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I I / Thursday, December 3, 1931 . McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, SOUTH CAROLINA’ PAGE NUMBER THR1 SightJUnseen MARY ROBERTS RINEHART COPYRIGHT K)3/ 6y &OBEPTS P/NEHART \ TENTH INSTALMENT SYNOPSIS Six people, Horace Johnson (who tells the story), his wife, 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 EHingham 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. ' 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 atod tells* her how he had carried off the ’fire-tongs and left behind his overcoat in his 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 tb° club meets again. Hawkins, the butler, is iden tified as being the person who answered Mrs. Dane’s adver tisement. , Johnson’s missing overcoat is mailed to him, but the letters contained in a poc ket are missing. Sperry, ac- ipanied by Johnson, makes >ther search in Well’s house com: anotl < for the letters written by the slayer. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY Our inspection of the curtains was hurried, but finally we found what we were looking for. In the lining of one of the curtains, near the bottom, a long, ragged cut had been made. “Cut in a hurry, with curved scissors,” w^s Sperry’s comment. “Probably manicure scissors.” The result was a sort of pocket in the curtain, concealed on the chintz side, which was the side which would hang toward the room. ' “Probably,” he said, “the curtain would have been better. It would have stayed anyhow. Whereas the bag—” He was flushed with tri umph. “How in the world would Hawkins know that?” he demand ed. “You can talk all you like. She’s told us things that no one ever told her.” “We’ll have to go at the floors under the carpets now,” he said. The dre,ssing-room had a large rug, like the nursery above it, turn ing back the carpet was a simple matter. There had been a stain beneath where the dead man’s head had lain, but it had been scrubbed and scraped away.’ The boards were white for an area of a square foot or so. Sperry eyed the spot with indif ference. “Not essential,” he said. “Shows good housekeeping. That’s all. The point is, are there other spots?” And, after a time, we found what we were after. The upper hall was carpeted, and my penknife came into requisition to lift the tacks. They came up rather easily, as if but recently put in. That, indeed proved to be the case. Just outside the dressing room door the boards for an area of two square feet or more beneath the carpet had been scraped and scrub bed. With the lifting of the carpet came, too, a strong odor, as of am monia. But the stain of blood had absolutely disappeared. Sperry, kneeling on the floor with the candle held close, examined the wood. “Not only scrubbed,” he said, “but scraped down, probably with a floor-scraper. It’s pretty clear, Horace. The poor devil fell here. There was a struggle, and he went down. He lay there for a while, too, until some plan was thought out. A man does not usu ally kill himself in a hallway. It’s sort of solitenitjsdeed. He fell Here, and UMBi \ged into the room. The angle of the bullet in the ceiling would probably show it came from here, too, and went through the doorway.” It was getting on, so I suggested we give up further searching. We reached Mrs. Dane’s, to find that Miss Jeremy had already ar rived, looking rather pale, as I had noticed she always did before a seance. Her color had faded, and her eyes seemed sunken in her head. ’ “Not ill, are you?” Sperry asked her, as he took her hand. “Not at all. But I am anxious. I always am. These things do not come for the calling.” “This is the last time. You have promised.” “Yes. The last time.” For our last seance, Herbert Robinson, who had been reading up psychic literature, said he had ar ranged things to convince us all of the genuineness of any phenomena that might appear. Herbert placed Miss Jeremy in her chair, and proceeded to wrap her, chair ahd all, in a strong net work of fine threads, drawn suffi ciently, taut to snap with any movement. He finished by placing her feet on the sheet of paper, and outlin ing their position there with a pen cil line. The proceedings were saved from absurdity by what we all felt was the extreme gravity of the situa tion. There were present in the room Mrs. Dane, the Robinsons, Sperry, my wife and myself. Clara, Mrs. Dane’s secretary, had begged off on the plea of nervousness from the earlier and physical por tion of the seance, and was to re main outside in the hall until the trance commenced. Sperry objected to this, as move ment in the circle during the trance had, in the first seance, in duced fretful uneasiness in the medium. But Clara, appealed to, begged to be allowed to remain out- dignation that was far composure the occasion But the others, I believe, were fully convinced that