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&By FREDERIC F. VAN DE WATE.R ® Uif M
CHAPTER XlX—Continued.
—2l—
Hoyt looked at me with a
smirk of terror. Intent on the up
roar in the foyer, shocked by the
disembodied voice we both had
heard, he had let the elevator down,
without checking it, on the cross
beams that guarded the shaft pit.
"What was it?” he babbled. ‘‘Ja*
hear that?”
Then I saw that the car rested un
evenly on the beams as though
something were pinned beneath one
side and I knew what that last,
abruptly stilled outcry had meant.
• * •
‘‘He had done trapeze work,” I
told Miss Agatha. ‘‘When the ele
vator was at the floor above him, it
was easy for him to open the shaft
door below it and leap to the travel
ing cables. They’re the power ca
bles that are attached to the bottom
of the car.”
The old lady sat in her living
room, cigarette in hand, highball
beside her. She was personification
of the quiet that spread after tem
pest. The useless ambulance that
had tarried before the Morello had
gone away. Shannon had left, with
Cochrane. Allegra had vanished. I
hoped that I, too, might depart be
fore her return. Meanwhile, I gulped
my drink and supplied, at Miss Aga
tha’s insistence, those fragments of
the tragedy that were not already
hers.
‘‘Apparently, then, with a thrust of
his foot he shut the open door and
went down unseen to the basement
beneath the car, dropping into the
elevator pit when the elevator halt
ed at the foyer. Tonight, you see,
it didn’t stop. He jumped too late,
or else he lost count of the floors
and was pinned between the pit
crossbeams and the car floor.”
I drained my glass.
Miss Agatha said;
‘‘So that is why his hands were
grimed the night after the murder
and why he wore no overcoat?”
“Right,” I answered. “The ca
bles are greased, and dirty. Per
haps he threw his overcoat into the
furnace. At any rate he wiped off
the knife and hid it in the base
ment, for tear someone would stop
him when he went out into the
street.”
“Pride killed him,” the old lady
told me. “Let that be a warning
to you, Dtvid. He had killed in
self-defense. A lawyer no better
than Tertius Groesbeck could have
saved him. Lyon Ferriter had too
much sensu of drama,”
“He’d been on the stage,” I point
ed out. “That’s why he spoke so
well, until he got excited, and then
lapsed into his native tongue. It
was just a veneer he had acquired.”
“Odd, isn’t it,” Miss Agatha
asked, “what you find when you pry
off veneer—odd and terrible, David?
I’ll do no more prying. The Paget
book will never be written. People
that throw stones should live in in
tact glass houses.”
She peered at me and my face
seemed to disappoint her.
“Usually,” she prompted, “you
grin at my epigrams. That’s been
cne of several reasons I’ve endured
you.”
“Sorry," I said. “I was thinking
of lone. I.er father’s gone. They
must have loved each other. It’s
going to be brutal for her.”
“I sent Allegra to see her," Miss
Agatha said briefly.
“That was generous.”
She shook her head.
“It’s easy to be generous when
you’ve won. Presumably she’ll be
fin ancially secure, for she’ll inherit
Lyon’s—l mean Horstman’s—prop
erty. She'll never have Grove now.
Grove will tnnw how nearly he was
'foulh Without ‘Feeling’ Baffles Physicians
The case of Charles Leonard, In
dianapolis newsboy who is not sen
sitive to heat or cold, does not feel
pain and can not identify objects
through the sense of touch, is a
baffling one for physicians.
The 18-year-old carrier, who has
been examined at intervals the last
two years by medical authorities,
apparently has a rare ailment be
lieved to have been caused by elec
tric shock. Although his condition
causes more or less discomfort, it
is not regarded dangerous.
On the other hand, physicians
seem unable to discover an effective
treatment.
