© Ben Ames Williams. CHAPTER XIII—Continued —— Bn Linda dared not tell Mr. Wines, dared not admit to herself how im- portant this might be. He stopped uncertainly; and she said, half-sob- bing with excitement: “No one had seen this bullet hole till you did, Mr. Wines. I want you to stay and tell them how you found it. Wait. You will, won't you? Till I telephone?” “Why, guess’'t I can,” he decided. “‘But—what's the idee?” She closed the door, carefully, as though afraid that to do so might erase the indications his keen old eyes had been the first to see. Her thought was of Phil; but she would not give Phil a hope that might yet fail. She must first be sure. While old Mr. Wines watched in a puzzled way, she called Mr. Falkran. He was, his office reported, out of town; to be gone till tomorrow aft- €rnoon. In sudden frantic haste and fear, she called the District Attorney's office, asked for Mr Flood. The operator said: ‘‘He's away for the week-end. Will anyone else do?” “Someone who knows about the Sentry case,” Linda pleaded des- perately. ‘‘Anyone.” “Who is this, please?” “Miss Dane, Mr. Phillip Sentry’s secretary.” “I might give you Mr. He assisted in the trial, here.” “Oh, do, please!” And a moment later she had Mr. Weldon on the phone. He said guardedly, “Mr. Weldon speaking.” “I'm Miss Dane, Mr. Weldon. Mr. Phillip Sentry’s secretary.” “Yes.” “Can you come down to Mr. Sen- try’s office, quickly, please?" “Why, if necessary, yes. What is it? Let me speak to him.” “Oh, he's not here! But it is neces- sary. We've just found—"' She hes- itated, then spoke carefully, explicit- ly. “Mr. Wines is here,” she said. ““The father of—the dead girl, you know. And he has found what looks like a bullet hole.” “A bullet hole?” was puzzled. “Yes. In the lock of the door.” “But I don't see— “It might mean,” she urged, *“‘that Miss Wines was shot by someone else; was already dead when Mr. Sentry got here. You remember they said the gun was pushed against her, but he said he didn't feel her when he fired. Can't you come, please?” “Il see!” Weldon was alert now. “You've found a bullet?” “No, just a hole.” “Don’t touch anything,” he di- rected. “I'll be down there in ten minutes." So Linda waited, waited; and when and had seen what Weldon? and he is Weldon's tone and Zeke Wines was expert in such matters to ex- amine this that they had found. Time thereafter dragged intermin- ably, while Weldon questioned Wines and Linda, and while the ex- pert made his examination. Linda, watching, and once she urged, hurry?” But Weldon reassured he plenty of time. Miss Dane. and all tomorrow.” “Something might happen!” He said gently: “Trust me, please. We've time to make sure of our ground.” And Linda, longing to telephone Phil, nevertheless held herself in check. Better that he should remain in ignorance of this crumb of hope than find it turn to ashes in his mouth, It was mid-afternoon before Wel- don was satisfied. He told her then: “Miss Dane, there's no doubt a bullet did strike here. There are bits of lead in the wood. And the bullet was pried out, later, with a knife blade, or something of the kind. And it was of the same cali- ber as the one which killed Miss Wines. Or at least approximately S0. “But Mr. Sentry fired only one shot. At least, there was only one empty cartridge in the gun when we recovered it. And we found where his bullet hit the wall at the end of the corridor out there. That bullet matched his gun. “Of course, that shot of his may still have killed Miss Wines. There is just a chance it didn't. Just a chance, the Medical Examiner says, that if she were shot here in the doorway she could have taken two or three steps to where she fell. It is possible, that’s all.” He hesitated. “There are many possible explana- pore of this other bullet hole,” he said. She nodded fearfully. “I see. But mightn’t it mean—What will you do?” “I'll get in touch with Mr. Flood,” Weldon explained. “He's down on the Cape; probably playing golf just BOW: He will have to decide what 10 hi Today “Can I—tell Mr. ly?” “Suppose you wait,” he suggested kindly. “Wouldn't it be better to have something definite to tell them?” “But doesn’t this prove Mr. Sen- try is innocent?”’ “‘Hardly that,”’ he warned her. “I think you'd better wait, really.” “Can’t we drive down to the Cape and see Mr. Flood?” “I intend to.” “Please let me go with you.” He smiled. “I don’t know why not,”” he agreed. ‘Yes.”” He added, “I'll locate the Governor before we start, so that we will know where to find him, later today, if Mr. Flood wishes to do so.” Half an hour later they were on the road. At a little before five they met District Attorney Flood at the golf club near his summer home. At a quarter of eight they were all back in Phil's office, while the Dis- trict Attorney himself examined the bullet hole. He turned ag last to Linda. “Well, Miss Dane,” he said, a deep relief in his tones, ‘‘I shall see the Gover- nor, ask him for a reprieve.” “What does that mean?” “A postponement.” He hesitated. Sentry’s fami- fact, I may even suggest a com- n. ly creates a grave doubt that Sentry actually killed Miss Wines. “But then won't “I'm afraid not. Not yet, tainly. Of course, this means a fur- ther investigation of the case. The Governor—I'm speaking you see—may suspect that some of evidence. But there must be a re- prieve at least. I'll see the Gover- nor this evening—"' Linda considered. ‘When you Mr. Flood, 1 | Sentry's family? You can telephone “Of course. You've certainly earned that.” “Mrs. Sentry isn't well,” she ex- plained. “The shock even of good news—"" Linda meant to wait, to hold her peace, till she could go to Phil proudly with this word; but when she came home, she found it hard to wait. Phil leaped up the two or three steps to her side. He caught her close and tenderly. “Mother! Mother!’ he cried. “The Governor has commuted the sen- tence to life imprisonment!” CHAPTER XIV The newspapers were again filled with the story of the case. The Gov- ernor had to meet editorial and pub- lic criticism for his commutation of the sentence; but he met it silently, and without revealing the fact that the discovery of new evidence had been responsible for his change of mind. The secret of the bullet hole was well kept. The District Attor- ney believed that—assuming Mr. Sentry was not the murderer—the actual killer, whoever he might be, would feel a false security if he sup- posed Mr. Sentry’'s guilt remained unquestioned. So except for a few individuals, no one knew the truth; but the District Attorney's office meanwhile was busy, checking back, following every line that promised a solution. The secret was well kept; Fisher knew. Barbara wrote him the truth; and over the next week- end he came on from Cleveland, but Dan | i Hui | fH EGR Ui iH » LY wy % ~7 in PH) and he saw Falkran and saw Flood. He told Mrs. Sentry and the oth- ers afterward, "You know as much And he said, abashed “1 feel pretty—rotten. | I thought he did it, you know.” Barbara said honestly: “So all, Phil. I thought so m but I never admitted it.” Mrs. Sentry remembered some- hing Falkran had said at their first interview. ‘And just because ev- | eryone thought him guilty, every- she | “Dan, when will they let him before them: did we yse lf said. go?" Dan confessed: not yet, anyway. “Maybe never; Really all this But they'll never rest now till they get the answer." “It's already been long,” Mrs. Sentry said, half to herself. “But I | can wait, now.” When the time came for Dan's departure, Barbara went with him; | and days passed, and Phil's first try home. Barbara answered. for Phil. ‘“‘He’'s with mother,” Barbara told her. ‘They're outdoors somewhere. I couldn't bead to be with them.” Barbara's tones were shaken. She said: “I can’t bear to see mother. She’s so strange and still.” Linda said quickly, “Come over here, Barbara.” She hesitated, then added: “Don’t let them know you're coming. I've — something to tell you." “Something about my father?” Barbara cried, a quick hope in her voice. “Come,” Linda insisted. here.” So Barbara was the first to know what had been discovered; and when, at last, the District Attorney telephoned, Barbara was after Lin- da the first to know the Governor's decision. Mr. Sentry’'s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Barbara was still weeping when in Linda's car they raced to the Sentry home; and Phil met them in the hall there, and the quick word “I'll be gether, half-laughing, half-crying, in a happiness almost too great to be Days ran to weeks; and hope be- | considered a North Cape and they thought of Cali- home, | i gan to die in Phil again. He and | | | cruise, fornia, Canada, Europe; and Phil brought home travel folders and they studied them diligently, and at night they might be decided on an early departure. But in the morning Mrs. Sentry always reflected: “You know, Phil, we're perfectly comfortable here. And I don’t want to go away from him." Yet toward the end of July, Linda's suggestion, they decided on a fortnight in York. Mrs. Sentry would go a day or two ahead, with the servants, open the house; Phil and Linda would follow later. That Linda should go with them seemed a matter of course. Phil