The Coolidge examiner., 1933-09-08
the students residence of his death
at the fraternity house

| EARLY TRAIN STOP EXPECT ME
AT TEN O'CLOCK.
The signature was that OF How
ard Merrick, Jordan's relative and
guardian.
Rankin had already decided upon
the course of his Investigations that
day. Until Mr.. Merrick arrived. with
the illumination he might throw on
the boys life. he would learn as
much as he could of Jordan's career
at school. Distinctly his first step
was to search the students room
in the dormitories and his belong
ings for some clue To the tragedy
To save time he would question
Randall, the former Aberdeen stu
dent while he was at the dOrmS {;
and later call on the boy from Van
dalia. II only TO make certain of
neglecting no likely source of in
formation. Al the fraternity house
he hoped To elicit from Larry Pal
mer, now recovering from his mys-
terlous indisposition, the explana-
ton of how and by whom he was
drugged. He could interview Ben
Crawford at the same time. He had
still been absent at three thirty in
the morning when Rankin left and
the problem of his whereabouts re-
mained unsettled.
Ii was past noon when he entered
the dormitOry grounds. He reached
Jordan's room. 315. on the third
floor by an enclosed passage, outside
the halls, resembling fire escape.
and began his hunt, with the desk
as the most logical place for Jor-
dams private possessions. In the
drawers, an inextricable confusion
relgned. II was more than the dis
order of mere carelessness; as
though hastily searched by someone
pressed for time. the boys papers
had been tossed about In a tangle
The chamber itself. In direct con-
trast, was neat and clean as though
recently set In order.
The single hint of anything
strange In Jordan's life came from
several books of check stubs in the
desk. Also representing his ac
count at the Philadelphia Western
bank, the counterfOils were care
fully audited. For a well-to-do stu
dent. the amounts were not unusu-
ally large. In addition to these out
lays, however. he had drawn a check
once every month 10 bearer for four
hundred dollars without identifying
the recipient or their purpose. All
he had written on the stubs were
the figures and the word bearer"
Thus six times regularly since the
second of October. the boy had paid
out this sum. And without the cor
responding Cancelled checks. returned
from the bank which had cashed
them for the unknown bearer. there
was no means OF learning who he
was.
II was In the closet In the bed
room that the detective made his
second important discovery. Jor-
dan kept most OF his shoes there;
and on casually inspecting them. he
was startled to find two thumb
tacks In the soles of each pair. All
cd In
fashion. one tack embedded In the
heel and the other in the arch. II
their purpose was to help dlstln-
guish Jordan al the initiation. the
criminal was evidently taking no
chances that he might don an un-
recognizable pair of shoes.
Aside from this. Rankin's thor
ough search of the bedroom pro-
duced no results. AS his hunt
progressed. the detective grew In
creasingly disturbed at the alb
sence of private papers and let
ters. 1t seemed absurd that Jordan
never received any mail; though
alone in the world except for his
guardian. he should surely have ex-
changed correspondence with How
ard Merrick in five months. Yet
there was no evidence that they
had written each other. And still
more extraordinary was the fact
that the student had apparently no
friends of the opposite sex. Pic
lures of girls. the familiar note
book of addresses and phone num-
bers. communications from them
all these were missing. Yet Ran
kin could not credit the complete
and unnatural solitude that the cir
cumstances indicated. The alterna.
tive was that he had destroyed
whatever letters he got. because he
was either hiding himself or some
secret to which they referred. Ii
was unlikely that anyone else had
removed them. And his mysterious
monthly payments partly supported
this theory. II was too early to
jump 70 conclusions from facts sus-
ceptible of an innocent eXplana-
tion: but their regularity and GOV
ertnesS both suggested that .Jor-
dan was paying hlackmail to some
one who knew a secret he wished
concealed
If this were so, then this secret
might plausibly have brought TO