The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-05-26
OLD HOME WEEK MURDER
by Phoebe Atwood Taylor

your"
"How?" Kay demanded. "Want
me to crawl out and sit on the
hood with a handkerchief? What do
you think ] am, I'd"
Hold the Wheel" Asey said, can
I'll fix it."
Somehow with a sudden lurch
he managed to clean enough of a
space to see through.
A few hundred yards on, he
slowed the car down and snapped
off the headlights.
AHEAD" he informed Kay, sis
the main road to Boston. An Just
blow us here to the left is the road
where that feller's got to come out.
It's two miles longer than the
thing we come over, bein' a work
r'lief road, an it's kind of wind
in"
"And what are you going to do
with this fellow, providing he
turns up? Shoot him?"
II got no d'sire to kill him, ]
want to find out who he is-aha-
there"
A sedan raced out of the new
road and sped past them at ter
rife clip.
That's it," Asey swung the
coupe over and followed. License
numbers covered up - now, let's
see what he does, an where he
thinks he'll go. All. There-there
he turns off. That's nice. Well
string along"
where's he headed?" Kay
asked as they left the main road.
where are we headed?"
Forest
"TOWARD my home town." Asey
l. said, "an' I'd like real well to
play tag with him on some of them
back roads there. l know them
roads,"
"You seem to know these"
To-day, while judgin'," Asey
said, 81 read through the whole
blessed Old Home Week program,
includin' a map of roads, past an
present. Looked like a closeup of
pertinent wave, but l got a lot
out of it. Fellows slowing down.
l don't like that"
"Why not?" Kay demanded.
"Catch up-find out who he is-it's
your chance to-oh, dear, there he
goes again! What are you slowing
down for now?"
Want to see if l can peer
through this windshield an see
no, guess he didn't"
Didn't what?" Kay asked as
Asey's foot again went down hard
on the accelerator.
81 though he might have tossed
bottle or Somethin' for us to run
over-the road narrows here, Kay.
Hang on
The speedometer tape jiggled
again, but this time the effort was
too much. 1t jumped wildly around
and then came to rest at the figure
eight, and there it stayed.
"ASey," Kay shouted in his ear,
give this up! He's out of sight
can't even see trace of his head
lights on"
Coin to try one more thing"
Asey said. "an' this time, brace
yourself an watch that wound of
yours. We're goin' to bounce con-
siderable"
He turned the car off the tarred
road, apparently into the middle
of the woods. Kay thought at first
that the coupe was completely out
of control.
'Old wagon road" Asey ex-
planned casually. IF / can get
through, we got him."
Kay peered out the side win
dow and automatically ducked.
But the tree didn't break the glass,
it ground hard against it, and then
scratched noiSily against the body
as the car bounced along.
She looked at Asey in amaze
ment. The branches were actually
coming in the car on his side,
where the window wouldn't close.
Bushes and trees were scraping
the coupe's underpinning and run
ming boards.
She leaned forward and found
a spot on the windshield through
which she miraculously could look
ahead. Il
Road? ASey, it's forest! Look
at that tree! We can't-what-
what happened to it? 1t was right
there in the middle of the road"
We went over it. Couldn't do
this in my car" Asey said. "Too
low slung."
Twice he stopped to wipe the
rain off the windshield, and once
he got out to pull a fallen tree out
of their way.
"This." Asey said, FUSED to be
the main road to Boston, in the old
days. The stage coaches used it.
This part were goin' through now,
it used to be big settlement. Tav-
ern an store an church an black
smith shop. I S'pose the clothes on
them figures often visited around
here. Maybe b'longed here"
"Asey, what about that figure?
What's the idea in swiping that, if
any?"
"Wait'n I get out of this mess"
Asey said. II think-Kay, in about
two seconds, Well be back on the
main road once more. II Gods
good to us, we'll be ahead of that
Teller. An anyways, we can't be
very far blind him"
But the last forty feet of the old
road turned out to be the worst
part of the entire ride.
Continued tomorrew,
fCoauriaAk. saaaI