The Key West Citizen Newspaper, July 6, 1937, Page 3

? TUESDAY, JULY 6, 1987. MURDER ON 1HE BLUFF Chapter 51 ‘I Have You Covered!” M FARRINGTON was dressed and * waiting. | could see at @,gls that she had been crying, but mood was far from mellow. § “It's about time you put pearance, young man.” ‘she's ly..“Where under the sun 5% el. —or that Palmer girl? Am I to’ sit here all morning waiting for my breakfast?” No, mellow was not the word. “I'm sorry, Aunt Martha. Mike’s been having a bad time trying to dress himself. 1 sent him down to Gay to see if couldn’t calm him.” It was the wrong approach. “Calm him!" snorted M. Farrington. “That little red-headed thing has had him on pins and needles ever since she got here, How is Barbara?” “Sleeping.” 1 tried to make my voice soothing. “She'll be O.K. when she wakes up.” “Hmmph! Under the circumstances ye might find a better word for it. suppose that if 1 am very good my chauffeur will cllow me to see her for a few moments just before dinner. Come along, James! Now,what is the matter?” I was hesitating with my hand on the door. oe “Aunt Martha, there'sisomething 1 wanted to talk to yow-about before the police arrive.” Her eyes blazed indignantly. “Po- lice? Is that quite necessary? You may tell George Foster that 1 won't allow it!” “I'm afraid it will be out of his hands,” I said. “He can help with the papers, of course, but—Aunt Martha, ‘we ought to establish the fact that Higgins was a suicide, before the po- lice get here—and—and—” , “Don’t stutter. I shan’t scream. And what?” ‘*And in order to prove that, we must prove th:t the bullet which eo came from the gun in his Her eyes widened. “Then find the bullet, James!” she said sharply. af ap- Tacos By Estner Tyler gins’ hand. It was trained straight at’ ; emer th’ that did: 1 muttered something that didn’t > ™@Qulte’sé, James.” Her smile was asant,. “You see it happens that Norman was not insane. ‘ not believe that. 1 would have showed hef quite convincingly if that fool -Higgins had held his jongye, Norman could not see that he | might better be dead than back in that place. Therefore, | showed him. As for Judith, she was in the way. So was Higgins, much as | regret that ; fact. So are you, James. Therefore—” But she never finisheu. 1 made the most perfect football charge of my career, We went down in a heap to- gether, simultaneously with the deaf- ening report of the revolver. Long (| before | managed to get to my feet 1 knew that ‘Martha Farrington was dead. The Skipper Talks STOOD at the living-room: win- | dow, gazing out across the clut- | tered sweep of lawn and drive toward | the gut where a boat from the main- | land should be appearing. Breakfast, such as we could manage to choke | down, was over. William and Annie were clearing it away. Between Michael and Gay on the | davenport, sat’ the Skipper. She © should have been‘in bed, but we could | do nothing with ber. A very short time would bring relief, and with it a doctor. There was ~ weird sense of | unreality in the room, a sense of awakening from a bad nightmare, an illusion intensified by the Skipper’s quiet voice. “Your grandfather, Mike, was a pretty unlucky person. He was only | a kid when he married Martha Waterman. Pretty little thing, I've been told—good family. They had j about five years of happiness and then— with two kids on their hands —it developed that the wife was in- sane. } “They didn’t put people in asy- | lums those days if they could possibly help it, He kept her here for three | years. And then in one of these win- ter storms, she got away from her “T've been trying to. It—it just isn’t there.” “Nonsense! It must be. Did you look in his head?” “It passed right through his head.” Her chin went, if anything, a little . “James, you couldn't find any- thing if it were tied to the end of your nose, Never could. Open that She was something to look at, 1 can tell you, with the tears still wet on her face, striding down that hall like & major-general. The rest of us might be ready for sanatoriums before we were, Far-, ington. 