PAGE TWO A CASE Fflfeo?nntCTiyES I r LED BRUCE (@) V COPYRIGHT B> IEO PRCCE, RELEASED BY CENTRAL PRESS ASSOCIATION “You, all of you, know these literary murders.” CHAPTER 1 I CANNOT pretend that there was anything sinister in the at mosphere that evening. Nothing of the sort that is supposed to pre cede a crime. Nobody walked about looking furtive, no whis pered quarrels were interrupted, no mysterious strangers lurked near the house. Although after wards, as you may imagine, I went over the events of the day again and again in my mind, I could re member nothing which might have served as a warning, nothing at all extraordinary in anyone’s be havior. That is why the thing came as such an abominable shock to me. I remember, of course—l have good cause to remember —that we discussed crime over our cocktails. But we discussed it in general terms, and how could one have guessed that there was any rele vance in the discussion? And I could not say for certain who had brought up the subject. Perhaps if I could have done so, if anyone could have done so, it would have helped us later to understand. For that discussion was relevant, ap pallingly relevant, in a very spe cial sense. As you shall see. But at the time —well, at the Thurstons’ week-end parties, crime might be discussed* or religion, politics, the cinema, or ghosts. Any topic of general interest which arose was sure to be pretty well threshed out. That was the kind of party which the Thurstons gave, a party at which everyone talked a great deal, shouting opinions which he would afterward have denied, and trying to shout them as cleverly as possible. I do not mean that it was all rather self conscious and arty, like those aw ful parties in London at which women with unpleasant breath ad vocate free love and nudism. But at the Thurstons’ conversation was enjoyed, and not treated as a tire some stop-gap between dinner and bridge. Dr. Thurston himself was no conversationalist, though he en joyed listening, and could put in an incentive phrase now and again. He was a big,« bespectacled man, rather Teutonic in appearance, and in manner, too, for he showed a jolly German simplicity and senti mentality to everyone. He liked pressing his guests to food and drink and cigars, with booming emphasis. He had been the local doctor in that Sussex village, till Dominican Choice KffrajMßflk- • ••;•. .<••••*.. s ’..•••.* Jacinto B. Peynaldo, brother of the late Francisco Peynaldo, one-time Dominican Minister to the United States, is pictured above. He has been nominated by President Rafael Trujillo as successor when Trujillo retires from presidency in August. (Central Press) SAVE AT BILLETS CLEARANCE SALE he married, and although he no longer practiced he had kept on the house, because he liked it, and allowed the new practitioner to build afresh. It was understood that Mrs. Thurston had money, at all events they had been very well off since their marriage, and en tertained a great deal. She, too, was amiable, most amiable, but not very intelligent. Although I stayed with the Thur stons many times, and must have spent hours in the same room with Mary Thurston, I cannot recall a single sentence that she uttered. She was stout, and spent a great deal of money on her clothes, a big, blonde, rather painted woman, easy-going and quite unpreten tious. I can see her clearly enough, even if I cannot remember words of hers, beaming round on us all, filling quite a wide arm chair, giggling like a girl at flat tery, obviously overflowing with kindness. “The Goddess of Plenty” someone once called her, aptly enough, for as a hostess, from the practical point of view, she was supreme. The food was really ex quisite, the house beautifully kept, and Mrs. Thurston had that im portant gift—a memory for drinks. She was a good woman. Whoever may have started dis cussing crime, it was Alec Norris who did most of the talking, though he pretended to be con temptuous of the topic. “Crime?” he said. "Can’t we talk about anything else? Don’t we get enough of it in books and films? I’m sic!: to death of this crime, crime, crime, wherever you turn.” Dr. Thurston chuckled. He knew Norris, and knew why he spoke so bitterly. Norris was an unsuccess ful writer of novels very different from murder mysteries—rather in tense psychological books, with a good deal of sex in them. Dr. Thurston saw his chance of mak ing Norris excited. “But is it crime in those books?” he asked. “Crime as it really hap pens?” Norris might have been a diver on a springboard. He hesitated for one moment, blinking at Thur ston, then he plunged. “No. I’m damned if it is," he said. “Liter ary crime is all baffling mystery and startling clues. Whereas in real life, murder, for instance, nearly always turns out to be some sordid business of a strangled servant girl. There are only two kinds of murder which could ha file Motto WuMSKUU. ■Jfi'j ■UN PAW-^^OpET DEAR. NOAH=“ jS IT TRUE. < THAT HUSBANDS OF NAGGING WIVES RANK HIGH IN ENDURANCE TESTS “? MRS. HAL.. /VMLX.E.R. CBT.SBARD, SPAK. 1 "™"*—' ■ DEAR. NOAH* IS A HOUSE IN A RUN-DOWN CONDITION BECAUSE ITS WINDOWS HAVE A PANE NOW AND THEN 7 LOUISE. E.. WE.BE.fE ' Ttauaipo, QHiq , come, on folks ! MAIL. TOUR. IDEAS OiRL*T TON IT K. -T° NOAH CARE OF THIS fARCM. Wife Preservers To prevent accident In the home use a sturdy stool of ap g™* type whenever you must climb to a high place. Be sure hIS are flecurel y locked ut plaoe Kl yOU , mOUnt [t ’ * ft y* Good Housekeeping Institute. the police for one second. One it that committed by a man with a victim who cannot be missed —like the recent Brighton murder. The other is the act of a madman, who murders for the sake of murder, without