006, oo edi. Roni MOkoik €iSE AUTHOR 9° THE BENSON MURDER CASE CHAPTER LIV. Spotswoode opened the book, and began reading in a voice whose very fervor held us all silent: "I brought about my own down- fall.. No one, be he high or low, need be ruined by any other hand than his own. Readily as I confess this, there are many who will, at this time at -least, receive the confession sceptically. And although I thus mercilessly acc myself, bear in mind that I do so with- out offering any excuse. " 'Terrible as is the punishment inflicted upon me by the world, more terrible is the ruin I have brought upon myself. . . ... In the dawn of manhood I recognized my position. . , I enjoyed an honored name, an emin- ent soeial position. "'Then came the turning point. I had becomé tired of dwelling on the heights--and descended by my own will into the depths. . . I satisfied my desires whereve: it suited me, and passed on. I forgot that every act, even the most insignificant act, of daily life, in some degree, makes or unmakes the character; and every oc- currence which transpires in the se- clusion of the chamber will some day be proclaimed from the housetops. "I lost control of myself. I was no longer at the helm, and knew it not. I had become a slave to pleasure. . . Ong thing only is left to me--complete humility.' He tossed the book aside." "You understand now, Mr. Mark- ham?" Markham did not speak for several moments. walked out of the house quite openly, and returned here to the club, That's all, I think." Vance was watching him musingly- "So when you raised my bet last night," he said, "the amount repre- sented a highly important item in your exchequer." a Spotswoode smiled faintly. "It represented practically every cent I had in the world." "Astonishin'l . . . And would you mind if I asked you why you selected the label of Beethoven's 'Andante' for your record?" "Another miscalculation," the man said wearily. "It occurred to me that if any one should, by any chance, open the phonograph before I could return and destroy the record, he wouldn't be as likely to want to hear the classics as he would a more popular selection." "And one who detests popular music had to find it I fear, Mr. Spotswoode, that an unkind fate sat in at your game." "Yes. , . . If I were religiously in- clined, I might talk poppycock about retribution and divine punishment." "I'd like to ask you about the jew- elry," said Markham. "It's aot sports- manlike to do it, and I wouldn't sug- gest it, except that you've already con- fessed voluntarily to the main poifits at issue." "I shall take no offense at any ques- tion you desire to ask, sir," Spots- woode answered. "After I had recov- iered my letters from the document- x, I turned the rooms upside down to give the impression of a burglary-- being careful lo use gloves, of course. "Do you care to tell me about|And I took the woman's jewelry for Skeel?" he at length asked. the same reason. "That swine!" Spotswoode sneered| 'Parenthetically, I had paid for his disgust. "I could murder such|most of it. I offered it as a sop to creatures every day and regard myself] Skeel, but he was afraid to accept it; as a benefactor of society. . strangled him, and I would have done it before, only the opportunity did not offer. . . It was Skeel who was hiding in the closet when I returned to the apartment after the theatre, and he must have seen me kill the woman. "Had I known he was behind that locked door, I would have broken it down and wiped him out then. But how was I to know? It seemed natural that the closet might have been kept locked--I didn't give it a second thought. . . And the next night he telenhoned me to the club here, "He had first called my home on Long Island, and learned that I was staying here. I had never seen him before--didn't know "of his existence. But, it seems, he had equipped himself with a knowledge of my identity-- probably some of the money I gave to the woman went to him. What a muck- heap I had fallen into! "When he phoned, he mentioned the phonograph, and I knew he had found out something. 