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SECOND INSTALMENT
The mystery of the murder, by
the way, still remained unsolved.
The clues left by the slayer of Amos
Ethridge were so slender that no
progress had been made in piecing
them together, and, naturally theo
ries of various sorts began to be
advanced. Several of the Chicago
papers declared that the cross of
twigs on the dead man’s breast
proved to be a Klan outrage, and
this explanation was generally ac
cepted, for Westland was a strong
hold of the secret order and Eth
ridge was a bitter enemy of the or
ganization. What is more, an im
pressive demonstration had recently
occurred here. There had been a
parade and a midnight conclave at
which scores of new members had
been initiated. Special trains had
been run from distant points, hun
dreds of automobiles had assem
bled, thousands of robed men had
gathered in the light of a tremen
dous fiery cross erected on a hill
just outside the city limits.
Out of this occurrence had
sprung a bitter political quarrel, for
Amos Ethridge had boldly pro
claimed through the press that the
Governor was an avowed member
and that the conclave had been
planned with his knowledge and
consent. Ethridge had gone fur
ther; he had charged that the entire
machinery of law enforcement had
been betrayed, delivered over to the
Invisible Empire. He had promised
to adduce irrefutable evidence,
(proof positive, when the time came.
His accusations had met with a tre
mendous popular response and, as a
matter of fact, it was largely as a
result of this outspoken support
that he announced his intention to
run for Governor at the coming
election, pledging himself, if suc
cessful, to wage relentless war upon
the hooded order and to restore the
government to the people.
Threats against life had follow
ed. He had received warnings
forecasting much the same end as
had actually overtaken him. His
murder upon the very eve of the
campaign convinced most people
that the charges voiced by the Chi
cago newspapers were indeed sound.
But those charges were not so
readily accepted by the citizens of
Westland. Amos Ethridge had
been a great man locally and dur
ing his lifetime his power had been
such that few of his neighbors dar
ed speak a word against him, but,
now, that he was dead, tongues be
gan to wag. From various quar
ters there arose a hissing scandal.
People voiced openly what they had
never ventured to more than whis
per—viz., that Ethridge’s private
life had not been above reproach,
that there were chapters in it
which would not bear the light of
day, and that the authorities would
have to look further than the sec
ret order in order to find his slayer.
What about that "Thursday* note
ghat had been found in his pocket?
There was more than one husband
or lover, yes, even more than one
father, in Westland who smarted
under a sense of outrage and who
had reason to thank God the milli
onaire was dead. Let the people
discover what woman’s fingers had
penned that note, then perhaps the
mystery could be solved. It was
even whispered that out of the
solving there might result a scandal
more painful to the community
than its present sense of loss, and
that under the circumstances it
might be the part of wisdom to let
sleeping dogs lie. Such came to be
the general feeling in Westland.
As the days crept by and no ar
rests were made, certain citizens be
gan to nod and to speak guardedly
of "influence.” The out-of-town
correspondents heard 'these- whis
pers and promptly wired them in.
As a result a special prosecutor was
appointed by the state and he came
on to take charge of the investiga
fion.
On Thursday evening, a week
after the crime, Gerald Holmes
drove his new car out the road to
wards his mother’s farm. It was
early, nevertheless it was quite
dark. As he crossed the bridge at
the Italian settlement he noticed
that his right headlight suddenly
went out, just as it had gone out a
week previously at this precise
point. Tonight he did what he had
done on that other occasion; he
stopped, got out, and went around
to the front of the car to investi
gate. Gerald did not pretend to
have much knowledge of automo
biles, but this coincidence, it seem
ed to him, proved precisely what he
had told the dealer; to wit, there
was a loose electric connection
somewhere and a certain sort of jar
destroyed the contact, dislocated
something or other. The dealer
haj promised to have it fixed but
—well, this was a sample of his
work. Fine way to turn out a
brand-new car, even a cheap one!
