The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-05-05


murder scene.
Chapter Is
Fool Or Fiend?
A SEY looked down at the "Get
"A Out, Stay Out" message, Slade
had received. It was written on an
apparently genuine half sheet Of
official Billingsgate notepaper,
with the town seal and names Of
the town officials engraved on the
side.
Bertha" he calle d. "Say,
Bertha, you got a spare program?
Can have it,"
He tipped through the pages un-
til he came to q facsimile letter, a
greeting from the town officials to
Billingsgate's guests. The heading
was similar to the one on SHADES
message, but there were several
differences. Underneath the town
seal were the words "Old Home
Week." and at the foot were the
dates Of the founding of the first
settlement and its later incorpora-
ton as town.
Bertha glanced over his shoul-
der.
"That's a nice letter, isn't it?
Aunt Sara wrote it. And that swell
new paper. Uncle jeff says that
the new papers worth the trouble
Of Old Home Week. all by itself.
He likes nice paper, and he never
could get them to buy that eX-
pensive kind. Aunt Sara said to
hear him talk, you'd think the only
thing he done for this Old Home
Week was to get that paper"
"You can't tell much about it
from this picture" Asey said. els
it colored?"
"There's box full of it in Uncle
Jeff's DESK" Bertha said. wv by
don't you look at it? He wouldn't
mind. He show it to everyone"
Asey strolled into the Twin e
room with Bertha, who produced
the paper from bottom drawer.
"See? White with blue engrav-
ing. Brinley wanted yellow and
blue, like the town colors. but jeff
put his foot down"
can with due an just reason"
Asey said. "Yessiree, that's swell.
That's a sWeR breakfast, too. Say,
how do you feel about your jelly
prospects up to the show? When's
the judgin'?"
Saturday they give the cups"
Bertha said. "Silver cups. thought
mine was pretty good, but there's
some mighty fine jelly up there. I
went up yesterday"
"Don't give it thought, how it
looks" Asey said. Looks don't
mean a thing. ! seen some that was
done up all fancy, an folks was
sayin' how nice it looked, but it
was what my mother used to call
spindiin'. Yours is probably dark
an gummy, like it ought to be.
Thanks, Bertha"
After she left, Asey took down
the name of the printer from the
cardboard box of town paper. and
after several m inor skirmishes
with various phone operators. he
got his man in New Bedford.
He hung up the receiver with a
feeling of citation. The last lot OF
old paper had been delivered to
Billingsgate i ong before Christ
mas. The new paper had been or
dered and sent in January.
Asey sat down and pulled out
his pipe. ]. Arthur had written
that message, but he had written
it long ago, and it had been plant
ed in SHADES studio by someone
else. He looked again at the paper
It had been ironed over, he de-
cided, but near the top was GER
tainly a place where pin had
pricked through. He rumpled the
paper and held it to the light. Yes.
the paper had been pinned some
where, but not at the studio. Slade
said he found it on his table. held
down by an ash tray.
Il wonder" Asey said. IF -
sure!"
Plagued Beyond Endurance
r. ARTHUR BRINLEY W an
J irascible sort. Suppose ne were
busy. making tax lists or figuring,
and people interrupted him. Sup
pose it was around town meeting
time. or the time Of some celebra-
tion. and a crowd was outside as
there had been the other day. lay
ing for Weston. He could see j.
Arthur, plagued beyond endur-
ance, scrawling just the sort OF
thing on paper. and pinning it up
on the door outside, and feeling
that he had taken great step for
w ard toward securing peace: II
was a gesture that Weston or jeff
would never have found it neces-
sary to make, but somehow it
seemed like Brinley. At any rate
it was a good guess.
Then someone had happened
past the door and taken the paper
off. Perhaps for the fun OF it and
without any plar in mind, and
perhaps to save 1t for something
like this
Kay Thayer strobe In and
perched on the arm Of a chair.
Sitting here looking pleased
with yourself" she said. "and
breakfasting at noonl On waff1es,
too. I smelled' em. It's disgraceful.
It's decadent. I'm up at the crack