The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-10-20
BY MARION WHITE
CHAPTER XXI

APARTMENT. She expected Sergeant
Dolan. And Jim, of course. But
jim lived here now. They had
been married the previous after
noon, with Sergeant Dolan, iron
ically enough, serving as best
man.
Just at this minute, Jim was
checking their bags to the ar
port. Some time tomorrow they
would be in Utah, to welcome
Jim'S father home.
She peeked into the oven, to
see if the biscuits had Drowned
sufficiently. There's nothing |
like more" Dolan had told her.
than hot biscuits for Sunday tea
. It's not often, you know, that
tough old bachelor like myself
finds anybody willing to bake
them"
Well, Cilly was willing. If she
lived a thousand years, she could
never do enough for Sergeant
Dolan. When she thought of that
terrifying whirl of events the
previous Thursday evening
the last awful second when she
opened her eyes and expected to
see jim lying dead at her feet =.
Instead it had been Hutchins
whom the bullet had found--thc
self-orinionated, superior Harry
Hutchins. She saw the stream Of
red dripping from his hand, the
gun on the floor where he had
dropped it. And behind her, out
side the shattered glass Of Amcs
& Wakeficld's front door, stood
Dolan, his service revolver still
smoking.
1t was no less than a miracle.
Not only once, but twice that
evening, DOlan had appeared at
the very second when he was
And now Harry Hutchins was
safely behind bars.
He didn't stand a chance. The
cards were stacked against him.
The evidence Amy had left be-
hind her was complete: There
was the perfect sequence of his
activities, from the moment he
stepped from the Utah plane
three days following the theft of
the bonds the record of the
hotel he had gone to Immediately,
the affidavit of the landlady in
whose house he had lived next &.
the various transactions in diSpoS-
ing Of the bonds, one at time.
Everything was there, except
the final proof that he and the
| man Worth were one and the
same. Once he was taken into
custody, that was easily cstab-
lished. A dozen people from the
bank identified the photographs
which the police rushed to Blue
fields.
For the thousandth time, Cilly
asked herself why the truth had
not dawned on her before. What
other reason would girl like
Amy Kerr have for pursuing a
friendship with the man, if it
/ weren't because in that way she
could keep a close check or him?
She had acted her part so thor
oughly.
In fact, her entire investigation
was a marvel of intelligence
/ work. Sergeant Dolan himself re-
marked that. No special invcsti-
| gator, no group of investigators,
could have done more. The dis
covcry, for example, that Hutch
ms was about TO leave Chicago,
when Amy arranged to be on the
same train with him and strike up
an acquaintance. "Wcll," as Do
Ian said, "it took nerve and
brains. TO think such a girl was
done in E"
That was the tragedy of it.
Amy had done it all, single
handed. and given her life for it.
If only she had confidcd in some
one, in Cilly, at least.
Unfortunately, however, she
could not know when it was that
Hutchins finally became SUSPECT
! Gus of her. Probably not until a
few months previous, when, I'M
der the name and appearance of
the elderly Mrs. Elliot, he had
taken the vacant furnished
apartment above to watch her.
/ Cilly took the biscuits, brown
cd to a golden crispness, out of
the oven. If Jim and the SER
geant would only be on time
yes, here they were now, togcth-
er. She saw them through the
kitchen window. A moment later,
their combined bulk filled the
tiny kitchen.
Everything is ready" she an
nounccd. Another five minutes,
sergeant. and your biscuits would
be stone cold Come, sit down
right away"
/ 1t was a very special fcaSt-a
combined wedding supper, thanks
giving and bon voyage Scnd-off.
Sergeant Dolan contributed the
flowers, a glorious corsage of or
chids. And after dinner the three
talked long, finally returning to
the strange case.
"Say, how did you actually dis
cover Hutchins was the man."
Dolan asked Cilly.
Il don't really know, Of course,
somewhere in the back of my
mind was always the wonder why
Amy ever kept up a friendship
with him, guess | must have
been thinking that when all of a
sudden, like Il series of flash
backs in the movies, dozen
other ideas popped into my head.
Suppose it had been Hutchins hid
ing out in "a. Then everything
else fitted together into a perfect