In a series of tests given him, it
was determined that the youth can
not distinguish between hot and cold
articles and he apparently feels no
pain from pinching, pin pricks or
even a solid blow. Physicians hand
ed him two test tubes, one extreme
ly hot and the other cold and Leon
ard could not decide which was the
heated one. He says he is aware of
a slap on the back but can not de
termine the force of the blow.
Likewise, a cut or scratch causes
no discomfort other than bleeding.
Leonard exhibited a deep scratch
on his left forearm, caused when
he fell against a wire fence and
declared he experienced no pain
and noticed the injury only when
the blood started.
At the newsstand where he is em
ployed, Leonard said he was scuf
fling recently with another carrier
and jokingly told the youth to “hit
me hard.’’
“The boy hit me on the chin hard
(trapped and how little she really
cared. And I can’t see him marry
ing a widow who had been a dance
hall hostess and was accessory to
her husband’s death. There’s that
I thing I call noblesse oblige. You
, probably call it snobbery.”
I grinned and rose, explaining that
I was to meet Cochrane at the Press
’ office at seven. I fumbled badly
over my farewell, for I owed much
■ to the woman who listened to my
i flounderings and offered me no aid.
! “And tell,” I stumbled, “your
niece good-by for me, too."
Her sharp gray eyes dug into me.
“I wonder,” asked Miss Agatha,
“if you think I’m the utter fool that
I know you are, David Mallory. You
talk as if we never were to meet
, again.”
“That,” I answered, “is exactly
what I do mean.” I had faced it
for the last half-hour. Quarrels and
rasped feelings seemed in the after
math of tragedy trivial things, but
my purpose ran deeper than that.
By every measurement one might
employ, Allegra was out of my reach
and the best tribute I could pay her
was to leave her so.
The old lady had leaned forward
in her effort to beat down my eyes.
“David,” she said, “life doesn’t
begin at fourteen and stay there.
What happened to the last person
who went in pride out of this apart
ment should make you think a lit
tle. I’m fond of you, which is more
than I admit to most people. Don’t
be a posturing idiot.”
"Miss Agatha,” I said and it was
hard to speak clearly, after the odd
tenderness I had heard in her voice,
"I love your niece. That sounds old
fashioned.”
“All the important things in the
world are old-fashioned,” she told
me. “And that’s why you want to
make things as distressing as possi
ble for everyone concerned? Be
cause you love Allegra?”
What I knew was truth seemed
trite when spoken under her steady
regard. I went on;
“I’ve got a job. At about fifty a
week. I can’t offer that to a girl
who has everything.”
"My dear boy,” said Miss Aga
tha and jerked her head, “match
making isn’t among my sins. And
besides I’ve never fixed Allegra’s
worth in dollars. Have you?”
“That’s why,” I went on fast be
cause my throat was tightening,
“I’m saying good-by. Probably this
also sounds idiotic to you, but I
love her too dearly to ask her to
marry me.”
“Rhetoric, rhetoric,” said Miss
Agatha and laid her hands on her
chair’s wheels. “I hope newspaper
work sweats some of it out of you,
David. Will you wait a minute?”
She propelled herself through that
door which opened into her bedroom.
I picked up my hat and coat and
turned toward the hall, half minded
to go.
Allegra stood there. I thought that,
tiJ now, I had not known how fair
she was. She was a cool wind blow
ing through my mind, routing the
rubbish of old wretchedness.
“Going?” she asked.
Her eyes smiled.
“I am,” I said. “Or—l mean, I
was just saying to your aunt—”
Part of my mind screamed “Idi
ot!” at me. None of it did any
thing else to help me. She came
nearer.
“I heard you,” she told me. “I’ve
been standing here for five minutes.
Let’s not review that again; let’s
go on from there. Have you no bet
ter reason for not marrying me, Da
vid?”
Miss Agatha did not come back
for a long while.
ITHE END]
enough to jar my head back,’’ Leon
ard said, “but it didn’t hurt a bit.
I knew I had been hit, of course,
but I couldn’t tell how hard.”
