Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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V / Thursday, October 8, 1931 McCOknllCK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, SOUTH CAROLINA' PAGE NUMBER THR1 1GHT "S' V- MARY ROBERTS RINEHART Lmnm■ r ° v£>/ ”V; Q3/ y ^MeveoBtprs .M.m SECOND INSTALMENT SYNOPSIS Six people, Horace Johnson (who tells the rtory), his wife, old Mrs. Dane, Herbert Robin son and his sister, Alice, and Dr. Sperry, friends and neigh bors, are in the habit of hold ing weekly meetings. At one of them, Mrs. Dane, who is hostess, varies the program by unexpectedly arranging a spir itualistic seance with Miss Jer emy, a friend of Dr. Sperry and not a professional, as the medium. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY Miss Jeremy, the medium, was due at 8:30 and at 8:20 my wife as sisted Mrs. Dane into one of the straight chairs at the table, and Sperry, sent out by her, returned with a darkish bundle in his arms, and caTrying a light bamboo rod. “Don’t ask me what they are for,” he said to Herbert’s grin of amusement. “Every workman has his tools.” Herbert examined the rod, but it was what it appeared to be, and nothing else. Some one had started the phono graph in the library, and it was playing gloomily, “Shall we meet beyond the river?” when Miss Jeremy came in. She was not at all what we had expected. Twenty-six, I should say, ^nd in black dinner dress. She seemed like a perfectly normal young woman, even attractive in a fragile, delicate way. Not much personality, perhaps, the very word “medium” precludes that. A “sen sitive,” I think she called herself. We were presented to her, and but for the stripped and bare room, it might have been any evening after any dinner, with bridge waiting. We all liked her, and Sperry, Sperry the bachelor, the iconoclast, the antireminist, was staring at her with curiously intent eyes. Miss Jeremy gave the room only the most causal of glances. “Where shall I sit?” she asked. Mrs. Dane indicated her place, and she asked for a small stand to be brought in and placed about two feet behind her chair, and two chairs to flank it, and then to take the black clojth from the table and hang it over the bam boo rod, which was laid .across the backs of the chairs. Thus arrang ed, the curtain formed a low screen behind her, with the stand beyond it. On this stand we plac ed, at her order, various articles from our pockets—I a fountain pen, Sperry a knife; and my wife contributed a gold bracelet. We all felt, I fancy, rather ab surd. We arranged between us that we were to sit one on each side of her, and Sperry warned me not to let go of her hand for a moment. “They have a way of switching hands,” he explained in a whisper. “If she wants to scratch her nose I’ll scratch it.” We were, we discovered, not to touch the table, but to sit around it at a distance of a few inches, hold ing hands and thus forming the circle. And for twenty minutes wc sat thus, and nothing happened. She was fully conscious and even spoke once or twice, and at last she moved, impatiently and told us to put our hands on the table. I had put my opened watch on the table before me, a night watch with a luminous dial. At five min utes after nine I felt the top of the table waver under my fingers, a curious, fluid-like motion. “The table is going to move,” I said. However, curiously enough, the table did not move. Instead, my watch, before my eyes, slid to the edge of the table and dropped to the floor, and almost instantly an object, which we recoznized later as Sperry’s knife, was flung over the Curtain and struck the wall be hind Mrs. Dane violently. One of the women screamed, ending In a hysterical giggle. Then we heard rhythmic beating on the top of the stand behind the medi um. Startling as it was at the be ginning, increasing as it did from a slow beat to an incredibly rapid drumming, when the initial shock was over Herbert commenced to gibe: “Your fountain pen, Horace,” he said to me. “Making out a state ment for services rendered, by its eagerness.” The answer to that was the pen itself, aimed at him with apparent accuracy, and followed by an out cry from him. “Here, stop it!” he said. “I’ve got ink all over me!” We laughed consumedly. The sit ting had taken on all the attri butes of practical