Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, October 20, 1922, Page 19

manufaéturer of epamelled leather, was found dead in his flittle workshop. His only son found him lying across a pile of half-finished bides. In his hand, clutched tightly, was the soft sponge used in giving the Pnal gloss to the leather which made the product in such demand for faney leather goods. Polico investigation ghowed the safe had not been tamp- ered with and nothing was misging from the workroom. The only mark of violence on the body was a thin ptream of blood dried under the left eye. A slight scratch across the cheekbone might have produced the blood stream. Questioned by the offi- cers Conrad, Junior, could not recall any enemies of his father or give a motive for the murder. The examin- ing physiclans declared the man had been in perfect health when death came suddenly. Nevin McNabb, city detectlve, was assigned to the case. There was not the slightest clue in way of foot prints, finger prints or any evidence of an intruder. Murder CONRAD MORNINGSTAR, expert had been done and the murderers van- ished into thin air. MeNabb 7etired to his home to think the matter over. He poticed a leather handbag belonging to his daughter lying on the dining-room table. It was a peculiar glossy black leather, but beginning to wear at the seams to a dull yellow where the enamel had cracked, Borrowing the bag he went to the department store where he had purchased the article, The buyer said that particular brand of bags were im- perted to compete with the Morning- star leather goods, which were con- trolled by a New York jobbing house and held for high prices owing to the superior quality. The buyer stated the foreign-made goods were inferior to the Morningstar lguther goods and they had continual trouble and com- plaints gbout the foreign-made ones. McNabb learned from young Morn- (nfgstar that his father obtained the secret of the glossy enamel from his grandfather and the process would now be Jost, as his father had not given him the formula or the secret process. A second trip to the buyer. put Mc- Nabb in- touch With the dowatown house handling the foreign-made bags. The buyer there confirmed the de- partment store man’s statéments about the constant treuble with the imported goods. He said he expected the Au- strian manufacturer to he in America in the near future, McNabb went ont on routing city work and awaited de- velopments. The buyer of the import- ing house agreed to let him = know when the Austrian arrived. The detee- tive Wwas in the outer offices when he called on the importing firm. When he left his hotel that evening McNabb was rhadowing him at every step. He took a hotel cab, McNabb following with & cab driver he often used for such trips. Reaching a house on the east side of the city the cab stopped. The driver of the police car stopped a hun- dred yards behind and extinguished his lights. Next to the house was a drug store of the old style pharmacy order. McNabb noted the German name over the door. Slipping up quietly he saw the Austrian first try RILLING like a bird, dancing T over the soft turf, the half- breed girl bubbled with the heaith of the open. The fires of her primitive ancestors responded to the glory ot the western hills and thrilled with joy of life as the perfect human animal, the long, black braids shining with gloss of the Indian. The pinkish gray complexion. The sparkling black eyes. Built like a gazelle, willowly, clean limbed and sturdy as the sway- ing pines' on the slope. Wanda stopped on the Harmony Trall and looked wonderingly at the glittering automobile gliding along the smooth road, Not that cars were a novelty to this child of the forest but the gayly fressed tourists attracted her girlish admiration. She was on her way to school in the white building at the fork of the creek. As the big car came # feminine voice called to the m to stop. The speaker an elderly woman Wwith white hair and the patri- clan face of the worldy rich had seen the trim little figure on the pathway. “Oh; look Myron, isn't she a pic- tuge?" A young man smoking a cigar- !lh lollipg back in the heavy up- holstery raised himself up and looked |m at the girl by the roadside. “Some kid, I'll say, mother,” he P VAP VA " i murmured, taking in every detail of the superb figure of the Indian girl. Blushing under his bold look Wanda turned to run back in the brush when the lady called to her. The soft voice made her pause. “Come here, dear, I want to talk to you."” Shyly she walked to the side of the car. A white, gloved hand reached out to her. She put her little brown one in it. The lady asked the girl a num- ber of questions about the section tell- ing her they wanted to camp for a while and that their baggage auto was following. Strolling about the camp grounds while the servants prepared the camp for the night Howard Farrington thought about the pretty half-breed girl of the morning. Standing at the edge of the clearing he saw her coming back from school. He walked down to the Harmony Trail to intercept her. For half a mile he walked towards her home with her. Wide-eyed, half fright- ened, the