McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, November 26, 1931, Image 3
Thursday, November 26, 1931
McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, SOUTH CAROLINA
PAGE NUMRER THR1
SightJUnseen
MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
COPYRIGHT /QJ/
6v MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
SYNOPSIS
Six people, Horace Johnson
(who tells the story), his wi£«^
old Mrs. Dane, Herbert Rob
inson 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
Jeremy, a friend of Dr. Sperry
and not a professional, as the
medium.
At the first sitting the medi
um tells the details of a mur
der as it is occurring. Later
that night Sperry learns that a
neighbor, Arthur Wells, has
been shot mysteriously. With
Johnson he goes to the Wells
residence and they find con
firmation of the medium’s ac
count. Mrs. Wells tells them
her husband shot himself in a
fit of depression.
At a second seance. Miss
Jeremy adds details about a
summer resort where Charles
Ellingham was known to have
been at the same time that
Mrs. Wells was th*’re. She also
speaks of a pocketbook being
lost which contained some im
portant car tickets and letters.
Mrs. Dane, alone of the women,
seems thrilled by the investiga
tion.
NINTH INSTALMENT
Johnson goes alone and in
vestigates the deserted house.
He is frightened by strange
noises, as of an intruder in the
house, but completes his in
vestigation.
He visits Mrs. Dane and tells
her how he had carried off the
fire-tongs and left behind his
overcoat iiTTiis excitement. She
then tells him she had adver
tised for the finder of the poc
ketbook and turns over to
Johnson an answer she had re
ceived from one having guilty
knowledge of the crime. Dr.
Sperry announces he is to be
married to Miss Jeremy when
the club meets again.
NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY
Sperry turned to me when he
had gone out. “That was Haw
kins, Horace,” he said. “You re
member, don’t you? The Wellses’
butler.”
“I knew him at once.”
“He wrote to me asking for a
position, and I got him this. Looks
.sick, poor devil. I intend to have a
go at his chest.”
“How long has he been here?,”
“More than a week, I think.”
As I drank my tea, I pondered.
After all, the Neighborhood Club
must guard against the possibility
of fraud, and I felt that Sperry had
been indispreet, to say the least.
From the time of Hawkins’ service
in Miss Jeremy’s home there would
always be the suspicion of collu
sion between them. I did not be
lieve it was so, but Herbert, for in
stance, would be inclined to suspect
her. Suppose that Hawkins knew
about the crime? Or knew some
thing and surmised the rest?
I was uneasy all the way home.
The element of doubt always so
imminent in our dealings with psy
chic phenomena, -had me by the
throat.
How much did Hawkins know?
Was there any way, without going
to the police, to find if he had real
ly been out of the Wells house that
^ night, now almost two weeks ago,
when Arthur Wells had been kill
ed?
That evening I went to Sperry’s
house, after telephoning that I was
coming. Oii the way I stopped in
at Mrs. Dane’s and secured some
thing from her. She was wildly
curious, and made me promise to
go in on my way back, and explain.
I made a compromise.
“I will come in if I have anything
to tell you,” I said.
Sperry was waiting for me in his
library, standing by the fire, with
the grave face and slightly bent
head of his professional manner.
“I wonder,” I said, “if you kept
the letter Hawkins wrote you when
he asked for a position.”
He was not sure. He went into
his consulting room and was gone
for some time. I took the oppor
tunity to glance over his books
and over the room.
Arthur Wells’s stick was stand
ing in a corner, and I took it up
and examined it. It was an Eng
lish malacca, light and strong and
had seen service. It was long, too
long for me; it occurred to me that
Wells had been about my height,
and that it was odd that he should
have carried to long a stick. There
was no ease in swinging it.
From that to the memory of
Hawk in’s face when Sperry t*>° k
the night of the murder, in the
hall of the Wells house, was only
n step. I seemed that day to be
thinking considerably about Haw-
^When Sperry returned I laid the
stick on the table. There can be I had done all the private investi-
no doubt that I did so, for I had gating I cared. And I told her so.
to move a book-rack to place it. She only smiled cryptically. . . .
One end, the handle, was near the | The following day was Monday,
ink-well, and the ferrule lay on a When I came downstairs I found a
copy of Gibson’s “Life Beyond the neat bundle lying in the hall, and
Grave,” which Sperry had evident- addressed to me. My wife had fol
ly been reading. lowed me down, and we surveyed
Sperry had found the letter. As I it together,
glanced at it I recognized the writ- It was my overcoat! My overcoat,
ing at once, thin and rather sex- apparently uninjured, but with the
less, Spencerian. collection of keys I had made miss-
Dear Sir: Since Mr. Wells’s death ing.