joking. The table no longer quivered under my hands. “Please be sure you are holding my hands tight. Hold them very tight,” said Miss Jeremy. Her voice sounded faint and far away. Her head was dropped forward on her chest, and she suddenly sagged in her chair. Sperry broke the circle and coming to her, took her pulse. It was, he reported, very rapid. “You can move and talk now if you like,” he said. “She’s in trance and there will be no more physical demonstrations.” Mrs. Dane was the first to speak. I was looking for my fountain pen and Herbert was again examining the stand. * “I believe it now,” Mrs. Dane said. “I saw your v/atch go, Hor ace, but tomorrow I won’t believe it at all.” “How about your companion?” I asked. “Can she take shorthand? We ought to have a record.” “Probably not in the dark.” “W T e can have some light now,” Spewy said. There was a sort of restrained movement in the room now. Her bert turned on a bracket light, and I moved away the roller chair. “Go and get Clara, Horace,” Mrs. Dane said to me, “and have her bring a note-book and pencil.” No thing, I believe, happened during my absence. Miss Jeremy was sunk in her chair and breathing heavily when I came back, with Clara, and Sperry was still watching her pulse. Suddenly my wife said: “Why, look! She’s wearing my braclet!”. This proved to be the case, and was, I regret to say, the cause of a most ‘ unjust suspicion on my wife’s ^>art. “Take down everything that happens, Clara, and all we say,” Mrs. Dane said in a low tone. “Even if it sounds like nonsense, put it down.” • It is because Clara took her ord ers literally that I am making this more readable version of her script. For some five minutes, perhaps Miss Jeremy breathed stertorous- ly, and it was during that inter val that we introduced Clara and took up our positions. Sperry sat near the medium now, where Her bert had been. The rest of the party were as we had been, save that we no longer touched hands. Suddenly Miss Jeremy began to breathe more quietly, and to move about in her chair. Then she sat upright. “Good evening, friends,” she said. “I am glad to see you all again.” I caught Herbert’s eye, and he grinned. you can.” “Sure I can; and it will make your hair curl.” Then suddenly there was a sort of dramatic pause and then an outburst. “He’s dead.” “Who is dead?” Sperry asked, with his voice drawn a trifle thin. “A bullet just above the ear. That’s a bad place. Thank good ness there’s not much blood. Cold water will take it out of the car- ' pet. Not hot. Not hot. Do you want to set the stain?” “Look here,” Sperry said, looking around the table. “I don’t like this. It’s darned grisly.” “Oh, fudge!” Herbert put in ir- j reverently. “Let her rave, or it, or ! whatever it is. Do you mean that a man is dead?”—to the medium. “Yes. She has the revolver. She needn’t cry so. He was cruel to her. tie was a beast. Sullen.” “Can you see the woman?” I asked. i “If it’s sent out to be cleaned it will cause trouble. Hang it in the closet.” ^ Herbert muttered something about the movies having nothing on us, and was angrily hushed. “Now then,” Sperry said in a businesslike voice, “you see a dead man, and a young woman with him. Can you describe the room?” “A small room, his dressing- room. He was shaving. There is still lather on his face.” “And the woman killed him?” “I don’t know. Oh, I don’t know. No, she didn’t. He did it!” “He did it himself?” There was no answer to that, but a sort of sulky silence. “Are you getting this, Clara?” Mrs. Dane asked sharply. “Don’t miss a word. Who knows what this may develop into?” I looked at the secretary, and it was clear that she wa^ terrified. I got up and took my chair to her. Coming back, I picked up my for gotten watch from the floor. It was still going, and the hands marked nine-thirty. “Now,” 1 Sperry said in a soothing tone, “you said there was a shot fired and a man was killed. Where was this? What house?” “Two shots. One is in the ceiling of the dressing-room.” “And the other killed him?” But here instead of a reply we got the words, “library paste.” Quite without warning the medi um groaned, and Sperry believed the trance was over. “She’s coming out,” he said. “A glass of wine, somebody.” But she did not come out. Instead, she twisted in the chair. “He’s so heavy to lift,” she