2 4 “Children should be brought up with a little self-reliance,” she stated. “If a man is shot, he is shot by a bul- let. Obvious.” “Yes, ma'am," 1 said meekly, and we paraded forthwith into Higgins’ Troms. * Stand Over There” » PAER face grew grim as she caught t sight of that bed. But her voice was ragged. “Poor Higgins,” she said. “Poor, loyal feliow, James!” The last word came with such un- expected force as to make me jump. “¥es, ma'am?” I said in the involun- tary tone of my youth. “aa you the first person to find im?” “Yes, He was lying just as he is now.” “I see.” Her face screwed in thought, “He was about your height. Stand over there by the wall.” Without a word I obeyed her. “Now then, a man about to kill himself-is in no state of mind to sit down. He must have been standing here,” she suited the action to the word, “with his gun in his hand like this,” She stood facing the bed dra- matically, “He pulls the trigger, is spun completely around by the force of the explosion, and lands on his back on the bed. Th» bullet must be over your head there, James.” The blanket over tle dead man's form nad not been moved. From the moment that | realized that M. Far- rington, who had known Higgins all his life, was depicting that death scene with the imaginary revolver held in her right hand, my limbs had gone suddenly stiff. Even after she had finished speaking, | could not move. Her voice rang out sharply. “Don't move, James! As the expres- sion goes, I have you covered!” She had reached under the blanket and removed the revolver from Hig-! Today's Bi rthdays eooe oe nurse and went over the bluff. She was killed. { “He got over it in time. There were | two kids, both seemittg—er—normal | and healthy. Eventually he married ; my mother, whom he had known all | his life. I was born about a year later, and the three of us grew up together. For a long time the other kids didn’t even know that my mother wasn't | theirs. But servants talk and there was gossip in the village. They found | out and they brooded about it. When : Norman was about 18 and Martha | about 20, he a to show unmis- hpeeney rinsanity.;Whether he /had actually inherited it ot brought it on by brooding and fear, we never knew. Anyway, it was there. ; “I was about 13 at the time and I | didn't understand much about it, but I knew that Father was in a terrible state. Remembering what happened to the mother, he clapped the young- ster into a private nursing home. I think that when Father died, he was still expecting Norm to be cured. He hever was. He came hcme once for a short time, but we couldn't manage him, We sent him back ana he never came out again until a few months ago. “Martha had always been crazy about the boy. When they sent him away, they had a time with her, I can tell you, She accused Father of trying to kill him, among other things. In- sisted that he had also murdered her mother. But the doctors assured Father that she was merely neurotic not in the least insane. Fatuer al- ‘ways felt that Martha’s attitude had a deal to do with my mother’s death, But that was absurd. My mother died of pneumonia shortly after Norm was taken ill, and that finished Father. He drew into his Shell and left us to our own devices. “I'm not trying to excuse myself now, I just want Mike in particular to understand how things were. You see, the servants had adored my | mother. Consequertly, they took great delight in pampering me. And Martha, for such a proper soul, got a big kick out of my estapades, “And thei—” The Skipper’s voice! faltered but immediately picked up again. “Then something ha There was a youngster I used to play with—Jack Blinshop, 1 used to golf with him, gun with him, boat with him. We'd always been cronies—” Again the Skipper paused. (Copyright, 1937, Esther Tyler) Chapter 52 How Jude Died Baas was an awful wait before the Skipper’s level, expressionless voice went on. “1 was about 19 and Jack must have have been 23. He’d been away at school, and he’d come home to his father’s law cffice, which he hated, and married a girl his family liked, only to find out that he hated her, too. He was wretched, and I felt sorry for that I suddenly found myself violent- ly in love. He was a handsome kid. “In those days you couldn't divorce ® person just because you hated the | sight of her. Jack had no grounds and his wife refused to divorce him. ; Sounds silly now, but it didn’t then. People had a habit of being pretty consistently horrible to anyone who even mentioned such a word. And she was the sort of person who cared a great deal about what people have to say. I didn’t blame her much, but 1 wasn’t that type. “So Jack and 1 were gloriously happy for a short tine, and then— our kid was born. Make no mistake about it, Mike. You, were born be- cause | wanted you. I knew what | was doing. You were a cute littl devil, if I do say so myself. 