fawn-colored maiden listened in wonderment to his smooth, polished speech and blushed furiously when he pald her dainty compliments. Every morning he was waiting for her. Tn the afternoon she ran with fluttering heart to meet him in the shadow of the mamo!thnhognmdthmwl- dently realizing some mistake enter the drug store. By peering through the window the detective saw him talk- ing to g short, red-haired man, also of the foreign type. The druggist got his coat and hat and came out driving away with the foreigner. McNabb's eab followed. A dozen blocks to the further East Side, they weaved through the traffic. The cab drew up before a four-story tenement house and the man entered. Silehtly McNabb crept in the diggy hallway and heard them going up the creaking stairs, He heard a door open and shut on the floor above. Tiptoeing up the stairs he saw a beam of shroud- ed light coming over a transom of a room door. He could see that ejther papers or cloth had bcen draped over the glass of the transom to keep any- cne, from looking in. As he leaned near the door the voices inside were plain enough, but the copversation was all in German and he could not um- derstand a word. = Remembering the cab driver was a German student at oneufihowhnmml“ had him'come up to the door, tugged at a heavy revolver in his et, bntflxnmmvommwnk for him. McNabb's mighty fist sent “Outrageous, robbery,” sald the him hurling backwards; and befors shrill voice of the Austrian ‘manufac- turer in German, translated the cah man whispering in McNabb's ear. “You cheat me. For that little bottle you ask thousands of marks and it cost you nothing.” “I got it, didn't 1, for you, and now you pay me not!” growled the other. “Is it the goods right?” asked the Austrian evidently of the little drug- glst, “1t is right. I analyze it good,” sald the druggist. “Gold I pay, sure. But how I know you not tell others how it made is, yes?” the Austrian asked fearfully. “I stay here no more. You think I kilt a man for gold and stay where po- lice find me. I go back to Vienna and talk nothing,” the man hissed this as if in fear. “I go to Germany soon I sell my drug store,” said the druggist. Gold clinked on the board table. Clutching the cab driver’s arm McNabb he could arise the cuffs snapped on his wrists. The cab driver covered the Austrian and the druggist, both of whom were talking rapidly and exeit- edly. Holding the men at bay, Mc- Nabb sent the cap driver to get help from the officers on the beat. “Did he confess?” asked chief Mui- ling when McNabb returned from the leather shop with the prisoner the fol- lowing day. “He sure did, Chief,” smiled the de- tective. “It was this way. I had Con- rad, Jr., dress up in his father’s work clothes and disguise himself with a white beard like his daddy had and working at the bench. When we came in the prisoner took one look and then fell on the floor howling for merey. He thought it was a ghost, I guess. Then he told how he did it. He crept in the alleyway and shoved a long stick with a needle pointed wire on the end through the open window. The sharp wire entered the left eye and go back to Austria, but this prisoner and the druggist will go up the river to awailt an electric shock from all § canisee now.” Chief Mullins sent Miss Mary Mo Nabb a dainty handbag made of Morn- ingstar leather as a compliment to hez keen daddy. Conrad, junior, found the old formula in a note book and was abie to continue the work. “What would you like—a brother or Sister?” Tommy to father—If it makes nc difference to you, dad, I'll have a box of bricks! cliff. Trembling in his embrace she yielded to him. Trustingly she heard how he would come back to her and forever they would live in the hills. With his passionate kisses burning on her red lips she watched the big car roll away to the morth. From early dawn until the glittering stars sparkled in the opal skies Wanda sat by the trail watching, waiting for her lover to return. Wild with grief, hellowing with rage, Sam Hawkins, Wanda’s fa- ther and squaw man, with his Plute wife 'went to the Indian agent on the reservation. They demanded that he find the handsome stranger who had ruined .his daughter. This official smiled and wrote a letter to the ad- dress they gave him. Wanda with the child at her breast, sat on the slope of Harmony Ridge watching tke roadway for the glitter- ing automobile. One day the agent sent for Sam and showed him a letter in which Howard Farrington depied In the Spring, any knowJedge of the girl’s misfortune and throygh his lJawyer demanded that she cease any further reference to him. - The next morning ranchers found the dead body of the beautiful half-breed girl with a crushed baby at the foot of Lovers’ Leap in Rumble Canyon. First Lester Merwin declared he saw the Indian girl with her baby sitting on a rock by the trail. He called to her and she vanished. Rugby Som- mers saw her one morning sitting by the roadside and straining her eyes up the roadway. He passed near by and spoke to her in the Plute tongue. She melted into vapor and disappeared. Many others saw the sweet-faced child mother sitting - along the roadside