Winter and summer are all alike
to Leonard, with the exception that
in hot weather he occasionally suf
fers from nose bleed.
“I never feel cold in winter, even
though I run around most of the
time without an overcoat,” he said.
"Several times last winter I was
out for long periods with no coat
and my sleeves railed up. I didn’t
get cold, either."
Leonard experienced the electric
shock, which is believed to be the
cause of his ailment, about two
years ago. He said that while he
and a companion were in a factory
building that had been damaged by
fire he touched some wires that had
been exposed when a piece of ma
chinery was moved from the burn
ing building.
“The wires carried 220 volts,”
Leonard said.
“Soon after the shock, I discov
ered I had little or no sense of feel
ing when my school teacher pinched
me one day. After he had pinched
me two or three times, the teacher
asked me if I were ‘walking around
dead.’ I told him I was not aware
that he had pinched me.”
Leonard said he had been making
regular trips to the hospital several
years for a checkup on a heart ail
ment he has had since childhood.
He said physicians have told him
his heart condition is not serious
and that it probably will disappear
after a few years.
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL. PERRY, GEORGIA
IT TAKES no subtle expert to un
*■ derstand that in the majority of
cases that condition is one of the es
sential requirements in the making
of a champion. But there are many
arguments as to* how one reaches
condition along the surest road.
“No, I haven’t any very revolu
tionary ideas about the training of
S young athletes. I
ask them to be sen
sible and temperate
in their eating and
adopt regular hab
its for sleep and ex
ercise. If the aver
age youngster will
live a normal life,
eat wholesome foods
and be regular in
his every day hab
its there isn’t going
Grantland Rice t° ver y much
wrong with him.”
The speaker was Dean B. Crom
well, famous track and field coach
at the University of Southern Cali
fornia. Cromwell’s teams have won
so many track championships that
the experts have almost quit trying
to keep track of them.
I found Dean Cromwell at historic
Bovard field on the Trojan campus,
the field which has sent six foot
ball teams to the Rose Bowl without
deteat, the field which has been the
proving ground for countless nation
al and Olympic champions of the
cinderpath, the field which has
turned out several prominent base
ballers now performing in the ma
jor and minor leagues. Mr. Crom
well is always there, no matter what
the season. Of course, Howard Jones
attends to the football and Sam Bar
ry bosses the baseballers but the
venerable Dean, now in his thirty
second year at Troy, keeps a weath
er eye on all the athletes.
A Few Angles
“We’re very fortunate here in
Southern California,” continued
Coach Cromwell, “in that the foods
grown so close at hand, plus the
fine sunshine, provide most of the
vitamins so necessary to good health
for growing youngsters. The boys
come from average homes where
for years they have been eating the
right kind of food.
“If a boy has been drinking tea or
coffee and be comes to me a healthy
youngster I’m not going to tell him
to quit. If a boy has been a big
milk drinker and he’s sound physi
cally I don’t change his diet even if
some coaches do claim that drink
ing milk is bad for the wind.”
Coach Cromwell’s training orders
sound simple, but there happens to
be more than he reveals. He sets his
foot down hard on overwork, particu
larly in early season.
“Many years ago we had our in
ter-fraternity meets early each sea
son,” said the Dean. “I found that
the athletes who did exceptionally
well in these December meets gen
erally were beaten later in the year
by those who had been taking it
easy at the start. Right then I
barred my best athletes from these
inter-fraternity meets. And I’ve
been doing it ever since. We just
coast along for six or eight weeks,
building up stamina and leading a
normal life. When the big tests
come in late spring and midsummer
I generally find my boys in pretty
good shape.”
Cromwell’s rivals in the coaching
business will add a fervent “Amen”
to this statement. His Trojans have
won 9 of the 13 N. C. A. A. meets
in which they have competed, in
cluding the last 6 straight; taken
top honors in the I. C. 4-A. the last
7 times they entered; and whipped
Stanford in 11 out of the last 12 dual
meets, to say nothing of bagging
several Pacific Coast conference
crowns.
