Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 45: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE DUKE of spelling his own full name, if he chose. Now, this ungainly rival had scored a “beat,” for Mr. Hardy had not acquired a photograph of Miss Dale. “How did you manage to get that?” he demanded. Hank grinned, replacing his dry stogie in his pocket as the door opened and Coroner Cleves and other officials swarmed in. Among them were Assistant District At- torney Meyers, whom Hardy called “a bloodhound in homicide cases’; Acting Captain Overton, with Mr. Fitch and the latter’s attorney, Noble Howard; followed by the coroner’s jury, all of whom had just come from the city morgue. The jurors wriggled into their seats as if they, instead of Mr. Fitch, were guilty, Mr. Fitch, although paler than usual and more careworn, did not wear the traditional hang- dog look nearly as much as they. His air of habitual reserve deepened into more pro- nounced hauteur, as the reporters from the city newspapers swarmed into the space where Hardy and Thomas had prudently ensconced themselves in advance. Behind this barrier rail the court room was packed with morbid and curious folk of both sexes. Down the center aisle, through them all, came Sergeant Timothy O’Brien, wearing civilian garments, but with his shield pinned on, as required by Jaw, when officially in court. His name was the first called as a wit- ness. ; Under the skillful questioning of Mr. Meyers, O’Brien sketched his movements from Mordaunt’s arrival to the. conversa- tion in the library with Mr. Fitch. “What did you first say to Mr. Fitch?” “T said: ‘ How did this happen?’ ” “What reply did he make?” “ Mr. Fitch nodded his head toward the body on the r-rug and said: ‘ Ask him—he knows.’ ” “ Did he say anything more?” “Not until I asked him another ques- tion.” “What was your next question?” “T said to Mr. Fitch: ‘ What do you mean?’ ” “Why did you say that, instead of ask- ing the man on the floor a question?” OF DISDAIN. 195 ‘“ Because the man on the flure couldn’t answer any question. He was dying if not dead by then.” ‘How do you know?” O’Brien related the episode of the twitching leg. ‘You saw that before you came into the room?” “-¥es, air.” “Now, after you said: ‘What do you mean?’ to Mr. Fitch, did he make any reply?” “ Yes, sir.” “You may state what he said if you can recall it, substantially.” ; “TI can recall it exactly. Mr. Fitch said: ‘I heard a report. I saw something fall. I saw him sag down. That’s all I know.’ ” ‘What next occurred?”’ ‘““T said: ‘ Who is he?’ ” “Did Mr. Fitch reply? If so, tell us what he said.” ‘Mr. Fitch said: ‘ Look at him yourself, What else did you come in for?’ ” Mr. Myers paused to let the import of the conversation sink in with the jury, whose members sat as erect as so many fox- terriers scenting an expected bone. Then he had O’Brien identify the silver- mounted, ivory handled pistol, and where he had seen it on the floor, by means of a diagram which Myers now pinned on the wall. The diagram was drawn to scale and showed the floor of the Fitch residence on which the library was situated, in detail. O’Brien indicated the spot, adding that the pistol lay “ about midway between the feet of the body on the floor and where Mr. Fitch sat in the chair, over between the two front windows.” ‘The library table stood where?” ‘A little to the right, as you look into the room through the curtains, and about six or seven feet from where they hang.” Again he illustrated the spot on the di- agram, following with the location of the table, beyond which projected the feet of the prone man, and showing how his head, behind the library table, was not plainly visible from where he had first stood. “Now, did Mr. Fitch and you hold any other conversation?” ‘No, sir.” cComichooks