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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1937)
PAGE SIX tfEDFOTtD WATL TRIBUNE, rEDFOHD. QKECiOy, MONDAY. SEPTEJkfBER 13, 1937. - SUBURBAN HEIGHTS By GLUYAS WILLIAMS' STRANGE AS IT SEEMS By JOHN HIX Tor further proof addreu the author, meloemg stamped ear elope for reply. Reg. XT. 8. Pat OS. the darl; ships I SYNOPSIS: JVettl, a young led eral isent, comn to Baltimore to spend a week ui lh Janet. She won't break a dinner date tuff Preicott Fanning. So thev quarrel and part. Weill, dUtruetfnff fan ning, decide! to check on him. He oete acquainted with him at the hotel bar. Fanning gives him knock-out drope, searches hie pa- - pers and keeps a enapthot ot Janet. Next day Neil! awakens to find Janet, Fanning and Tanning's yacht gone. A mutterioue phone call tells him Janet is aboard the yacht In Absalom's Harbor and in trouble. Weill hurriee to Ab salom's by bus. Chapter Eight . Murder On The Nadjl RETURNING to the porch of the sprawling store, Neill sat down at the end of the line of men taking their ease and enjoying tneir aner-supper pipes. dun burned fishermen mostly, in gum boots and faded drill shirts. Neill learned that fishing was good and that pound nets were being set out In the bay. The trout had come earner than was customary. None of this was to his purpose, ana ne studied tne yacnt. very smart and modern with her high sides and stubby funnel. Some thing under a hundred feet over all. She carried two boats on davits amidships, and he noted . that one of them was gone. As darkness gathered it seemed odd to him that no lights showed in the cabins. I he riding lights were up. The man next to Neill was a tall fisherman with white hair and a complexion the color of beet juice. "That's a tidy little yacht yonaer, nom remarked to him. "So you might say. She's the lat est caper all right. But ugly as hell. 11 you re asxing me. - "Is she owned hereabouts?" "Nahl We got no toys like that down here. We're working people. New York man." He told Neill of the accident to the yacht's engine. "Is the owner aboard?" "Sure, he's aboard." "I see their dinahy is ashore." "The crew just come in to go to tne movies. Neill grinned In hard satisfac tion. Owner aboard: crew ashore. The situation was working out to nis advantage. Another man hearing them talk ing about the yacht, took up the tale. 'The owner was in the store telephoning awhile ago. Fine looking, big slicker; fresh-complected. But surly. Didn't have a word to throw to a dog." Neill took heart from this. If things were going badly with Fan ning, so much the better. "You're right he's a surly brute," said another. This was a lanky fel low with an innocent blue eye. Neill noticed that the others were inclined to make a butt of him. "I rowed out there with a mess of trout, thinking they'd be glad to buy some fresh fish," he said. "But when I come alongside the owner, he ordered me off. 'Get the hell away from here,' he says. 'I don't want any damned fish!'" 'That was manners," said an other. "What did you say, Jake?" "I says, 'Go to hell yourself you long-legged so-and-sol I'm as good a man as you, if you do own a racht And if you'll come ashore, 11 prove itl' ' There was a general laugh. "All right," the speaker went on. "I told you before and I tell you again there is some funny business aboard that yacht, and we ought to investigate itl" More laughter. 'As If She Wanted Help' "VUHAT do you mean, funny ' ' business?" asked Neill. "I'll tell you, stranger. When I come alongside .the yacht I was standing up in my skill and I could look right into one of the port holes. All closed they was, warm as it is. And on the other side of the glass I seen a beautiful young girl with bare arms and neck. Only seen her a second, but she nodded her head, and beckoned pitiful as if she wanted help real bad." Nnll's breast was suddenly lightened. Janet wot aboard the yacht, then; he had come to the right place. And she was not a willing passenger, either. That re relieved his worst fear. He felt a gush of friendliness towards the speaker. But he, It seemed, enjoyed no reputation for veracity among his mates. They laughed him down. "You're seeing things, Jake. You're wasted fishing. You ought to be one of these here, now, atorywrit ers in the papers. "All rightl All rlghtl" said Jake. "Some lay you men will learn that I'm not as big a fool as you like to make outl" When it became really dark and the vessels in the harbor were no longer sharply silhouetted against the water, Neill got up and strolled away. Each house along the har bor front had its little pier stick ing out from the shore with one or more small boats moored to it, and he had it in mind to borrow one of these without asking. He turned to the