watching for some one, only to sud- denly disappear if approached or spoken to. Society papers came out with glar- ing headlines. Howard Farrington, son of the wealthy widow, was to mar- D T "D T S TN D . Sl "~ B O D " Going Through Wlth It T was early morning. A crippled l man was sitting before a huge fire in 20 immense kitchen. Plain- iy the kitchen was the living room of the house. His wife, a young woman, wps preparing breakfast. She was tall and slender, she stepped with'an slertnesy not seen in women lacking pmbition. The quietness of her move- ment was merely an instinct not to jar the ragged nerves of the sick man nor waken the baby lying in its little crib. But presently the baby threw out an &rm, then moaned. There was a short, quick wheeze which warned the wom- R0 across the kitchen that the baby was sick again, and terror crossed her face, for she was miles from a doctor wnd had been unable to find the medi- cine she brought home. The man exclaimed “Oh, my!” then craned his neck fo get a better view of the child. He tossed his head like a3 infuriated beast, for he could not move a step toward the baby. But the 2T =D "l i > “"“ woman had-the liftle one in her arms. Its face was hot and flushed, the tiny body twisting in agony. Qulet tears fell down the woman's face, but she hid them from the man. She knew his cup of sorrow was bitter enough. Then—how do they do it, these brave, good mbthers?—she smiled' and sald she would go to town. “You can't go, Alfreda,” her husband. “Look at the dense fog. No mortal soul could have gone through it yesterday and it is no bet- ter today. It is almost dark.” “Well, I am going. I have a little medicine here that will keep her from choking and T think I can get to town. T'll move the crib here and leave ev- erything within your reach. Oh—" then she suppressed the sob as the baby gasped and fell back into her arms. The horse was a new one, had not been over the road but a few times when Garry had his terrible fall in protested s D "l D the woods and was a‘lmust killed. He got well, all but the badly injured leg and it did not mend. The womap thought of the man, then the horse and plunged intp the gray sea, more like a wilderness of vapor than any- thing else. Her heart was beating wijdly, but after a while she felt she was safe on the road. It matters not just how she went or where she went or how she got there, for it was in her day’s travel. From time to time her youthful mother lips prayed for the sick baby. What pray- erg they must be, so devotional, so sure of beautiful faith in one to care when mother can't. Then when she felt the assurance of her natural Pra- tector in that wilderness, her horse stopped. She urged it forward, but it did not move. “I am off the road, I know,” she wailed.” This is horse sense.” got out and went ahead. True, she had driven into a fence corner, and did not ILD-EYED and thoroughly w trightened the man rushed in the Central Police Station. He muttered a jumbled story about seeing a ghost in the fromt yard of a boyse near his home. The cynmical, Squbting police officers made 2 note of the complaint and sent Reserve Officer Bernard O'Malley to investigate. This was not afrald of anything oF depd. He went with the ter- eltizen back to the neighborhood. * sald while he was returning from his night shift at the city ping ctation the white sheeted fig- nrp bad screamed at him from the frgut porch of the vacant house and he tap away from the scene fast as he rould to the station. The officer, men- tally dubbing the whole story as pos- #ibly the result of drink, directed the man to go home and he would investi- e, The house was a two-story frame building that had been vacant for ghout two years. It sat way pack in 2 tlymp of maple trees. The front yard was weed-grown and the fence broken snd delapidated. O'Malley remem- pered when he was on the beat he begrd the family liying there had @oved to another city. The doors and windows appeared to be locked tight- ly. The officer walked around the house shooting his flash light in the dark cormers of the porch and out- buildings. He tried the front door and started back a step as it swung open to his touch, He stepped in the dark hall. A rush of icy air swept past him slamming the door shut and he heard the spring lock snap to place. A blood-curdling scream echoed through the bleak house. With creakipg hinges a door cpened to his right and a gaunt, ghostly figure swept out to- i wards him. One wild look and he saw the grinning skull and shrank in ter- ror as the bony fingers clawed at his coat. A white, phosphorescent glow followed the figure as it floated in the thin air. floor in a crouching heap. His legs refused to held him as the sweat poured from eyery pore of his pig body. “Give me rest. Give me rest.” wailed the shrill voice of the rattling bony fizure. Mechanically the policeman reached for his gun and fired at the ghost. As the gun roared out, the pink flame piercing the blackness the trailing figurc uttered 3 howl of rage floated down the hall and disappearcd O'Malley sank to the dutsy - a5 She’ . D D ™ i T i > “- ..,A.' Ty a beautiful heiress and