■Thursday, January 3, 1946
OVERNIGHT
GUEST
CHAPTER V
“Mrs. Priddy was busy Saturday,
so I made the beds, changed the
linen. I smelled this same musky
smeU on one of the pillowslips in
Little Bear. Oh. I'm sure of it.”
“Who were they?” Cumberland 1
asked. (
"X don't know,” Bee confessed. t
"Earl Priddy took them to the cab- j
in. They came late Friday nightj
and left very early. I didn’t see:
them at all. But I'm positive about j
the smell.”
Tnere seemed no more to say. !
Hiey moved out of doors again, and
Cumberland asked heavily: “What
did they do to him, Doc? How'd
they kill him?”
Doctor Medford said unsteadily:
“I can stand most things all right;
but this gets me.”
And he continued, without prompt
ing: “It was more or less luck that
I hit it so soon. I didn’t And any
wounds, knife, bullet, nothing like
that; so I went into the abdomen,
thinking of poison. I found the an
swer there/’
He hesitated and Cumberland
urged: “Go ahead, Doc.”
The Doctor said grimly: “All
right. It’s hard to believe; but this
man died of peritonitis, from a rup
tured appendix. Rupture resulted
from a gangrenous condition pro
duced by a crease in the omentus
that bent a fold in an artery, the
way you do a hose, and shut off the
blood supply. That’s how he died!”
For a moment no one spoke, till
Cumberland muttered:
“Then it’s not murder, Tope!”
The Inspector said impatiently:
“They tied him up, gagged him, left
him half-smothered with a blanket
around his head when he was run
ning a temperature and pretty sick
and needing a doctor quick. If that
wasn’t murder, it was the next thing
to it!"
“Manslaughter, maybe,” Cumber
land admitted.
Bee shivered. Even Adam’s lips
were white. Tope stood silent, his
head wagging to and fro as it was
apt to do when he was deep in
thought.
‘There are two or three things to
do, to start," he decided at last.
“But Mat, let me do them. Nobody
knows me around here. 1 can poke
around, and ask questions, and np
one will think anything about it." He
added: “Adam here can help me,
and Quill.”
“What do you figure on doing?”
Cumberland asked.
‘Well,” Tope suggested, ‘‘suppose
it was you that had fetched this man
to Faraway and left him there to
die. Wouldn’t you be worried for
fear some one had spotted you?”
“It was dark,” Cumberland re
flected. “I’d have kept my hat
pulled down, my collar turned up.”
“How about the car? Wouldn’t you
be afraid Priddy might remember
the car?” Then, putting himself in
(he other man's place, Tope went
on: “Os course, maybe I’d steal a
car to do the job. Mat, have you
had any reports of a car being sto
len around here?"
“I wouldn't know about that,”
Cumberland confessed. “Ned Quill
would, though. The State police get
all those bulletins.”
“Where is he?”
“Asleep Inside. He was up all
night."
“Well, send him out," Tope di
rected. The District Attorney went
into the house, and after a moment
Ned Quill appeared, elaborately
rubbing his eyes.
Tope spoke to him. "Get any reot,
did you?”
“Sure!” the trooper told him
cheerfully. “A good three hours!”
Tope nodded. "Quili, have the
State police had any reports of a
car being stolen around here, the
last few days?”
“Sure, cars are stolen all the
time.”
“You go find out whether any cars
have been reported stolen within fif
ty miles of here since Friday,” Tope
directed. "Or since Thursday, for
that matter.”
Quill assented. He started away:
but Tope detained him. "Wait a
minute,” he said. “Something else.
You know the country around
here?”
“Lived here all my life—up to now.
Yes, I guess I do."
‘Well then,” Tope asked, “sup
pose you had a car on your hands
that you had to get rid of, some
where around here, where would you
PQt it?”
The trooper considered. "I’d run
, bito the woods,” he decided.
There are a lot of old roads that
nobody uses except to park in, on
moonlight nights; and nobody would
notice one more car among so
many.”