I am out of employment. Before The address was printed,
I took the position of butler with
Mr. Wells I was valet to Mr. Elling-
written, in
with a stub pen.
not
a large, strong hand,
I did not, at the
ham, and before that, in England, time, notice the loss of certain pa-
to Lord Condray. I have a very pers which had been in the breast
good letter of recommendation pocket. I am rather absent-mind-
from Lord Condray. If you need ed, and it was not until the night
a servant at this time I would do after the third sitting that they
my best to give satisfaction. were recalled to my mind.
(Signed) Arthur Hawkins. ; At something after eleven Her-
I put down the application, and bert Robinson called me up at my
took the anonymous letter about office. He was at Sperry’s house,
pocketbook.
But compare
the bag from my
“Read this, Sperry.”
know the letter. Mrs.
to us Saturday night,
the writing.” ,
He compared the two, with a
slight lifting of his eyebrows. Then
he put them down. “Hawkins!”
he said. “Hawkins has the letters!
And the bag! The question now is
to whom was it written?”
We pondered that, to no effect.
That Hawkins had certain letters
which touched on the Wells affair,
that they were probably in his pos
session in the Connell house, was
clear enough. But we had no pos
sible authority for trying to get the
letters, although Sperry was anxi
ous to make the attempt.
“Although I feel,” he said, “that
it is too late to help her very much.
She is innocent; I know that. I
think you know that, tpo, deep in
that legal mind of yours. It is
wrong to discredit her because I
did a foolish thing.” He warmed
to his argument. “Why, think,
man,” he said. “The whole first
Sperry having been his physician
I said. “You i during his recent illness.
Dane read it
“I say, Horace, this is Herbert.”
“Yes. How are you?”
“Doing well, Sperry says. I’m at
his place now. I’m speaking for
him. He’s got a patient.”
“Yes.”
“You were here last night, he
says. Do you happen to have no
ticed a walking-stick in the library
when you were here?”
“Yes, I saw it.”
“You didn’t, by any chance, take
it home with you?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Certainly I’m sure.”
“Suppose we’ll see you tonight?”
“Not unless you ring off and let
me do some work,” T said irritab
ly.
He rang off. I was ruffled, I ad
mit; but I was uneasy, also.
It was that day that I discovered
that I was being watched.
I did not tell my wife that even
ing.
After dinner I went into our re-
Sperry handed me the letter.
sitting was practically coincident
with the crime itself.”
It was true enough. Whatever
suspicion might be cast
second seance, the first
ception room, which is not lighted
unless we are expecting guests,
and peered out of the window. The
on the detective, or whoever*he might be,
at least' was walking negligently up the
remained inexplicable, by any laws
are recognized. In a way, I felt
sorry for Sperry. Here he was, on
the first day of his engagement,
protesting her honesty, her com
plete ignorance of the revelation
she had made and his intention to
keep her in ignorance, and yet be
traying his own anxiety and pos
sible doubt in the same breath,
“She did not even know there was
a family named Wells. When I
said that Hawkins had been em
ployed by the Wells, it meant no
thing to her. I was watching.”
street.
As that was the night of the
third seance, I find that my rec
ord covers the fact that Mrs. Dane
was housecleaning, for which rea
son we had not been asked to din
ner, that my wife and I dined early
at six-thirty, and that it was seven
o’clock when Sperry called me by
telephone, and asked me to ac
company him to the Wells’s house
to see if we could find the other
overcoat:
He slipped an arm through mine
when I joined him, and we started
So even Sperry was watching. He down the street. “I’m going to get
was in love with her, but his scien
tific mind, like my legal one, was
slow to accept what during the
past two weeks it had been asked
to accept.
I left him at ten o’clock. Mrs.
Dane was still at her window, and
her far-sighted old eyes caught me
as I tried to steal past. She rap
ped on the window, and I was ob
liged to go in. Obliged, too, to tell
her of the discovery and, at last,
of Hawkins being in the Connell
house.
“I want those letters, Horace,”
she said at last.
“So do I.
them.” , .
“The question is, where has he
got them?”
“The question is, dear lady, that
they are not ours to take.”
“They are not his, either.”
Weil, that was true enough. But
Saturday, Nov. 28,
IS THE DAY
The most tremendously planned one-day sale in the
year’s program at the J. B. White & Company Store
in Augusta, Georgia
inn CHUMS DOLLM DAK'
A greater Christmas Dollar Day
than ever because of the
Extraordinary values now available in the
market to an organization like ours.
Hundreds of special purchases hundreds of gift items
scores of items in staple merchandise ten thousand fascin
ating dollar toys literally thousands of wonderful dollar
bargains—and many other special sale items at more and
less than a dollar.
For men — women children and the home
PARKING PERMITS at our transfer desk, will allow you
to park on the street for any length of time while shopping.
Positive Proof
of
Economy
City of Detroit purchases 137 new Ford cars
Hundreds now in use prove low cost of operation
THESE 137 new Ford cars represent one
of the largest deliveries ever made to a
municipality at one time.