right because in that direction the shore road rose somewhat Here the little piers were under tiie bank, and screened from observation. Climbing down the bank, he walked out on a pic: and found a skill with oars in her. He got in and, untying the rope, rowed quietly toward the yacht The water was as smooth as a mirror, and voices came from the shore with startling distinctness. On the Dorch of LonecoDe's thev were still talking about fish. Every star in heaven was shining. No moon. This moon was near its end, Weill remembered. Wouldn t rise until near dawn. When he drew alongside the yacht, he hailed her, not loud. There was no answer. Tying his skiff to the ladder, he climbed on deck and spoke again. No answer. There was something about the stillness of the little craft that chilled his blood. Where was Janet? He walked forward along the deck and aft again, sticking his head in the different doors and speaking. There was no movement, no sound in reply. Everything aboard was neat and shipshape. The silence was not ab- DU.ULC, 1UJ SUJIlCWIICiO UClUff 11c could hear the hum of a generator. There were two deckhouses on the yacht The forward house contained a luxurious little dining saloon, while the after house was merely the entrance to a compan ionway leading to the quarters be low. Having satisfied himself that there was nobody forward. Neill switched on lights in the after house and went down the stain with his heart rising in his throat. His instinct told him there was something very wrong aboard. He lound nimsell in a miniature saloon with doors forward and aft The forward door admitted him to a comfortable sleeping cabin, empty. A man's belongings were scattered about. Fanning's? The after door was locked. It was a light door and, putting his shoul der against it, he burst it in. A Dark Wet Stain SWITCHING on lights, he saw Prescott Fanning lying on the floor at his feet, dead. There was a bullet hole in his forehead and a dark wet stain was slowly spreading through the rug undei his head. Janet in her pretty eve ning dress was lying limply in an easy chair nearby. There was crude smear of blood across het cheek. A gun lay on the floor be neath her hand, and a stale smelJ of gunpowder hung on the air. Neill s heart stood still. He ran to the girl and flung his arms ....... UAn L7n. she breathed; there was no wound on her. Upon wiping her face, he saw that the blood was not hers. He crushed her to his breast, trem bling in the reaction from his tlrsl terrible fear. ' Leaviniz her for a moment, he dropped to his knees beside the body on the floor. Fanning was dead all right but to Neill's aston ishment there was still warmth in his body. If only he had come a few minutes soonerl He saw that the hole in his forehead was a wound of egress. He had been shot in the back of his head and the gun had been held so close that his hair was singed. Mem glanced towards the door that he had burst in. Its key was on the inside. All the portholes were closed and fastened. To his mind there was onlv one possible explanation. Fanning had attacked Janet and she had shot him. Neill had no thought of blame for her; he approved her courage. Lucky that she had the gun. where had she got it? He carried her out into the sa loon and laid her on a couch. There was a vacuum jug on smna. no spnnKiea waier in ner face and bathed her temples. Meanwhile he had to make the greatest decision of his life. The trained sleuth in him said: She shot this man and we'll have to face it out together. She 11 be ac quitted of course. But the man in him thought of how she would be dragged through the mud Janet whom he had always laughed at and loved for her delicate wavsl And how after acquittal, fingers would lorover point her out as a murderess. I don't care what the evidence Is, the man in him said, she couldn't have done it. And I'm going to keep her under cover until 1 can prove Itl She oDened her eves and looked around so wildly and senselessly mat neiu teared tor her reason. 'Janet! ' he murmured. "This la Neill. Don't you know me, dear?" Recognition came into her eves. and like a frightened child she flung her arms around his neck. "It s mo, all right." "You've come!" she murmured in a passion of relief. "1 knew you'd cornel" He soothed her silently. "What happened?" she asked. "Let's not talk about It now. dear. I have you safe!" "Oh, take me away from this horrible place!" she moaned. Take me away! Take me awayl" Velll and Janet row away Into the darknesa, tomorrow. BOCK ISLAND, til (API She ! a railroad cat and knowa her ache dulrs. Bhe save birth to four kittens on top of a box car axle houatng where no one could reach them. Then the heard trainmen any they would have to more the car In two day. When the field wan clear. ne oeRan