Evening star., 1934-07-25
THE HOBGOBLIN MURDER. Bv
Kay Cleaver Strahan. Indianap-
oils. The BObbs. Merrill IN

THE HOBGOBLIN MURDER. BY
Kay Cleaver Strahan. Indianap-
Oils: The BobbS-Merrill Co.
Three old women, living as recluses
In an ancient red brick house, isolated
from the small Pacific Coast CITY of
Wnlch 1t was once a part by a for
bidding hedge of dark cedars and a
tall iron fence, are sitting together on
a wet November evening in a dimlv
lighted upstairs room. each engaged
In Iadylike occupation, and eacn
engaged also with her own thoughts.
For so many years that there was no
one IN the village who could remember
ever having seen them, Miss HortenSe.
Miss Prudence and Miss Dorinda
| Getty had not emerged from the great
iron gates, nor had any one been ad-
mitted through them.
But on this rainy afternoon the
spinsters were subjected to an in
trusion of portentiouS proportions
which, for once, Miss Hortense was
powerless to prevent. Valentine
Pornick, fifty years in the service of
the Gettys as coachman and gardener,
had admitted a caller and limited at
a threat if she were not received. The
caller proved to be the granddaughter
of sister who had been ostracised
years before because she had married
a circus man, and she had with her
three-year- -old child. Both of them
were hungry, wet and cold.
Madge Coyle had been led to believe
10 hn Hxroa I,r5 srk- l.
mother would almost certainly be
moved to forgive the disgraceful con-
duct of the sister banished from the
family circle and to welcome her
warmly when she appeared before
them, destitute and forlorn, with her
baby. But there was no forgiveness
and there was no affectionate and
kindly welcome on the part of the
austere old tyrant who ruled the
house and its occupants.
Contemplate, miserly and utterly
without sympathy for any human
being. Miss Hortense made life miser-
able for every member of the house.
hold. The newcomers are incessant-
ly treated to double doses of her
hardness and cruelty until murder
stalks in the candlelight and hob
goblins make shadows on the walls
in the terrifying darkness of the
cavernous halls. Miss Prudence and
Miss Dorinda hate their sister, and
they become Immediately devoted to
Madge and little Mary-Margaret.
The child, in fact, wins the affec-
ton of every one except Miss Hor-
tense.
On a night when Madge and
Bertha Kane have been smuggled
out by Valentine Pornick for legiti-
mate respite from the prisonlike
house Miss Hortense is murdered
with pair of scissors. Little Mary
Margaret gives the alarm. Screaming
and hysterical, she arouses Miss Pru-
dence, who is surprised to find the
child alone and undoubtedly the VIC
tim of CHASTITY nightmare. as she
mutters internationally about hob
goblinS. Miss Dorinda, seeking the
cause of the screams, finds Miss Pru-
dence consoling the frightened baby,
and, returning to her own room,
notices that Miss Hortense's door is
open and a candle burning within
She peeps in to see what her sister
might be doing at that hour Of the
night and discovers the murder.
Every person IN the house has
hated Miss Hortense intensely enough
and long enough to have murdered
her, and each one of them takes
pains to admit to Lynn Macdonald,
the woman detective assigned to the
case, that the idea was a good one
and that whoever committed the
crime ought to be thanked. There
are six people in the house besides
Mary Margaret All of them are glad
that the old tyrant is dead. and none
of them is inclined to want the nfur-