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BLAGK By NEA _* The body of “Handsome Harry” Borden is found- by his secretary, Ruth Lester, ene Monday wmorning, sprawled beneath the airshaft win- dow of his private office, Ruth is engaged to Jack Hayward, whose office is just across the narréw air- shaft from Borden's. She rushes to tell him of the tragedy. Finding him out, Ruth searches for his pistol, which he purchased at the same time he bought an identical weapon for her to keep in her desk. His gun is gone! She knows Jack hates Borden on her account and, cold with a hol rible fear, recalls Jack's strange be- havior of the previous Saturday afternoon. McMann, police detective, learns from the elevator boys, Micky Mor. an and Otto Pfluger, that Saturday afternoon passengers to the seventh floor were Benny Smith, Borden's . office boy; Mra Borden, his wife and mother of his two children, who called for her monthly alimony check; Rita Dubois, night club dancer, and Jack Hayward! ‘When McMann finds footprints of & pigeon in dried blood both on the window ledge and on the floor, which indicates the window was open during the murder, he says the “job” was done from the inside and turns suspiciously to Ruth. fhe answers all questions and tells of the pistol in her desk. McMann looks for it but it, too, is gone! Jack admits the office across the airshift is his and explains to Mec- Mann he returped Saturday after- noon for the theater tckets left on his desk. He also tells of his auto- matic. McMann goes to look for it. Ho returns to announce the pistol is gone! He is accompanied back by ‘ Bill Cowan, real estate man and friend 'of Jack's, who says he Leard Jack utter threats against Borden Saturday morning when he Borden's attempted familiarity with Ruth. Cowan says he telephone: Jack Baturday afternoon and Wwas plugged in on a buwsy line, NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY €HAPTER XVIII Jack Hayward shrugged angrily. “Then maybe Cowan can tell me who uses my phone in my absence. The bills are outrageous. I've told you before, McMann, and Miss Les- ter has corroborated me, that I re- joined her in the dining room of the Chester Hotel at 10 minutes after two. It is obvious that T could not Thave been talking over the tele- phone in my office at the sam- moment. Central probably gave you & wrong number, as well as a busy number, Cowan. If you think you recognized my voice, you're mistak- en—that's all.” “I didn’t say T recognized your voice, Jack, old man,” Cowan pro- tested unhapplly. “I merely tc 1 Mr. McMann that I heard Borden glving you the devil—" “Borden!” Ruth and Jack ex- claimed simultaneously, incredu- lously. “Yes—Borden!” McMann repeat- ed triumphantly. “From what Cowan says, there's not a doubt in the world but that you ecalled Harry Borden on the phone and had your quarrel with him {n that way. rather than across the airshaft.” “And shot him over the tele- phone, too, I suppose?” Jack retort- ed contemptuously. “Very ingenious of me, I'm sure. “Please, Jack!” Ruth begged, her voice piteous with terror. “Mr. Cowan,” she asked tremulously of the embarrassed witness, ‘“isn't it very possible that you're mistaken in thinking you recognized Mr. Borden's voice over the phone?” “Oh, sure! Of course!” Cowan succumbed instantly to the appeal in those blue eyes. But McMann was of sterner stuff. “Look ‘hers, Cowan! You told me that you heard a man's voice, which you recognized as that of your friend, Harry Borden shouting, in great anger: ‘I'm not FAMOUS ":l‘m the recciver?” Service, Inc. going to have you interfering in| my affairs! Who are you, to tell Harry Borden what he can do and can’t do?" Is that the truth, Cow- an? Are those substantially the words you heard before you hung The harassed real estate man mopped his brow again. “As near as I can remember—yes.” “You distinctly heard the speak- er call himself Harry Borden?" McMann insisted. “Yes, I did, for a fact,” admitted unhappily. self that there'd tween those dreamed—" “Well, I guess my case is pretty clear,” McMann broke in, smiling with grim satisfaction. “Saturday morning, Hayward, you see the girl you're engaged to struggling in Borden's arms. You threaten to kill Borden if he lays hands on her again. Cowan has to hold you by main strength to keep you from trying to jump across the airshaft to get at your man. You meet Miss Lester at 1:20; she comes back to her office for her forgotten bank Look, “has another struggle with Borden, who bruises her lip in Kkiss- ing her—" 3 “I've told you that is not true!” Ruth cried. McMann went on as if she had not spoken. “You find her at the clevator with tears in her eyes and her lip swelling, and 4t takes all her strength and threats of break- ing the engagement to keep you from killing Borden then. You two g0 to lunch together, she confesses that Borden had manhandled her—" “That also is not true!” Ruth interrupted furiously. McMann ploughed on imperturb- ably. “You're so angry with Bor- den, Hayward, that you leave the hotel dining room in the midst of your luncheon and hurry back to the Starbridge Bullding, deter- mined to have it out with him, possibly with your mind already made up to kil him. You call him on the phone—" Jack laughed