Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1937-05-27

knob of the vault across the hall in.
side"
Quackenbush, his camera having
been set up, took his pictures and
then waited by the passageway door
for further instructions from the
fnger-print officers.
When the three men had gone in
side, Doremus drew in an ex-
aggerated sigh and spoke to Heath
impatiently.
"How about getting your corpus
deficit over on the settee? Easier
to examine him there"
20. K, Doc"
Two detectives lifted Swift's limp
body and placed it on the same
wicker divan where Zalia Graem
had lain when she collapsed at the
sight of the dead man..
Doremus went to work in his usu-
al swift and efficient fashion. When
he had finished the task, he threw a
steamer rug over the dead man,
and made a brief report to Vance
and Markham.
"There's nothing to indicate a vio-
lent struggle, if that's what you're
hoping for. But there's a slight
abrasion on the bridge of the nose,
as if his glasses had been jerked
off; and there's a slight bump on
the left side of his head, over the
ear, which may have been caused
by a blow of some kind, though the
skin hasn't been broken"
"How, DOCTOR" asked Vance,
"would the following theory square
with your findings-that the man
had been shot elsewhere, had fallen
to a tiled floor, striking his head
against it sharply, that his glasses
had been torn off when the left
lens came in contact with the floor,
and that he was carried out here
to the chair, and the glasses re-
placed on his nose?"
Doremus pursed his lips and in
clined his head t~houghtfully.
'That would be a very reasonable
explanation of the lump on his head
and the abrasion on the bridge of
his nose So this is another of
your cock-eyed murders, is it? Well,
it's all right with me. But I'll tell
you right now, you won't get an
autopsy report tonight. I'm bored
and need excitement; and I'm going
to Madison Square Garden"
He made out an order for the re-
moval of the body, readjusted his
hat, waved a friendly good-by which
included all of us, and disappeared
swiftly through the door into the
passageway.
Vance led the way into the study,
and the rest of us followed him. We
were barely seated when Captain
Dubois came in and reported that
there we're no finger-prints on any Of
the objects Vance had enumerated.
Handled with Gloves" he finished
laconically, "or wiped clean"
Vance thanked him. "I'm not in
the least surprised" he added.
Dubois rejoined Bellamy and
Quackenbush in the hall, and the
three made their way down the
stairs.
"Well, Vance, are you satisfied"
Markham asked.
Vance nodded. 81 hadn't expect
ed any fi%ngerprints. Cleverly
thought-out crime. And what Do
mi found fills some vacant spots
in my own theory. Stout fella, Do
remus, understands his business. He
knows what is wanted and looks for
it. There can be no question that
Swift was in the vault when he was
shot; that he fell to the floor, brush
ing down some of the papers; that
he struck his head on the tiled floor,
and broke the left lens of his glasses
you noted, of course, that the lump
on his head is also on the left side
and that he was dragged into the
garden and placed in the chair.
Swift was a small, slender man;
probably didn't weigh over a hun
dred and twenty pounds; and it
would have been M great feat of
strength for someone to have thus
transported him after death -"
There were footsteps in the corri-
dor and, as our eyes involuntarily
turned toward the door, we saw the
dignified elderly figure of Professor
Ephraim Garden. I recognized him
Immediately from pictures I had
seen.
He was a tall man, despite his
stopped shoulders; and, though he
was very thin, he possessed a firm
ness of bearing which made one feel
that he had retained a great meas
ure of the physical power that had
obviously been his in youth. There
was benevolence in the somewhat
haggard face, but there was also
shrewdness in his gaze; and the con-
tour of his mouth indicated a latent
hardness.
He bowed to us with an old-fash-
Toned graciousness and took a few
steps into the study.
"My son has just informed me-"
he said in a slightly q%uerulous voice,
''of the tragedy that has occurred
here this afternoon. I'm sorry that
I did not return home earlier, as is
my wont on Saturdays, for in that
event the tragedy might have been
averted. I myself would have been
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