no human agency had operated to bring the stick into Mrs. Dane’s house, a belief that prepared them for anything that might occur. A number of things pccurred al most as soon as the lights were out. Then, suddenly, a bell that Sper ry had placed on the stand beyond the black curtain commenced to ring. Quite without warning, im mediately after, my chair twisted under me. Finally Mrs. Dane rapped on the floor and Clara came in. Mrs. Dane told her to switch on the lights. Miss Jeremy had drooped in her chair until the silk across her chest was held taut, but none of the threads were broken and her evening slippers still fitted into the outline on the paper bepeath them. Without getting up, Sperry reached to the stand behind Miss Jeremy,, and brought into view a piece of sculptor’s clay he had plac ed there. The handle of the bell was now jammed into the mass. “Now,” Herbert said, addressing the medium, “we want you to go back to the house where you saw the dead man on the floor. You know his name, don’t you?” There was a pause. “Yes. Of course I tio. A. L. Wells.” Arthur had been known to most of us by his Christian name, but the initials were correct. “How do you know it is an L?” “On letters,” was the laconic an swer. Then: “Letters, letters, who has the letters?” “Do you know whose cane this is?” “Yes.” Up to that time the replies had come easily and quickly. But be ginning with the cane question, the medium was in difficulties. She moved uneasily, and spoke irritably. The replies were slow and grudg ing. Foreign subjects were intro- kooinspn bound the medium to her chair anu traced her feet on sheet of white paper. * side until she was required, and showed such unmistakable nerv ousness that we finally agreed. “Would a slight noise disturb her?” Mrs. Dane asked. Miss Jeremy thought not, if the circle remained unbroken, and- Mrs. Dane considered. “Bring me my stick from the hall, Horace,” she said. “And tell Clara I’ll rap on the floor with it when I want her.” I found a stick in the rack out side and brought it in. The lights were still on in the chandelier ov erhead, and as I gave the stick to Mrs. Dane I heard Sperry speaking sharply behind me. “Where did you get that stick?” he demanded. “In the hall. I ” “I never saw it before,” said Mrs. Dane. “Perhaps it is Herbert’s.” But I caught Sperry’s eye. We had both recognized it. It was Arthur Wells’s, the one which Sperry had taken from his room, and which, in turn, had been taken from Sperry’s library. Sperry was watching me with a sort of cynical amusement. “You’re an absent-minded beg gar, Horace,” he said. “You didn’t, by any chance, stop here on your way back from my place the other night, did you?” “I did. But I didn’t bring that thing.” “Look here, Horace,” he said, more gently, “ypu come in and see me some day sotn. You’re not* as fit as you ought to be.” I confess to a sort of helpless in- duced, as now. “Horace’s wife certainly bullies him,” said the voice. “He’s afraid of her. And the fire-tongs—the fire-tongs—the fire-tongs!” “Whose cane is this?” Herbert repeated. “Mr. Ellingham’s.” This created a profound sensa tion. “How do you know that?” “He carried it at the seashore. He wrote in the sand with it.” “What did he write?” “Ten o’clock.” “He wrote ‘ten o’clock’ in the sand, and the waves came and washed it away?” “Yes.” “Horace,” said my wife, leaning forward, “why not ask her about that stock of mine? If it is going down, I ought to sell, oughtn’t I?” Herbert eyed her with some ex asperation. “We are here to make a serious investigation,” he said. “If the members of the club will keep their attention on what we are doing, we may get somewhere. “Now,” he continued, turning .o the medium, “the man is dead, and the revolver is beside him. Did he kill himself?” “No. He attacked her when he found the letters.” “And she shot him?” “I can’t tell you that.” “Try very hard. It is important.” “I don’t know,” was the fretful reply. “She may have. She hated him. I don’t know. She says she did.” from the required. “She says she killed him?” But there was no reply to this, although Herbert repeated it sev- 3ral times. Instead, the voice of the “con trol” began to recite a verse of poetry—a cheap, sentimental bit of trash. It was maddening, under the circumstances. “Do you know where the letters are?” “Hawkins has them.” “They were not hidden in the curtain?” This was Sperry. “No. The police might have searched the room.” “Where were these letters?” There was no direct reply to this, but instead: “He found them when he was looking for his razorstrop. They were in the top of a closet. His revolver was there, too. He went back and got it. It was terrible.” There was a profound silence, followed by a slight exclamation from Sperry as he leaped to his feet. The screen at the end of the room, which cut off the light from Clara’s candle, was