the wedding was to be a social event unequalled in brilliancy and lavish expenditure of money. Florists and decorators spent days in preparing for the nuptials. As the glittering array of gowns slowly came down the church aisle with the organ and hired orchestra pealing forth a triumphant wedding march the vast assemblage of society’s elite arose as the bride leaning on the arm of her father walked to the altar rail. Accompanied by his best man Howard Farrington proceeded from the vestry door to meet his bride to be. The solemn words of the vested priest intoned throughout the church. “I? any person knows why this man and woman Should not be joined in holy matrimony let them now speak or forever hold their peace.” With a wild cry of fear Howard reeled back from the railing, for facing him with a babe in her arms stood the shade of Wanda. Her soulful face e By Margaret Taylor D D i T )~ Tnow what corner it was. She re- traced her steps as far as possible, feeling for a road and presently came to it. She stood like a blind persom, trylpg to pierce the darkness with un- seeing eyes. Not even the glint or out- line of the sun was visible, She did not know which direction to take. It might Jead back home. . Then feeling the road again, she was ipdeed dis- mayed, for she was on a dirt road and the - one she should have taken. was macadamized. “I must be in the lane,” she moaned. Then after another long sgarch she found her horse and buggy. She pat- ted the horse and sald: “I'll fipve to leave it to you to get me to town or back hore. Go on!” . Again the horse stopped and again she got out to find the road. This time her hand touched gfass. She must be in a pasture fleld! How on earth she got in thers she did not know. She now knew the horse was D~ S as blind ag herself and all the instinct which horses are credited with having in the dark was not highly developed in the blinded animal she was driving. She now knew she could not get to town and {t was foolish to think she could. She got into the buggy and drove on. How far she went or where she went, she did not know. If any- thing the day was darker and a driz- zling rain ;lell, Presently a volce sounded right by the buggy. “Can you tell me where I am?” it exclaimed. She laughed slightly. “Can you tell me where I am?” I have been lost for hours. I am after the doctor. My ba- by is sick?” “Well, I am no doctor and my ma- chine 1s oyer an embankment close by here and you'll be over it, too, unless you walk as I am doing. Let your horse go if you don’'t want to be killed, and mayba we can find a way ouk” For a second she mistrusted the up the smrwny. The bullet wre & big hole in the wall. O'Malley heaved to his feet and pulled at the front door. It would not budge an inch. Frantic- ally he jerked at the rusty lock watch- ing over his shoulder for the white ghost whom he could now hear wailing in the upper rooms. Trembling in ev- ery limb he shot through the panels of the door. The shots were heard by McCarthy on the beat who ran to the house and battered down the door to Tescue his comrade. : Professor Mitchell of the West Side University was greatly interested in the newspaper accounts of the police- man’s experience. IHe asked the po- lice deportment to allow him to stay in the house alone at might. Hardly had he clgsed the front door when the ghosts flew at him with me ery f— “Rest, rest, give me rest.” Undaunted by the weird crics of the spectral nppantlon, the man of sclence spoke quietly. “Rest, my spirit friend, you shall have. Tell me how.” Floating ‘through the door of the - front room the white light went fo the fireplace ahd pointed its Hony hand at the stone hearth. With a wail pf grief like @ perishing human the rat- tiing bones sank to the floor and dis- appeared, leaying the professor in darkness. “Very simple, men,” sald the profes- sor the next day, directing the work- men as they dug up the stone over the hearth. “You will find something down there.” As the iron bars pried up the heayy stone the lanterns showed lylng fn the accymulated soot and ashes the dou- bled up, decaying body of a man with 2 bullet hole in the forehead. It was plainly murder. Reyerently with religious services e T the remains were burled at the County Farm. \ “Poor gonl, it wanted decent burial, that’s all,” gaid the professor to the Teporters. “People scoff at the ghost idea, but these spirits can mnot forget the home they had on earth and will not pass uptil the old temple is lald at rest.” The profegsor had turned down his study light preparing for bed when he looked around quickly as the hall door was slowly opening. The bent figure of an old man glided in. 