Gerald shook the lamp gently,
but it appeared to be rigidly at
tached to its support and the bulb
did not relight. He was afraid to
shake it too hard, for fear of pull
ing it off—this was no rugged,
hand-made, foreign car. Then he
fingered aimlessly at the wire be
neath the lamp, but that, too, was
disappointingly secure. He reason
ed that the wire‘must run under
the hood of the machine and some
where attach itself to a battery or
a dynamo or a generator or some
thing, so he stepped back, lifted the
wniiCL, ana pccrcu iiimuc. a ic
could make out very little indeed,
even with the aid of a match, and
recognized nothing that could by
any possibility be considered a dy
namo or an electric lighting plant.
The vital organs of an automobile,
it seemed to him, were unnecessari
ly complicated; he would have con
sidered many of them utterly use
less except for the fact that here
and there "things” were revolving.
He quickly discovered several
wires, any one of which might be
the cause of his trouble, so, striking
a second, then a third match, he
gingerly tested them. He had not
gone far when he uttered a grunt
and jerked his hand away, incident
ally bumping his elbow against
something sharp and hard. Auto
mobiles are full of painful corners.
He dropped the match and swore,
whereupon he heard subdued laugh
ter and through the gloom discov
ered a couple of figures near by.
"Do you fellows know anything
about automobiles?” he inquired.
There came an answer in Italian,
so he confessed, ruefully: "^ell,
neither do I. I can drive ’em, but
i I can’t fix ’em.”
"He closed the bonnet, passed back
through the glare of his good head
light, and, stepping into the car,
drove on. It was a relief to note
that the car ran as well with one
light as with two. Some car! This
little buggy hight have her faults,
but he loved her, just the same. It
was the first automobile he had ever
possessed and his pride of owner
ship was inordinate, for it repre
sented a terrible egtravagance. It
was a lovely shade of blue, too, the
particular shade he adored, and he
i would have immensely enjoyed
showing it to his mother.That,
however, was impossible. He could
never make her understand. Invol-j
untarily, he fetched a deep sigh and!
shook his head.
Instead of proceeding on past the'
poultry farm and parking his ma-J
chine in the grove near the entrance!
to the Ethridge lane, as he had done
a week previously, he turned in!
through a break in the fence before j
reaching the farm, and killed his'
motor under a wide-spreading tree.!
It was barely possible that the po-|
lice might be watching the scene of
the tragedy, and in any event it was
not a nice place to be on a dark
night. Gerald hated dark colors,
dark nights, dark deeds, and the
thought of what had occurred a
week ago tonight in that lane, half
a mile ahead, gave him a sick feel
ing. He felt jumpy as he set out
across the open pasture land to
wards the lights of his mother’s
cottage, and more than once he cast
apprehensive glances back of hint
or stopped to listen.
Soon the lamiliar outlines or
chicken houses and runs appeared,
then a dog barked. It was Jack,
the old Airdale. The dog recog
nized Gerald’s voice and greeted
him with extravagant affection
when the young man dropped down
inside the fence. Mrs. Holmes had
heard the disturbance; she opened
the kitchen door and peered out,
inquiring guardedly:
"It that you, Jerry?”
"Hello, mother!” Gerald entered
and closed the door behind him,
then stooped to kiss the woman’s ,
upturned lips. When his face was
within a hand’s breadth of hers he
checked the movement and cried,
reproachfully. "Oh, mother?”
Mrs. Holmes answered petulant
ly: "Very well! Don’t kiss me if
you don’t want to. But for ,
Heaven’s sake don’t start in with a i
temperance lecture!” There was a ]
moment of silence, then: "You i
don’t understand what it is to live ■
all alone, in a place like this. You’re i
never lonesome. You have people i
ot talk to. You see things and hear
ture. But you know how I feel
ibout—drinking!” The young
man bent his head and pressed his
things—”
"All right, mother. I won’t lec
"Is that you, Jerry?” she asked.
lips to the woman’s cheek.
"When did you get back from
Chicago?”
"Today. This afternoon.”
"(Have a good trip?”
"Yes. They liked my drawings
and gave me some more work. I
got a new story to illustrate, too.
But—I was all broken up over the
murder, of course! I left here the
next morning, you remember? I
didn’t hear of it until that after
noon—then just the bare account.
