Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-01
THE BREAKING POINT
BY MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
did you see the revolver in hi
hnnd2

@ I 5sa :5 E." ''' ''''''''
@. Glow long between your warning Mr.
Clark and the shot?''
A. II suppose I'd gone a dozen yards"
| @. Were you present when the revolver
was found?"
@. Did you see Judson Clark AGAIN."
! A. mo, sir. From what I gather he went
straight to the corral and got his horse"
@. 'You entered the room as Mrs. Lucas
came in the door,"
| A. 'Well, she's wrong about that. She was
there at little ahead of me. She'd reached
the body before 1 got in. She was STOPPING
over it,
Bassett looked up from his reading.
81 want you to get this, Livingstone ne
said. "How did she reach the billiard room =?
Where was it in the house?"
"Off the end of the living room"
| "a large living room?"
Forty or forty-five feet, about"
! 'Will you draw it for me, roughly?'
! He passed over pad and pencil and Dick
made a hasty outline. Bassett watched with
growing satisfaction.
! Here's the point" he said when Dick had
| finished. "She was there before Donaldson
or at the same time as Dick made an impa-
! tient movement. But he had only a dozen
yards to go. She was in her room, upstairs
To get down in that time she had to leave
| her room, descend a. staircase, cross hall
and run the length of the living room forty
| five feet If the case had ever gone to trial
| she'd have to do some EXPLAINING
"She or Donaldson Dick said obstinate
| ly.
Bassett went on:
"Jean Melis called and sworn"
! @. "Your name?"
A. "Jean Melis."
! O. "Have you an American residence, Mr.
| Melis''
/ A. "Only where 1 am employed. am now
living at the Clark ranch"
/ @. What is your business?"
| A al am Mr.. Clark's valet"
@. cit was you who found Mr. Clark's re-
volver?"
| A. Eyes"
O. "TeIl about how and where you found
| it,"
A. "I made a search early in the evening
| I will not hide from you that I meant tc
conceal it if I discovered it. man who Is
drunk is not guilty of what he does. die
not find it. | went back that night Wnen
the people had gone, and found it beneath
the carved wood box, by the fireplace
did not know that the sheriff mad placeo
man outside the window"
Get that too" Bassett said, putting down
the paper "The Frenchman was fond OF
you, and he was doing his blunderlng pest
But the sheriff expected you back and hac
the place watched, so they caught him. But
that's not the point. A billiard room is
bad place to hide things in, take it yours
was like the average"
Dick nodded.
"All right. This poor boob of vale
made a search and didn't find it. Later
he found it. Why did he search? Wash
it the likely thing that you'd carried it away
with you? Do you suppose for moment
| that with Donaldson and the woman in the
room, you hid it there and then went DacF
and stood behind the roulette table. leaning
on it with both hands, and staring? Not al
all Listen to this:
@. "You recognize this revolver as the one
you found?"
A. eyes"
Q."You are familiar with it,"
A. eyes. 1t is Mr.. Clark's."
@. "You made the second search because
you had not examined the wood box earlier?,
| A. mo. had examined the wood box
had theory"
Coroner: "The Jury cannot listen to any
theories This Is an inquiry into facts"
'I'm going to find Melis,' the reporter