The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-01-09

DROPPING Who's Who" to the
II floor, Dundee flung open his
living room door and raced down
three flights of stairs. He brought
up, painting, at the door Of the base
ment.
1t was not locked and in another
minute he was standing before the
big hot-air furnace. Above the
fire box was big metal compart-
ment-the reservoir for the heated
air. And set into the reservoir, TO
conduct the heat to the region
above, were three huge pipes.
With strength augmented by ex-
citement, Dundee tugged and tore
at one of the pipes until he had
dislodged it. Then, thrusting his
hand into the heat reservoir, he
groped until he had found what he
had known must be there-Judge
Marshall's automatic, with the
Maxim silencer screwed upon the
end of its short nose.
At last he held in his hands the
weapon with which Mia Leigh
Selim and Dexter Sprague had been
murdered.
The righteousness of his own at
tempted murder moved him to such
profound admiration that he scarce
ly could feel resentment. If, in the
excitement of hunting for a prom
ised clue, he had gone directly to
the shelf, standing in front of the
hole in the register into which the
end of the silencer had been
damned, SO that it showed scarcely
at all, even to eyes looking for it,
he now would have been dead.
And the gun and silencer, after
hurtling down the big hot-air pipe
behind the register, could have
lain hidden for months, even years,
in the heat reservoir of the furnace.
With the weapon carefully
wrapped in his handkerchief, Dun
dee went up the stairs almost as
swiftly as he had gone down them
meeting no one on the way to his
rooms on the top floor.
MY most heartfelt thanks to you
Cap'n!" he greeted his parrot. I'll
you had not squawked last night
and so frightened the murderer
that he made the vital error OF
covering your cage, I never should
have annoyed you again with my
Sherlock nominations on cases
which do not interest you in the
slightest"
The parrot cackled toarsely, but
Dundee paid him Scant attention
He picked up the now harmless
who's Who" and turned to page
40, a corner of which had disap-
peared with the string which still
was fastened to the hair trigger
hammer of the Colts 80.
Very clever and very siinplel The
murderer of two people and the
would-be murderer of third had
had only to unscrew the metal COW
ering of the register, wedge the
end of the silencer into one of the
many holes, replace the screws, and
paste the end of the string to a
page of the book he had selected
as the one most likely to appeal to
detective as a clue source -.
No, watt He had had to do
more! Dundee bent and examined
the metal cover of the register. The
murderer had chosen as the one
which would be directly in front OF
Dundee's heart cleaned brightly
1t had been necessary to enlarge it
considerably. The murderer had
left a trace after all!
But the book was open in Dun
dee's hands and his eyes rapidly
scanned Page 40. And he found
what the murderer had not expect
ed him to live to read, but which lie
had counted on as an explanation
of the note which the police would
have puzzled over, if all had gone
we'll with his scheme
(T0 No Cnnfsr1uoSIN