Not for the Boys
Cromwell believes the recent em
phasis on eastern indoor meets is
bad on the college runners. Says
it is all right for the A. A. U. and
the promoters who cut up the mount
ing gate receipts, but states that the
boys who are bearing down in Janu
ary and February on the boards are
put to too great a strain by having
to be in shape clear through the
summer for outdoor competition.
“You can bring your athletes to
a peak only two or three times dur
ing a season,” continued the Dean,
“and these occasions must not be
100 far apart.”
I asked Coach Cromwell what
world record he thought would be
broken next.
“The high jump,” he returned.
“And we may have just the boy to
turn the trick. The record is now
6 feet 9% inches. Johnny Wilson, a
senior here at Southern California,
has done 6 feet 9% inches, and I
firmly believe he will hit 6-10 be
fore the 1941 season closes.”
• • •
His Greatest Athletes
The 60-year-old Trojan mentor,
who looks and acts 20 years young
er, has turned out a long string of
champions, among them Charley
Paddock, Morton Kaer, Bud Houser,
Charley Borah, Lee Barnes, Earle
Meadows and many more.
He says Bud Houser, former
world’s record holder in the discus
and Olympic champion in both this
event and the shot put, was the
greatest competitor he ever
coached.
I IDEAS Kv
By Ruth Wyeth Spears \
I 26" HIGH 1
BETWEEN^^
;*‘TAEAR MRS. SPEARS: I have
A-' made a pair of spool shelves
like those you give directions for
in your Sewing Book No. 3. They
are painted watermelon pink to
match the flowers in my bedroom
curtains, and they are very pretty
hung at each side of the windows.
I would like to make some end
tables of spools for the living
room, but I can’t think of away to
make them rigid. Have you any
Leather From the Sea
Today there is a source of leath
er supply formerly unknown. It
is the sea. The casing or lining
of a whale’s stomach provides a
thousand square feet or more of
strong leather which tans well.
The skins of young sharks make
a leather excellent for women’s
shoes because it takes dye perfect
ly. The hide of the manatee, or
sea cow, is another source of
leather suitable for footwear,
while porpoise hide (which is ac
tually the skin of the beluga or
white whale) is naturally water
proof.
Kays of different kinds, very
common in tropical seas, provide
a fine and flexible leather and
many other fish are being experi
mented upon. The difficulty is that
in the case of most fish the skin is
very thin and hard to remove
v/ithout damage, while the tanning
is also a matter requiring much
care.
CONSTIPATION
and acid indigestion, headaches, belching,
bloating, dizzy spells, sour stomach, bad breath,
■when due to constipation, should be corrected
immediately with B-LAX. These conditions
often cause lack of appetite, energy and pep.
If you don’t feel relieved after the first dose of
B-LAX— your druggist will refund your money.
Few Accomplishments
He that leaveth nothing to
chance will do few things ill, but
he will do very few things.—Hali
fax.
SKINNY GIRLS
LOOK UNHEALTHY
Boy friends don’t like that “unpeppy”
look. So, if you need the Vitamin B
Complex and Iron of Vinol in your
diet to improve appetite, to fill out those
hollows and add lovely curves, get
Viaol
AT YOUR DRUG STORE
Angry Thought
He who quells an angry thought
is greater than a king.—Cook. 1
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Our methods give you every practical training you require. Our CON
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THAT CAN MAKE YOU A SUCCESSFUL BEAUTICIAN.
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SV2 Auburn Avenue Atlanta, Ga.
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Please send mo without obligation your complete beauty school information.
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■—j——| M »■IIIIIII Bin if—l lIIIIIIIIHMMII ■ ll ■Hi 1 11 111iinf"i----
suggestions as to how this may be
done? B. P.”