'The nrofes- sor was startled, as no one had rung the bell and he was sure the honsehold were all in bed. The old man glided up to the study table and sat down. Noiselessly he reached for pen apd wrote. Professor Mitchell did not speak, for he knew he was in the pres- ence of the dead. There was the snap of metal as the electric light popped out. A rustle of wind. The odor of = - turned to him. The glorious eyes alight with ghostly gleam. Her robes of color brilliant with a silver sheen. One fawn colored arm raised and pointed at him, then to the babe at her breast. Cringing in terror Howard backed into the arms of his best man, covering his face with his hands. “Take it away! Take it away!” he shouted. The wedding party looked at each other in amazement. The bride to be fainted in her father’s arms. Shrieking, clawing to get away How- ard tore through the crowd and ram down the aisle. Softly like the melt- ing of twilight the figure at the rail faded and was gone. The wedding broke up in disorder. Days later trappers saw a wild-eyed, disheveled young man with tattered clothes running along Harmony trail calling for Wanda. Up and down the ridge he ran. At dusk Murphy O'Day hunting timber wolves saw him racing up the slope crying and wayipg his arms, At the top of the ridge he saw the figure of an Indian girl with a baby standing before the flying man. With a terrified scream the man fell at the feet of the girl. Then she took him by the hand and they tofled up the steep incline of Lovers’ Leap. O'Day followed, curious to know what the strange thing meant. A moment the man caught the Indian girl in his arms and then they plunged over the rocky wall together. In the morning a party headed by O'Day found the body of Howard Farrington lying st the foot of the cliff, TEfao Y AR “She is a ‘irst and third’ talker.” “What ever is that?” “Her conyersation consists of 7 gaid,’ and ‘she sald.’ " T “The new tenor singer in the cholr used to be a locksmith.” “No wonder he always hits the right key, then.” voice; but after a while she got out. They wandered aimlessly aroud and after walking in all directions, as she thought, she laughed hysterically.” I am not far from home. I am not far away. Here is our old tractor fast- ened on a muddy hillside. It is direct- ed north, Here, take my hand. Go stralght ahead. You will have to take my hand or we will get separated. We have to go straight ahead, then get over a fence, cross another fleld and my home is almost opposite. We can’t steer far wrong if we keep straight ahead.” But they did go wrong. They came out in the tiny orchard. She knew how to gain the right direction by following a lath fence which led to the house. Cautiously she went ahead, then like & beacon, she saw & dull yellow blot, the light from her kitchen window. She almost fell into the room, dragging the man after her. Seemingly it had been a fruitless journey, but to her amazement the baby was better, She did not kmow why it was better. She felt that only prayer had done it. She turned to look at the man whose hand she was still holding. He was no millionaire, doctor, child’s specialist, - ‘VAill‘H the grave lml hissing of indrawn breath. Quickly the professor snapped on the light again. His visitor was gone. The writing on the table read. “I am at rest, I thank you. Give me vengence. See James Roberts, Cleve- land.” As the professor held the pa- per it slowly turned brown, erumpled up and fell like ashes to the fleor, but he ynderstood. The next day he talked with Sergeant MacNei! at the Central Statiea. Stoutly Roberts, who live In the house, denied his guilt or any knowl- edge of the dead man's body. They took him to the deserted house and as the party entered the darkness of the front room a brilliant light flluminated the hearth and there stopd the old man, his accusing finger pointed at Roberts and then the specter disap- peared, With a gurgling cry, Roberts confessed he had murdered the grand- father te get his money. or anything out of the ordinary as might be hoped. He was just-an ordi- nary man and by the time he reached safety he had arrived with an appe- tite for a substantial meal. He got his dinner, supper, and breakfast the next morning. Then he went after his car. He might have taken the crippled man to town to see the doctor, but he did nothing of the kind. The baby laughed and played ,which was payment enough, and whea & neighbor boy brought home the horse and bugsy, there was' more rejoicing. —_———— A party was surveying on s farm when an old man came hurrying out of his house and asked: “What are you doin’ here?” “Surveying,” was the reply of ons of the engineers. “Surveying for what?” “For s rallroad.” “Where's it goin’'?” “Right through your barn, T guess,” lgughed the engineer. “Well, now mister, I reckon I've got somethin’ to say to that. I want you to understand that I've got somethin’ else to do besides runnin’ out to open and shut them barn doors every time 3 tralp wants to go through.” B111 - “Belieye it or mot” sald Bergeant MacNeil, “but we have the guy in the jug who confessed he killed the eld gent.” Professor Mitchell just emiled in ks study, BB LAk The Difference. The Williams family, Christiap Sei- entists, owned a number of goats. One Fall, some of them became so sickly that Mr. Williams was obliged to cal! a doctor to attend to them. “Why,” said a neighbor to 5-year- old Willie, “I thought you people were Christian Scientists?” “Oh, we are!” he replied; “but the goats are Baptists,” —————— “1 say, Jackle, do you know that clock is an hour fast?” a “Yes; but don't tell sis. She put it ahead, and she thinks you don't kyow.”