Tope shook his head. “That’s not
good enough! Some one might spot
V* 10 * s there any place
where a car could be sunk in deep
Water?’
Well, there are some old lime
stone quarries, above Ridgcomb. I
, a 7 en t been up there since I was a
kid, but there’s always water in the
quarries, and it’s gray with lime,
5 °.,4° U can t see down into it.”
Any Qther place that would do
the trick?”
“Nary a one that I know of.”
Tope nodded. “All right,” ha
agreed. _ “Now go find out
whether there’s been a car stolen,
and let me know.”
When Quill was gone, Tope turned
to Adam. “Son, you know where
these quarries are?”
“I can find them.”
“Get Miss Dewain to drive you
up there,” Tope directed. “That
way, you can enjoy yourself and
help me too. Take a fishinglins
and a sinker and make some sound
, mgs—see If you can locate anything
In the quarries that might be a cal'
Look for tire tracks on the road.”
Adam nodded; and Tope said:
"Another thing, Adam. Look for
car tracks, but look for a man’s
tracks too. And a woman’s. Any
soft ground or sand around there,
look it over careful and let me know
what you find.”
"Where are you going?”
“Mrs. Tope’s going to drive me
down to Ridgcomb first. Then we’ll
come back to the Mill. Miss De
wain, will you drive him?”
“I came up to get some fresh
vegetables for dinner,” Bee remem
bered. “Adam, come help me. Then
we can go.”
So she and Adam departed toward
the garden, and the Inspector and
Mrs. Tope got under way; at once
he proposed: “Now ma’am, we’ll
drive down to Ledforge’s summer
place and see what they say there!”
She assented; but first he bade
her stop at the Mill; and he went
to talk with Priddy for a while.
When he returned to the car, there
was a deep excitement in his eyes;
but he only said: “AH right, let's
go along.” Not till they were on
the road did he explain. Then he
told her: “Some one else is on this
trail we’re running.”
“Who?”
“Those two men last night. Whit
lock and Beall Whitlock told Prid
dy he was an insurance agent, said
he was trying to trace a stolen car —
a Chevalier coupe, pale gray with
blue trim. Earl told him a car like
that was here Friday night.”
“Is that the one with the English
man?”
”Yes!”
“Did Earl get the number of the
car?”
“No, but he says it was a coupe,
light gray. He didn’t see the man's
"They put him under the bed In
Faraway.”
face, or the woman’s. They drove in
late, and Priddy had to get out of
bed. He took them to Little Bear.
The man gave him the money for
the cabin without getting out of the
car, and Priddy went back to bed;
but he says the man was small, and
that he talked like an Englishman—
whatever that means! And Priddy
says the car had blown out an ex
haust gasket. He heard it puffing.
He added: “I had to go at Priddy
easy, so he wouldn t realize I was
asking questions. That's what took
me so long.” For a while, then,
he said no more.
For several hours the Topes were
busy ... „
The District Attorney s office was
in North Madderson, a dozen miles
from Ridgcomb. Quill had preced
ed the Topes to announce their com
ing. Mat Cumberland and another
man were here to greet then l —. 3
brisk young man, sure beyond his
years. . , ~
“This is Joe Dane, Inspector,
Cumberland said.
[ “Heard Mat speak of you, fope
said courteously, his hand extend
ed. “Says he couldn’t get along
without you.” , , „ T
But Dane ignored Tope s hand. I
should have been consulted earlier,
he protested stiffly. “In a case like
this, any delay is almost sure to be
fatal. I won't be responsible.”
The Inspector nodded. ”1 know
just how you feel,” he agreed kind
ly. ”If I was in your shoes, and a
first-class mystery broke around
here, and some superannuated old
fossil grabbed hold of the thing and j
wouldn't let go, I’d hate his insides.” I
The young man was a little ap- j
peased. “It seems simple enough,
but it’s about time something was
done about it.”