Gee! It was a shock. I felt as if
I ought to get on the train and
come right back. I wanted to be
here for the funeral, too, but—I
couldn’t get my money in time and
I didn’t dare try to borrow from
that editor.”
Mrs. Holmes smiled faintly, al
most sneeringly. "The funeral
went off all right without you.”
"You don’t understand how I felt
towards Mr. Ethridge. You never
liked him, after what he did for me,
but I did, for he gave me my start;
made it possible for me to have a
career. Not many rich men would
interest themselves in a ragged, ob
scure young—”
"In the son of a 'goose woman!’ ”
Mrs. Holmes broke in. "Of course
you read the papers and saw what
they called me?”
Gerald flushed. "Yes. Yes, I
read—every tiling.”
ine rotters. wen, you re not
ragged now, are you?” Mrs. Holmes
stared at her son, and in her gaze,
oddly enough, there were both pride
and resentment. As an artist she
hated Gerald, as a man she—well,
he was her son, blood of her blood.
What she beheld was a handsome
youth—a boy of sufficient good
looks and charm of maner to warm
my mother’s heart. Gerald’s face
was frank and sunny; it was un
usually expressive, too, but cur
tained with that veil of conscious
repression common to supersensitive
people; it was the eager, dreamy
face of an artist, a writer, a musi
cian. The boy’s faults and his
weakness, Mary Holmes well knew,
were the faults and the weaknesses
of most dreamers.
She had never dared to analyze
very closely her feelings for this
child of hers—it is doubtful if she
would have succeeded very well had
she tried—for ever since she had
nursed him at her breast he had
roused within her emotions that vio
lently clased. There were times
when he fijjed her with a great
satisfaction, a sublime contentment,
then again times w'hen sTie hated
aim fiercely—yes, hated him. There
were occasions when she lavished
upon him a sort of savage affection
—these occasions were rare, by the
way—and again occasions when she
treated him with a cruelty that was
positively feline. -Nearly always,
lowever, her feelings were mixed
ind he excited that distressing War
Fare within her bosom. He was at
)nce her comfort and her torture,
aer blessing and her bane.
"Gee. It gave me a fright to
■ealize that I hadn’t been gone from
lere for half an hour—an hour at
nost—when it happened,” Gerald
went on. "Why I might have been
nvolved in it.”
i our Nonsense. wnoever
tilled Ethridge drove up in an auto
novile and left it standing in that
sine grove across from the lane. I
;aw the tracks the next morning.”
foung Holmes started: he eyed his
mother apprehensively. "By the
vay, you must have met Mr. Eth
'idge on your way back to town?”
"N-no.”
"You must have met him. You
:ouldn’t have had time to walk to
he end of the street-car-line before
le came along. It didn’t seem to
ne you’d been gone ten minutes
vhen I heard his car pass and then
lie shots. Of course, it was longer
han that—”
"Have you talked to the police?”
"Certainly. They questioned me
the morning of the murder and
they’ve been here a couple of times
since.”
"Did you—tell them about those
—those automobile tracks? I sup
pose of course they noticed them?”
Mrs. Holmes nodded. "Sure!
You couldn’t miss them—they
were as plain as the nose on your
face.”
"Have they formed any suspic
ions?”
(CONTINUED NEXT ISSUE)
Employment Gain
Loosening Purse
Strings of Public
New York—The spending pub
lic’s confidence has been substanti
ally repaired and its purse strings
loosened by rising employment and
pay rolls in the last three years,
says the Standard Statistics Com
pany in a survey of current changes
in spending habits.
A sharp contraction in personal
expenditures was noted during the
depression; even those factory,
store and office workers who were
still employed, farmers who were
making money, and individuals
whose incomes had not ceased were
apprehensive to the future, and
inclined to hold on to what they
had, the analysis reveals. With the
trend of income now reversed, and
rising pay rolls, farm revenues and
security prices, and a munificent
government, providing additional
cash income, greater confidence has
inspired more liberal spending poli
cies.
Most conspicious has been the
reversal of the trend away from
high-priced cars and toward those
in the lowest price grouping. In
1934, about 65 per cent of all auto
mobiles sold carried a wholesale
price of $500 or less—correspond
ing to a retail price of about $700.
