Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

THE BLACK TUBE. woman would want the man she loved to do. Second judgment might have made her act differently, but she acted on the spur of the moment.” ‘Tt might mean that,” admitted Homes. ‘* But more than that, I have Vrooman’s story, which I got out of him after I had brought him out of a dead faint. “Vrooman drove from Needham’s gro- cery store to Brookmeadow. He had a flat tire on the way and reached there, he asserts, to find Willet Sands dead—at least he claims he thought Sands dead. Now, of course I am ready to admit this; Vroo- man may have reached the office and shot Sands, finding the gas hadn’t got him. But somehow I believe he was telling the truth when he said he arrived there to find Sands shot. Just the same,” mused Craton, “there is one more hole in Vrooman’s story.” “* And that?” “Neither Miss MacKensie nor Mrs. Sands seems to have seen Vrooman near the place. I doubt if Miss MacKensie would have, for she ran the minute the shot was fired. Mrs. Sands might have seen Vroo- man, yet if she didn’t, it is explained in this way: Vrooman left his car on the upper road, the one over which the coroner went after the car we heard when Akron fired that shot. Vrooman came toward the house from the left as you face it, and he as- serts he entered by the side door after look- ing in the side windows. He found Sands, searched his pockets, and secured the con- fession. ‘““ As he did so he heard a sound at the front of the house and the rear. The sound came from the front first. He retreated to the dining room and when the sound came from the rear—Deston returning by the back door—he dodged into a large closet off the dining room. Marks on the floor of that closet, slight signs of muddy boots, confirm this statement. ‘When Deston went straight upstairs Vrooman slipped into the kitchen and ran for his car.” “The sound at the front?” ‘““T can only believe it was the one who shot Sands. If it was a man he leaped out the front door the instant he fired and ‘hid until Miss MacKensie was well out of the way. It must have been he who re- turned to search the library and Deston’s office. Remember we found both rooms had been turned upside down. Vrooman in- sists he only rifled Sands’s pocketbook for his confession and ”’—Craton paused and looked at the sheriff—‘ why would Mrs. Sands have searched those rooms?” | ‘““ She might have wanted the reports her husband had of her movements. He had had her watched.” “Yes,” nodded Craton, “ but I can’t see that Mrs. Sands had done anything she might fear to have known. Sands didn’t have grounds for getting a divorce from her. No, Mrs. Sands didn’t search those rooms, in my judgment, which makes me believe here story of the man.” ‘ Well, suppose you are right—what did that man want?” demanded Homes. “What he was after would, if we knew, indicate the murderer.” Homes looked at Craton one long min- ute. ‘You told me all the contracts between Buckwell and Sands are missing.” (¢4 Yes.” “Then wasn’t it Buckwell, as Mrs. Sands believed? Didn’t he fire that shot and steal those contracts?” ““T have got to find out if that might not be so,” admitted Craton. | “How'll you do that?? You as good as told him you were satisfied he was inno- cent.” “Surely. But I also let him believe that: I considered Mrs. Sands guilty.” ‘To get him to confess to save her?”’ Craton nodded. “ But he didn’t con- fess.” “No,” admitted Homes reluctantly, “but that doesn’t prove him innocent. He may figure that Mrs. Sands can prove her innocence and he’ll sit tight for the time being.” “You are right. I’m going further into that point.” “Can I do anything? If not, I should move in the Vrooman matter.” “You had better do that. We know he is guilty of Jim Sands’s death, even if he intend to kill him.” Comicoooks 137 (S@