Page Six
Around tho comer of the ftroot
WKo can *ay what waits for ut7
—James Whitcomb Riley.
And who can say what tht New
Year 1946 will bringt All wt can
do, of course, is hope for the best,
and our hopes are for you, dear
people of this community. It is in
full appreciation of all the line
things you have done for us that we
send you these Happy New Year
greetings.
THE NORTHWESTERN BANK
MEMBER F. D. I. C.
Black Mountain, N. C.
NEW YEAR'S
IS MORE THAN A DAY!
It is the spirit of men and women
who throw, off the impediments of
yesterday and determine to make a
better start for today.
As we enter the year 1946 we raise
a toast to our many good friends, with
the hope that each succeeding day 4
may bring you nearer to coveted goals.
Happy New Year to you!
BLACK MOUNTAIN
GROCERY CO.
5o ~W2ik
Hmlill and
ii ■ 1 /1 mmm
nuppu\tM
WE’VE SEEN a great many
changes in our day ~ .
changes in styles, changes in cus
toms, and changes in transporta
tion. But one thing has remained
unchanged during all these years—
our determination to lead the way
at all times in value-giving. We
enter 1946 fully pledged to stand
by our time-honored custom.
Happy New Year,
friends I
ANN’S LUNCHEONETTE
CHAPTER IV
Cumberland nodded. “How long’s
he been dead. Doc?"
Doctor Medford had already made
some examination. "Twenty-four
hours, anyway,” he said. "Probably
more." He stripped off those bands
of black tape that half-concealed the
dead man’s countenance. "Anybody
know who he is?" he asked.
They came to look; they saw an
old small man, with eyes twisted
•lightly upward at the comers, a
nose thick at the bridge and nar
rowing to a point which drooped
above the upper lid. Chin small,
retiring; a mouth framed in deep- j
graved lines; gray, sparse, wiry
hair; a gray stubble on cheek and
chin. They looked, but no one spoke.
Then Cumberland said wistfully:
"1 kind of wish Joe was here; but
Quill said you didn’t want anyone
else to know about this right away.
Inspector." And he asked: “What’s
your idea?”
“Well, Mat, maybe you’d better
send for Joe.”
Cumberland wiped his mouth with
I his hand. “I don’t know as Joe
j could outdo you, on a thing like
j this,” he admitted.
“He’s welcome to try,” Tope in
sisted cheerfully. “But here’s the
way I see it: We can’t trail all the
folks that might have done this; but
whoever put him here is waiting,
somewhere, for the excitement to
start. They’re in the dark.”
“Well, so are we!”
"But we’re this much ahead of
them,” Tope argued. “We know the
body’s been found, and they don’t.
Mat, if it was me, I’d keep the whole
thing quiet, long as I could.”
“That’d be hard, to keep this
quiet. Some one’s bound to find
out.”
Young Adam spoke. “I think you’d
do well to let Tope run this, Mat,”
he urged. “Os course, I’ve no stand
ing unless it turns out this was an
inter-state job; but if X had any say,
I’d want Tope in it.” And he add
ed: “As for keeping it quiet, Amasa
Dewain doesn’t talk much; and his
housekeeper’s away. We can carry
| the body up . there tonight, let Doc
! tor Medford do the autopsy up there.'
; Then tomorrow night we can move
it to town.”
Cumberland nodded. “We could
; do it that way.” he agreed. “Tope,
! what do you say? Will you take it
j on?”
The Inspector looked toward Mrs.
Tope, standing by the fire. “We’re
qn a sort of honeymoon,” he reflect
ed. “But I don’t know. I don’t get
j stirred up often, but I’m kind of
| mad tonight. This looks to me like
a sneakjng, cruel business. I’d like
to nail the man that did it.”
“I know,” Cumberland assented
heavily. “It hits me that way too!”
And he reflected: “Joe won’t like
▼our being in it; but he’ll have to
stand it. If you’ll take it, you can
boss the whole job.”
So Tope agreed and made his dis
positions. He sent Quill to awaken
Amasa Dewain and enlist his co
operation. Adam and Doctor Med-
I ford improvised a stretcher for the
| removal of the body. Mat Cumber
land asked;
“Anything I can be doing to
* night?”
Tope shook his head. “Have Quill
! stay at Amasa’s and keep his eyes
\ open,” he decided. “Adam will come
back and spend the night here in
case anyone comes around. Doctor
Medford can do the autopsy at the
farm tomorrow morning. You and
I will get a good night’s sleep, and
I’ll meet you there around nine
o’clock. That’s about all.”
