The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-06-17

Cured to change the old relationship
of employer and secretary.
T DON'T want the case, Nan, and
l even if I did, I wouldn't take
it today of all days" Morgan be-
gan firmly.
Because everything points TO the
boys being guilty?" Nan challenged
him tensely. Il don't believe he is!
I don't care If he did seem to be in
hiding while the police searched for
himl He's coming forward now
voluntarily, to give himself up for
questioning. If he does reach this
Office without being stopped by po-
lice, I want you to see him. Please
give him five minutes. If he isn't
here by then, we can still make our
train"
You've always put business be-
fore pleasure, haven't you, Nan"
Morgan asked, with a queer smile
turning down a corner Of his mouth.
For a moment Nan had a fleeting
heart-twisting fear that he was
hurt.
There was a knock on the door,
Immediately followed by kathleen
O'Hara's vivid, excited little face.
Hes herel" she gasped in thrilled
whisper. And he dc Mt look like
a murderer at all! Isn't it marvellous
that the police didn't catch him be-
fore he got here? Shall 7 show him
in?"
Yes Morgan answered CURLY.
Then. to Nan, in low voice: we
can take a later train, suppose. -
Kathleen O'Hara was right. NO
one could have looked less Ike a
patricide than David Blackhull. A
slender, well-groomed boy OF about
20. with wavy nut-brown hair, frank
eyes. a fair, freckled skin, he might
have posed for a picture to De en-
titled. Composite Portrait OF
American College Youth"
Nan liked the way he thrust out
steady hand, as if it did not oc-
cur to him that anyone might hest
tate to clasp it. She offered her
own hand unhinchingly when Nor
gan performed the introduction;
My law partner and-my wife,
Mrs. Morgan"
Ironic, Nan thought, that the
first time those words, my wife, "
passed his lips in reference to her,
they should be addressed to a boy
suspected of the murder OF his
father.
We'll, I made it, SIR" David
Blackhull said, with just a trace
of boyish bravado. But I can't
blame the police for not spotting
me right of. I look too much like
most other fellows. I wasn't in
hiding, sir. II didn't know my
father had been-killed until I saw
a paper this morning. I've been up
north in the woods with pal Of
mine. He has a hunting lodge and
when he came in at dawn this
morning from Mountain VieW-that
is the nearest Town to his lodge
with a paper, why, Of course, there
was nothing to do but to come and
give myself up, but wanted to
see you first"
And the plane?" Morgan
prompted, after he had seated the
young man in the armchair across
the desk.
"Oh, he has a moth monoplane
that he buzzes around in" this son
of wealth explained easily. stephen
Grants his name. Maybe you've
heard of the family?" At Morgan'S
nod the boy went on eagerly: HE
offered to bring me in and we
stopped just once on the way, to
telephone. put the call through a
pay station in a village, using
Grants name, but when I got your
Office I told who I was. I thought
maybe the police would have the
operators listening in, but it looks
as if they didn't"
Your luck was certainly with
you" Morgan interrupted dryly.
Nov, about your father"
ATAN sprang to her feet, excused
~ herself with word and ran
out of the office, to return a minute
later, breathless. jerking out the
stenographers leaf of the desk, she
flung open her notebook and began
to take rapid shorthand notes OF the
boys story.
In spite of her half fearful, half
iovful ABSORPTION in her approach
ing wedding, Nan had taken an
enormous interest in the sensational
murder Of the millionaire automo-
bile manufacturer, Thornton Black
hull. The papers had shrieked the
news of the disappearance of the
old mans son within a few minutes
of the murder. The millionaire had
been found dead, shot through the
heart, his sons automatic clumsily
hidden behind a row of books in a
case near the door.
The butler, who found the body
and noticed the disarrangement of
the books, which led to the dis
covery of the weapon, had told of
hearing a violent quarrel between
the ola mlIllonare ana MS son early
in the evening.
The murder had taken place, &C
cording to the medical examiner, at
approximately o'clock in the
morning. The butler. asleep in his
room on the third story of the
Blackhull mansion, had not heard
the shot, but had been aroused at
five minutes to two by the sound of
car on the gravel drive below his
window and had gone to the win
dow to look out.
He said that the car was David
Blackhulls, and the next morning,
when he went to notify the boy
that his father had been murdered,
the boy was missing, had not slept
in his room that night. Naturally,
the y1NfiHa hod hAa,,