The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-21
NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY
CHAPTER XXXVII.

which of those two suggested that it would be a good idea to get mar ried the first thing this morning." Dundee unused aloud. as he put down the second extra which The Hamil- ton Morning News had had occasion to issue that Thursday.
 It was two o'clock, and Dundee sat across the desk from Captain Strawn, in his former chiefs office in police headquarters.
 The first extra Lad screamed in it's biggest head type: SECOND BRIDGE DUMMY MURDER. and had carried in detail Captain Strawn's comforting theory that Dexter Sprague's erstwhile friends of q New York gunman's fiendish cleverness in committing his mur- ders under circumstances which would inevitably involve Hamil- tons most highly respected and so- cially prominent citizens in the po- lice investigation.
 But the second extra had a more romantic strcamer headline: HAM MOND WEDDING DELAYS MUIR DER QUIZ.
 The story beneath q series of smaller headlines began:
 At the very moment 9:01 o'clock this morning when Celia Hunt. maid in the Tracey Miles home in the Brentwood district of Hamilton. was screaming the news of her discovery of the dead body of Dexter Sprague, New York mo- tion picture director in what is known as the trophy room.' Miss Polly Beale and MT Give Ham, mond were applying for a marriage lic,nse in the Municipal building.
 "At 9:30, when Miss Beale and Mir Hammond were exchanging their vows in the rectory of St PauFs Episcopal church, of which both bride and groom have been members since childhood. Captain John Strawn of the homicide squad was listening to Tracey Miles ac- count of the strange disa sappeara nee of Dexter Sprague from the i'm promptu bridge game. after he had announced his intention of taking advantage of the fact that he was dummy to telephone for a taxi.
 And at 10 o'clock, when the new Mrn Hammond called her home to break the news of her marriage to her aunt, Mrs Amelia Beale, the bride was in turn acquainted with the news of Sprague'S murder and the fact that both she and her hus- band were wanted at the Miles home for questioning by the police, since both had been guests of Mr and Mrs Miles last night. although MT Hammond did not arrive until about Il o'clock
 There followed q revision of the murder story as it appeared in the first extra. with additional de- tails supplied by Strawn, and with q line drawing of the scene of the crime-the trophy room itself and the forked driveway with it's tall yew hedges. A dotted line illus trated Strawn's theory of Sprague's plan to elude the murderer who had followed him to the Miles home. Be- cause of the curved sweep of the driveway toward the main entrance of the house. the tall hedge was less than two feet from the window with the partly opened screen.
 Captain Strawn's theory" read the text below the large drawing "is that Sprague had good cause to fear that he was being followed on his way to the Miles home; that he telephoned for a taxi to wait for him at the foot of the hill. and that he planned to leave the Miles house
 
 so that his lurking pursuer might have no knowledge of his departure. The drawing shows that his pro- posed flight would have been pro- tected by hedges until he reached the wooded slope of the hill, pro- vided his Nemesis was lurking in the opposite hedge across the drive way, where he could observe every departure from the Miles home"
 You've sure got a single-track mind, boy" StraWn chuckled "So you think those two got married in such hurry this morning because the laws says a husband or wife can't be made to testify against the other?"
 Possibly" Dundee grinned, un- ruffled, But there is another possi- bility-which is why 1 should like to know who suggested this sudden wedding. 1 mean that we cant overlook the possibility that these two murders made either the bride or the groom feel perfectly safe in going on with the marriage. Polly Beale and Give Ham rnond had haap