1 met him in the Wal- dorf lobby, and he told me the truth: there was no doubting his word. When he saw I was convinced, he demanded 80 enormous a sum that I was stag- gered." Spotswaade lit a cigaret with steady fingers. Mr, Markham, I am no longer a rich man. The truth is, I am on tha verge of bankruptcy: The business my father left me has been in a receiver's hands for ncarly a year. The Long Island gs'ats on which I live belongs to my wife, "Few peonle know hese things, but unfortunately they are true. It would have been utterly impossible for me to raise the amount Skeel demanded, even had I been inclined to play the coward. I did, how ver, give Yim a small sum to keen h'm quiet for a few days, promizing him all he asked as soon as I could convert some of my holdings. "I hoped in the interim to get pos- session of the record and thus spike his guns. But in that I failed; and so, when he threatened to tell yo every- thing, I agreed to bring the money to his home late Sathrday night, "I kept the appointment, with the full intention of killing him. 1 was careful about entering, but he had helped me by explaining when and how I could get in without being seen. Once there, I wasted no time. The first mo- ment he was off his guard I seied him --and gloried in the act. Then, lock- ing the door and taking the key, I .. Yes, ( and finally I decided to rid myself of tit. I wrapped it in one of the club "newspaper and threw it in a waste-bin near the Flatiron Building. | "You wrapped it in the morning Herald," put in Heath. "Did you know ythat Pop Cleaver reads nothing but the Herald?" i "Sergeant!" Vance's voice was a cutting reprimand "Certainly Mr. Spotswoode was not aware of that fact--else he would not have selected the Herald." | Spotswoode smiled at Hoath with pitying contempt. Then, with an ap- preciacive glance at Vance, he turaneo 1 back to Markhag. { "An hour or so after I had disposed of the jewels I was assailed by the fear that the package might be found and the paper traced. So I bought another Herald and put it on 'the rack. He paused. "Is that all?" Markham nodded "Thank you--that's all; except that I must now ask you to go with these | lofficers. * | "In that case," said Spotswoode quietly, "there's a small favor I have' to ask of you, Mr. Markham. Now that the blow has fallen, I wish ta write a certain note--to my wife "But I want to be alone when 1 write it. desire. It will take but a few mom- ents: Your men may stand at the door--I can't very well es:ape. {that extent." Vance steppea forward and touched his arm. "I trust," he interposed, "that you won't de«m it recess'ry to refuse Mr. | Bpotswoode's request," Markham lool ed at him hesitantly. "I gues ycu ve pretty well earned the right to dictate, Vance," he ac- quiesced. Then he ordered Heath and Snitkin to wait outside in the hall, and he and Vance and I went into the adjoining room. Markham stood, as if on guard, near the door; but Vance, with an ironical smile, sauntered to the window and gazed out into Madison Square. "My word, Markham!" he declared. "There's something rather colossal about that chap, Y'know, one can't help admiring him: He's so eminently sane and logical." Markham made no response. The drone of the city's mid-afternoon noises, muffled by the closed windows, seemed to intensify the ominous silence of the little bedchamber where we waited, Then came a sharp report from the other room. Markham flung open the door, Heath and Snitkin were already rush- ing toward Spotswoode's prostrate body and were bending over it when Markham entered. Immediately he wheeled about and glared at Vance, who now app in the doorway. "He's shot himself!" "Fancy that!" said Vance, "You--you knew he was going to do that?" Markham spluttered. "It was rather obvious, know." « Markham"s eyes flashed angrily. "And you deliberately = interceded for him--to give him the opportun- ity?" * "Tut, tut, my dear fellow!" Vance reproachc I him. "Pray don't give way to conventional moral ind! n. However unethical--theo it angther's life, a man's "to-do . 'ish don't y' And under the paternal tyran-| I And under peleraal tyran. | He our moglern iin = cart, bothering with "your beastly af- fairs," he complained amiably, giving Markham an engaging smile; "and now you're actually scolding me. 'Pon my word, old fellow, you're deuced un- grateful!" - (The End.) { -- A What New York BY ANNABELLE WORTHINGTON Illustrated Dressmaking Lesson Fur- nished With Every Pattern 1 for Three and a Ha Surely you understand that | Lingerie detail accented in white crepe collar of a blak and white crepe silk print, is decidedly chic to weare~.' The white crepe appears again in neat turnback cuff. It achieves a most unusua! slender- izing effect through the mouldd long-} waisted bodice, and fitted circular skirt with low-flared fulness. A nar- row belt indicates normal waistline! (which is generally becoming to most that figures, | Black silk crepe with asparagus or brown with turquoise blue are { eal] selections. Parrot-green chiffon with fabric collar is very flattering. Printeu chiffon voile, shantung, wool crepe and printed batiste are smartly appropriate. self- Style No. 3372 can be had in sizes, | Play. ToP First Play Performed: 1634-- 5.000 People Spellbound Hours By Sir Henry Lunn Forty years ago my friend W. T. Stead and I were writing a weekly London letter to twenty English news- papers. He came back from Oberam- mergau that su full of enthusi- asm for the wonderful power of the Passion Play, which he had just wit nessed, and with his blazing enthusi- asm wrote Lis book, "The Story That Trafisformed the World." This did much to make the powers of these Bavarian villagers and their devotion to their high task widely known in this country. ' I have just returned from witness- ing the Play for the fourth time, hav- ing been one of the few Englishmen who saw it : 1900, 1910 and 1922. It may, therefore, be of interest to give some impressions of the presentation of this great drama on this occasion. In the first place, it is important to emphasize the change that has taken place in the conditions under which the spectato: , pass the sen and a half hours which the Play occupies. Phe theatre has been rebuilt. The seats are very comiortable, and, ex- cepting for a few 5s. and 108. seats in the very front, all are now under cover though tbe people of Oberammergau have wisely preserved the open front of the theatre through which one looks up the mountain which, when 1 was there, still carried the remains of the winter's snow. Thc new theatre, which has cost a million and a half marks, is a triumph of good taste and excellent architecture; {its acoustic and the, are admiraul players can e ard anl seen by every member of the audience in every part of the vast building, which will seat 5,400. The Christus of 1870, 8) and '90 was Josef Mayr, a great genius, and none who saw and heard him will ever for get what a remarkable man he was. When I first saw him he was the Chor- agus, who gave the Epilogue and led the choir, His place in that capacity has this yea. been taken by Anton properties Lang. who also has the remarkable' privilege of taking the part of the Christus for three successive Passion Plays, 1900, 1910 and 1922. He also is a great pers.nality, and like Josef Mayer now g,eaks the Er' gue and acts as Choragus. Of all thos. tors in the first plays 1 saw the man who was out- standingly a genius from the historic point of view was Hans Zwink, who now takes only a minor part in the Anyone who was at those ear- lier 'lays and hears the name of Zwink mentioned will at once respond because of his recollection of the ability of that .player. Tha arts of Mary, thé Mother of our Lord, and Mary Mag lalent are admirably filled 36, 38, 40, 42, 44 and 46 inches bust, respectively by Anni Rutz and Johan- HOW TO ORDER PATTERNS. Write your name and address plain- 'ly, giving number and size of such . . The patterns as you want. victor can afford to be generous to stamps er coin (coin preferred; wrap {it carefully) for each number, and Before Markham had time to reply, address your order to Wilson Pattern Enclose 20c in Service, 73 West Adelaide St., Toronto. dois Si ei i Cold Meat Salad Take one thick slice of cold meat cut from a joint, Rub well with salt and cut into small squares, One small head of lettuce--washed well and swung dry in a salad basket--also cut up, a suggestion of onion, and two mint leaves chopped very fine, Mix all togethar in a bowl, and add a little cold boiled potato, Pour over this one teaspoonful of oil and vinegar mixed. Add one yolk of an egg well beaten into a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and the same of salad oil. Beat well and pour over the meat salad. Any cold green vegetable . can be added to this, and the different varie- ties will but make this salad more de- licious. After this one might have cheese tarts and a cup of coffee or tea, and I am sure the lunch would be sufficient and appetizing. eee een. To a Song-Sparrow By RACHEL DAY From your quiver, singing sparrow, Take a swift and song-tipped arrow, Plerce awake each heart grown dull To a world now beautiful With the voices of the spring. For with such awakening Love and pity follow after, Flowing gree as children's laughter. --"The New Outlook" mm Af mn One morning the "Black Maria" ar- rived at the police court to take to gaol the prisoners who had been con- victed. As they filed into the van an old woman, who was the last to enter, shouted to a young prisoner in the van, "Come out of thers! You've got my corner." Then, as the old lady ped up behind, o turned cried, "Home, Charles!" took her accustomed seat and the door| was closed, while the policeman step-| the to him and na Preisinter. Guido Mayr, who took the part of the betrayer, was an excel- lent actor, and had he not been pre- ceded by Hans ink he would have been in the front rank. Melchior Breitsamter made 2 most effective Pilate. The highest tribute to Lt. ¢ skill and devotion of the players is to be found in the fact that 5,000 people sat 3% hours in the morning and 3% hours in the afternoon, scarcely stirring in their places, and showed a rapt atten tion--surely the highest tribute which the players could have desired. During my visit to this first public performance of 1930 * heard a good deal about the burden the peasants had to carry. They had incurred a liability of a million and a hali marks for their theatre and half a million marks for the extension and improve- ment of the roads, rendered necessary by the immense increase in motor traffic. An influential man who knows the villagers intimately told me that he assessed their own private mort- gages, resulting in large measure from the tremendous losses of the inflation period during which the Play of 1922 took place, at the large sum of a fur- ther two million marks, making a total indebtedness of the v: a. col lectively and of the people individual ly amounting to something like four million marks, or £200,000 If the villag: is to succeed in pay- ing this sum, the current expenses and the small payment to the respective actors to compensate them for their loss of time, out of the receipts of the Play, they will not have much over, and anything that remains will be de- voted to public ends. A certain amount has been said about the vil- lagers making.a great deal of money out of receiving the visitors for board and lodging. A careful calculation re- veals that fact that thelr remunera- tion from this source will be very in- significant after they have defrayed the expenses of putting their homes 'pounds increase |": 'in Canada alone in last five weeks DA" 'Fresh from the Gardens' Your Editor is Glad danger with a great fuflux of rich peo- ple from America and Europe that ss the simplicity of these villagers should This is Not Turkey be damaged, and even destroyed, but! Beyoglu, Tuikey--Arif Orutch Bey, those who witnéssed the Play on Sun- the outspoken editor and proprietor of day, May 11, will agree with me al | the newspaper Yarin, who was arrest most unanimously that there was a ed In April for publishing articles devotion which could only be shown | likely adversely to affect public opin- by those whose simplicity was as yet untouched. Much is to be hoped that | imprisonment May 17. nothing will ccur to prevent the vil-| Chomseddine Bey, his assistant ed lagers clearing themselves and the vil- | tor, who ran the paper for a few days to the city. WI Mother returned, we were . protests and harrowing descriptions. Father, who was the disciplinariam in the home, paid little attention to: these complaints. I dare say, they, seemed very childish to him. I remem= ber often hearing his say, "Oh, never mind, he will out grow it." But Moth. er evidently felt that something really, should be done; she must have con- vinced Father, for he took steps, first of remonstrance and then of punish- ment, but to little purpose. Meanwhile Tom was growing up. '| He was not improving as Father had hoped. Indeed things became steadily, worse. /He now regarded us as am enemy camp, as it were: he became resentful and actually revengeful. Likewise, we became fearful of his re- venge if we "told." We complained no more. This state of affairs had been reach- ed when during oné of these dreaded absences on the part of our parents Tom imprisoned us all'in a closet. We were there entirely too long for | health and indeed safety, for it was a ! small closet. Let it here be said for fon, was sentenced to one month's Tom, however, that he didnot, I feed sure, realize the element of danger. | The culprit was standing guard while | we screamed and eried inside the lage of Oberammergau from their op- | after his chief's arrest and who was ,,.. yop Mother walked in most unr pressive debt. The first Play was per- | responsible for certain defiant arti- formed in the year 1634, and there is | cles, was found guilty of disrespect. a possibility that = a centenary Play | fal conduct toward the Goyernment may be acted in 1934, but the general and sentenced to three years' penal belief is that the next Play will take Servitude. place in 1940. American Men Like Fashion's Latest Beau Brummels Must Strive for Effective Harmony "Some of the most popular ensemb- les being ordered for summer are: Green cashmere jacket with pastel tinted green flannel trousers; capri blue jacket with jastel tinted blue flan- nel trousers; cinnamon brown cash- mere jacket with pastel tinted tan flan- nel trousers. One of the outstanding features for seashore wear i; a double- breasted canary-colored lounge suit," according to the National Association | of Merchant Tailors of America. "There's a formality to informal wear now, especially for the informal occasion at the country club, the sea- shore or resort," says the latest bulle- tin of the National Association, which carries the announcement quoted above, "Reports on the production of mem- bers in many metropolitan communi- ties in the country, recently compiled in a telegraphic questionnaire by the Fashion Committee, indicate," says the report, "that the fashionable American male hag gone in this year more than ever for studied blending or effective contrasting of tones, both soft and high, with an harmonious en- semble as the objective of his efforts sartorial. Advance orders in all sections of the country indicate the evident deter mination of the American male to ob- tain harmony or a pleasing contrast in all of his attire for the informal af- fairs of the summer season. "Hats, ties, neckwear, shirtings, shoes--all must be studied," says the Fashion Committee, "to produce the effect which will stamp you as one of the well-dressed Americans." And the report goes on: "The coming season | will witness for the first time an ef-| fective challenge on the part of the' well-dressed American to the perfec! tion of ensemble of the women folk." -------- en. ha Cancellation by their Majesty's court | of the presentation of a divorcéd wo-| man shows that the loyal court holds no brief for the divorce court, ---- ee Use Minard's for Rheumatism. 2307 Your Same Home ZR ! An American, charged with distill He was only painting the clouds with moonshine. London.--Passengers travelling by Imperial Airways can now reach India in seven days. Norse your child, of course, if possible, butdon't experiment with all sorts of food that you know little about. Eagle Brand has been the standard infant food since 1857. Itis entirely pure, it is ex~ ceedingly digestible and there is an ever ready supply at any dealer's no matter where you live or you go. Helpful baby books seni free on request . , . Use coupon. With a Cruisabout! R FISHING, swi Fon da oa ing, fast fel er ing, Hebe Enjoyment or ing whisky, caid he did it to distract; his thoughts during fits of depression. | | expeciedly. €aught in the act, Tom quickly opened the door and we all tumbled out. ° It was altogether disgraceful. We knew Mother thought so, and I feed sure Tom knew it, too. I shall never forget Mother as she stood there a moment and looked at us, then turned slowly and looked at Tom. Her words seemed to come straight from her heart as she fixed | her steady blue eyes on him and said, "Tom, my dear, I cannot believe it of you. Why, you are a man now, you know." It must have been a difficult mo. ment for that would-be young mam, He slid one hand and then the other into his pockets, shifted from one foot to the other uncomfortaly, and then shamefacedly turned ' and slipped away. As for us, we were all very much disappointed, for we hoped to see him once more properly punished. 'But Mother had = chosen a better way. His manhood had been chal lenged by the one whom he most de- sired to consider him a man, and in the presence of those by whom he most dreaded to be thought a boy. Of course, it worke.. Never again had we a moment's discomfort when Father and Mother went to the city.-- Issued by the National Kindergarten Association, 8 West 40th Street, New -| York City. These articles are appear- ing weekly in our columns. ------ -- Off For a Picnic? When you cut sandwiches choose a sandwich or tin loaf and always cut along the oblong way of the loaf, not the smaller square way. This will halve your labor. If your knife sticks, keep a jug of hot water beside you, and dip it into this, or keep a damp cloth handy, and | wipe the knife as you cut each slice. Bread that crumbles is best buttered before it is cut. If your filling is a fish or meat paste, mix the butter and spread in one. An- other simple and savoury filling is made by beating cress or watercress into the butter. Mix a little mayonnaise with your egg filling to keep from spilling and to make spreading easy, or mix eggs with tomatoes, or make a filling of egg yolks to which a few drops of ane chovy have been added. Always mince ham or meat for sands wiches. Minced ham and tomato cat~ sup is a good combination; a little sweet chutney mixed with beef is an improvement, | ; It possible, pack your sandwiches in a tin, otherwise wrap them in a damp cloth, If you include lettuce in.y picnic-basket, wrap this also in 8 damp clota, \ oo J A military drama in aid 0f the Red Cross Fund was Delos Produced, and the supers 3 scularly in evidence tries, orderlies, marche Ti, etc. One man, hows er, did not seem to understand the scheme of the drama, "Look here" sald the stage-manager, at length, "une "So 1 'ave!" returns ino homito t of od 1 ! "But 1 was only a pri y Iy a a