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$6 TEE DAILY TIMES-GAZETTE, Thursday, Débember 24, 1953 A CRIME FOR CHRISTMAS The author of this Christmas Eve best - selling detective writer with detective story, Edmund Crispin, a | the publication in 1944 of the "Case 32 - year - old bachelor, is ou ¢ | of the Gilded Fly." Pianist, organist, conductor, com- standing among post - war British | poser, his hobbies, he says, are detective authors. He became a"'cats, Shakespeare, Wagner and JEWELL'S MEN'S WEAR 16 KING EAST \- 7 OSHAWA Strauss operas, swimming, idleness and excessive ig Te By EDMUND C IN Boxing Day, snow and ice; road surfaces lik glass under a cold fog. In the North Oxford home of the University Professor of English Language and Literature, at three minutes past six in the evening, the front door bell rang. It was the Professor himself -- a tall, lean, affable person in his early forties -- who answered the bell. On the doorstep he found a neatly-dressed greying man with a red tip to his nose and woebegone eyes. pi can't get back," said this a arition. "I really can't get back to ondon to-night. The roads are im- passable and such trains as there re are running hours late. Could you possibly let me have a bed?" My dear Humbleby," said the Professor, whose name was Ger- vase Fen, "You must come in. And certainly you can have a bed. What are you doing in this part of the World anyway?" "'Ghost-hunting." Detective - In- spector Humbleby of New Scotland Yard divested himself of his coat and hat. '"'Seasonable but not con- venient." He followed Fen into the drawing-room, where a huge fire was burning. Fen was already pouring whisky. 'Sit down and be comfortable," he said. "As a matter of interest, do you believe in ghosts?" "The evidence for poltergeists," Humbleby answere warily as h stretched out his hands to the blaze, "seems very convincing to me. Other sorts of ghosts I'm not | so sure about -- though after what happened at Rydalls two days ago "Rydalls?" "Rydalls," said Humbleby. "The residence,", he elucidated labor- iously, "of Sir Charles Moberley, the architect. It's about fifteen miles from here, Abingdon way." "Yes, I remember it now Res- toration. ; "I dare say. Old, in any case. And there are big grounds, with an eighteenth century pavilion about a quarter of a mile away from the house, in a park. That's where it | | happened -- the murder, I mean." | Fen stared. "Sir Charles Mober- ley has been murdered?" | "No, no, no. Not him. Another | architect, another knight Sir {Lucas Welsh. There's been quite a {large house-party going on there, {with Sir Lucas and his daughter | Jane among the gyests, and it was lon Christmas Eve, you see, that One. of the pleasures of the Holiday Season is the joy of wishing happiness to you, our customers and friends. Management and Staff of Ventilated Aluminum Awnings ENT AND Nash Aluminum Windows and Doors 94 BRUCE STREET OSHAWA SALES BEYER REN SEY ER SERVICE DIAL 5-4632 ay 771 SPT Sir Lucas decided he wanted fo in- vestigate the local ghost." '""This is all clear enough to you, no doubt, but --" "Do listen. The ghost is supposed to haunt this pavilion I've mention- ed, where a murder was commit- ted about a hundred and fifty ears ago. Well, it seems that Sir ucas is -- was -- creduloug about such things, and on Christmas Eve he arranged to keep vigil alone there." "And was murdered, and you don't know who did it." "Oh yes, I do. Sir Lucas didn't die at once, you see: he had time to write up his murderer's name in the grime of the window-pane, and the gentleman concerned, a Young German named Otto Morike, now safely under arrest. But what I can't decide is how he got into and out of the pavilion." "A locked-room mystery." Carrying glasses, Fen joined him by the hearth. " oom he sug- gested, "at the beginning." "Very well." Settling back in his chair, Humbleby sipped his whisky gratel . "Here, then, is this hristmas Host, Sir Charles Moberley, the eminent architect. "Among the guests, Sir Lucas Welsh, the i eminent archi- tect; his daughter Jane; Otto Mo- rike, a young German of uncertain antecedents; and a CID man --not Metropolitan, Sussex County alled Wilburn. His import- ance is that the evidence he pro- «vides is quite certainly reliable -- there has to be a point d'appui in these affairs, and he's it, so you mustn't exhaust yourself doubting his word about anything." "F wont," Fen promised. "I'll believe him." . "Good. At 'dinner on Christmas Eve, then, the conversation inevit- ably turns to the subject of Rydalls ghost, and Sir Lucas arranges to go down to the pavilion towards midnight and keep watch there. The time arriving, he is accom- anied to the place of trial by Sir harles and by Wilburn--neretih Charles and by Wilburn -- neither of whom actually enters the pavi- 0 .n "Wilburn strolls back to the house alone, leaving Sir Charles and Sir Lucas talking shop. And presently Sir Charles, having seen Sir Lucas go into the pavilion, re- traces his steps likewise arriving at the house just in time to hear the alarm-bell ringing." "Alarm-bell?"' "People had watched for the ghost before, and there was a bell installed in the pavilion for them to ring. "This bell sounded, then, at just about the moment when the ghost was scheduled to appear, and a whole party of people, includin, Sir Charles, Jane Welsh and Wil- burn, hastened to the rescue. "Now, the pavilion is quite small. There's just one circular room to it, having two windows (both very firmly nailed up); and you get into this room by way of a longish, nar- row hall projecting from the peri- meter of the circle, the one and only door being at the outer end of this hall. "On arrival, the rescue - party found the door shut but not locked; and when they opened it, and shone their torches inside, they saw a single set of footprints in the dust on the hall floor, leading to the en- trance to he circular room. "Ac on instinct or traiuing or both, Wilburn kept his crowd clear |of these footprints; and so it was that they came -- joined now by Otto Morike, who according to his subsequent statement had been taking a solitary stroll in the Erouids -- to the scene of the crime. 