another motive. No pre meditated murder could puzzle the police for very long. Where there’s a motive and the victim is identi fied, there’s an arrest.” He paused to swallow the rest of his cocktail. I was watching him, thinking what an odd-looking fellow Alec Norris was—narrow in head and body, with a bony face in which jaw and teeth, cheek bones and forehead protruded, while the flesh seemed to have shrunk till it barely covered the skull. Another guest spoke then. Yound David Strickland, I think it was. “But an arrest doesn’t al ways mean a verdict of guilty,” he said. “There have been mur derers so desperate that though they knew beforehand they would be suspected and probably charged, they took the chance. They were clever enough not to provide enough evidence.” I did not look with much interest towards Strickland, for I knew him quite well. He was younger than any of us, a thick-set fellow, fond of. sport, particularly of racing. He was apt to try to borrow a fiver from you, but bore no malice if it was refused. He was some sort of protege of the Thurstons, and Dr. Thurston sometimes spoke to his wife of him good-humoredly as "your lover, my dear.” There was nothing in that, however, though I could imagine Mary Thurston helping him out of diffi culties. Nothing of the gigolo about young Strickland, a hard drinking, gambling type, fond of smutty stories. Alec Norris brushed aside his interruption. “The police will find the evidence, when they know their man,” he said, and returned to his condemnation of detective fiction. “It’s all so artificial.” he said. “So unrelated to life.« You, all of you, know these literary murders. Suddenly, in the middle of a party—like this one, perhaps —someone is found dead in the ad joining room. By the trickery of the novelist all the guests and half the staff are suspec£. Then in comes the wonderful detective, who neatly proves that it was in fact the only person you never sus pected at all. Curtain.” (To Be Continued) New Red Chief • ■ • • m i Andrey A. Andreev, veteran Com munist official, pictured above, was selected as the first president of the first Parliament of the Soviet Union. Only 43, ho was formerly commisaar of transportation. fCentral Press) Wife Preservers For a change serve whole kernel corn, with dioed, cooked, buttered celery, or add a can of corn to buttered onions. HENDERSON, (N. C.) DAILY DISPATCH FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1938 Urges More Relief mbh ■ 1 tTfWMWmV — * M 'jL'hJjppK ... 'W-'- 'jj**'*'*’ Secretary of Agriculture Wallace is shown as he testified before the spe cial Senate committee investigating farm unemployment. He declared that demands for rural relief were steadily increasing, and that neither local nor Federal agencies have the means to cope with the situation. (Central Press) College Head Quits A Dr. Edmund D. Soper . . . retires as college prexy Resignation of Dr. “’Edmund D. Soper, president of Ohio Wesleyan university at Delaware, 0., since 1928, has been announced. Friends of the 61-year-old president said Dr. Soper planned to retire be cause of illness. In campus circles, however, it had been reported that there had been dissatisfaction among certain alumni over some of Dr. Soper’s appointments and administrative steps. Pin in Lung 9 Years Mrs. Catherine George .. . had pin in lung nine years Nine years ago Catherine George, 21, of Chicago, swallowed an open safety pin. She forgot about it until she developed symptoms of bronchitis a few days ago. Sur geons now have removed the pin, found near her left lung. — Centra l Press Mustek’s Wife 1 '• Above is a recent picture of MrsJ Edwin C. Musick, wife of the skip per of the Samoan Clipper giant Pan-American airlines, wreckage of which was found in the South At lantic by searchers. . (Control First to Get Unemployment Compensation Check J. D. Shelton receives check from B. W. Cason, left, of Louisiana labor department An unemployed painter of Baton Rouge, La., J. D. Shelton, 37, receives the first check paid in the United States under the unemployment compensa tion program established by the federal social se Removing Victim of a Freak Accident —mmmmmmmmmmam v ,^y s ... .. . Dr. Louis Mackler and his wife, of Atlantic City, N. J., were driving near Bradshaw, Pa., when their car skidded off the road and landed in a five-foot stream. Rescuers who rushed to the scene saw the couple, uninjured, trying to escape. By the time they were able to pry off the jammed door the couple were drowned by the rising waters. State troopers and rescue worker are shown removing Mrs. Mackler s body (Central P>t’°s ‘ Newshawks Journey on Their Last Assignment V >■ * $f 9 PP : M S yj|P • <:. ~ -^BwL*' : : V: : d«BlPr V ; |P jjg WmL ' v -" iBl« : 1 f §WI Colby Chester, Ernest Weir, Lewis Brown, Alfred Sloan and M. H. Clement Five of the leading industrialists in the United States are pictured after conferring with President Roosevelt are, left to right, Colby Chester, presi f-tof General Foods corporation and chairman of the National Manufacturers association; Ernest T. vvej-, president of the National Steel corporation; i-evvis Brown, president of Johns-Manville corpora curity act. B. W. Cason, left, commissioner of the Louisiana department of labor, is personally pre senting the check for $14.20 to Mr. Shelton, whose family stands at his side. tion; Alfred P. Sloan, chairman of General Motor* coloration; M. H. Clement, president of the Penn sylvania railroad. The five reported “a better un derstanding” between government and business and predicted “closer co-operation” in attempts to check the recession. Sloan said business was showing signs of improvement.