found as always deep happiness in her companionship. She demanded nothing—except to be with him. And -—he could give her nothing. If any dreams ever took shape in his thoughts, he remembered his moth- er's pleading cry, “Stay always with me, Phil!" And more him now. His mother and the servants left for York on Wednesday; and on Fri- day morning, Phil and Linda fol- lowed, in Linda's car. The girl drove; and as they picked their way through traffic toward the Turnpike, Phil said: ‘Linda, I saw your father, yester- day. He suggested that he put my name up at his club.” He added, “1 was mighty grateful to him; but they'd be sure to turn me down.” “Father wouldn't have offered, if there were any chance of that.” “He's like you, Linda. He and your mother. So darned—loyal. But others may not feel the same.” “Haven't all your friends been the same?" “Some have. Some have not. Mother felt hurt at first when Mr. Hare suggested another to defend father, though doubtlessly it was for the best. Occasionally he stops in to discuss affairs and to encourage Mother, “The Warings—the way act- ed grieved Mother,” Phil continued. “And then, resigned from all her and and they accepte sd her resignations. That tough on her. She's been hap- Happy in just—loving she doesn’t really seem rried about her, at to than ever she needed they she things pretty w a, gray re eyes upon the road, ped t ti e su bjed “Do you hear “She's merican; beef . something of the kind." Their | the ughts, as som etimes happens with two people as close to one an- other as they Pe ad come to be, ran ogether, Thinking of Dan and Bar- Ee they said aloud in a sort of chorus: “But Barbara-—-"' thes they looked at and laughed, and he going to say the same “Yes. Just the way ple do—"' He protested: do you have to keep—torturing me?"’ “My dear,” she said, ‘don’t you know by this time that you and I are already married, in so many real, deep ways? And I'm not ask- ing anything more than we already ' She added, half to her- “At least, I don’t think I am.” He said: “There's no help for it, I can't ask—"' She smiled, her eyes upon mar- baron each other, “We were tr said, married peo- the ask me, Phil.” “And-—-mother needs me. she’s got to hold to now, I'm all with Mary Linda did not argue with him; but during the next few days at York, watching Mrs. Sentry and Phil together, she was sometimes (TO BE CONTINUED) Many are the college men who, with neither the inclination nor the ability to take part in the major sports, have consoled themselves with the thought that after gradu- ation they will still be able to play their golf and tennis, which is more than those who have gained fame in football and baseball can say of their sports, says the Hartford Cou- rant. They may now take further cheer from the recommendations of Prof. Eugene C. Bischoff, of the athletic department of Pennsylvania State college, and Mrs. Elizabeth Meyers, of the school of education, New York university, both of wom advocate greater collegiate empha- sis upon individual as o to team sports. Meritorious as is this proposal, most colleges would have difficulty putting it into effect. Athletic de- partments of major universities that have attempted to encourage general participation through emphasis on informal. intramural competitions have found that studént interest lags when a game or sport lacks prestige. As dong as they are major attractions the spectator’s point of view, the team sports will undoubtedly continue to be the cen- ter of student interest. Many stu- dents believe, too, that they can shift with little difficulty from the group sports to golf or tennis or any other generally available type of recreation when they are graduated. It would be hard to prove that shifting the emphasis from the team sports to the individual sports would increase the number of students participating in athletics, if such is the purpose. Students who like a sport will take part in it regardless of its importance. There is a large group, however, that would probably have but a passing interest in any sport were it not for its prestige value, Fingers Before Forks At meals in Arabia neither knives nor fo A Few, 2 Little € 2 INSPIRED Teacher turned blackboard, writing. “Read out that sentence, Willie,” she said, ‘“‘He was bent on seeing his old read Willie, “Now, children,” continued teach- er, “1 want you all to paraphrase that sentence.” Chewing his pen, Answers Magazine, the blackboard. Then his face lit up. Busily he wrote: ‘The si ignt of the old school doubled him up away from the where she had been relates London Willie regarded Exaggeration The teacher trying to give pupils an illustration of the meaning of the word ‘“‘persever- " was “What is it,” she asked, ‘‘that carries a man along rough roads and smooth roads, up hills and down, through jungles and swamps and raging torrents?” There was a silence, and ther Johnny, wi father was a motor dealer, spoke up: ‘Please, miss,” he said, ‘““there ain't no such car.” —Humorist Magezive. 