The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-06-02


 bears startling resemblance to MT. Dufresne. So, if Hamill recognized him at all, he would mistake him for the master of the house. Ger tainly there is no reason why Hamill should want to shoot Dufresne. but nevertheless they killed each other with a remarkable unity of purpose. That's a pretty stiff dose of theory to swallow!"
 Tt sounds crazy to me-" Lafferty agreed. AS you say. door could hardly be banging away for nearly two hours without some of the neighEors doing something about it. On the ether hand. doors don't open of themselves and set their locks so that they can't shut again. If Hamill had left the door unlatched behind him. it would have banged shut just once and locked itself"
 Well. like 1t or not. all our evil dence states that the door could not have been touched after the shoot ing. since both men were dead. We have only to examine the snow to see that Connally and Hilleary were the next to enter the house. Con- sidering the shooting as separate action, we get into another maze.
 "Our mystery man must have shot Hamill twice before Hamill fired at him. for Doc Miller assured me that death must have been in- stantaneous and his position in that chair confirms it. But there we have the dilemma-either our intruder shot Hamill after he himself was shot through the brain. which is surely impossible. or else Hamill fred with extraordinary accuracy after being shot in the breast twice, once through the heart.
 "\ TOW in a single exchange of
 shots there exists bare mathe- matical chance for two men to plug each other so neatly. but that third bullet throws it into confusion. It has me guessing and it has Carlin guessing. too."
 They sat silent for few moments and both pairs of eyes were thought fully focused on the little row of twisted bullets. The thin wires that held their tags glistened brightly in the pleasant morning sun.
 Harper strengthened up with de- termination. Lets pass on to the unknown mans movements" he suggested 50 far as we know. he was not hiding here in the house all the time. Assuming that he was the writer of the threatening letters 10 Dufresne. it works out something like this:
 He somehow managed to trail Dufresne when the latter left the city. On the return trip. he must have followed his intended victim until he learned which route he was taking. then passed him and hurried ahead to pick out a good spot for the ambush. where he waited" . "That means he had a car at his disposal" Lafferty interjected.
 .Yes. After he had fired at Du- fresne and the latter made good his escape. he returned to his car and Came back to the city by some other road. That would be easy.
 ''The autopsy has shown that he ate about five o'clock. As this was cooked meal. he could not have come directly here and foraged for food. By the time he got to this house, say between fve-thirty and six. the snow was coming down in earnest. but the fall was still so thin that his tracks were completely GOV cred over later"
 y'It would not have been safe for him to come sooner" Lafferty said. Remember. there were painters working on the third floor rooms until four o'clock and the Whit mores did not lock up and go to their rooms over the garage until fise."
 We don't know how he got in," Harper resumed. but there are no marks of forcible entry anywhere and there were neither keys nor bur. glar tools found in his possession. In fact. so little was found on his per. son that I've come to the conclusion his pockets were footed or else he is wearing some one else's clothing"
 That's an idea! If he put on a facial disguise to look like Dufresne perhaps he put on one of Dufresne's suits"
 f'Exactly. There must be more traces of him in this house than we have found. For instance. 1t Is al- most certain that he shaved himself after he got here"
 Lafferty whistled. "One up on me there. Steve. That one got past me-"
 "If you had looked closely at his face. you'd have seen that he was very freshly shaven. Here and there he missed hair. which no self.re- specting barber would have done.~ tGopnriqht I9Sl. br Walter c. Rrotpnl