“Well,” Tope admitted, “I’ve been
fairly busy.” He hesitated. “I’ve
found out some things, and guessed
at others. I know about what hap
pened.”
And he went on: “Late last Friday \
night, a little man who talked like
an Englishman, and who had a worn-,
an with him, drove up to Dewain’s
Mill in a gray Chevalier coupe with
blue trim. They had this man that’s !
dead now under the rumble seat.
Priddy put them in the cottage
called Little Bear. During the night;
they carried this man down to Far
away and put him under the bed
there.”
“How can you know that?” Dane
demanded.
“Well, I’m guaranteeing it,” Tope
assured him mildly; and he wen!
on:
“They put him under the bed in
Faraway, and sometime before
daylight they pulled out. I figure
that they'd want to get rid of the
car. I’ve a notion it’s in an old
quarry Ned Quill here told me
about. Adam Bruce has gone to
see.”
The District Attorney looked at
Joe Dane. “You and me wouldn't
have thought of that, Joe,” he said.
But Dane retorted: “We don’t
know the car’s there! That’s just a
stab in the dark.”
“Why, that’s right,” Tope agreed
readily enough. “But I tried anoth
er stab,” he continued. “Quill helped
me on this too. I asked him to |
find out whether any car had been j
stolen around here. Well, there was
one, belonged to a man named Hoi- •
dom, has a summer place down near
Ridgcomb. It was taken Friday
night, out of the garage. Nettie
Pineyard she’s Holdom’s house
keeper—says Mrs. Kell, the chauf
feur’s wife, drove it away.”
He hesitated; but no one spoke,
and he went on;
“Saturday morning, Holdom tele
phoned from New York to the po
lice in Ridgcomb that the car had
been stolen.” He turned to Quill.
"Ned you go call up your friend, the
insurance man—see if he had insur
ance on that car and whether Hol
dom reported the theft to him too.”
Quill disappeared and Tope spoke
more softly: “Didn’t want QuiU to
hear what I’m telling you now,” he
said. “But Mrs. Tope here saw Led
forge, the Utilities man that lives
down below Ridgcomb, at a meeting
once, and she saw the dead man
this morning. She thought he was
Ledforge!”
Cumberland leaned forward, and
Dane leaped to his feet. “Ledforge!”
he whispered hoarsely. “By God
frey! Say, if that’s so—” His eyes
shone.
But Tope said mildly: “Wait a
minute, Mr. Dane. I only said that
Mrs. Tope thought the dead man
was Ledforge. But Ledforge is in
New York. He was at a bank di
rectors’ meeting there this morn
ing."
Dane made an exasperated ges
ture. “Well, for heaven's sake, if
it’s not him, why set off a skyrocket
here?”
But then Quill returned. “Charley
Fay had the insurance on the
coupe,” he said. “But he hasn’t any
report about its being stolen.”
Tope nodded, and gently he dis
missed the trooper. “You’ve been
a lot of help. Ned,” he said. “I
wish you'd drop in at Dewain’s MiU
and see if Adam’s there. Tell him
Til be there soon.”
So Quill departed; and Tope looked
at Cumberland.
‘‘Now, I want to do a little tele
phoning, Mat," he said. “Mind if I
use your name?” Cumberland as
sented silently; and Tope put in a
call for Police Headquarters in New
York.
While they waited, “There are two
or three things we ought to know,”
Tope explained. “Kell was at Hol
dom’s Friday night; but he left, and
Mrs. Kell hasn’t been back since she
drove the car away. I’d like to know
where they are. And there’s anoth
er thing: There was a man named
Whitlock at Dewain’s MiU last
night, said he represented the insur
ance people, trying to trace a sto
len car. The way he described it, it
was this car. But if Holdom hasn’t
reported it to the insurance peo
ple—"
“Where is Whitlock?” Dane de
manded. “He sounds fishy!”
“He got away before I found out
what he was up to,” Tope confessed;
and Dane made a disgusted gesture.
Then the phone rang, and Tope took
the instrument.
