The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-08
MERRY!
Ty R01ERT W W7CTTT0CT

IHt IlllIt Nlu Ildu SGl q Cd ullOuS foot on the topmost step and let his face twist awry with the pain of the climb before he saw the slatterning figure standing at the head of the rickety stair.
 He got his face untwisted and made the landing.
 Sorry, Mrs. Harraday," he said, ''but it was you that guessed right after all when you" He stopped there. The landlady was not the only one waiting in the smudgy hall. He saw head or two at nearly every door except his own. "Oh, you needn't have got me up a party!" he exclaimed, in tone that showed there was fight in him still. T told you I'd give up the room today if I didn't find job!'
 The woman's fat fingers clutched his wasted arm.
 "Oh, MT. Dicks" she whispered. lice ever come?'
 What's that?" he asked in sur prise.
 A man. clad only in trousers and a red undershirt, came edging toward them, his back against the wall. He stopped at arms reach from a closed door and called harshly:
 A"Come out O that!'
 In a moment he leaned and his fist struck the door a blow that was promptly answered by a shot from within.
 The man in the red undershirt fled, heads vanished, and doors slammed. Mrs. Harraday's Hopping heels clat- tered down the stairs; but from be- low she lot ked back at the little old man left alone in the hall.
 He stood quite still for time, then she saw his face take on something like a smile, and he moved away. Hearing his limping step, she took courage and crept back. As her eyes came above the level of the floor, she saw him do an unaccountable thing.
 Standing before the dCo in which a white fleck now appeared, heart high, in one of the panels, he stopped and tried to peer through one of the newly made bullet-holes.
 "Open up," he said gently, as he squinted. "Open up and come out!"
 Lord O mel Mrs. Harraday gasped. She put her two fat, grimy hands before her eyes and turned away; but the place remained deadly still. She heard the old mans halt ing step on the bare floor before she dared to look again. She saw him go into his own room and re- turn with raight-back wooden chair.
 Come out" he called, Tor I'll be climbing in to get you"
 "Oh don't" begged the woman cn the stair. Come away! He'll kill you where you're standin', MT Dicksw
 The old man waited, gazing up- ward with a pathetic air of help lessness at the transom that now sent out above his head, in widen ing wavelets, grayish smoke that mingled its smell of powder with the other odors of the hall.
 He took off his shiny blue serge coat, folded 1t with care, placed it on the floor. and laid his old soft felt hat on top. Then he set the chair against the door, got on it and stretched himself atiptoe so he could look into the room. His bald head missed the open transom sash by good six inches or more.
 Come out" he said again
 There was no answer from within
 Mrs. Harraday saw him get foot on the knob and begin to rise slowly, his face once more twisted with pain Then she ascended boldly to the landing.
 "It's murder an suicide both" she explained breathlessly to one of the lodgers who now reappeared. Him inside must O shot imself that last time; an the bullet must O gone clean through! Look how 1t splin tered the door"
 At last the old man had leg up The transom space was narrow but he was small and thin. He got his in nj self under the open sash when a sergeant and two patrolmen came, the noise they made causing doors to open and the hall to fill.
 "Oh, officer" Mrs. Harraday sob bed. Such a deal fer anyone to give a poor widow woman like me! An they on'y took the room hour ago Murder an suicide both. An MT Dicks is goin' in to open up the
 The transom held for moment a dilapidated shoe that scraped through and disappeared
 One of the patrolmen mounted the chair and looked into the room. With a quick movement. he drew his gun,
 What is it, Daily?" asked the sergeant, in whisper.
 The officer with his eyes at the transom waved back warning He saw a young man, chalk white CTOuChing In corner, a IeNOlNel held steadily before him. He saw an old man limp toward the crouching figure, swerve toward the single window to avoid stepping over a simpsy, grayish heap on the floor, turn and stand as if waiting. Then an open, slow swinging hand hid two staring eyes for a>moment a as it landed against the White face.
 The crouching youth straightened, shrank back. let the revolver fall.
 Daly, the patrolman on the chair, had showed the barrel of his own gun noiselessly over the edge of the tram som frame. He waited, then brought the weapon down. He eased himself to the floor and moved the chair aside When the key in the lock turned. he sprang into the room, all most knocking old Dicks down in his haste to get the revolver which still lay where it had fallen.
 The other officers followed close at his heels. Very soon they shut the door and set about the routine of questioning their prisoner and examining the room. After the am bulance surgeon had gone In, Daly came out. notebook in hand.
 '"The woman's dead-murder all