New Britain Herald Newspaper, February 11, 1929, Page 15

THIS HAS HAPPENED: luth Lester, pretty secretary to Handsome Harry” Borden, pro- 1oter of dubious stock companies, nd Jack Hayward, insurance brok- v with office just across the nar- ow airshaft from Borden's private ffice, agree to celebrate their en- jagement with a Saturday luncheon nd matince. While Ruth takes Bor- en’s dictation Saturday morning he jakes a playful pass at her. She creams out a protest. Jacl in the pposite office hears her and jhreatens Borden. When Jack ard Ruth 20 she finds she left ook in the office and it, bruising her lip in the rch. Juck, #till angry, insists forden hurt her but she deniea it. ack discovers at lunch he left heir theater tickets on his deck nd gocs back for them. He stays nnecessarily long, returning in a angely perturbed state of mind. When on Monday morning Ruth nds Borden's dead body sprawjed n the floor near the window she eviews k's strange behavior nd runs to Jack's office. His gun gone! Jack, who accompanies er back to Borden's suite, calle » police while Ruth rushes into he private office to close the win- 1t is already closed! When Detective McMann arrives [ @arns Ruth is engaged to Jack. so tells him of Borden's two (turday morning callers; Rita Du- sols, Mght club dancer; and Mrs. K . his wife and mother of his wo children, who came for her nonthly alimony. While Ruth is be- ng question, Mrs. Borden comes in, he swoons when McMann shows er the body. He grills her with uestions. “You shot him!" he flings nercilessly at her. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER XTI As McMann's ruthlessly logical cntences peppered like bullets upon hoor Mrs. Borden's shrinking figure, {uth Lester thanked God about the utomatic pistol in the bottom rawer of her desk—that fearsome plue-black thing which Mrs. Borden ad seen and shuddered away from by Saturday. Ruth’s own small body stiffened ith inlignation and sympathy as Irs. Borden pulled herself together o answer McMann's brutal charge. “I did not Kili my husband, sir. fe was alive, well and—happy hen 1 left him Saturday after- oon. I never saw him again until a minutes ago.” Whatever answer the scowling, hviously skeptical detective might ave made was checked by the pening of the outer door ari the ntrance of three plainclothes men, whom McMann greeted curtly, as- igning them rapidly to their tasks: “Carlso, 1 want you to take harge of all visitors that Biggers tops at the door. There'll be stock lesmen and other business callers ho don't know that Borden is flead. Herd them into Suite 715 flown the hall. It's vacant. Ques- ion all comers and send for me if meet at her bank rushes back 0w ora an't come! Today, and every day, s lot of vomen count their time ti ffer, As regularly as the months come ‘round omes pain that is borne in silence. Nature,” women say. But it Women who have always had the hardest time, 1ave no pain at all from the day they discover Midol. dol is the special preparation of pecialists, and is not a marcotic. It does nothing o the menstrual pro- = It docs stop the pain—in five to seven minutes! So it is only com mon sense to use it. And it coats [just fifty cents, at any drugstore in tiny carrying case of aluminum, | whether they anything develops. Get the alibi of every salesman who reports, Big- gers i3 holding a couple of them | now. | “Yeah, that's all, but don't let | anything slip through your fin. gers. . . . Covey. get hold of the superintendent of (he building, and tell him to round up every employe that was on the premises Saturday afternoon. Ask him also to make an office to oftice canvass for every tenant that was in the building after one o'clock — not many of them, T guess. “Question them one by one as to heard a shot, and when. Keep a complete record, of course. Better get the super to give you another vacant suite for. your jcb, and have the gang brought to you, one by one. I don't want them to have a chance to compare notes. And don't put out anything, see? Just ask for information, don't give it.” Covey, u little, bright-eyed, glce- ful-looking detective, nodded happi- ly. “And shall T send the elevator boys to you straight off, chief?" McMann nodded, but his atten- tion was not so cngrossed with his subordinates that he did not sece Ruth Lestcr start, grow very pale. and rcach instinctively for Jack Hayward's hand. Ruth did not hear a word of Me- | Mann's instructions to Birdwell, the third of the plainclothes men, for she wae reliving that scene with Jack Hayward at the elevator., when he had come up to rescue her, 98 he thought, from Borden's amorous importunities. The room spun dizzily about the girl, as she real- ized that Micky Moran, the elevator operator, would tell. would be forced to tell, how, with a bryised lip trembling with