The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-06-26

"Yes. He gets bit beyond himself at times, talking ul all kinds of wild ideas about capital and labor, and plutocracy. and that sort of stuff. Joe has it in for the rich, all right" Whitmore snickered.
 Harper stretched out more com. fortably.
 ! "Donaghy struck me as being a pretty lively lad" the detective mur- mured. He's a good-looking fellow and he acts as if he knew it."
 Whitmore winked heavily. Sure. he's a devil with the ladies, anyway, to hear him tell it. He's going to find a rich young widow. says he, and then he'll marry and live in style. He says he can double her money over and over. but he's more likely to run through it in six months, him and his 'parlay' bets.'"
 "Oh, so Joe likes to bet on the horses?"
 "He does. l never heard of man ever took a dollar away from the races in the long run, but that doesn't stop 'em from betting. Some times he's lucky. though. Just today I saw him counting over roll of bills as big as your fist. He said he'd got bet down on the right horse at last. Came in at 100 to l. But that's once in lifetime"
 That's right" said Harper soft ly, looking out at the snow-covered grounds, tits once in lifetime" Then, after a few moments of si- fence he resumed, Andrews is real. ly devoted to this family. isn't he?" "N JAKE no mistake about that" . M Whitmore quickly affirmed. "He's gruff and old-fashioned and as close mouthed as a clam. but he's the family watchdog. You won't get out of him."
 The detective cooked an eye at John Whitmore. Why. is there something to be got out of him? That sounds as if he's hiding some thing?"
 "I shouldn't have put 1t that way" Whitmore hastened to amend. I've been in service thirty-five years and l have yet to see the family that didn't have trouble of some sort they wouldn't like to have made pub lie. But murder is horse of another color"
 Harper smiled quietly. "Of course, John. know you're not the kind to carry tales and I'm not asking you to. I've heard some stories. too. so far as that goes" It was the detec- tive's turn to give knowing wink. That was pretty stiff row they had last November. wasn't 1t, just about the time Ellen Becker left?"
 Whitmore looked relieved. "So you heard about that?" He accepted at full value Harper's assumed Things have never been quite the same since then" he said. sadly. shaking his head. For a while it looked like they were headed for a breakup. MT. Dufresne has been touchy and sharp-spoken and suspicious ever since, although why he should be jealous of Mrs. Du- fresne is more than l can make out"
 Perhaps the root of MT. Du- fresne's jealousy lies in the differ ence in their ages" said Harper. That often happens, you know"
 Whitmore took a long pull ct his pipe. Well. then, take MT. Croyden. He's in about the same boat. He's not worried about getting old, like MT. Dufresne. His trouble is that his wife has so much more money than he has. So they're at it hammer and tongs half the time. Their maid, Hannah, comes over here lot and some fine stories she brings with her."
 John Whitmore warmed to his subject and proceeded to illustrate his, philosophy with chapter and verse. Harper listened to it all with half-closed eyes, nodding at appro- priate places. Johns tongue. sub dued for many noon by the auto cratic Martha, fambled on and on, spurred by the noLor of a sympa- thetic ear. He se.med not to ques- tion but that the detectives duties had already made him acquainted with these highways and byways of tie household at g. Powhatan Ter race.
 Harper listened, careful not to break the spell by inept questions. He simply sat there in smiling, friendly ease, smoked his pipe and listened to the thousand and one de- tails that gave him a keener insight than he could nave obtained by un- lip ,d cross-examination.
 Only once did he interrupt. "Who was this girl, Ellen Becker. and why did she leave?" he asked casually, following Whitmore's chance men. tion of the former housemaid.
 s-I don't know much about her." John replied. Nobody did. She was the hoity-toity kind. not very so. ciable."
 fCopyright. 1881. by Walter c. Bro,on J
 What 10 the mystery Of Ellen
 Becker, Harper wonders tomorrow.