Curtain rods are used through
the spools to make the legs. Bet
ter take along a spool to try when
you shop for the rods; and get
the type that has one piece fitting
inside the other. If the spools are
a little loose on the rod, it won’t
make any difference for they must
be glued between each spool, and
also between the spools and the
table shelves.
* • ♦
NOTE: If you have an Iron bed or a
rocking chair you would like to modernize,
be sure to send for my Book No. 3. It
contains 32 fascinating ideas of things to
make for your home. Send your order to:
MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEARS
Drawer IQ
Bedford Hills New York
Enclose 10 cents for Book No. 3.
Name
Address
rfips ,o
ijardeners
QUICK FLOWER GARDENS
IV/TANY people want quick re
■ suits in the flower garden,
and for them the lists of annual
flowers offer effective aid.
A highly satisfactory, and eco
nomical hedge, for instance, can
be grown in six or eight weeks
from seed. Kochia is the plant.
A single packet of Kochia seed
will provide a full, bushy hedge
along the front or side of the yard.
For a flowering hedge, Four
o’clock will produce attractively
within two months after seed is
planted.
Glowing borders of flowers that
beautify the yard, and at the same
time provide ample cut flowers
for the housewife, may be enjoyed
the first summer. The fastest
growing and most dependable an
nuals for cutting include the Zin
nias, Marigolds, Bachelor Buttons
and Petunias. There are tall, me
dium, and dwarf varieties of each.
Most widely used of fast-grow
ing annual vines is Heavenly Blue
Morning Glory, whose giant, soft
blue flowers are in a class by
themselves. It is well to scratch
the coat of Heavenly Blue seeds
before planting them to speed
their otherwise slow germination.
A Bit Mixed
Cross marriages between two
families produce some queer mix
ups, but the situation created by
an American takes some beating.
He married the daughter of his
own daughter’s husband by an
other wife, thus making him the
son-in-law of his son-in-law.
His daughter, therefore, became
his stepmother-in-law and his
bride her own stepmother.
His wife has just given birth to
a daughter. She is her step-grand
mother’s sister, her own mother’s
step-aunt, and her father’s step
sister-in-law. Phew!
GIVE YOUR
COLD THE AIR
When cold clogs your nose with breath
taking misery, use Penetro Nose Drons.
Often colds may actually be prevented from
developing by early use of this famous
Penetro Nose Drops 2-drop method
PENETRO K&
Late to Understand
We never know the true value
of friends. While they live, we
are too sensitive of their faults
when we have lost them, we only
see their virtues.—J, C. Hare.
How It Started
Hotel Clerk—Pardon me, Mis
ter, but how did you happen to be
named J. John B. B. B. Bronson?
Patron—l was christened by a
minister who stuttered.
DON’T BE BOSSED
BY YOUR LAXATIVE— RELIEVE
CONSTIPATION THIS MODERN WAY
• When you feel gassy, headachy, logy
due to clogged-up bowels, do as millions
do —take Feen-A-Mint at bedtime. Next
morning thorough, comfortable relief,
helping you start the day full of your
normal energy and pep, feeling like a
million! Feen-A-Mint doesn’t disturb
your night’s rest or interfere with work the
next day. Try Feen-A-Mint, the chewing
gum laxative, yourself. It tastes good, it’s
handy and economical... a family supply
FEEN-A-MINT Toil
Evil Influence
There is no worse robber than a
bad book.
, FARTHER 4 M
DASH IN FEATHERS .Ay
Short-Lived Joy
, The joy that isn’t shared with
. another dies young.
Blackman’s Llck-A-Brllc
Blackman’s Hog Powder
Blackman’s Stock Powder
Blackman’s Poultry Powder
Blackman’s Poultry Tablets
Blackman’s Lice Powder
Blackman’s Dip & Disinfectant
NONE FINER—LOWER COST
GET RESULTS OR
YOUR MONEY BACK
BUY FROM YOUR DEALER
STOCK MEDICINE CO.
CHATTANOOGA. TENN.