fright and her cves swimming with tears, she had struggled with Jack to keep him from forcing his way into Borden's office, . The crushing pressure of her sweetheart'’s hand steadied her finally, so that <he became con- scious of what was going on about her. McMann was bending over Mrs. Borden aguin, demanding sternly: “Now, Mrs. Borden, just one more question for the present: did yon encounter anyone as vou left your husband’s offices Suturday after- noon 2" What sounded like a sigh of re- lief quivered the white lips of the widow. “No one, sir. . . . No, wait! There was a scrubwoman coming out of the office next to the ele- vator, across the hall. T remember thinking how old and bent she was. how—how harshly life must have used her. . . . That is the only per- son I saw, Mr. McMann, before th elevator came.” Ruth wondered hew many people poor old Minnie Cassidy, the clean- ing woman who “did” Borden's offiges, had served in this ironic way. She, too. had never been so downhearted but that a sight of rheumatic, bent, but humbly cheer- ful, old Minnie had made her think to herself, gratefully: “Thank Cod. I'm better off than that. I have a lot to be thankful for.” The' convulsive pressure of Jack's hand told her that e was follow- ing her thoughts, and she looked up fearfully into his eyes. He was smil- ing, but his face way very pale, with two little knots of muscle to indicate that his jaws were clenched. She wanted to reach up and touch those clenched jaws, to reassure him: “I know you didn't do it, darling! Remember, the window was closed, closed! Don’t you see? They can't really think you did it, no matter what Micky Moran tells!" But she did not dare, with Mc- | Mann's narrowed eyes flashing | keenly from her face to Jack's. . . . H “Oh, hello, Dr. Nielson! Glad you've got here'” McMann strode to the half-opened door and extended his hand to a slender, oldish man, whose bared head was thinly cov- ered with graying fair hair, through which the scalp showed pinkly. Pale blue eyes, enlarged by thick-lensed spectacles, surveyed the room diffi- dently. “The body is in the next room, doctor, exactly as Miss Lester here found it when she came to work this morning. It's pretty obvi- |ous that dcath took place as long ago as Saturday afternoon.” “Nothing is obvious, my dear Mc- Mann.” the doctor protested mildly. “The building is open on Sundays, 1 take it?” Without waiting for an NEW BRITAIN DAILY HERALD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1929. snswer, . the medical examiner stepped over the threshold, remo.- ing his gloves as he did so. “Ah! Near the window, I see.” “Yes,” McMann admitted, follow- ing ths doctor ard not bothering to closs the door behind him. *He wag killed in his private office, and not newr the door. Looks pretty cer- tain that whoever bumped him off was known to Borden. otherwise he - or more likely she — wouldn't have been admitted to the private office.” o *“These Sherlock Holmes deduc- tions are your field. not mine, my dear McMann,” Dr. Nielson said placidly. as he dropped to his knees beside the corpse. “Hmm! Shot through the hgart, I think, but of course anly autopsy ®an tell us the exact fact: {0 powder burns on the eoat or vest, so the weapon must have been fired at a distance EXTRA SPECIALS BASSINETS $3.75 Mothers who «. thrifty will ap preclate this ex traordinary sav ing. ©ND TABLES $1.00 The Qquantity i limited so we c: offer just one to customer. SOOOP CHAIR $1375 Handsone che tul assortment o covers. Pay $1 Down DAVENPOR1 TABLES $6.95 5 ply mahogun Pay $1 Down IT'S FOLDING $1.00 Well made ca table with leatl erette top an folding legs. Limited quantity. SILK FLOSS MATTRESS ouy"29.50 4§ 1bs, imperial edge, sateen tick. Save $10.00. Pay $1 Weekly ALSO $4.49 BOOK TROUGH END TABLE, NOW $1.590 FERNERY Now $3.23 FOOTSTOOL ..00eeen $3.00 TOASTER $3.00 MEDICINE CABINET of some f:et. I'll take & sample of this blood, naturally,” he added, opening a small black bag he car- ried. “The extent of coagulation will help us to -arrive at the ap- proximate time of the murder. 1 presume it is murder? Have you found a weapon?" McMann indicated the floor of the foom with & wave of his hand. “Ne gun anywhere near the body, doc- tor. He conld have committed sul- cide and flung the weapon out of the window as he fell, but the win- dow was closed. "t was closed when you arrived, Miss Lester?” and he whirled toward Ruth, who was standing beside Jack Hayward in the doorway. “Oh, yes!” Ruth cried eagerly, too eagerly, so that the de i eyes narrowed suspiciously. not go near the—the Lody or the window, and' Mr. Hayward just touched his hand to be sure Mr. Borden was — dead. He never { touched the window, cither.” ! With a piece of chalk the medical examiner outlined the sprawled | body on the polished, rug-free strip