1 wanted to name you after your father, but-no one would hear of it. “It was in February.” There was a smile in the quiet voice, “You have no idea what an uproar you caused. In her way I don’t think Martha blamed me, but she had been tearing her hair for months. She had thinned the servants down to the few old (faithfuls—among them Higgins. The entire household knew, and the stage was set for a nice, private, Victorian | seandal—the one thing above all others that I wanted to avoid. “We had some lovely scenes. I in- | {tended to flaunt my child in the face of all society, and Martha’s ravings on the side of convention meant nothing to me. But my father’s did. He blamed himself for ruining my life and went on in awful fashion. Jack’s wife near- ly died of shame. She entered the final count that licked me. She point- ed out that I would be playing a filthy trick on the child. That got me. So they all took up the refrain and rubbed it in. “As a result, old boy, you'll never find another person who will admit that you were born here on Farring- ton Bluff one February day. Six months later an infant named “Mi- chael. Farrington Il. supposedly. ar- rived from the far south where young Norman Farrington and his hypo- thetical wife had met with a fatal and hypothetical boating accident. “That ended she chapter—or should have ended it. It ended a lot of things for me, at any rate. They did a good job on me when they set about show - ing me what 1 had Jone to you. Your father and I have never been alone together since you wer two weeks old, The risk was too great. 1 made a little nightmare of my sins to brood over when the nights were long and lonely. Perhaps it I hadn't, this hor- rible thing would never have hap- pened. But it’s too late now.” Then Norman Escaped HE smiled wanly. “On the whole it’. been worth it--or 1 thought it had until recently. You're not a bad brat, Mike. 1 used to flatter myself that you hadn’t suffered because of my pigheadedness. You had every- thing a kid could need. You and your father were good friends. | was a pretty happy old fool. And then— poor Norman escaped. “I've told you about that, but I didn’t tell you all of it. He turned up here at night in the middle of a snow- storm. He was—pitiful. Half-frozen, half-starved and entirely lucid. He wanted protection from the efitire world—and above all from “that place’. $ “Martha was frantic. If you've bee: my fetish, Mike, Norman was hérs. 1 knew from recent alienists’ reports that for all his seeming sanity, his condition was in reality worse than ever. But Martha wouldn't believe it. Norman pleaded and wept; Martha begged and stormed. You see, Father had left the money and everything | else in my hands and it was up to me. 2 finally agreed to let him stay for a 3S¥ take. Martha was not merely upset. She was insane—as insane as ever her poor mother and brother were, but in a craftier, deadlier way. Sud- ' denly she began urging me to send | for you kids, and when I flatly fused, she threatened to write tell you the whole story. I was an 1 see that now, but I didn’t then, would have’ walked off the bluff keep you from knowing the truth. was dumb enough for that. I sent you. “On the night you arrived, Sprang her whole amazing trap i reason. She said that Jude was arriv- ing within the hour. Her proposition in a nutshell was that either 1 prom- ise not to send Norman back or she would arrange a marriage between Blinshop’s daughter and Blinshop’s son, “1 didn't know about you, Gay. Mike is a close-mouthed infant when he wants to be. I did know that Jude was a stunning kid—and that Mike used to be fond of her, “I was on the verge of doing almost anything «when, Jude's .arrival di- p verted