Evening star., 1934-10-06
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of the lobby" The detective led the
way to the end of the corridor and
there Terry saw Mullins, Craven,
Reynolds, Hover and Doc Biers.
Across the lobby Terry saw his
bodyguard with a wide grin dividing
his face.
Sorry I can't provide you boys
with a Rolls" the detective said
amiably.
Whats the lay?" Mullins asked.
Something happened to Planer."
"What?" they chorused.
Poison. guess"
rs he dead?"
mo. They think they got him in
time, but he is pretty bad. The doc
tors say he had an overdose of some
thing or other. Our job was to find
out how it was done and who did it.
We got hold of the kids at the stand
first. They said there were lot of
men at the. stand when Planer was
there. We went for the cops who
were on duty and they said a bunch
of men from the press box had gone
to the stand when the field was about
clear. The kid recognized you--"
And here we are" finished Craven.
They were questioned singly and
in group. Each man was asked to
give his version of what had hap
pened at the stand, how many of the
frankfurters Planer had eaten, who
was near him while he was eating
them and a number of other ques-
tionS.
Their stories were amazingly alike,
perhaps because they had been
trained to report what they saw.
There was the greatest discrepancy
about the time of the report when
Terry and Craven agreed on the
time and said it was at the moment
Planer was handed the 1irSt frank
lurter. Mullins said planer had had
at least one frankfurter before it
happened. Reynolds said he thought
Planer had had several. The two
boys did not agree.
The poison was found in the mus
tard pot and little Of it would un-
doubtdely have killed Planer. The
police could not understand the slip
up made by the murderers. They
surely knew Planer's weakness where
hot dogs were concerned. He always
ate four or five and that day he had
taken six. 1t was the overdose that
saved his life; had he eaten one or
two he would have died. They were
very anxious to fix the time of the
small explosion on the field. as they
believed that had important bearing
on the case. 1t was Mullins who re-
membered that the boy had produced
a clean mustard pot for Planer.
The boy was questioned. and with
tears in his eyes said they didn't
change the pot every day. but they
always had a fresh one for Planer
when he came up.
The boys insisted that no one had
been behind the counter and they
swore that the mustard pot Planer
had used had been freshly filled that
afternoon and had not been used by
any one else.
II the boys were right and no one
had been behind the stand. then the
poison must have been put in while
the mustard pot was on the counter
The important thing was to know
when 1t had been put in. The MUIR
derer would know all about Planer
and his habits or he would not have
selected that means of killing him
Why, then. was the poison put in be-
fore Planer had eaten two or three
frankfurters? The puff of smoke on
the field must have had some bear
ing on the case but what?
They were asked TO recall the num-
Der of people at the stand at the time.
The boys knew that some men had
been there, but they had no idea who
they we're.
The chief OF police apologized to
the press men for bringing them out,
thanked them and let them go. AS
they were leaving he said to Terry:
You're Burke, aren't you? Do
you mind waiting a moment?"
Terry smiled back at the jovial-
faced man.
DO you know anything at ALP" the
chief asked.
Not a thing"
Il thought you might have seen or
heard something that you didn't want
to say in front Of the Others"
mo. I wish did know"
The boys we're shouting the extras
on the streets when the men arrived
at the hotel
"FIEND TRIES TO KILL PLANER"
was the scarehead, There was very
little news in the paper about the
crime. but the wires to New York were
kept busy for about a half hour as
each man frantically wired his paper
whatever scraps of news he could find.
They talked of nothing else at
dinner and Reynolds said. You boys
are bunch of saps. I telephoned my
story in and I bet we have beat"
The whole country was in an up
roar over the attempt on Planer' S
life. Every paper had something to
say about it. The police we're up
braided numerically for negligence.
Button was severely criticized for per-
mitting Planer to leave his sight.
In the meantime the series went
on and the Blues left Cleveland with
one out OF three games to their
credit. which upset calculations con-
siderably.
On the third day after the poisoning
it was announced that Planer had
a better than $3.50 chance to re-
cover. Then the bulletins became less
frequent, until finally the doctors an
nounced that, thanks to his magnifi-
cent constitution and clean mode of
living, Planer would recover. But it
was six weeks before he was able to
mt m a uniform AGAIN
(To be continued.)