And a little later, the Inspector and
Mrs. Tope said good night. But once
they were out of doors, she grasped
his arm with fingers like steel. She
whispered:
“I know him.”
He stared at her. “Know who?
The dead man?”
"Yes.”
“Why didn’t you say so? Who is
he?”
“I wasn’t sure you’d want to tell
them, yet. It’s Mr. Ledforge.”
The name for a moment woke no
memory in him. “Ledforge?” he
repeated blankly.
“Yes, the head of New England
utilities,” she insisted. “I saw
him once at a stockholders’ meet
: ing when I worked on Wall Street.
That’s he, dead back there.”
Mrs. Tope’s identification of the
dead man as Ledforge seemed at
first to Tope impossible of belief. “It
can’t be,” he protested. “Or there’d
have been a noise about it before
now.” ,
“Not necessarily!” she insisted.
“If he was kidnaped, his family
may have been warned to keep
quiet; or perhaps his business asso
ciates are planning how to support
his stocks when the news- comes out.
But it is certainly Mr. Ledforge.
Aren’t you going to tell Mr. Cum
berland?”
“Not tonight,” Tope decided, bold
ly. “Even if it’s true, I want a
‘ chance to think, before this hulla
baloo starts.”
,j “Will you tell Adam?”
“Adam’s got a secret of his own,"
! the old man replied. “I’ll keep this
to trade with him, by and by.”
I Tope that night lay not long
! awake; but he roused at dawn, and
he began to wonder by what route
' 4gad man had been, brought to
THE BLACK MOUNTAIN NEWS
Faraway. He got up and dressed
with quiet haste, and left Mrs. Tope
asleep, and walked up the brookslde
toward Faraway, where Adam
Bruce was still asleep; but he did
not disturb the young man. Yonder
on the knoll, half concealed by
intervening shrubbery, one of the
other cabins was visible. It seemed
the nearest to Faraway; and assum
ing for the moment that those who
brought the dead man here had
lodged in that cabin. Tope began to
search the ground between.
He found two things. He found,
on a slanting ledge, a scratch which
might have been made by a nail in
someone’s heel; but the scratch was
broader than the nail would readily
have made, and Tope reflected that
some men have set into the heels
of their shoes a small triangular
plate to retard the wear. Such a
plate might have made that scratch.
And he found a woman’s footprint!
The small French heel had sunk to
a depth of a quarter-inch or so,
leaving its imprint plain. Tope
stopped to look more closely; and
then Adam Bruce came up the slope
to join him. It was still early; but
the sun had risen and now laid level
lances through the trees. Adam lift
ed his hand in silent greeting.
"Found anything?”
“I found this,” Tope pointed to
the footprint. “I judge whoever
brought him here lodged in this cab
in.”
“This is named ‘Little Bear,’
Adam told him. “If they did, Bee
will remember them.”
Tope hesitated. “Well, later," he
decided. “You keep out of sight for
now, go up to Dewain’s farm, wait
there. Doctor Medford will be do
ing the autopsy there this morning.
We’ll come up.” He added: “Now,
let’s go up on the knoll and see if
there are tire tracks in the drive.”
But as they came around to the
drive in front of Little Bear, Tope
forgot his present search. Whitlock
and Beal had been put, the night
before, in the cabin toward the road.
Tope saw that their car was gone;
and he strode that way, Adam upon
I!
“I found this,” Tope pointed to the
footprint.
his heels. They came to the cabin
and Tope threw open the door.
The beds were in disorder, but the
place was empty. Whitlock and Beal
were no longer here.
Tope shook his head in self
reproach. “I’m getting old,” he said.
“I ought to have anticipated that.
Too late now. All right, son. I’ll
see you at the farm.”
j So Adam departed, and Tope re
! turned to Cascade and found Mrs.
: Tope dressing. “I see you found
something,” she remarked. “You’re
fairly licking your chops.”
He told her about the woman’s
footprint, the mark where a man’s
shoe had tcraped across the ledge,
and he added: “Whitlock and Beal
have skipped. They must have left
mighty early!” He fell into a
•houghtful silence, and she left him
undisturbed, till presently the break
fast bell summoned them down to
the Mill.
Bee Dewain, fresh as dawn, greet
ed them cheerfully. “Rest well?”
“I never do, the first night in a
strange place,” Mrs. Tope admitted.
“But I will tonight. We’ve decided
to stay on awhile, so Mr. Tope can
try the fishing.”