moving her youngsters, one oy one. down the aide of the car and Into a aecluded corner ot the re pair ahop. Cat. kitten and ear moved on schedule. Cat Mall Tribune want ads. INDIANS LIKE PLANES FROM THE GROUND VALENTINE, Nrb l API Chiet Ktlta-a-Mone unci other Sioux brave on the Ptne nirte rrwrvatton r having their hoinra "alr-mappcd ' oy the soil conservation bureau of the department of agriculture. The Indians are Interested In the equipment which a I low t the pilot to take pictures from altitude ot 34,oofl feet, hut none of them ha exprewd a denire to go aloit. "See plenty from ground," one chief commented. WINDOW CH.AHa-We U window glaaa and will replace your rmkn window renaoteablj-, Trow briuse Cab inet Work. fimetfcjrr composer. Wflofclite Words fcKP MUSIC OP INVrjTrirSfAZrbUf.. lhx rtoiitoxfn-rafr GAME IN Trie SftMB MIW orme 2 poums WC IN ONE J! I 1.1 U wtmmk on warm PAy$s j.iuSp y r(5imz!:'- n il Ml wids t OH COLO PAYS WM. Hotter on Cold Pays. On cold, clear day the intensity of tha heat radiation received from the sun by the earth Is far greater than on hot days. The reason behind this seemingly paradoxical phenome non Is the fact that on warm or hot days the air Is filled with water vapor and dust. Vapor traps much of the sun's rays while dust scat ters them. Little vapor or dust is In the air on cold days. Perhaps one of the most evident examples of "hot sunshine" on a cold day was recorded In Washing ton, D. C, on February 9, lfl34. On that day, 'according to W. R. Qregg. chief of the U. S. weather bureau, the city experienced Its coldest wea ther In 30 years. Yet, strange as it seems, on the same day the In tensity of radiation received from the sun was the greatest ever recorded there. "Sweetest Story Ever Told.' In writing his famous song, "The Sweetest Btory Ever Told," Robert Morrison Stults received his inspira tion from a chance remark made by his wife. Having Just completed reading a book one day In the 1880'a Mrs. Stults expressed her opinion ol It to her husband with the words, "Well, that's the sweetest story everl Mr. Stults snapped up the remark aa a theme for a song. He started writing It Immediately and finished the entire song In less than two hours. UVNatrtt Sr.tc. Inc. J-f33f Land of o Knots. Of the many taboos observed among the peoples of Africa, the ban against knots In the Bakongo country of the Lower Congo, Africa, la perhaps the oddest. Nothing tied wlfh a knot la allowed In a village. All bundles must be untied before being carried in. The taboo even goes so far as to ban the wearing of knotted belts or girdles In a village. The natives' explanation In support of their prohibition of knots contends that any form of knot will prevent certain magical powers from functioning. Tomorrow: What Snake Con Strike Fu fully Before It Is Hatched? ScottKboro Boy Appeal WASHINGTON. Sept. 13. f-AP Haywood Patterson, one of the nine Negroes Involved In the celebrated Scottsboro case, appealed to the supreme court today in an effort to escape a 76-year prison sentence im posed by Alabama courts for an al leged attack on a white woman. Use Mall Tribune want ads. I Federal Board Hurries WASHINGTON. Sept. 13. (API The national labor relations board, moving swiftly to avert a threatened maritime strike at Atlantic and gulf ports, refused today to delay until October collective bargaining elections among employes of ott steamship lines. An ensign g a flay flown on ships. Light Blister Rust THE DALLES. Sept. 13. (AP) D. W. Hagensteln. in charge of control of pine rust in the Ochoco national forest east of Prineville, said today only 18 trees to the section were In fested this year. Last year a check up showed a high as. 1000 trees to the section diseased. Use Mail Tribune want ads. ?-7 AffER SPEHDIH6 A BLlSfER)H6 HC3TPAV H0WlH6 "THE LAPPEffS' LAWN SO If WOULD LOOK NICE WHEN lUEV Sttf , BACK TROM "THEIR VACATION, FRET? TERLEV FOOND fHEV HAT) 6WEN UP 1VJEIR LEASE AND WERE 70VK& W ffMK6'5 MOTHER (Copyright, 1937; by The Bell gyndleete, Int.) 8 'MATTER POP FT By 0. M PA7NB TAILSPIN TOMMY Unexpected Help! IP' -Til IJSrW-4E n vj4v y-gTD vjb. Ae. Tun- XTf By HAL F0RRE8X Apid it's A GOOD THIMG THAT TOMMY AMD BETTY-LOU DECIDED TO TAKE FLASH ALONG, AS YOU SHALL SOON SEE ' " By BDWTM ALQEB sjsfl WEBSTER'S CAREER Encouragement I j . , tu in xri - ScittOIrt 6000 r-SeS SSlKJ SAMWULOAM VOUtMOUGHjcWftiCHe THE WfcVNS? J 1M TAWk!iM inc nLcca wnai now; i yI.H. POLKS EMJOV V W SlRL-BEEKI WooaSTJWWO ARE'nOU WITM foOOO BUCKS IU HvjfeiNj aionUwi-tvc.,, MV QQL TOR OrP TTZ . TO QUESriOM CASU AMD 1 DOsJT T,Uri TOOM ME if V5 N5S 1 J VJEQ. SCUD BEA K MV OClL NiEED JTMIS OOB BUT By SOL HER 'LEEDS AL&.5AMA, kalVES IOOVOTF5 POR LUTWER.WE CAN OMOV ACCEPT OJE, SETTV. 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