“Hello, Pat?” he said in friendly
tones. “Tope speaking. Tope! Tope,
you young whelp! How are you,
Pat? Haven’t seen you in five years
.. . . Sure, you heard right! I was
married a year ago. Still on my
honeymoon.”
He became serious. ‘‘But Pat. Ua-
TIIE BLACK MOUNTAIN NEWS
ten. I’m speaking from Mat Cum
berland’s office. He’s the' DA. up
here in Highland County. Massa
chusetts, yes. North Madderson is
the town. He wants some informa
tion. 0.K.? All right, take this
down.”
And he gave careful instructions:
To find out whether Ledforge was in
New York; to check his recent move
ments. What kind of hair-oil did he
use? Was he in New York over the
week-end? Check up on Holdom, ,
where he had been, where he was
now.
“And Holdom’s plane crashed
Saturday morning,” Tope explained.
“Pilot, named Bob Flint, was killed.
Down on the Sound somewhere. Find
out what made the plane fall.”
He finished, hung up the receiver;
Joe Dane started to speak, and Tope
looked at the young man, a certain
sympathy in his eyes.
“Son,” he said, “I know just about
how you feel—you’re itching to get
action. I’m too old to run around
in circles; but if you want a job,
here’s something you can do: A
week ago, Mrs. Kell drove down to
Middleford and met Ledforge at the
train there. Where did they go? See
if you can find out, Joe.”
And he added: “We’ll know a lot
more when we hear from New York.
You know pretty near as much as
I do, right now.”
Then the phone rang, and Joe
Dane took the caU. “It’s for you,
Tope,” he said, surrendering the in
strument. And they heard Tope say:
“Hello . . . Oh, Adam . . . Good,
glad you did . . . It’s there, is it?
✓Fine . . . Fine . . . Adam, did you
notice whether there were heel
plates on his shoes? . . . Good.”
He returned the receiver to the
hook. “The car’s in the quarry." h
said. “Adam located it V u'!l v.
to get it out, Mai
(To be continued)
38 VARIETIES BIRDS
FOUND IN COUNT
o
English Sparrow Leads In Num
ber; Reports Are Yet
Incomplete.
o
Members of the Asheville Bird
club and others who volunteered
their services, covered an area in
Buncombe County 15 miles in di
ameter Saturday to count birds of
the various species as a part of
a long established program of th<
National Audubon society, whicl
sponsors Christmas week bird
hunts in localities all over the
United States-
Unofficial and very incomplete
reports from only seven of the 15
. zones show that j|B different va
rieties of birds were seen by the |
counters Saturday.- This, of course
is the season when the minimum
of varieties could be expected to
be here. In the peak of the bird
season here in the summer per
hans as many as 300 different va
rieties can be seen.
A number of the varieties ident
ified by the bird counters could be
considered very rare for the Ashe
ville section at this time of year.
The birds on this rare, or unusual,
list would include; Red-breasted
nuthatch, blue-grey gnatcatcher,
flicker, hermit thrush, yellow
warbler and the golden crowned
kinglet.
In the first scattered returns of
the bird census, the English spar
row led the list in number seen
with 415. Next in order came the
Junco with 219, chicadee with 151
and the song sparrow with 116.
At the other end of the list (va
rieties seen the least) were the
yellow-bellied sapsucker 2, screech
owl 2, tree sparrow 2, yellow
warbler 1, red-breasted nuthatch
1, Savannah sparrow 1, blue-grey |
gnatcatcher 1, and hermit thrush
1.
When reports from each of the i
15 sectors come in, the executive
committee of the Bird club will
"abulate the figures and send them
to the National Audubon society
headquarters in New York for in
clusion in its permanent records.
The weather was ideal Saturday
for the bird counters and the 12
or 13 groups participating were
busy from dawn until dusk search
ing for and counting the various
species.
This is the first time that Ashe
ville has attempted to join in the
annual count, the object of which
r s to determine as accurately as
possible what species of birds are
to be found either as permanent
residents or transients in the area
selected, and the number of indi
vidual birds of each species.
