The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1934-05-24

pursed judlciously. had the manner Of
a Judge weighing evidence. "All very
plausible" he nodded his head "Bui
still only theory"
Here is some more of It," retortet
the novelist. 1.-THE night before the
wedding, your suspicious OF your wife
and Franklin aroused, you broke into
his compartment of the safe. There
| you found evidence which supported
| those suspicious. And the revolver
too. That" he admitted, us still only
guess. But I'll know whether or
not It's true one In few minutes.
An expression OF annoyance fitted
across the attorneys countenance.
"Guesses |" he said. "Guessesl You're
always talking of guesses What made
you make such q guess7'
In the first place, you were the
only person who fitted every POSSIBLE
ity of the crime. In the second, there
were Franklin's keys. | couldn't un-
derstand why all his keys were In
tact. upon his ring. except the key to
his compartment of the safe. 1t
seemed strange that he should have
kept that, of all keys, lying carelessly
In his desk where you found 1t for us.
Then the solution occurred to me and
compared that key we found there
with the one we had been unable to
Identify upon the key-ring, remember
Ing how similar they were In size and
appearance Remember, / had tried
to use that unidentified key to open
that compartment. | was able to In
sert 1t In the lock but 1t wouldn't turn
the bolt Do you know why?
"They were both keys to that safe.
When | compared them a few minutes
ago. | discovered they both bore the
same manufacturers serial number.
One of those keys belonged to you,
Mr.. Dunbar. The other was Frank
Inns"
Peter stared at the attorney express
sionlessly with that much to go on,
felt confident that / knew how we
had been duped. We were puzzled be-
cause we couldn't find any clue to the
woman In blue am IL Franklin's per-
sonal effects. This was now explained.
You had removed those clues when
you searched Franklin's compartment
the evening before. to verify your sus-
picions regarding him and your wife,
Afterward 1t occurred to you that this
broken drawer might incrimlnate you
II we discovered 1t. So you trans
ferred the remainder of his effects to
your own drawer, leaving your key In
Franklin's desk. The broken drawer
you appropriated for your own use.
And that" declared Peter with finality,
is what wrote Kilday few minutes
ago He Is on his way to your office
to check UP on those two drawers In
your safe. Unless | am mistaken, he
will discover that the key on Frank
Inns ring fits the broken compartment
which You are now using.
Simple. when you think about 1t,
Isn't it?'
you make 1t sound simple" the at
torney replied.
"The only thing that puzzled me ia
why you returned to your office that
night" Peter continued. you had
already destroyed the evidence In
Franklin's compartment"
Il was afraid there might be some
evidence elsewhere that / had over
looked, and | wasn't expecting you to
hunt the murderer there" The attor-
ney was making no effort to maintain
a pretense OF innocence. II couldn't
very well go through the place In the
daytime without exciting comment
from the employees. I felt perfectly
safe In making the search at night,
however. UNTIL" he shrugged. you
on the scene. None Of my
employees had an excuse to be there
at that hour, and knew that the jan
itor's force did not come on duty un-
til ten o'clock so naturally | was
when / heard your key In the
lock. I didn't realize, or have time
to consider that you might be coming |
there to trap some one else. lost my |
head, | guess. At any rate, | deter |
mined not to be trapped there, so | |
turned out the lights and waited for
you In the dark You know what hap
pened."
Peter glanced at the locked door
whats the idea" he asked. lyon
can't hope to escape. By this time
Kilday has verified the manner In
which you switched boxes with Frank
Iin."
"Oh, yes. There's always one meth
ID of escape. But don't be alarmed.
That was only a precauton against
From his pocket he took small
gial. Removing the cork, he smelled
II the contents. Then he smiled
Poison" he explained. I've been
carrying 1t about with me for several
lays. Even before / killed Franklin,
made up my mind that | would
never be taken alive"
Dunbar raised the bottle gravely.
Before | CO." he said, Il want to say
I'm sorry you went through the win
low. ! had nothing against you. I
,nly wanted to get out of there. unde-