The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-09-19
q EF. VAN Dc WATER
w. ". y. Service


er had promised. Well, it didn't. Or
it hadn't up to noon today, which
was the last time I called at the
Sphere office"
ST won't crawl back home,
whipped. That's why I'm in this
handsome, secondhand uniform. It
lets me stay alive here, and make
the rounds of the papers in my spare
time. Every office boy in town now
locks the city room door. when he
sees me coming"
I hated the shaky quality of my
laugh.
"You can check up" I invited,
Through the Omaha chief or the
News-but you can see why I'd rath-
er you didn't"
He nodded, thought minute and
then sat down with sigh.
"All right, fella," he said with the
comradeship cops can always show
when they need newspaper help.
Here's what we know so far"
He ratified through a catalogue of
unrelated details:
Blackboard had been stabbed
through the heart. No one knew
how he got into the Morello, for
there was no entrance to this main
building except the foyer or by ele-
vator from the basement. No iden-
LITIGATION had been found in his
clothes, though there was money in
his pocket. No one knew whether
the Ferriters knew him. lone was
still too hysterical to be questioned.
| Neither of her brothers had come
in. Everett had gone out at four
o'clock. No one had seen Lyon,
the older brother, since he left the
apartment house that morning.
THAT" said Shannon, sis as far
as we've gone. What have you got
to add?"
| I was so slow in answering that
his eyes grew hard again. Aston
ishment silenced me. In the confu-
sion before and after the finding Of
the dead man, had forgotten that
last telephone call from the Ferriter
fiat. Memory of it, flashing back
now, blew my mind about.
Sorry" I told the Captain and
gave weak grin. 81 just remem-
bered something. I took a phone
call from Three B half-hour-
maybe twenty minutes-before Miss
Ferriter began her screaming. Per-
haps / heard the man killed"
Even the oily little stenographer
stared at me.
| what time was this?" Shannon
asked hoarsely.
| "Just before Miss Paget's chair
broke down. That made me forget"
told of the phone call from the
Ferriter fiat, of the comment in a
thick, foreign tongue, apparently to
someone else in the apartment and
of the muff1ed thump that followed.
what number was it?" Shannon
asked.
1 shrugged.
"Spring-something. It's on the
pad downstairs
Jake" the Captain snapped. The
detective dumped down the hall.
Shannon ran fingers through his hair
again and squinted at nothing.
Know anything about these Fer
riters?" he asked suddenly.
mo. I've been here only week"
"Never heard why the three of
them came here?"
Miss Paget cleared her throat and
then spoke precisely.
at was through me, Captain Ev-
erett Ferriter, as I told you, is a
genealogist of some reputation. He
has been helping me with book I'm
compiling. When Mrs. Reynolds
wished to rent her apartment, I told
Everett about it. They are appar-
emily gentlefolk, if that means any,
thing"
''Not much, begging your par
don," Shannon retorted.
Miss Agatha nodded. 81 quite
agree" she said.
Amusement puckered the Cap
tain's eyelids. He turned to me.
"When did this other one, this
Lyon Ferriter, 60 out?'
I thought and shook my head.
81 haven't seen him today at all.
The others on the hall"
Shannon's angry grunt cut me
| short.
''They didn't see Blackboard come
in; they didn't see this Lyon 60 out.
Yet he is out. And Blackboard is
across the hall. And you say some
one made phone call from that
apartment and, unless he was talk
ing to himself, there was another
guy with him."
He rumpled his hair further.
asked Miss Agatha:
| 'Are the Ferriters foreign born?"
She shook her head.
81 believe not. They speak ex-
cellent English"
.'Then," went on, sit was Black
beard who telephoned. A thick voice
that sounded as though it might be
German"
Jake entered with the call sheet.
The half-devoured cigar wabbled in
his mouth and his finger shook as
he handed the page to his chief and
| pointed.
The Captain said no word but
looked for a long minute before he
held the paper out to me with his
thumbnail indenting its margin.
''That the CALI" he asked in
voice felt he kept so mild by great
effort.
eyes," I said. cat three-thirty
by the clock on the switchboard. I
don't know whether it was complet-
ed or not. I plugged in and then"
4