Capt. W. A. Angwin, president
of the Asheville Bifd club, said
early reports indicated that birds
were unusually scarce Saturday.
He said this may be due to climat
ic conditions, that birds had flown
a little farther south due to the
weather and had not yet returned !
The count was conducted on a
large scale compared to other lo |
calities, he pointed out. Most of
the localities participating in I
counts send out about two parties 1
compared to 15 scheduled to par-j
ticipate here.
Each of the groups walked
from six to ten miles in their ]
search for birds.
It is the hope of the club that
the annual count will become a
community affair.
VETERAN, BRIDE
LIVE IN trailer;
o
“Living in a trailer? We think I
it’s the most satisfactory way for
a married couple going to college
say Betty and Bill Brinkley.
They are students at the Uni
versity of North Catplina. J
Their home is a trailer jacked -
up on the Eureka Farm (owned
by J. B- Fearrington) about eight
miles from Chapel Hill.
It is their solution to the hous- 1
ing problem at Carolina- Bill said:
“The set-up is ideal both for;
housekeeping and finances. Aver-;
age monthly rent for apartments
in Chapel Hill ‘is S6O„ A trailer
runs from SI,OOO to SI,BOO second
hand, and from SI,BOO up if new.
We figure it will almost pay for
itself in the two years we’ll be
here since we won’t be paying
rent.”
“It isn’t easy to live on $75
a month.”
“You can put that in capital
letters. But we aren’t complain
ing. Veterans should realize the
Government is only helping us
with living expenses.
“Os course I guess it wouldn’t
be so much fun,” his wife put in,
“if we weren’t in the country and
didn’t have a radio and Zombie.
Zombie is our puppy dog.”
The green and gray trailer is
set down the hill from the Fear- [
rington’s house. The trees around |
them ’ are brown with autumn,
and the smell of fermenting hay
drafts down from the barn.
Housekeeping in the trailer is
on the co-operative system.
“I really don’t think a hus
band should have to do house
work,” Betty said as she scram
bled some eggs.
“When Bill was stationed in
Florida last summer he didn’t do
anything except feed the kittens
and the rabbits. But here which
ever one has the most homework
studies and the other cooks.”
i In the morning they get up at
I 7 to get to 9 o’clock classes. Bill
i makes the bed and straightens the
i room while Betty gets breakfast.
I “Os course Bill grumbles a lot, J
but he’s wonderful about help
ing,” Bettey chattered on. “Ex
cept he positively won’t wash
dishes.”
Bettey explained one of the
basic principles of trailer living:
“You don’t save magazines and
newspapers and letters. And
you buy the smallest size every
thing—toothpaste, hand lotion,
soap flakes.”
Bill, who is from Charlotte met
Bettey Welles of Fayetteville in
1941 at the university. During
the war he was a pilot in the
Army Air Corps, and they were
married one and one half years
ago between his Africa and China
services.
Bettey is tall and loose-jointed,
blonde- Bill is one of those men
who is handsome with a mustache.
The third and most prominent
member of the family is Zombie,
a wire-haired terrier. Every few
| minutes it is “Zombie, go to Bill.”
or “Zombie, get down off the
bed,” or “Isn’t Zombie a sweet
puppy-dog?”
DESTROYED—
but not lost
Homes razed by fire can be
rebuilt with funds provided \
from Fire Insurance. It’s folly
to risk losing everything . . . I
when low premiums can pro i
tect . . .
E. E. WHITE’S
INSURANCE
AGENCY
Fire and Casualty
I BLACK MOUNTAIN, N. C.
Representing Old Line Stock
Companies.
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SEE US FOR YOUR PLUMBING NEEDS.
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Phone 3934 Black Mountain
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R. C. A. VICTOR RADIO ON WAY
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The Oldest Radio Dealer in Black Mountain
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You are invited in to hear the “F-M” Program
atop Mt. Mitchell
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Page Seven