Evening Star Newspaper, January 1, 1924, Page 25

e THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., TUESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1924. ————— |TRUSTEES REOPEN FIRST ABOVE SUSPICION By Robert Orr Chipperfield. Author of “The Second Bullet,” “Unseen Hands,” “The Trigger of C Copyright, 1923, by Robe: (Continued from Yesterday's Star.) “I made my compact with him and when & detective did come to me yes- terday afternoon 1 kept my word and gave the explanation of Lane's late visit to me on the night of the murder which we had concocted between us. Today 1 discover at_he had been | making a fool of Al the time, that | hie never intended to pay the price of my silence after ad once 1 mmitted moeelf, ‘and that he had led about Joe's will, too; he'd been left| the bulk of the estate “I would not go to the detective bureau in New York with the true| story, for after the trumped-up version T had given them yesterday I knew they would never protect me {rom publicity: | but when I found out that Lane was| laughing at me in his sleeve 1 made up my mind to teil all 1 knew to some ! one who might find it useful in_the Investigation, and 1 though of you, Doc- tor. You or your deputy may ask me any nd 1 _will an- y first that e is not my question: . but please let me sa ntment against e In_coming here. Ever since as settled beyond doubt that Joseph | Benkard was murdered 1 have not slept, | feeling that | should come forward and tell what perhaps only I knev ould | have seen him ruined, beggared, driven to despair, but oh, not dead! Not degd” She in her! her in | herself | sank back once <halr, staring straight dull misery, and only at_the doctor's question. “What is it you can only you know, 1 assure you again that vou ing in the strictest confidenc heg you will be absolute with us “I shall be.” The wow | haggard eyes to his. “Doctor, there was something in Joseph Benkard if that he feare He was no coward, that much must be said for him, but something must have occurred in the past that preved upon his mind, al-: though he never consciously admitted s to me, d 1 am su now that he "Bvidic the death which actually Came to him. The haunting dread of murder was ever iu the back of his| mind: “When each oth “very moond, curious At riods of the more before roused tell us l\\EIYI Miss Dawn? are speak- | and 1| frank n raised her we first became interested iu and 1 grew to know his T observed that he had of depression at two pe- vear, the early autumn and around the midwinter holidays. ile told me that he had been receiving anonymous letters evidently written by some lunatic and threatening him with all sorts of dire things, but I knew that could not be the real cause; that there was something deeper, something stamped indelibly on his memory. He had boasted to me of the men he had used and whose trust he had after- ward deliberately betrayed, of the firms which through his secret machina- tions had been driven ta the wall. He though it supreme cleverness on his part, strokes of genius, and his con- science did mot trouble him in the least, but of this other thing he never spoke in his waking moments.” You mean, ma'am,’ he doctor leaned forward with his hands on his chubby knees, “you mean that he talk- ed in his sleep?” She nodded. He often came to me straight from after the market closed in moon. utterly exhausted fn 1d body with the day's conflict and strai and would throw himself on the davenport in my library and fall almost instantly into a_brief but deep and profound slumber. He awoke, | ¢ strengthened and refreshed, but I be. fancy that he looked at me in a queer, suspicious sort of nd on one oceasion he remarked | that he had had a wretched dream full of vague, silly horrors and asked if he had talked any gibberish. I assured him that he hadn't, but after that I commenced to wonder, for beside those strange periods of depression which lasted for d: he had recur- ring moods which would come upon Bim at any time without warning or apparent reason. In restaurants, at the races, the play, in the midst of the most frivo- lous’ conversation he would suddenly become detached and sit staring in front of him, as if at something which no one else could s He roused himself at once when 1 uched or spoke to him, but 1 noticed that he studied me afterward in a keen, wary fashion to see if 1 was surprised or curlous, and 1 schooled myself to ignore these mo- ments of preoccupation and let him shake them off of his own accord. “They worried me, though, and my wonderment grew until one afternoon a vear ago last winter when he had ! fallen asleep in the library while I made tea. All at o he cried out ! in a horrible, choking fashion the words came distinctly ot mur- + der! Not that! There was such in- | describable terror in his that [ us frightened, too, and | sat abso- lutely still_and waited, but he only | mumbled after that, then sighed and addenly opened his eves. Oh, I was | ad 1 had learned self-control, and | ould smile and tease him about being | <0 bored with my company that he had fallen asleep! He suspected nothing, but after that, almost as though his subconscious mind trusted me, he talked frequently in those weird nightmarish drea of his, sometimes defying ‘them' harm him and at other times beg- zing abjectly, piteously for his life: hut most often of all there would ba the the mind to ! medical | daunte, | you recollect {1 Just bad for her rheumatiz. onscience,” Etc. rt M. McBride & Oo. in his tone? “Who were your folks and where are they now?" Dr. Hood looked his surprise, and the woman roused herself from her and returned the pseudo- gaze with & curlous, falntly amused expression. Mr. Peters, there are certaln per- sons in this country—quite a small army of them and remarkably weil organized—whose duty and purpose in life it 18 to find out about other peo- ple just what you have asked me. The ‘cleverest of them were at one time detailed to trace my origin, my. antecedents, to learn whatever the could about me before I had appeared n a particular city—and_ they dis- covered nothing. When I told the examiner and you would answer any questions you liked 1 meant, of course, anything relative { to Mr. Benkard and his attentions to me, any light that I could possibly throw upon his death. As for me, I em Zoe Dawn; [ came to where 1 am for several years and That is doubtless remembered still. all Then let me put what I'm tryin’ to git at in another way, ma'am,” Geoff sugy ed quietly, In no wise d. pose you think back all bout your home folks, blood relations, 1 mean. brothers and cousins and se Kin that any sudden and onnateral—a be, or suicide. or like Mr. want you to tell me to yours your own Ben ‘ves' Zoe Dawn still looked steadily into his eves, but the amused expression had left her face and with his words the warm, rich coloring ebbed also, leaving her ghastly in the shadows. Slowl: e rose from her cha No, Mr. Peters, 1 can re relative whose death was in any way | violent. That is no reason, how why I cannot appreciate the feelings of Mr. Benkard's family now, if that is what you mean. Perhaps I have cause, a8 at one time 1 thought I should have the right, to feel even more deeply than they! Although, living, I was sure that I hated him— I would have crushed the ambition for which he put me aside—now that he is dead, 1—I would give anything in the world to bring him back even | if T were never to see him, never to hear his name! Ruthless and crooked he may have been to others, cruel and heart to me at the last, but he was my mate! I have realized it more fully since 1 came into this room than at any moment since his death Are—are {here any more questions you wish to ask? It is late and I—I am very tired.” “No, ma’'a Geoff had already got to his feet and as the doctor turned the light switch in the wall, he added “If somethin' should you could help us /bout and in' to your house, itll be all right it the doctor calls you up on the tele- phone? In the crude, yellow glare from the electric bulbs the woman seemed to have aged years since their meeting | at the crossroads before the sun went down, and as if realizing It herself, she hurriedly drew down her veil while she replied: “Any day, any hour that Dr. Hood sends for me I shall come.” She held out her hand and Geoff hook it awkwardly, then remained where he was while the doctor bustled out to light up the porch and escort his visitor to her car. After an inter val, it drove off through the dark- ness, and the doctor returned to find Geoft still standing where he had left him. His jaw had dropped, and be- low the shock of sandy h, fell over his forehead his lackluster eyes stared vacantly into spac “Hey, what's the matter with his host demanded. “Have you taken root? You got the woman down here, as 1 can understand now that you planned to do. Geoff, when you gave Lyons {nstructions last night to tell her I gain; but aside from hearing that Benkard was afraid for his life, which we knew already from Willlam Dunn and old Henry, I don't see where the surprise party you spoke of comes st Don’t you, Doc.” Geoft's eyes eled slowly to the other's face, he grinned. “Just you set down think over what that Zoey won said real careful. I ain't took root and I gotta go home now and git the mare in under the shed; heavy dew': The surprise I had wasn't just the sort I thought likely we'd git and mebbe it'll turn out to be nothin’ 'cept a crazy idee, but it kinder struck me all of a sud- den and I'll have to work over it in e see how it fits in with the rest.” “What ‘rest’!” demanded the thor- |Cughly exasperated medical examiner. “There isn't any ‘rest' to the case, that 1 know of, and we're back where we started! We've no more notion committed the murder!” Geoff slouched to the door, and then paused. “If the idee that hit me is correct,” he sald, “there wasn't no murder committed a-tall!” (Continuéd in Tomorrow's Star.) —_——— A railway engine with a ‘bhauling that I, New York | from Washington. where I had lived ! come up that | you | wouldn't likely care fo have us com- than we had in the beginning who | PORTAL TO GREA CAVE No Reference Is Made to New En- trance to Mammoth That Diverted Trade. By (he Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Ky.. January 1 —F opening today of the original e trance to Mammoth e 1o the public, closed recently for the first time so far as was known since the ! discovery of the great cave. was an- Inounced” by A. C. Janin, trustee |the Mammoth Cave estate. | When the originil or “fiiscov claimed to e another entrance to the great cavern. No reference ‘o the activities of the development company was made in the announce- ment of reopening of the original entranc 12-HOUR DAY NO MORE. | Practically Eliminated by Bethle- hem Steel Corporation. NEW YORK, January | Twelve. hour day virtually hasz been elimi- nated from the plants of the Beth- lehem Steel Corporation, it was an- nounced by Bugena (. Grace, presi- ¥ jentrance was closed published an- | nouncements by the trus s Inti- mated that the action was taken be cause a development company wis Qlverting tourtst trafe to what was D Sts. N.W. Monthly Payments The convenience of With $100 Purchases piece Dinner Set 35-piece Rogers or CASH OR CREDIT. e had gone back on their bar- | Small Weekly or charge account is yours at the Hub—a little each week or month pays the bill, no matter how large. Silv Plated Tableware Set with every $100 purchase. Dty and the beginning of 1924 will see less than per eent of the entire force working more than ten | hours a day. "The hours of these em- ployes will be changed e seen as | conditions permit, it was satd: I 't AL il WILL COMPLETE STADIUM IN MEMORY OF BOY Grandfather of Foot Ball Victim to Give $150,000 to Univer- sity of Ciacinnati. By the Associated Press CINCINNATI, Ohto, danuars | Janies N. Cnmble, mrandfather bf James Gamble Nippert, Unlversity b Cincinpatt student, who died a8 n ve- sult bf an injurs’ suffered during a foot buil game on Thanksgiving das, has offered to provide funds for com- pletion of the University of Cinein- nat| stadfum. The improvement wiil cost about $150,000 and will increase the seating capacity of the stadium to_about 12,000 it I8 stated Immediately after the d=ath of Nip- pert last week, his parents, former| T Judge and Mrs, Alfred K. Nippert, an- nounced they would construct a fra- ternity house for the Ohio Epsilon Chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity in memory of their son. POOR CHILDREN GUESTS. New York Produce Exchange's An- nual Christmas Party. NEW YORK, January |—Members of the Produce Exchange yesterday gave thelr eighteenth annual Christ- mas party to the peor children restd- | fu_sand around the financial dis- trict, distributing 2500 bags of teys and eandy: The exercises were held on the ex- change floor. Musie was provided by the Police Band, 25 WO FARMERS KILLED. {PAUL E. HORB ELECTED { Victims of Shooting Affrays in| Georgia County. VIDALIA, January 1 | men are dead and two others are | fugitives from justice as a resvlt of | two shooting affrays in Truete'en | county, according ta reports reccived here. The dead men are reporte Gordon Phillips, thirty, and Ro Holton, also thirty. The latter wa sald to have been killed near Noper- | 1. Quarrels of lonz standing u ald to have been responsible for the shootings. 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There ould have been nothing in his busi- ness career, no one of those whose fallures lay virtually at his door who could have caused that fear: and vet I could always feel the shadow of it, like a wall between us! “Mebbe he didn't never give you a actual hint, sleepin’ or wakin', ma‘am, as to the party he though was goin' 10 try to murder him some day, but didn’t you ever kinder suspicion, your- self, who he might have reason to be afeered 0’7" Geoff asked. *'Couldn’t you put two and two together and figger it out in your own mind &0t no_notion a-tall who 'tw. Zoe Dawn shook her head wearily. I used to think and think about it till it seemed as if I should go mad! The very fact that he dared mnot tell even me made it appear a vital, living menace In my eyes, and sometimes I feared that I 'should' pick up the paper one day and read what—what I ac- tually did read last week; only now It has ceased to matter." Her lips twist- d in a faint smile, but the suffering in her eyes belled it. T would help you more if I could, please believe that. If I had a definite saspicion 1 would volce it, but I only know that he foresaw this and dreaded it!" ‘‘The things he told you 'bout how he'd swindled and betrayed them other Wall street fellers; they couldn’t be | proved, you sa Geoft started to scrdtch his head, then thought better of it and pulled his ear Instead. “Mebbe that's why he felt easy in tellin' you, mebbe he was afecered to give him- self away to you 'bout the other thing | because it could be proved that he'd done somethin' to give somebuddy good reason to want to kill him.” “Do you mean that he was afraid 1o trust me, that he wouldn't put him- self wholly in my hands because he al- ways meant that the break should Tun on any of the British railways. Available Feb. 1st | Large Office The Evening Star| Building This office contains 1,990 sq. 1t including private lavatory, Runhing iced water in room. Suitable for light manufactur- ing or office employing many clerks. Rent reasonap) Appl come between us some day, and he thought I would prove dangerous to| him?” She started up, and for an in- | stant that yellowish light gleamed again in her eyes. Then she relaxed, and her head drooped forward on her breast. ‘“Perhaps he knew me better than I knew myself, since, after all, I was ready to join with Lane in an effort to ruin him. But oh, surely he could not have believed that I would over wish for his death*” e Miss Dawn, will you uudux:n Doc and 0 you really are an ere come from? * Geoft mlid 4, but there was :ngm'-m. y 621 STAR BUILDING Phone Main 5000, Br. 3 It s the most speedy remedy we know, £ T Boudoir Lamps Floor Lamps, Bridge Lamps, ' Cedar Chests 25% Off A full line is here for our selection —a ma- ogany (cedar lined). Special., or walnut chest 1192 Reduced Prices on Our Entire Line Of Stoves, Heaters and Ranges Small Weekly or Monthly Payments Coal Range A popular size of heavy cast iron—4-hole top New and roomy oven. 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