Evening star., 1950-09-16


said. you've got nothing on me.
This is some bucolic travesty of
justice"
I'm afraid we've got quite a
bit on you," the sheriff said. "You
and your husband fixed this up
quite a while ago. Both of you
prospected around last summer
and found that cabin. You even
tok that picture when you found
the cabin, a month or two before
your husband pulled his disap-
pearing act. You'd taken out the
insurance policies years ago."
Wait a minute" Dewitt said.
Let me handle this, Corliss /.
Sheriff, your own reasoning de-
feats itself"
How Gomez"
"You admit that the man who
left that cabin last tried to Ak
it up so it would look as though
the trappers had moved out for
the winter"
That's what Hank told me-"
the sheriff said.
"Yet Hank also told you that
this note was left In such a promi-
nent place that anyone, even Il
dude. couldn't have failed to see
1 it."
Well, now." the sheriff said,
I"just put yourself in the shoes of
the murderer. You don't want
the body to be discovered until
after it's pretty hard to make
a positive identification. You've
buried the body in q shallow
grave. You want it to stay there
and decompose for just about so
long. Now. then, If it's discovered
too soon, you're sunk. Well, you
can figure out what that means,
Dewitt"
What does it mean?"
"It means that the murderer,
or someone that was in cahoots
with him. had to come back to
that cabin and put that note
there where it would be discov-
cred at just about the right time.
So when Hank told me about the
note I asked him about the color
Of the ink. Seems like the ink
was still sort Of blue. Now. you
take ink that way and. as un-
derstand 1t. there's some sort Of
a chemical in it that unites with
oxygen and turns black after II
oxidizeS, and that's what gives
you the permanent color in ink.
But until that chemical has had
a chance to oxidize, they put q
blue dye in the ink, so you can
see what's been written down.
That's why ink will be. sort Of
blue for a while and then, after
it gets old, it'll turn black. Hank
said this looked pretty new to
him.
Catlin nodded.
well, 7 had a pretty good de-
scription Of Frank Adrian, thanks
to the stuff my friend, Ed Harvel,
had sent on. So ! sort Of figured,
If he sneaked into that cabin and
put a note in there, he'd have
had to 60 in through the ranger
station or down through the Mid
die Fork. But it would have been
a pretty hard trip, because he
was tenderfoot. However, they're
bringing in a few planes lately,
and there's forest service emer-
gency landing field only about
five miles from the cabin now.
$50 I got busy on the telephone
and rang up the cities around that
have charter air service, asking
them about whether they took a
man OF a certain description into
that landing field within the last
month or SO. And, sure enough, I
struck pay dirt"
What did you find?" Dewitt
asked, interested now despite him
self.
We'll" the sheriff said, "a man
chartering an airplane has to give
a lot Of information about himself.
OF course, this man was using an
assumed name. He's working in
a garage now. Well, I telephoned
down to my friend, the sheriff,
there, and we picked him up.
And when I'd picked him up, I
talked with him over the phone
and told him about how his wife
had already collected the insur-
ance money and run away with a
|playboy. That was sort of reading
her mind a little in advance. May
have been sort Of a mean trick,
but it worked like charm. This
here Adrian has a quick temper,
and seems like he really blew up
and started talking fast. He'd evi-
IDENTIFY heard something about this
playboy.
$50, now, Mrs. Adrian, I hate to
do 1t, but I've just got to give you
lodging in the jail. I've sent over