me. J left.her with. Martha and jwent outfor,.a, tramp inithe rain to try,-and sollect..my,wits. That was another fatal. Kt. that Jack, ; ughter whal haldan ae Beene son. Ang, Jude,.poor, kid Bae tate ter, eh t ag -high unles§ Martha could prevent both Mi- chael and me from talking to Jude. If Michael had heard that story, Mar- tha’s last. hold over me would have been gone. To make matters worse, Higgins, in‘ the dining room, heard it all. If only he could have told me so before he did! Knew’Her Game Was Up ELL, anyway, ycu three walked into a pretty mess when you came here. Friday night. Martha knew that her, game was up, but I didn’t, and her one.aim was to keep me from knowing, jt. She made one bad slip. She didnt know that you talked alone with your sister in the game room. She didn’t know that Jude had told you’ the whole thing. And I knew nothing. I lived centuries Friday night when I realized that you were together."I threw out one desperate line to you, Jimmie, and you must have thought I was crazy. “Upstairs we had an awful session, but the.storm cut it short. You see, 1 consented to let you come on one condition—that Norman was not to be a Ags the house until after you had left. Late Friday afternoon: we fixed him up in the boathouse where there was heat, and he seemed quite comfortable. But in the middle of our row we realized that the storm was whipping up a flood tide and that the boathouse wasn’t safe. He had an old skeleton key of Father’s, but he might have fallen asleep and would be trapped there. “I thought of William’s summer quarters over the garage. I got into my oilskins and went down the back stairs and out along the porch. You Were still in the game room, Mike, and I suppose you saw me through the window. I saw you.” Michael nodded. “Yes. Well, Norman had left the boathouse and I couldn't find him. I thought that sooner or later he would head for either the house or the ga- rage. 1 got to the garage just as you were coming out of it. Norman had already tried to escape in one of the cars. I doubted that he would go to the house. As a matter of fact, I most- ly told the truth about where I was that night. The poor collie was in bad way when I got to the stal stayed there a long time, and Norman failed to arrive I back, it, I didn't i \ t | + “As luck would have. a chance for a private word: Bins.’ He told ‘he his story 7 lunch yesterday. It seems kept his eye on Martha's door. As went down the back stairs, Jude cat up the front -ones, for Martha met her in the and wringing her hands. Jude that I had just rushed front door shouting that I was to throw myself off the bluff. Ji rushed out after me, Martha behind her on the porch and shot with Higgins’ revolver before the old man could stop her.” (Copyright, 1987. Esther Tyler) te tebveiel i | while, but 1 intended to send him back and Martha knew it. “It was then that I realized my mis- The Skipper finishes her tragic story, tomorrow. } eevccecceseses Roger W. Babson of Boston, famed statistician, born at Ghdu-} cester, Mass., 62 years ago. Mrs, Estelle M. Sternberger of New York, preident of. , Peaceways, born in Cincitfhafi, years ago, Maj. Gen, Edward M, Markt, |. Beard and Save a Shave Club. |- chief of army engineers, borh at! He asked me to speak at his club. | and described the button and she their work of keeping sightseers: Troy, N. Y., 60 years ago. Dhan Gopal Mukerji Milford, Conn., author, India, 47 years ago. bern in Dr. David L. Sdsall, Harvard all kinds of buttons and ean, on for motorists whe get bored on and carefully worded Publie Schoo! of 00 $13), the style of Mrs. FS H By C. G. FLINT | eeeeccsceovcosoccesocoee teary Day": ement today was i< am going to tell ;¥@a about it” M and keen senses, yet there Roosevelt's! prevading genther element often turns the mind to the stady * { lof nature and her problems, or parade and all along the line of | softens the tendency to-excited ac- march members o! | tion, caller was a Mr.! early in life, and if proper care Ulric Gwynn, Jr., kept the soe! sssesensasecsensseseeees| TWO) PARADES TOOTHPICK Topics |Today’s Horoscope | Ceecccccccesescoscoooees. desires is a that Today gives turbulent Success will probably come }O"Hare, who