contemptuously. “That's likely, fsn’t {t? If I had wanted to telcphone Harry Borden I could have done s0 from the Chester Hotel without making a trip to the Starbridge Building.” Cowan “I said to my- be trouble yet be- two, but I never “But you coaldn’t have shot him from the Chester Hotel!” McMann petanted angvily.. ‘Maybe you ‘A4 forget your theater tickets, as you say you did, and had to come back for them. Maybe you didn’t intend to kill Rorden until after you nuar- reled with him over the phone. “It's not up to me to figure out Jjust why you telephoned Harry Borden before you shot him. All I'm concerned with {s that Harry Dorden was shot as he steod in front of that window, that he had been heard defying your threats over the telephone, that you had a gun, which is missing now, and that the window of your private office is directly opposite the win- dow at which Borden was standing when he was Killed. That's enough for me!"” “But not for me, Mr. McMan Ruth cried, her eyes flashing at she shook off Jack's restraining hand. “And T know enough about criminal law and eriminal coust procedure to know that it will not be enough to warrant Mr. Hay- ward's arrest. Remember I'm Col- by /Lester's daughter!” “You had a good teacher—the best in the world, Miss Lester,” Mc- Mann answered with surprising gentleness, “But I'm also remem- bering that you're engaged to be married to Jack Hayward, and J believe he kidled the man who in- sulted and mistreated you. I'm mighty sorry—"" “Piease listen to me for a minute, Mr. McMann,” Ruth pleaded. “1 kriow you're only trying to do your duty—that you want to be fair. But there are so many things you : ren’t taking into consideration, First, you are making a mistake in believing that-Jack had & motive for killing Mr. Borden. I admit that he saw, window, the struggle that Mr. Cowan has told you about, but Mr. Cowan will gladly assure you that Mr. Borden was not makipg love to me—kissing me, or anything like that. He was simply trying to take off my spectacles, and I was foolish to scream. “I admit that T was atrald Mr Borden would like my appearance too well if he saw me without ny glasses. 1 knew he liked pretty girls, and other mep had made my business life rather hard for me, AS MARCH RIDES DOWN THE GALES S HOWING, stesting, raining bricfly swasy —that's the March that's just around the cor~ ner, ready to buffet us with blustery gales. For such a month, dependable heat of you need the steady, Famous Readiag An- thracite from fires that will glow gently during the warmer hours, but burst iate in- stant hot flame when the vagaries of the weather bring back the cold. 1€ your bins are getting low, refill now with Famous Reading Anthracite—the bet- ter Pennsylvania hard coal. Get it frem a Reading merchant listed below. ; READING === City Coal & Wood Co., 141 Elm Street, Phone 217 National Coal & Wood Co., Phone 4621 w Britain Coal & Wood Co., 118 Whiting Street, Phone 1719 Stanley-Svea Grain & Coal Co., Phone 419 before 1 made myself as plain as possible. But that is absolutely all that happened between Mr. Borden and myself. 1 did mnot see him when T returned for my bank book, and 1 was able to convince Mr. Hay- ward that Mr. Borden was not re- sponsible for my bruised lip." The detective \shifted in hi ohair. “I'm afraid all this isn't getting us anywhere, Miss Lester—" “Pleasne!” the girl begged. “The second important fact thax “ou're ignoring 13 that my suwmatic is nissing, too!"” “I'm not exactly igmoring that fact, Miws Lester,” McMann swered, not unkindly, “but I didn't like to drag Colby Lester's daugh- ter into this casec as an accessory either before or after the fact.” “l—I- don't know what you mean!” Ruth gasped. “No, please, Jack, she pleaded, as the young man sprang toward McMann's desk. “Better try to control that tem- per of yours, Hayward,’; McMann advised grimly. “T'm afrad it" already got you into enough trou- ble. . . . What I meant, Miss Les- ter, was that a frantic girl may hit upon strange ways to comfuse evi- dence when she fears for the life of the man she loves. I'm not say- ing that you hid that pistol of yoyrs this morning after you dis- covered that your employer had been killed and that your sweet- heart’s gun was missing—" Ruth went very pale, but her voice was steady as she challenged the detective: “What makes you think I knew his gun was miss- ing? - McMapn smiled. *“You betrayed yourself when Hayward mentioned his automatic. He has better con- trol of his expression than you haye, child, ' but he should have warned you that he was going to admit ownership of the gun. “But I didn't rely entirely on reading your expression, Miss Barnes told me that you were alone in Mr. Hayward's office for two or three minutes this morning, when you went there to tell him TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1929, . what you had found in here. It was easy to deduce how you had spent those minutes — and why. You were afraid your sweetheart had killed your employer, and you looked for his pistol, to make sure. You didn’t find it—and came to the same conclusion that I did.” 4 — “You're wrong there, at least!" Ruth blazed, “I did find that his gun was gone, but I know Jack Hayward did not kill Harry Bor- den!” “And how de you