mut tered. Then: “Get the lather off his face. The lather. The lath er.” She subsided into the chair and began to breathe with difficulty. “I want to go out. I want air. If I could only go to sleep and forget it. The drawing-room furniture is scattered over the house.” “Can you tell us about the house?” somebody asked. There was a distinct pause. Then: “Certainly. A brick house. The t 3 Sperry threw open the drawing-room doors. “Good evening, little Bright Eyes,” he said. “How’s everything in the happy hunting ground to night?” “Dark and cold,” she said, “Dark and cold. And the knee hurts. It’s very bad. If the key is on the nail —arnica will take the pain out.” Herbert, who was still flippantly amused, said: Don’t bother about your knee. Give us some local stuff. Gossip. If servants’ entrance is locked, but the key is on a nail, among the vines. All the drawing-room furni ture is scattered through the house.” “She must mean the furniture of this room.” Mrs. Dane whispered. The remainder of the sitting was chaotic. The secretary’s notes consist of unrelated words often being childish. ' On going bVer the written notes the next day, when the steno graphic record had been copied on a typewriter, Sperry and I found that one word recurred frequently. The word was “curtain.” Of the extraordinary scene that followed the breaking up of the se ance. I have the keenest recol lection. Miss Jeremy came out of her trance weak and looking ex tremely ill, and Sperry’s motor took her home. She knew nothing of what had happened, and hoped we had been satisfied. By agreement, we did not tell her what had transpired, and she was not curi ous. Herbert saw her to the car, and came back, looking grave. We were standing together in the center of the dismantled room, with the lights going full now. “Well,” he said, “it is one of two things. Either we’ve been glorious ly faked, or we’ve been let in on a very tidy little crime.” It was Mrs. Dane’s custom to serve a Southern eggnog as a sort of nightcap on her evenings, and we found it waiting for us in the library. In the warmth of its open fire, and the cheer of its lamps, even in the dignity and im passiveness of the butler, there was something sane and wholesome. The women of the party reacted quickly, but I looked over to see Sperry at a corner desk, intently working over a small object in tjie palm of his hand. He started when he heard me, then laughed and held out his hand. “Library paste!” he said, “It rolls into a soft, malleable ball. It could quite easily be used to fill a small hole in plaster. The paper would paste down over it, too.” “Then you think ?” “I’m not thinking at all. The thing she described may have tak en place in Timbuctoo. May have happened ten years ago. May be the plot of some book she has read.” “On the other hand,” I replied, “it is just possible that it was here, in this neighborhood, while we were sitting in that room.” * “Have you any idea of the time?” “I know exactly. It was half past line.” At midnight, shortly after we reached home, Sperry called me on the phone. “Be careful, Horace,” he said. “Don’t let Mrs. Horace think anything has happened. Ar thur Wells killed himself tonight, shot himself in the head. I want you to go there with me.” “Arthur Wells!” , “Yes. I say, Horace, did you hap pen to notice the time the seance began tonight?” “It was five minutes after nine when my watch fell.” \ “Then it would have been about half past when the trance began?” (TO BE CONTINUED) SERVICE-- render prompt and satisfactory service to McCormick and vicinity twice each week Monday and Thursday. If yon are not already patronizing us, we both are missing something. ^ e clean all kinds of wearing apparel, and hats, at very small cost. Every job must be satisfactory, or we won’t take your money. GREENWOOD DRY CLEANING CO. ‘'Always Dependable" BOYD DALTON, Solicitor Si FINE STATIONERY Reflects The Good Taste And Character Of The User You are judged by your letters as well as your personal appearance, so guard carefully that you create a good im pression with your letters. Use our fine stationery and be sure. NEW SHOWING JUST ARRIVED We are now presenting the very newest and smartest styles and shades of stationery which we have just receiv ed. Come in and choose a supply and be up-to-the- minute. We