21 radio-equipped Ford scout cars were
traded in on this purchase. They had been
operated day and night for two years in
heavy traffic and all kinds of weather.
Their individual records ranged from
78,434 miles to 143,723 miles with a grand
total of 2,283,097 miles. The operating
cost of the 21 cars was 2.284 cents a mile
—- less than 2 1/3 cents. This cost included
all fuel, oil, tires, repairs and every other
item except depreciation and insurance.
Of 577 Ford cars in Detroit City service,
the 300 in the Police Department traveled
a total of 6,591,937 miles during the past
fiscal year, at an average cost of 2.9 cents
a mile.
Many claims have been made on Operat
ing costs, but here in the carefully kept
motor car records of the City of Detroit is
positive proof of Ford economy.
In the paragraphs above, it is seen that
21 Ford scout cars averaged less than 21/3
cents a mile and 300 Ford cars in all
branches of Detroit police work averaged
2.9 cents a mile!
Day and night, twenty-four hours a day,
these Ford cars are in operation. Few
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low fuel and oil consumption is but one of
the' Ford’s many economies. Ford ma
terials, simplicity of design and accuracy
in manuf acturing provide unusual strength,
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The individual car buyer as well as the
purchasing department of a city or a busi
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economy of the Ford car.,
FIFTEEN DIFFERENT BODY TYPES
*430*640
(F. O. B. Detroit j plus freight and delivery.
Bumpers and spare tire extra at low cost. Eco
nomical time payments through the Authorised
Ford Finance Plans of the Universal Credit Co.)
to the bottom of this, Horace, old
dear,” he said.
“Remember, we’re pledged to a
psychic investigation only.”
“Rats!” he said rudely. “We are
going to find out who killed Ar
thur Wells, and if he deserves
hanging we’ll hang him.”
“Or her?” . •
“It wasn’t Elinor Wells,” he said
positively. . “Here’s the point: if
he’s been afraid to go back for his
overcoat it’s still there. I don’t
expect that, however. But the
thing about the curtain interests
me. I’ve been reading over my
I’m not going to steal j copy of the notes on the sittings.
It was said, you remember, that
curtains—some curtains — would
have been better places to hide the
letters than the bag.”
I stopped suddenly. “By jove,
Sperry,” I said. “I remember now.
My notes of the sittings were in my i
overcoat.”
“And they are gone?”
“They are gone.”
He whistled softly., “That’s un
fortunate,” he said. “Then the
other person, whoever he is, knows
what we know!”
“Just where does Hawkins come
in, Sperry?” I asked.
‘I’m t if I know,” he re
flected. “We may learn tonight.”
The Wells house was dark and
forbidding, but I led the way with
comparative familiarity.
In case the door is locked, I have
a few skeleton keys,” said Sperry.
We had reached the end of the
narrow passage, and emerged into
the square of brick and grass that
lay behind the house. While the
night was clear, the place lay in
comparative darkness. Sperry
stumbled over something, and mut
tered to himself.
The rear porch lay in deep sxi«~-
ow. We went up the steps togeth
er. Then Sperry stopped, and I
advanced to the doorway. It was
locked.
The lock gave way to manipula
tion at last, and the door swung
open. There came to us the heavy
odor of all closed houses, a com
bination of carpets, cooked food,
and floor wax.
“Now, friend Horace,” he said,
“if you have matches, we will look
for the overcoat, and then we will
go upstairs.”
! As we had inticipated, there was
no overcoat in the library, and af-
,ter listening a moment at the kit
chen door, we ascended a rear
staircase to the upper floor. I had
it will be remembered, fallen from
a chair on a table in the dressing
room, and had left them thus ov
erturned when I charged the third
floor. The room, however, was
now in perfect order, and when I
held my candle to the ceiling, I per-
| ceived that the bullet hole had |
again been repaired, and this time
with such skill that I could not
even locate it.
“We are up against some one
cleverer than we are, Sperry,” I
acknowledged.
“And who has more to lose than
we have to gain,” he added cheer
fully. “Don’t worry about that,
Horace. You’re a married man and
I’m not. If a woman wanted to
hide some letters from her hus
band, and chose a curtain for a
receptacle, what room would she
hide them in. Not in his dressing
room, eh?”
He took the candle and led the
way to Elinor Wells’s bedroom.
Here, however, the draperies were
down, and we would have been at a
loss, had I not remembered my
; wife’s custom of folding draperies
when we close the house, and plac
ing them under the dusting sheets
which cover the various beds.
I (TO BE CONTINUED)
9
I
£
Fire constantly
threatens you. Be
careful and do your
best to prevent loss
but play safe by in
suring all of your
property.
This agency represents ,
the Hartford Fire Insur- i
ance Company an in
stitution that has been
serving property owners
faithfully since 1810.
Paul J. Robinson .j
Insurance Agency . |
„ PHONE 66 \u
McCormick