Mrs. Murrell, entering in time to
hear this last word, said volubly:
“Well, now, Mrs. Tope, I call that
sensible. Isaac, he’s always want
ing to move on and move on. Some
people say it's hard on the twins,
1 not going to school; but Isaac gives
them their lessons right along.” She
laughed proudly. "Donnie does all
Willie’s lessons, if we don’t watch
him. Their handwriting's so much
alike you can’t tell the difference.”
“They write alike?” Mrs. Tope
echoed in polite indifference. “They
IgqJs; exactly alike, of course; blit I
didn't know twins wrote alike, too.”
"Yes, they do,” Mrs. Murrell in
sisted. “I asked a doctor once, and
he told me—”
But Bee interrupted her. Peopls
were apt to interrupt Mrs. Murrell.
“Mr. Tope, Earl Priddy tells me
your friend Adam Bruce came back
last nixht.”
“So?” Tope echoed. "Why, he told
us in Mlddleford that he was taking
the midnight train. Must've changed
his mind.”
Bee laughed. "Adam’s always an
uncertain quantity. He must be
sleeping late. I’ll have Mrs. Priddy
keep soma coffee hot for him!”
After breakfast, Tope and Mrs.
Tope returned to Cascade. Tope
rummaged boots and fishing garb
out of the rumble of the car and put
them on. “We’ll make fishing an
excuse," be explained. “We’ll drive
away out of sight, and get to Amasa
Dewain’s without the folks here
knowing.”
She nodded, and presently they
came out to the car, Tope brave in
rubber boots and an old felt hat
adorned with flies stuck in the band
and crown. Earl Priddy, passing by
along the drive, paused to ask in an
interested tone: “Goin’ fishin’?”
Tope admitted this. "Git you any
worms?” Tope shook his head. “I’ll
dig you some, fust chance I git,”
Priddy promised. "Fellow come
through here last summer, hired me
to take him fishing. Englishman, he
was. And a great one for flies!
Man, he could handle ’em, too.”
Tope was always willing to listen.
He had heard, sometimes, surpris
ingly useful things. “Don’t see
many Englishmen here, I expect,”
he suggested at random.
“Well, some!” Priddy declared.
“Fellow come here Friday night late
—I guess he was English by the way
he talked. Had that kind of a deef
man’s voice that they have. I can
tell ’em fur as I can hear ’em. He
had a woman with him! Miss De
wain wouldn’t have took ’em in, if
she’d been up, case they wa’n’i
respectable; but she’d gone to bed,
and I ain’t so pa'tic’lar. I put ’em
in Little Bear. They lit out before
I was up in the morning.”
Tope nodded indifferently, and he
got into the car. When they ap
proached Amasa Dewain’s farm
house, they saw Adam on the porch.
“Cumberland and the doctor are in
side,” he reported. “Want to go in?”
Tope said: “I’m wondering how
long that man has been dead. Earl
Priddy just told me that a man and
a woman came late Friday night
and stayed in Little Bear, and left
early in the morning.”
Bruce’s eyes lighted, but before
he could speak, Mat Cumberland
came out of the house; and when he
saw Tope; he drew from his pocket
something wrapped in a handker
chief.
“You’ll want to see these things,
Inspector,” he suggested. “They
were in the pocket of those overalls.
Ever see a knife like that before?”
The knife was of a peculiar de
sign. It bore on one side a gradu
ated scale marked off not only in
inches but in centimeters. Tope
opened the blade to see the maker’s
name—a Sheffield firm. “English,”
he remarked thoughtfully; and he
picked up the other article, a thing
like a little metal fan, with leaves
of differing lengths and thicknesses.
“What’s that?” Cumberland
asked.
“That’s a gauge to test valve
clearances. Mechanics use them,
on cars and airplanes.”
A car came toward them along
the road from the highway. Bee De
wain whirled into the yard and
alighted, full of surprised questions.
“What’s happened?” she demand
ed. “What are you all doing here?”
No one spoke; and she turned to
Adam. “Earl told me you came
back last night. Why?”
Adam said laughingly; “Couldn’t
bear to go away without seeing
you again.”
She colored angrily. “Don’t treat
me like a child! Why doesn't some
one say something?”
Mrs. Tope spoke. “I’ll, tell you,
Miss Dewain.” And she made the
matter briefly clear. She turned
pale, but her head did not droop.
“I see,” she said through stiff
lips. “That's terrible, isn’t it?” She
caught Adam’s eye. “This was why
you came back?” she guessed. “I
suppose Mr. Tope telephoned you?”