toppling. The next instant it fell, and we saw Clara sprawled over her table, in a dead faint. In this, the final chapter of the record of these seances, I shall give, as briefly as possible, the events of the day following the third sitting. I shall explain the mystery of Arthur Wells’s death, and I shall give the solution arrived at by the Neighborhood Club as to the strange communications from the medium, Miss Jeremy, now Sperry’s wife. On Tuesday morning I wakened after an unea$y night. I knew cer tain things, knew them definitely in the clear light of morning. Haw kins had the letters that Arthur Wells had found; that was one thing. I had not taken Elling ham’s stick to Mrs. Dane’s house; that was another. I had not done it. I had placed it on the table and had not touched it again. But those were immaterial, com pared with one outstanding fact Any supernatural solution would impljf full knowledge by whatever power had controlled the medium And there was not full knowledge. (TO BE CONTINUED.) County Supervisor’s Monthly Report LIST OF CLAIMS PAID BY THE SUPERVISOR OF McCORMICK COUNTY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1931 Claim No. 11027 J 11028 11029 11030 11031 11032 Payee Purpose Amount Talbert, Salary $ 41.67 W. O. Graves, Salary W. T. Strom, Salary J. T. Fooshe, Salary J. O. Patterson, Salary r ! County Pension Fund, Support of the Poor: " —WHITE— Mrs. Mary Carroll 5.00 Mrs. Mary Ferqueron 5.00 Mrs. Julia Davis 5.00 Mrs. Ella Stroud 5.00 Mrs. Martha Scott 5.00 Mrs. Martha Turnage ' 5.00 Mrs. Susannah Willis 5.00 Miss Miranda Holsenback 5.00 Miss Sally Wideman 5.00 Miss Emily Wideman 5.00 Miss Lou White .l 5.00 Miss Carrie B. Freeland 5.00 O. D. White 5.00 Jno. P. Wideman 5.00 William Tramel 5.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 35.00 Acid stomach • < ••• m ni=PHIUIPSl For Troubles due to Acid indigestion acid stomach heartburn headache CASES-NAUSEA ExCESS acid is the common cause of indigestion. It results in pain and sourness about two hours aftfer eat ing. The quick corrective is an alkali which neutralizes acid. _ The best corrective is Phillips’ Milk of Mag nesia. It has remained standard with physicians in the 50 years since its invention. _ One spoonful of Phillips’ Milk of Magnesia neutralizes instantly many times its volume in acid. Harmless, and tasteless, and yet its action is quick. You .will never rely on crude methods, once you learn how quickly this method acts. Be sure to get the genuine. The ideal dentifrice for clean teeth and healthy gums is Phillips’ Dental Magnesia, a superior tooth paste that safeguards against acid- mouth. —COLORED— Victoria Tolbert 1 Delsie Goode Miller Harmon Milton Garrett Herbert Williams Jack Bradley Caroline Green Tildy Sheppard Ann Marshall Moriah Bussey Jim Anderson Amy Edmunds Polly Elmore Alex Calhoun Pomp Matthews Lucy Martin John Moore Anna Collier * Georgia Callahan Will Holloway Lee Tolbert Jane Yeldell Geo. Zimmerman Walker Callahan John Garrett Virge Morton Jake Smith Sophia Cullen Steve and Rosa Pullian Ed and Ella Rayford 75.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 5.00 5.00 11033 11034 11035 11036 11037 11038 11039 11040 11041 11042 11043 11044 11045 11046 11047 11048 11049 11050 11051 11052 11053 11054 11055 11056 11057 11058 11059 11060 11061 11062 11063 11064 94.00 v 169.00 Joseph Murray, Salary 16.68 L. G. Bell, Salary 20.83 W. L. Brown, Salary 83.33 W. H. Parks, Salary _** 70.83 M. L. B. Sturkey, Salary 8.33 C. W. Pennal, Salary 52.22 T. J. Price, Salary - 52.22 H. C. Walker, Salary 33.34 Jess Remsen, Salary 25.00 Geo. P. Watkins, Salary 80.00 John Creswell, Salary 65.00 Com. of Pub. Wks., Water and Lights (July & Aug.) 25.97 T. J. Price, Treas. Jury Tickets 8.60 R. N. Edmunds, Salary 12.50 C. C. Morgan, Salary 12.50 Merrett Grocery Co., Supplies 129.28 J. D. Dunlap, Supplies J 30.07 Gulf Refining Co., Gas and Oil r 59.15 W. N. Edmunds, Supplies j 8.20 J. T. Fooshe, Expense Account 13.48 Burroughs Adding Mach. Co., Upkeep of Mach. 11.10 W. O. Graves, Pd. Freight and Express 3.36 Geo. P. Watkins, Supplies 12.14 R. A. Price, Operation of Ferry 12.00 M. G. & J. J. Dorn, Office Rent 16.00 Mose Wideman, Supplies 11.12 J. O. Patterson, Clerk, Postage for Offices 14.00 S. C. Con. Tel. Co., Rents 21.15 W. W. Bradley, Audit of County Books July 1, 1930 to July 1, 1931 v 200.DO Com. of Public Wks. Water and Lights, Sept. 1 13.53 T. J. Price, Treas. Interest on Bonds 4,661.62 T. J. Price, Treas. Jury Tickets 2.00 TOTAL $ 6,331.72 Professional Card W. K. CHARLES Attorney-At-Law office, Farmers Bank Building Days at McCormick WEDNESDAYS and SATURDAYS Friend—Don’t you know that Spendalot is simply marrying you for your money so that he can pay his bills? ’ Goldie—Nonsense! Why, he never thinks of paying his bills! Eyes examin ed. 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