In 193 5, the proportion in the
lowest price class was reduced to
about 58 per cent, and a further
moderate extension of the trend has
beei^ noted so far this year.
Sales of such products as vacuum
cleaners, ironing machines, washing
machines, radios, electric refrigera
tors, furniture and rugs and car
| pets have been showing steady
I gains since 1932. Sales of vacuum
cleaners for 193 5, for instance, were
more than double the 1932 figure.
Since these are semi-luxury items,
rather than necessities, there is a
definite tendency to delay purchase
when curtailment of income is
feared.
Motion picture theater attend
ance is running some 15 per cent
above last year. European travel
increased 8 per cent last year, and
reservations to date indicate an in
crease of perhaps 20 per cent more
this year.
Airplane passenger miles rose 66
per cent in 193 5, as compared with,
£—---—-—
: *
1934. ihe rise in automobile
travel is indicated by the American
Petroleum Institute estimate of a
9 per cent increase in gasoline con
sumption for the first quarter of
1936.
Wilson Man Gets
Picking Record
Wilson—Charlie Gill, of Wilson,
has been picking winners in athletic
and political contests for 20 years,
and feels he is entitled to claim some
kind of a record.
Here is what he claims to have
accomplished in his predictions:
He has successfully predicted the
election of every president since
1916.
He has named before election
day every North Carolina Gover
nor since 1916.
He has picked seven out of eight
Check
WASHINGTON ... A eheck for
$274,000, signed by Guy F. Allen
(above), of the Treasury Depart
ment, is the first social security pay
ment under the new Federal law. It
went to Pennsylvania for soeia'
security payments throughout tin
state.
V ■ --- = =
world s senes winners in baseball
and 16 of the last 20.
IHe has picked winners in every
heavyweight boxing champion
match since 1916 except two_
"Dempsey let me down,” he says.
He has chosen 14 out of the last
eighteen American and National
League pennant winners correctly.
Said Charlie: "There’s one thing
I’m not going to venture a guess
on—the 1936 presidential race.”
IN AN IRISH SCHOOL
Teacher: ."Now children, who
can tell me what a lake is?”
Jimmie McFadden: "Plaze, Miss,
it do be a howl in the bottom of a
tay-kittle.”
| N W]
PERMANENT WAVES $1.00
TO $8.00
EUGENE WAVES CROQUI
GNOLE $2.50 SPIRAL
$3.50
CAROLINA BEAUTY
SHOPPE
Chestnut Hill
Phone 9120
WORK GUARANTEED
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CARTER & TROTTER, Inc.
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many a rnend Recommends
BLACK-DRAUGHT
People who have taken
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Mrs. Joe G. Roberts, of Portersville,
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me. Black-Draught is good for
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CONSTIPATION, BILIOUSNESS
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Come and See our Easter Flowers,
both cut and potted. They will be
worth seeing, whether you buy or
not.
Corsages any variety you want.
And my Spring Plants—Flower and Vege
tables are coming on fine, both annual and
Perrenial.
The last thing you need or want—Floral
Designs in any Style and any Seasonable
Flowers.
MRS. ED. H. MARSH, Florist
Phone 1029 1707 N. Main St.
■S' ■ ■ '■ . ■■ -y
Say I Saw It In The Watchman—Thank You
Mr. Merchant:
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WHEN you present your merchandise to the trade j
’’ through the medium of good newspaper ads you have |
tireless salesmen working for you 24 hours a day. They I
reach prospective buyers in the most remote spots. . .and
they expose your merchandise to sales ... .A famous mer- j
chant prince once stated, “expose your merchandise to
enough customers and you’re bound to make a sale.’’.
The CAROLINA WATCHMAN’S advertising columns, !
consistently used, are bound to help business. We are !
equipped to give first-class service in modern displays, j
with type faces, illustrations, copy suggestions and lay- f
out. Let us demonstrate that newspaper advertising is the
most direct route to buyers . . and the most inexpeneive.
11 Phone 133'~We Will Call
THE CAROLINA WATCHMAN
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