also have all other writing supplies, including foun tain pens, pen holders, desk blotters, pen points, ink, and letter wax. , STROMS’ DRUG STORE McCORMICK. S. C. ■——— fr' MAIN STREET 9 33 latest ^LMaru MarsKall h? <? CHILDREN CRY FOR IT— /CHILDREN hate to take medicine ^-'as a rule, but every child loves the taste of Castoria. This pure vegetable preparation is just as good as it tastes; just as bland and just as harmless as the recipe reads. When Baby’s cry warns of colic, a few drops of Castoria have him soothed, asleep again in a jiRy. Nothing is more valuable in diarrhea. When coated tongue or bad breath tell of constipation, invoke its gentle aid to cleanse and regulate a child’s bowels. In colds or children’s diseases, you should use it to keep the system from clogging. Castoria is sold in every drug store; the genuine always bears Chas. H. Fletcher’s signature. With one-piece dresses, with transparent dresses, slips are by far better than petticoats. With jacket suits and with many opaque dresses petticoats are more convenient. So now we take our choice. There are taffeta petticoats. Sometimes these £?re attached parts of the dresses they are worn with. They are trimmed with * scallops and with embroidery' and some times with tiny frills and pleat- :ngs. But the nevter silhouette makes crepe de chine the admirable fabric for petticoats. It is so soft and supple and clinging, it washes so well, it comes in such lovely colors, that it combines many of the best qualifications for petticoats. These new wash petticoats can be just as elaborate as you please, and quite as formal as petticoats of taf- double hem. The petticoat in the sketch is an easy one to make for yourself. It is made of four lengths of material. The front length—as long as you wish the petticoat—is ten inches wide. The side lengths are eight inches at the bottom, and are slanted in at both seams so that they are four inches at the top. Th& back section is thirty inches wide at the bottom, twenty-two at ther top. The four pieces are French seamed together, and the top is turned under in a half inch hem. A four-inch length of quarter-inch i elastic is fastened in this top hem at the seams joining front and sides, extending about six inches into the back. This brings the' fullness at the sides and leaves front and back smooth. -IXT- LeUs Attend More Fairs This Fall 666 LIQUID OR TABLETS Relieves a Headache or Neuralgia in 30 minutes, checks a Cold the first day, and checks Malaria in three days. ,6 6 6 Salve for Baby’s Cold. ( -1X1- Is Too Much Land I rong Side Up”? (•i'' feta. They are edged with lace, sometimes, with lace insets for trimming. For more tailored wear ihey are finished with a scalloped. It is related that when the white man was moving west and bring ing the great plains under cultiva tion with his big teams and plows, a group of Indians collected around to observe what was going on. The • big chief, after witnessing the com plete overturning of the heavy sod of grass on which the buffalo had grazed and waxed fat for years, ex amined a slice of the furrow on both sides, dropped it back as the great plow had turned it, gave one huge grunt and merely exclaimed, “Wrong side up!” To much land all over Dixie is “wrong side up.” Through the growing of good pastures we must get more of it right side up.—The Progressive Farmer-Ruralist. Fewer baby rattles are being, sold, according to trade reports, all the rattles necessary being provided by, the old car. Wc need more recreation, mor^ fellowship, more time for studying • the methods used by the best farm ers and home makers of our com munities and our states. All these good results may be achieved by joining our neighbors in visiting both the community fairs and the state fair. The present prices of cotton and tobacco also prove again the truth our paper has long preached—* namely, that the South has a one-* armed, “crops only” system of farming and can never prosper properly until we add animal pro duction to plant production. And we cannot make a better start to ward “two-armed farming” than by seeking the stockman and the \ f stock—the beautiful purebred dairy cows, beef cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry—at our community, coun ty, and state fairs.—Clarence Poe, in The Progressive Farmer-Rural ist.