has started the Grow! is taken it will be permanent, | He tello me that beards are com-/said, “Why, yes, I remember that in the safety zone until the pro-| Philadel. hie 114; button, It was on Calvin's ‘second | cession. had passed. H ling back. He already has of New! members, in all parts of our coun-! best” vest.” wy, i who has a nice hobby. He collects! So you see that one application. I, myeelf. delight in a new game | FEATURE PROGRAM: | (Conlititved from Page One) jmonte Knights of The Eagle. ‘ Golden} NATIONAL AND AMERICAN LEAGUE CLUBS MEET IN DOUBLE BILLS ON INDE- PENCE. DAY CELEBRATION (Special to The Citizen) NEW YORK, July 6.—The ma- jor leagues hooked up in double- headers yesterday in celebration of Indpendence Day. The Phil- lies and Dodgers divided a twin bill, while the Giants and Bees also. sp-it honors in a two-ply af- fair, The Cubs tripped the Cards twice and the Bucs downed the Reds in a twin biil. In the American loop, the Tigers took two games from the White Sox, while the Yankees won twice from the Red Sox. The Senators won the first game and tied the second with the Athletics Cleveland walloped the Browns in a doub'eheader affair, The summaries: National League First Gi At Brooklyn pat Ils sosidas idsies bas azsoioes1 y cal ve mt 3 | ‘ Second Gamerio!>: 104 At Brooklyrio Philadelphia - Brooklyn Batteries: Hallahan and At wood; Frankhouse and Phelps. First Game At Boston New York -615 0 Boston - ~ 251054 Batteries: Melton and Mancuso; Gabler, Fette and Lopez. R. H. E. Second Game At Boston New York 1 Boston < 0 ; Batteries: Gumbert and Dan- ning; Macfayden and Lopez. . E First Game At Chicago St. Louis - Chicago s-18 23 2 Batteries: Harrell,, Ryba and Ogrodowski; Lee, Parmelee and Hartnett. 12 19 Second Game At Chicago St. Louis . R. HE. ie TS Chicago ... 9 10: 0 Batteries: Winford and Ogro- dewski; Lee, Bryant and Hart: nett. - First Game At Pittsburgh Cincinnati Pittsburgh .. Batteries: Schott and Lombardi? Weaver and Todd. Second Game Cincinmati ‘ Pittsburgh _ Batteries: Van Demeer an Davis; Brandt and Padden. American League First Game At Detroit Chicago Detroit Batteriés: K Sewell; ‘Coffman, : Bolton, " 8 9 id Second Game At Detroit Chicago Detroit on Batteries: Lee, Brown ani ell; Wade, Lawson and Tebbetts. R. + & 7 First Game At New York Batteries: Wi ler and Berg; Raffing and Dickey. Second Game At New York Boston - New York e a Batteries: Walberg sautels; ‘Chandler and Dic! Throyghout the passing of the} wy, f the School Patrol under the leadership of] streets: over which the parade passed clear, of traffic and were vigilant in} ' Bothy: those who participated in! jean become expert in the smallest; the parkdé and those who watched! Then a friend of mine called, affairs. by jits passing were unanimous in their praise of the alertness of.) imonitions! Health's dean j examination, tell the age and style long trips. You add up the va-/given by Leader Gwynn and his| St. Lou's ‘Philadelphia Batteries: Deshong and R. il; Carter and Buckner. ‘er- re! At Philadelphia R. Batteries: Linke, Fisher Ferrell; Smith and Buckner. At St. Lous Cleveland emeritus, born at Hamburg, N. J., of buttons on the oldest garments, |rious kinds of gas station. I recom-| aides, to pedestrians and to others} Batteries: Hodlin, }A button found im the White/mend this as a boon to mothers im their efforts to avoid accidents| Pytisk; Hildebrand and Harry F. Sinclair of New York, oil man, born at Wheeling, W. Va., 61 years ago. t i¢ & vest batten of the Coolidge | Hampstead, N. H., ‘era. So I called up Mita. Coolidge ‘June 28, 1937. | House coatroom was given him as whose littl ones Lecome restless of any. kind. test. He immediately placed it) on long trips. weekly. R. H. El}, e Everything is set for the annual “dream game” tomorrow at Wash- ington, D.C. Managers Terry and McCarthy have their boys in shape and prob- ably the starting line-upg will be: National League Bartell, ss; Herman, 2b; P. Waner, cf; Medwick, If; Hartnett, c; Vaughn or Jurges, 3b; Mize, 1b; Martin, rf, and Mungo or } Hubbell, starting pitcher. American League Be'l, lf; DiMagg‘o, ef; West, rf; Gehrig, 1b; Dickey, c; Gehringer, 2b; Cronin, .ss; C.ift or Rofle, 3b; Harder or