The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-10-31
@ ~. VAN % WATER
~. y. y. Service


them to lunch. You forget that
spectator of life must have her vi
carious thrills
at never said a word" told her.
with a face like yours" she re-
piled, you didn't have to. Of course
I suspect the Ferriters. So do YOU"
She rolled her chair to the desk
side and jumped upon her project.
For half-hour we talked. Or rath-
er, I listened while she elaborated
her purpose to me and outlined the
scope and set the tone for the first
chapter. At last, she paused and
grinned.
ANY questions?"
I shook my head.
''Let me do a few pages and see
whether I've caught your idea"
Excellent" Miss Agatha said
with a jerk of her head. Everett
would have spent the next half-hour
in qualms and objections.
"You may, when you see my
copy" I told her.
She chuckled again as she rolled
toward the door.
what ho!" he said in response
to my greeting and waved a plump
hand.
I thought Of Allegro, standing pro-
vocatively beside him. I thought of
Dukes SANDER and bent again to
my work. Everett had a softness
that shook instead of hardened un-
der stress but, even in his agitation,
he had not forgotten his cologne. I
don't like cologne With the reek of
it in my nose, I found him standing
beside me. He smiled and picked
up the two pages had completed.
do you mind?" he asked and
read them without waiting. The
points of the waxed mustache
twitched and color came to his
pudgy cheeks. It isn't pleasant tc
have another recast your own work.
l understood his irritation. He
dropped the sheets on the desk and
busted his hands together before he
Lit cigarette.
"Of course" he said with a ges-
ture of resignation, eff that's the
sort of thing she wants"
$50 what?" I asked, but his faint
ly popped eyes slid away from mine.
He laid his cigarette on an ash tray
and shrugged.
mo offense, my dear chap. I
mean-well, isn't If a bit ghoulish
and horrible, this-er, elimination
of all the family skeletons? mean
it's really not my sort of work"
He stood quite still a minute be-
fore he said, in voice that tried
hard to be careless:
Anything new?"
Don't you read the papers," I
asked, "or is journalism too-ghoul-
ish and horrible?"
He didn't resent that but an
swered, quite humbly:
''Of course. I just meant, have
you-has anyone, mean-found out
anything else?"
! shouldn't have deviled him fur
Their, but he asked for it. I shrugged
and put fresh sheet of paper in the
typewriter.
I'm rewrite man." told him.
mot detective"
I heard breath go through his
nose. He mopped his face with
plaid-bordered silk handkerchief.
The smell of cologne drove away
my pity:
But" he faltered. "you do know
something, eh?"
Plenty" I answered.
s'What?" he asked as though the
word hurt him."
I shook my head.
You're nervous enough already"
He made desperate gesture with
both hands as though trying to push
something away.
''NervousI Why shouldn't I be
nervous? I've been Inundated by
lot of foul police. Asses that have
no respect for the commonest de-
cency. We've all been bounded by
them, because they're too ignorant
ever to find out who did that dread
full thing"
Something clicked inside me and
I looked at him hard. It might be
only the indignation of the innocent
that rode him. 1t might be some
thing more. / couldn't picture Ev-
erett Ferriter as murderer, but
I had been fooled too often in the
last two days to trust my own senses.
So I said:
Don't underestimate the COPS.
They are unrefned, but the Homi-
eide Bureau in this town ranks pref
ty high. I've been newspaper man
long enough to know that when a de-
tective seems dumbest he's proba-
bly, being smartest. I'll bet you,
even money, that they clear up this
case in a week"
I knew / had hit him. He gagged
a little and gave sick smile.
81 hope you're right" he told me.
cit can't be minute too soon for
me-for all of U.s."
He left so quickly and silently that
I heard the front door shut before
I knew he was gone.
! sat and scowled at the wall
while tried to pull that jittery fig
ure into a pose of guilt. Then /
remembered his alibi. It had been
the nature of this alibi, and Allee-
ra's part in it, that had made me
vindictive. I thrust my mind away
from current crime and into the an
mails of Miss Agatha's forebears.
M