“Yes.”
“But why didn’t some one tell me
last night?”
Adam reminded her: “You were
off gadding with Joe Dane!”
She looked at him in quick atten
tion. “Joe brought me home late,”
she remembered. “Why didn’t you
tell him? Murders are his business.
I’ll bet that was your doing, Adam.
Keeping Joe out of it! Oh, you make
me so mad!”
Tope said quickly; “No, ma’am,
it was me. } thought we’d keep the
whole thing quiet for a while.”
Bee looked at Tope in sudden cu
riosity. “This sort of thing is Ad
am’s job!” she remembered. “But
why are you—Of course you found
the dead man—”
It was again Mrs. Tope who ex
plained. “My husband used to be
a police inspector in Boston, Miss
Dewain. He has had a lot of experi
ence in—murder cas*'- Mr. Cum
berland asked him to ’
Bee’s widenp' „ cn Doc-
tor Medford opened the kitchen door
and came out on the !
stockv man was m his shirt-sle
XL ti«l .Wt .
He spoke to the District Attorney.
“Mat, this is a queer one, he r ,
norted He hesitated, as though
doubtful of the Wisdom of saying ;
more “Suppose you all look at * •
see if you know him, ever saw him
Tope glanced warningly toward
Mrs Tope. “Miss Dewain * S „ £ e
only one who hasn’t seen him ae
into the kitchen, where the dead
man lay on the long table, covered
from head to foot; Doctor Medford
turned back the sheet so that the
face was revealed for her to se e-
The girl stared, shuddering, then
suddenly she leanedforward over
the dead man, bravely ek™
She stood erect again, looking •*
them all with wide eyes.
Doctor Medford alike. Know
him, Miss Dewater
“No. No, buV—”
“But what?” ~ . „
•*H« has something on his hair,
sa'd Bee. “Some sort of musky
telling stuff. rvs smeiled U
fore.” And she cried suddenly. 1
remember!”
"Where?" Tope asked sharply.
"Friday night. Or rather, Satur
day morning,” she answered. “Some
people stayed Friday night in Little
Bear, and left before daylight.
(Continued next week)
A new kind of cane for the blind
has a wheel that acts like an eye
and enables the blind to feel the
difference between grass, side
walk or toher surfaces.
The China-Burma-India pipe
line, longest in the world, is about
one fourth longer than the United
States Big Inch line.
'Vest' Wishes
yd/*^
NEW YEAR
A good beginning for the New
Year, we believe, is a good wish
—and a good resolution.
Our good wish is for you —
more health, more happiness and
prosperity!
And our resolution —resolved to
give you still better service in
19 4 6
WOODCOCK MOTOR CO.
c h -4 new
°f '946; Wmmi yeak
THE spirit of 1946 is Progress. So let oa
all determine right now to do every
thing a little bit better than last year, to
take advantage ol every available oppor
tunity for improvement, and in this way
assure for ourselves a happier community
of happier homes.
As for ourselves, we will leave no stone
unturned to gdve you still better values and
a still higher grade of service in the year
to come.
And so, wishing you all a very Happy New
Year, we join with you in giving a royal
welcome to 1946.
BI,A C K MOU N T AIN
HARDWARE COMPANY
BLACK MOUNTAIN, N. C.
Cumberland
Thursday, December 27, 1945 4
Receipe or A Good
Christian
o
4 cups common sense,
2 cups prayer,
1 cups sympathy,
1 cup charity,
'j cup good Will,
2 teaspoons patience,
1 tablespoon faith,
6 cups love-
Method: Sift together common
sense and prayer, rub in sympa
thy, add charity and good will;
mix to a soft dough with patience
and faith. Bake in loaf pan of
love, in a moderate oven of peace.
Time for baking; The rest of your
life.
Matt 5-13: Ye are the salt of
the earth, but if the salt have lost
its strength wherewith shall ft be
salted.
(So it is with Christian that
hasn’t been well seasoned. We
as Christians are the Raft of the
earth, but if we become involved
in earthly things such as hypo
crisy gossip, envy and hate, we
have lost our sevour, (strength).
Let us use this receipe and stay
well seasoned. That is let our
light shine, that others may see
our good works and follow.
Yours for a better world,
Grace C. Stepp, (colored)
Mushrooms contain 90 percent
water.
The combined cost of the two
government-sponsored pipelines,
the Big Inch and the. Little Big
Inch, was about $145,000,000.