Grove, starting pitch- er, The Nationals will have Dean, Blanton, Walters and Grissom for mound’ duty; Americans, Bridges, W. Ferrell and Stratton. The locals’ choices are: Bobby Shultz, American League, by one run. Dewey, ditto. H. Mayg, National League, be- cause ite believes Hermen and tt will bat them through. am he hitters over the i William Ruszeb, Williams and Gabriel Caban- ack ise League. )°RGIand Roberts, American cir- cuit, and how! ‘ Baeza thinks Dickey, Gehrig end Co., are too much for the Na- tional Leaguers, ‘Machin Brothers pick the Na-/. tionals and Acevedo Bros., the Americans. The writer will string along with Dean, Mungo and Hubbell. STARS DEFEATED CUBS ON SUNDAY The pitching of Red Dean for tured the game played Sunday at jNavy Field. He not only shut- ‘out Young Cubs, but knocked a omer and a triple to drive home four of his club’s seven runs, Barroso, for the losers, hit two safely in three times at bat and Jackie (Carbonell and J. Navarro connected for one each—the. total number of ‘safeties Dean allowed. Score by innings: R. H. E. Stars 001 020 400—-7 8 2 Cubs . 000 000 000-0 4 5 Batteries: A. Dean and V. Dean; Malgrat, Barroso and J. Carbonell |SOFTBALL GAME A regular Social Diamondball League game will be played this afternoon at Bayview Park, weath- er permitting. Roberts Stars and Coca-Cola will meet. Roberts and Stickney will be the battery for the Stars, and Stanly and Nelson for the Cokes. Tomorrow the Stars and Cara- ballo Red Devils hook up. ntest will start at 5 p. m. Pe Ye: i | Batteries: Whitehill and Pytlak; Hogsett and. Heath. CUBAN COFFEE Is Deliciously Fresh! —TRY IT TODAY— ij KSONVILLE fre FLORIDA sez i t Died in Phi'adelphia, Today’s Anniversaries - 1747—John Paul Jones, Amer- ica’s famed naval commander of Revolutionary days, in the Russian and French service after our war, born in Scotland. Died in Paris, July 18, 1792. 1759—Joshua Barney, off ficer in American Navy of the Revolu- tion before the age of 17, com- mander in War of 1812, born in Baltimore. Died in’ Pittsburgh, Dec. i, 1818. 1766—Alexander Wilson, Pennsylvania weaver and peddler, rememberd as a famed pioneer ornithologist, born in Scotland. Aug. 23, 1813. 1822—John M, Gregory, Bap- tist clergyman, a middle west leader in education, born at Sand Lake, N.Y. Died in Washington, D. C., Oct, 19, 1898. ‘1831—Daniel Coit Gilman, pres- ident of the University of Cal’for- nia, first president of Johns Hop- kins and first president of the Carnegie Institution, born at Nor- wich, Conn. Died there, Oct. 13, 1908, mnt 1852—Katherine Tirg'ey, world tkeosophist leader, born at New- buryport, Mass. Died,in Sweden, July 11, 1929. ; Today In History 1837 — Minister, representing the Republic of Texas, officially received in Washington, 1854—Convention of Jackson, Michigan, regarded ag birthday of the Republican Party. 1854—Lyman R. Blake f ‘Mass., received patent No. 20,- 775 for so-called McKay stitching machine which revolutionized shoe | manufacture. 1920—Franklin D, Rooseve't nominated for Vice President at Democratic National Convention. 1925—Pres. Coolidge orders coast guard to drive rum-running ships away from sight of his sum- + mer home at Swampscott, Mass. i 1928—First ‘all-talkie produced in New York—“The Lights of New York.” ~ CLASSIFIED COLUMN Seccoceccccsssesesseoes ‘WANTED WPA HOME-MAKING CENTER sires loan of Sewing Machines. See Mrs. Minnie Robinson, 709 Eaton street, or at Center, cor. ~ Angela” and Simonton’ streets, airs. , jhy3-5tx every OIL CHANGE, te Lubrication job. Is, ‘Tire-Repairs. We meverything from your R ATOR to your RADIO. B. & A. SERVICE STATION, Eaton and Grinnell streets, jly2-lmo TEACHERS WANTED TEACHERS WANTED — Enroll immdiately. Positions open in western states, Elementary, advanced grades, history, com- mercial, Spanish, Latin, English, social science, mathematics, others. Enclose stamped enve- lope. PROFESSIONAL PLACE- MENT BUREAU, 508-9 Mcin- tyre Bldg., Salt Take City, Utah. jun30-1mo FOR SALE RIPE AVOCADOS'EVEDY DAY. Little Cash Grocery, 801 Simon- | ton. street. jun28-lwkx j OLD PAPERS FOR SALE— Five bundles for bc. The Citi- mayl9-tf TYPEWRITING PAPER — 500 sheets, 75c. 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