of floor. Around the upflung arm, the head half-pillowed upon it, the out-thrust right arm down the tor- %0, around the big, long legs rigidly “1 did crooked in death, the chalk sy2eded, lifting only to avoid the dark, ‘'ry-| ing poo' of blood. Whue tne €octor worked, a thick, pugnacious young man, shouldering a camera, pushed his way into the roem, saluted Mec- Mann, grinned appreciatively at Ruth, then went about his first gruesome task—that of photograph- ing the dead man where he lay. At the explosion of the flashlight | Mrs. Borden, still sitting in a for- lorn huddle in the outer office, ccreamed, and Ruth turned back to her, to comfort her with an ex- planation and little murmurs which were scarcely words. But she could hear McMann's big voice: “I've left everything just as it was till you got here, Ferber. Fingerprints may play a big part in this case. Go over the whole room, | especially the desk, doors and win- dows. Oh, Miss Lester!” Then, as Kuth reappeared in the doorway, “Were these windows looking out, on the street closed, too?" “They were kept closed in the winter,” Ruth answered. “Venti- lation came from the window on the airshaft between the wings. Minnie Cassidy, the cleaning wo- man, must have closed it when she i cleaned _ Saturday afternoon, al- though Mr. Borden was still here. It's a rule of the building that no windows are to be left open over- night.” rhink the woman cleaned, you?" McMann shot at her. “Why, yes” Ruth answered, surprised at his lack of astuteness. “The wastebaskets have been emp- ticd, as you see, both in my office and in Mr. Borden's. Minnie came down the hall toward the office just as I was getting on the eleva- tor Saturday afternoon. I suppose she cleaned them.” Her lips went dry with fear that her ordeal was upon her—that Me- Mann would question her then and there about her departure, would learn that she had come back for her forgotten bankbook. But the detective merely nodded as said: “I'll get Minnie’s story when Co- vey rounds her up.” “The cleaning women don't come on duty weeck days until four,” Ruth volunteered. “Saturdays they work from 12 to five.” McMann thanked her with an- other curt nod, then, since the fin- gerprint expert had finished with Borden’s desk, he began to pull out do he | drawers. “I don‘'t see , any gun here.” he remarked. to né one in particular. “In view of all those | hold-ups in the building I'm sur- | prised he didn't keep one.” | would soon extend to her own desk. Ruth gripped Jack Hayward's hand tight, then volunteered, a breathle “I have an automatic in my desk, Mr. McMann. A Colt's .38, I believe it is.” “What!" the detective exploded. Then, “Bring it to me! No, wait! I'll get 1t” he corrected himseif grimly, with a significant glance at the fingerprint expert, who fol- lowed close at his heels as Me- Mann strode into the outer ofice. “Show me where you keep it." Obediently Ruth pulled open th bottom drawer of her desk, and pointed, shrinking a little, as shc always shrank from sight or touch of that blue-black thing. “Where?" McMann w ing among clean towels, paper cups, ery, with which the bottom drawer | was filled. “There's no automatic | her po cartons of or any other kind of gun! “Not — there?” Ruth repeated stupidly. “Not there! “Why—" and involuntarily she turned on icy SALKE! This is an annual event at this store and each year we do our utmost to far surpass all previous presentations. Careful inspection of the marvelous features on our floors will convince you that this is the greatest sale of the year. When we tell you that we have searched the leading mar- kets for the newest styles to include in our present stock at drastic price reductions, you will hurry to the store and see the real savings that await you. nish your home and our prices talk for themselves. Compare here, ~— ow is certainly the time to refur- 3-Piece Angora Mohair Parlor Suite February Sale Price ‘159 Regularly §219 Pay $2 Weekly This is an outstanding value. Although we have many cheaper mohair suites, we consider this oux best walue, $2.95 ... 89¢ $1.00 $1.00 00 9 Pieces—Consists of 66 in. Buffet, China Closet with Drawer, Large Extension Table, Host Chair, § Side Chairs. Pay $2 Weekly You will be glad to see the mew 1929 home outfits dispiayed on eur DINING ROOM SUITE 410 MAIN STREET February Sale Price $215 Can also be had with Wing Chair instead of Bunny Chair. er, Vanity, Straight or Velour Seat NEAR EAST MAIN & Pieces—Consists of 45 in. Dress- Because she knew that his learch‘ little | burrow- | bundles of old station- | ! feet and stared at Mra. Bordes. (TO BE CONTINUED) In the next chapter; The clew of the black pigeon. via the Herald Clasified Ad reute. Telephone 925 and you get service | Build Resistance To! 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