Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-14

that was, but Tack seemed to think it
was all right"
HE told you all about it, did hep"
| "Oh, yesl Tack and I were always
good friends, Peter, really. Wed started
rowing lot about Evan by the time
you came along, but in between we were
all right. Well, Tack seemed to forget
it, and so did Until Benny got hold
of me one night at Emma's and said
Tack still owed money for that craps
game, and the men he owed 1t to were
tired of waiting, and If they didn't get
1t they were going to the firm and take
the check and tell the whole story.
by that time Tack was in very
wrong with his mother, and they didn't
mean, they liked him, all right, but
Tack was tight all the time and he
wasn't doing any work. It would have
made a frightful mess. Benny said he
liked Tack and he'd tried to help him
he pretended, you see, that he was just
acting for these other men and that
it made it better for Tack for him to be
mixed up in it. And he said he was
afraid that If he put it up to Tack,
Tack would do something silly.
IT was too, Peter. You got to know
lot about us, but I don't think you
ever realized what a frightful temper
Tack had. He was perfectly capable of
killing some one. That was why I was
always so careful about keeping him
and Evan apart late at night, when
Tack was tight. And I was terribly
afraid that If he really thought any one
was trying to blackmail him he'd shoot
them-he'd have thought he had a
right to do it, I think. So-so-well, /
agreed to find the money myself, some
how.
"And, of course, once I'd started
there wasn't any end to it. That night
I'd promised to pay $500 and 1 simply
hadn't been able to get it-they in
sisted on cash, always, of course. /
knew I was going to have it the next
day, but Benny wouldn't wait. He was
the one who suggested that I should
give him the bracelet-he said he'd
give it back as soon as gave him the
money, but he wouldn't have, 1 sup
pose"
mot a chance" said Peter. "He was
disappointed when I gave him the cash,
I thought"
"So-that's the story, Peter. You can
see it hasn't anything to do with
with Tack's being killed"
I'm not so sure" said Peter. I'm
going to tell Mitchell and Bouton, any
way. 1t can't do Tack any harm now
for them to know"
mo, l suppose not" said Martha,
with a sigh.
Peter left her then; the drug seemed
to be regaining its power over her, and
she was yawning.
Peter went out. after a dinner eaten
hurriedly, with all three of them, he
and Carol and Steve, trying, pretty OBJ
viously, to talk of anything but the
murder of Tack Thayer and to think
of any one rather than the girl who
lay-asleep, they all hoped-in Carols
guest room and the boy who, by this
time, the law being done with him, lay
somewhere else, forever still.
He couldn't fit what Martha had told
him into the crazy pattern of this
crime. Nor could he see why Connolly
was so viciously sure of the strength
of his case against Martha, as, only too
plainly, he was. Everything the police
themselves believed, it seemed to Peter.
tended to clear her rather than to i'm
pIicate her; the evidence, or lack of
evidence. rather about the pistol: their
certainty that the murderer could have
reached the roof without Axels knowl-
edfe; her movements the night before.
BY Connolly's own showing Ross was
no longer suspected of firing the shot.
(To Be Continued.)
The longest air route with regular
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