paul Bunyar could have built
was described recently by a Bridg-
north small boy who visited London
and wrote about it to his envious
smaller brother at home, according
to a Bridgnorth, England, corre-
spondent in the Philadelphia Inquir-
er. Written in all seriousness, the
letter, which came into the posses-
sion of C. N. Turner, of the Asso-
ciated British and Irish railways,
follows:
“The sight of Paddington station
is really beyond description. The
roof is practically invisible, being
2,500 feet above the platforms, air-
planes circling beneath it all day.
The roof is made of glass and re-
quires 5,000 men to clean it once
weekly in an airship.
“There are so many platforms
that it is totally impossible to count
them—the length of them is quite
five miles. There are motor buses
to take passengers from one end of
a platform to the other; each bus
holds 3,000 people.
“The trains are colossal; each
train consists of 4,000 coaches and
requires 20 engines to it. The
trains are of the type and
are equipped with motorcycles to
convey passengers to lavatories
and dining saloons.
“Each engine is 50,000-horsepower
and requires 50 men to stoke it.
It is necessary to have motor lor-
ries in each cabin to convey the
coal from tender to firebox.
Paddington station which is seven
times the length of Bridgnorth High
street and four times as wide,
“The station master is as big as
St. Leonard's church, Bridgnorth,
the biggest man in the world. One
cannot fail to hear him coming, as
his boots are as big as the North
Gate. He walks over the trains with
out any difficulty whatsoever.”
Wild and Domestic Turkeys
It’s not such a far cry from wild
to domestic turkeys. Spanish con-
querors found the first turkeys,
closely related to the wild birds,
in Mexico. They took turkeys back
to Europe around 1530. In 90 years,
by the time the Pilgrims came to
America, were common in
England. The probably
named for their cry of “turk, turk,
-l
QUITE TRUE
The professor had been lecturing
the class on poisons, and after dis-
“Well?” said the professor.
“Aviation, sir.”
The professor stared.
“Come, come!”
What
“Why, sir, one drop will kill.”
BY ENOTS, MAYBE
“Why doesn’t the water leave the
“Probably
there.”
because it's tide
Even Worse
A woman rushed out of a house
ed to run to the fire alarm, while
another dashed into the hall and,
being unable to see or smell smoke,
says Stray Stories magazine, turned
to the excited woman and asked,
“Where's the fire?”
“I didn't mean fire! I meant mur-
der!”
A policeman arrived at that mo-
‘0, I didn’t really mean murder,”
the biggest rat you ever set eyes on
A Banker
“What's the matter, sonny?” said
a kindly faced gentleman to an
urchin on the street. “You must be
very poor to wear such shoes as
those this kind of weather. Have
you any father?"
“Well, I should say 1 have.”
“What does he do?”
“He's a banker, he is.”
“A banker!"
“Yes, sir. He's the feller that
piled the snow on this here side-
walk."
CAN'T FOOL HIM
“This furniture store ad says: ‘Let
us feather your nest.”
“Don’t they know feather beds
are no longer used?”
Explained
Husband-—How much did you pay
for that new hat?
Wife—Nothing.
Husband—How did you get it for
nothing?
Wife—I told the milliner to send
the bill to you.
Financial Note
Husband-—I've told you before
that it is economically unsound to
Wife—I don’t know. If you don’t
for your money.
Ferry Good Answer
this pier, does it not?”
“Leaves it every trip,
Never knew it to take the dock up
the river yet.”
A Matter of Choice
in 112)—Well, how do you like my
game?
but I still prefer golf.
Slow Time
Tom (excitedly)—Say, Jerry, your
watch is gone.
Jerry (feeling leisurely in his
pocket)—Well, no matter. It can’t
go long enough to get far away.
Or Jump Ball
Criminal (sentenced to the gal
lows)—Warden, I'd like to have
some exercise,
Warden—What kind of exercise do
you want?
Criminal (grinhing)-—I want to
skip the rope.
Good Job
Jerry—What does your uncle do?
Asparagus—He's an exporter.
Jerry—What kind of an exporter.
Asparagus—He just done got fired
company.
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me —— eee
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Rug From Old Coat
And Scraps of Felt
By RUTH WYETH SPEARS
HE directions for making the
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The foundation
{DARK BLUE
2YELLOW ON GRAY
3 BRIGHT BLUE ON RED
4YELLOW ON
BRIGHT BLUE
$ GRAY ON RED
6 BRIGHT BLUE
7 RED
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