The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-10-10
q EF. Van o. WATER
W. ~ v. Service

thought I heard her chuckle as
she trundled away.
All morning I plowed through the
uncensored annals of the Paget an
cestry-quotations from innumera-
BILE books, excerpts from court rec
ords, old letters and the like-al
compiled, no doubt with frequent
shudders. by Everett Ferriter, gene
alogist.
When someone moved in the hall,
I found my eyes jumping from the
scandalous annals before me to the
open door. My heart would pound
and then, when nothing happened,
l would swear and bend again to
my work.
Once, in midmorning, heard Al
legra laugh in the dining room. To-
ward noon Miss Agatha rolled her.
self in.
WELL" she asked, "do you begin
to see why wanted newspaper
man to write it,"
81 begin to see,' I told her, that
a book like this would SELL"
She lit a cigarette, blew smoke
through her nose and shook her
head.
ST know" she said. lone of those
literary strip dances. I'm sinful
old woman, David, but I'm not sell
ing the bones of my ancestors, no
matter what think Of their owners.
This book viii be family affair.
Allegro and l are going out to lunch
and you better, too"
I thought of my date with Coch-
rane and shook my head.
II had a late breakfast. I'll slip
out later. There's lot Of reading
still ahead of me-"
"If you can't finish today" she
began, but I cut her short.
IF I'm not in the way, I'll stay
till I've finished. Then we can talk
it over tomorrow morning and get
to work"
You're an obstinate person,
aren't your" Miss Agatha asked,
and grinned.
Aren't your" I asked her. She
chuckled and turned her chair. Her
warmth almost made me halt her
and confess my arrangement with
Cochrane, but I hesitated and then
she was gone.
Later I saw allegro push her
aunt's wheel chair past the door.
She did not look toward me and I
took my mind by the scruf and
damned it back into its job so thor
NfYnhIyy that - 70, 60
the time appointed when I recalled
my tryst with Cochrane.
He beamed as I took the seat op-
posite him.
'I'm glad to see you, accomplice.
We beat the town for one edition on
Lyons getting pinched."
And got him unpinched again"
added, and told of Shannon's an
ger that morning, his squabble with
Grosvenor, and the Ferriters' re-
treat to the Babylon. That pink
and chubby mask through which he
peered did not stir. He gave me
an envelope.
"Confrmatory letter from Mill
gam" Cochrane explained, "and
weeks pay in advance. There's an
expense account on this job, too, if
you need it. How far along have
you got?"
LAS far" l told him, "as Selah
Paget who died in the odor of sancti-
ty and foreclosed mortgages In
1887"
''Not that"-he grinned-"t kill
ing"
Nowhere"
"You and me both," he answered.
Lets order and then solve it"
While we ate, we CROPPED among
the scant unrelated facts, making
crazy guesses, building theories and
pulling them down. There were
only the dead man-still, Cochrane
said, nidentifed-and the cultural
voice ] had heard over the tele-
phone. Except for that, he might
as well have been struck by light
ming. No fnger-prints, no weapons,
no purpose in the killing, no clue to
the slayer, no proof, beyond the
phone call and the body, that any,
one had been in the Ferriter apart
ment.
I'm laying off mention of that
voice on the Phone" Cochrane said,
saving away at his steak. "Shan-
non is sitting on it and so am I. No
use tipping off the gifted murderer
to all we know
Gifted is small praise" / told
him. Were tinkering around the
perfect crime"
"Hooey," he snapped. Perfect
crimes are as rare as perfect thirty
skies, my lad"
/ liked his mind-quick and dar-
ing yet solid-and it whetted mine.
The long hand of the white-enam-
eled wall clock circled its face while
we talked and I forgot Miss Agatha
and the waiting records of the Paget
family. in spell that was half puz-
zle, half hunt. Cochrane said at
last:
what have we got? We know
who had keys to the fat. All right,
one of the Ferriters or your friend
Higgins did it. Let's not kid our
selves. One of them did. Yesterday
noon, while you were away, and Hig-
gins may have been downstairs,
and the other guy-this Hoyt-may
have been upstairs with the eleva-
tor, is the only time Blackboard and
his able assassin could have got in.
ALI right again. Then it wasn't a
planned murder because they
couldn't have known that luck would
leave the way clear. But it wasn't
unintentional, at that. For they
walked upstairs. As soon as the
killer knew they hadn't been seen,
he began to design slaughter
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