108¢ QUEER GUY iy husband's a queer man.” “How so?" “Says it makes him hot to h to drink his coffee cold.” ave Plenty Loud Chief—] am glad that you have been punctual lately, Mr. Brown. Clerk—Yes, sir, 1 bought myself parrot. Chief—A parrot? ed you get clock. Clerk—I1 had an soon got used to i clock the cle have I rec to yourself an alar alarm clock but Now 1 set the yarrot and when hat the parrot ugh to rouse the house.— Koelner Zeitung, Cologne. t beside the pa wk goes off, w says is end Lustige For Younger Chickens Just to show you to what lengths some people will go for a gag, we'll tell you about the husband who puttered around in the back yard with some boards and nails while his wife lay in bed with a bad cough. “How's the wife?” asked neighbor. “Not so good “Sorry. Is that her coughin’?" “Oh, no. This here is a hen- house." " Such Injustice “Have you any references?” quired the lady of the house. “Yes, mum, lots of 'm,"” answered the prospective maid. “Then why did you not them with you?” “Well, mum, to tell the truth, they're just like my photographs. None of them don’t do me justice.” —~Stray Stories Magazine. in- bring Music to Her Ears Old Lady to Plowman—Pardon me for interrupting you at your work, but it is so refreshing to hear some one who still speaks the old dialect of the district. Plowman-—That's O. K. with me, old girl.—Providence Journal. Remiss Vicar (benevolently)—And what limit! Why it was you that chris- tened me! A QUESTION “Did the “l think pipe.” wind whistle then?” you heard the stove The Objection “And why didn’t you like the job 1 got for you?” “When I said I'd take care of your friend's pets while he was away, you didn’t tell me he ran a cir cus.” Houston Post. You're Fired Businessman—Yes, 1 advertised for a boy about your size. smoke? 0, thanks, 8 Blow me to an ice cream t to. i i | TIPS, ardeners Plant Seeds Carefully HEN vegetable and flower seeds purchased from repu- table firms do not germinate as they should, it is safe to assume that conditions are not favorable for growth, or that seeds were not planted properly. Therefore, it is of greatest im- portance to plant seeds according to directions on the packets, Ex- tremely small seeds must be cov- ered only lightly with soil, accord- ing to Harold N. Coulter, vegeta- ble expert. The will seeds, tions, to but ti To pl: grow is strong in their limita- it a tiny seed, like nder an inch of soil s a man under a 20- and asking hin ey have larger seeds, ‘ . planted of course, deeper, Jeans cucumbers may be covered with three-quarters of an inch to Peas and corn and may be inch to an inch a full inch of soil, sprout VIEOorous plante d from an and one-half deep. Mz: any home garden- and corn of soil aft- succes ers actually with an extra half-inch er they begin push through. This protects them from birds, and also helps her weeds down. cover peas to Uncle Phil 2 ; 9g ays: = The Other Sounds Highbrow Sarnir bread by the ' may not but we believe it one's one's face’ ) poetic, 1s correct. Looking back, how many “new eras” came up to the ex- pectations of those who an nounced them? What Caesarism Does Nero was a kind of imbecile. What was to be gained by perse- cuting the But then most of the Caesars were lacking nent. Christians? 1 Juden out of 100 nce test r us for "Plant for a CROP not for a sample! PLANT FERRY'S DATED SEEDS Now you can distinguish between seeds in their prime and seeds that may be too old to produce a first-class crop! Ferry's Seeds pass rigid tests for vitality and germination each year before being packeted. THEN EACH PACKET 1S DATED, This date is your assurance of live and vigorous seeds, Be sure your seed packets are marked “Packed for Season 1939," Select them fr ym the convenient Ferry's Seeds dis- play at your dealer's. Popular favorites —many at S5c—and new introductions too. ALL TESTED AND DATED ror 1939. Send for Ferry’'s Home Garden Catalog. Ferry- Morse Seed Co., Seed Growers, Detroit and San Francisco. FERRY’S os USE FERRY'S NEW-IDEA GARDEN SPRAY ECONOMICAL, WON-POISONOUS, NON-STAINING Another's Plight I had no shoes and complained, feet.—Arabian Proverb. OUT OF i
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers