Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1938-01-28
|ACASE FOR Detectives
r By LEO BRUCE 90

| give me hand, Will you? I want
to take one of those ropes to the
gymnasium"
Though it meant yet another
climb to the second story, could
not very we'll refuse. Soon we
had dragged the thing across the
garden, and Lord Simon, delicate
ly poised on the ladder, had hung
it in its original place. He de-
scended. and standing back to the
door. looked fixedly at it.
TITS all right" he said, as we
left the gymnasium. Quite all
right. I might have known it
would be-" And he pulled CRATE
fully at his cigar.
The mullins were cold when we
got back, but knew better than
to think food was important while
there was investigation to be
done. Why, have known people,
after murders. to go whole days
without eating.
ThurstOn still had not appeared,
but understood that he was to be
present at the inquiry that eve
ming. I was thankful that he had
kept out of the way all day. MY
knowledge of these situations,
gathered from some study of
them, taught me that we were all
behaving according to the very
best precedents, but I could not
help feeling that a man who had
just lost his wife might not see it
that way. had learned that after
murder it is quite proper and
conventional for everyone in the
house to join the Investigators in
this entertaining game of hide
and-seek which seemed wholly to
absorb us. It was not extraordi-
nary for there to be three total
strangers questioning the SER
wants, or for the police to be
treated with smiling patronage. or
for the corpse to be pulled about
by anyone who was curious to
know how it had become corpse.
But when I thought of the man to
whom the tragedy would be some
thlng more than an enhancing
problem for talented investiga-
tors, I really wondered how these
queer customs had arisen.
All three of our distinguished
visitors, I noticed, kept very much
to himself, or at least remained
at some distance from his rivals.
Lord Simon, having satisfied him
self that the rope was, as he put
it, all right, had settled down
again to his Aldine Plato. Mgr.
Smith was discussing medieval art
with Alec Norris, and M. Picon.
after rearranging the cups which
had been laid haphazardly on the
tea table, sat isolated near the
fire.
The time had come, I thought,
for stock-taking. The three great
inyestig ators, not to mention the
police sergeant, had all begun to
form theories, and since I had as
much evidence in my hands as
they had, did not see why I
should not do the same.
However they might differ in
the details of their research, they
had all been interested in the rope,
or two ropes, which had been dis
covered. Yet I could not see how
those ropes could have been used.
What made them impossible was
that we had been so prompt, so
very prompt, in breaking down
that door. If the murderer had
escaped by climbing rope he
would have murdered Mary Thur
ston, crossed to the window,
climbed out onto the sill, closed
the window after him, climbed the
rope and drawn it up after him,
all during the few moments it had
taken us to run upstairs and break
down the door, for certainly a
rope against that window would
have been visible, and probably it
would have swung against it
nolslly. But even if neither was
the case I could not believe that
the rope could have been drawn
up before Sam Williams crossed
TO the window to look out of it,
And then, even suppose that it
could have been, who was there
in the house who coult have done
it?
I'm