know that, Miss Lester?” McMann asked quietly. “Becaus2 the person who killed Borden was in this office, not in the one across the airshaft. Oh, 1 know a shot could have been fired from one window through the other, but there are two excellent, irrefutable proofs that the person who killed him was in this office, either during or after the murder. First—the body was robbed of $500—" “Just a minute!” McMann inter- rupted. “We have no proof that Borden was robbed, beyond the fact that the money i» missing, How do you know that he.did not give ‘he money to someone before his death?" L “He gave Mra Borden a check!" Ruth flashed. *“And he had no other visitor except Mrs. Borden until Rita Dubois came, according to the evidence of the elevator oper- ator, Micky Moran. , . . O yes! Benny Smith was here, too, . about half-past one, but surely you can't imagine Borden's making his of- fice boy a present of $500! Can’t you see that it isn't fair to Jack to convict him in your own mind until you've talked with Rita Du- bois? We know she was here —." “And that she didn't see Borden, in all probability, if we're to put the natural interpretation on what she said to Moran, the elevator op- erator, about DBorden's ‘stood her up,’"” Moran pointed out patiently. “That's ridiculous!” Ruth cried, forgetting tact in her anger. ‘“The natural supposition is that she was having{ | referring 0 Borden's having failed to meet her at the station, to take her away on the week-end irip to Winter Haven, as they_ had planned “Why give her the benefit of the doubt when you've been mso ruthless with Mrs. Borden, Jack and my- self? Oh, please be fair! Don't you see how like.y it is that it was Rita Dubois who—who last saw Me Borden alive? Since fo= gome rea- son he failed to keep his appgint- ment with her, he would be expect- ing her here. “Probably she teleplioned him and he asked her to come, or she simply came to see why he had ‘stood her up’' at the station. He would admit Rita, would unlock the door for her, but not for Jack Hay ward. And doxn’t forget—someone closed that® window after Harry Borden was murdered. Jack could not have done so. He couldn't have got in. He has no key to this office, of course—' The girl's passionate outburst was interrupted by Birdwell, “Phil- lips, the waiter from the Chester Hotel, sir.” (TO BE CONTINUED) The waiter's testimony is even more damaging to Hayward. He tells about a key. Confederate Veterans g To Attend Inaugural Jackson, - Miss., Feb. 19 OB — Twenty Confederate veterans from the State Home For Old Soldiers, at Beauvoir, will go to Washington for the inauguration of Herbert Hoover, in addition to Gov. T. G. Bilbo and his officlal staff” from Mississippl. Governor Bilbo granted authority for the veterans to make the trip and the Illinois Central and the Bouthern Railways have agreed to transport them to the capital and back free of cost. The veterans will carry their own cook and provisions. In asking permission of the gov. ernor, Elnathan Tartt, superin- tendent of the home, told the gov- ernor the old soldiers desired to the president that they 'desire way with section feelings and the Mason-Dixon line.” Coolidge Signs Bird . Sanctuary Measure Washington Feb. 19 UB—One or more bird sanctuaries in every state and in Alaska will be established under the provisions of the Norbeck migratory bird bill signed late yes- terday by President Coolidge. Not only will migratory and. game birds be protected, but all wild life is to live unmolested in the sanctuaries. The program for establishment of . the refuges is expected to be com- pleted within 10 years. The bill has been sponsored by Benator Norbeck of South Dakota, and Representative Anderson of Industriss fal~ he confessed amid laughtér: “T ihave never tried to sell anything in my lite except a fow herses.” dominions purchased other than English made goods. " Popular Favor The SALADA blend Is pleasing millions daily. It's the - flavor that counts. "SALADA" Voila/ reach for a Lucky ~ instead of a sweet - Paul Poiret, Famous Parisian Creator of Fashions *If you want to keep slender (and whe doesn’t in these days) avoid sweets and smoke Lucky S something t 3 There seems to be possibly the flavor, that satisfies the craving for the rich things that add weight. **Voila’, reach for a Luc sweet—the trim figure instead of @ is always fashions able. Advertisements that I saw when I recently arrived in America, said:—*The best way for sugar to be eaten is as @ flavorer of foods’. They are quite corvect in cautioning a modified use of sugar. Sweets to excess are bad. I advocate a few puffs of the Lucky Strike toasted flavor when sweets tempt. “l may add that 1 smoke Strikes myself, and I think they have much to the state of mind which has helped me to create my greatest success. *“Lucky Strikesare certainly an inspiration!” PAUL POIRET Authorities attribute the enormous i % crease in Cigarette smoking %o the improvement in the process of Clgaretts mens facture by the application of heat. Itis trus thet during 1928, Lucky Strike Cigarettes showed o greater increase than all other Cigareties com- bined. This surely confirms the public’s confl dence in the superiority of Lucky Serlhe It's toasted™ b9 casst hoskasp esary night e v