'Sir Lucas was lying on the floor beneath one of the windows, quite |close to the bellpush; and an old stiletto, later discovered to have been stolen from the house, had been stuck into him under the left shoulder-blade (no damning finger- prints on it, by the way; or on anything else in the vicinity). "Sir Lucas was still alive, and Just conscious. 'Wilburn bent over him to ask who was responsible. And a queer smile crossed Sir Lucas's face, and he was just able to whisper' -- here Humbleby produced and con- sulted a notebook -- 'to whisper: 'Wrote it -- on the window. Very ] thing I did. It --' before he "They all heard him, and they all looked. There was bright moon- light outside -- none of this snow and foul weather had started then, remember -- and the letters traced on the y window-pane stood out clearly, Otto. , it seems that then Otto started edging away, and Sir Charles, who's a hefy man, made a grab at him, nd they fought, nd presently a wallop from Sir Charles sent Otto clean through the tell-tale window and Sir Charles scrambled after him, and they went on fighting outside, tramplin the glass to Di side, until Wil: thoughts revert gratefully to those whose good will an d confidence we have learned to treasure throughout the years. It is to these old friends and our many new ones that we wish to extend our warmest wishes for a cheerful and joyous Christmas -- a "happy and prosperous New Year. house-party at Rydalls. | himself N burn and Sompany put a stop to it. "Incidentally, Wilburn says that Otto's going through the window looked contrived to him -- a delib- erate attempt to destroy evidence; hough of course, so many people saw the name written there that i remains perfecly good evidence in spite of having been destroyed." "Motive?" Fen asked. "Good enough. Jane was wanting to marry Otto, and her father didn't approve -- partly on the grounds that Otto was a German, and partly because he thought the bo; wanted Jane's prospective inherit- ance rather than Jane herself. "Jane being three years under the age of consent the killing of Sir Lucas had, from Otto's point of view, a double advantage. It made Jane rich and removed the obstacle to the marriage. "But here's the point." Humble- by leaned forward earnestly. "Here is the point: windows nailed shut; no secret doors -- emphatically none; chimney too narrow to admit a baby; and in the dust on the hall floor only one set of footprints made unquestionably by Sir Lucas elf. Jove thinking that Otto might have walked in and out on top of those prints, as that page- boy did wih King Wenceslas, then you're wrong. Otto's feet are much too large, for one thing, and the prints hadn't been disturbed for another. "But then, how on earth did he manage it? Thére's no furniture in that hall whatever -- nothing he could have used to crawl across, nothing he could have swung him- self from, "It's a long, bare box, that's all; and the distance from the door to the circular room (in which, by the way, the dust on the floor was all messed up by the rescue-party) is miles too far for anyone to have jumped it. thing that could possibly have been fired from a bow or a blow-pipe, or any nonsense of that sort; nor was it sharp enough or heavy enough to have penetrated as deep as it did if it had been thrown. "Ghosts apart, what is the ex- planation? Can you see one?" "Yes," said Fen, with annoying promptness. '"'I can. Answer me ust one question, and I'll tell you ow Otto worked it." "Well?" ""The name on the window." said Fen dreamily. "Was it written in capital letters?" "Yes," said Humbleby. '"But--" "'Wait,"" Fen was on his feet. "Wait while IT make a telephone call." And this Humbleby perforce did, gnawing fretfully at an unlit cheroot until his host returned; then: "You," said Fen kindly, "have ot locked rooms on the brain . .. he explanation of how Otto got into and out of that circular room is simple; he didn't get into or out of it at all." Humbleby gaped. 'But Sir Lucas Joined In and) "Nor was the weapon the sert of | can't have been knifed before he entered the circular room. Sir | Charles said --" "Ah, yes. Sir Charles' saw him | go in -- or so he asserts. And --" | 'Stop a bit,"' said Humbleby. "I | see what you're getting at, but there\are serious objections to it." 'Such as?" "Well, for one thing, Sir Lucas | named his murderer." | "A murderer who struck at him from behind . .. Oh! I've no doubt | Sir Lucas acted in good faith: | Otto, you see, would be the only | member of the house-party whom | Sir Lucas knew to have a motive. "In actual fact, Sir Charles had | one, too -- as I've just discovered; but Sir Lucas wasn't aware of that. Next objection?" | "The name on the window. ¥, as Sir Lucas said, his first action was to denounce his attacker, then he'd surely, since he was capable of en- tering the pavilion after' being (knifed, have been capable of writ- ing the name on the outside of the window, which would be nearest. "That objection's based, of course, on your assumption that he was struck before he ever entered '| the pavilion." "I expect he did just that -- wrote the name on the outside of the window, I mean." 'But the people who read it were on the inside. Inside a bank, for instance, haven't you ever noticed how the bank's name -- 'The name Otto," Fen interposed "is a palindrome. It reads the same backwards as forwards. What's more, the capital letters used in it re symmetrical. Write it on the outside of a window and it will look exactly the same from the inside." "Good heavens, yes." Humbleby was sobered. "I never thought of that. Andt he fact that the name was on the outside would be fatal o Sir Charles, after his assertion hat he'd seen Sir Lucas enter the pavilion unharmed, so I suppose that the ""contrivin, in the fight was Sir Charles's, not Otto's; he'd realise that he name mus be on the outside -- Sir Lucas having said hat the writing of it was the very first thing he did -- and he'd see the need to destroy the window before anyone could investigate closely. "Wait, though: couldn't Sir Lucas have entered the pavilion as Sir Charles said, and later emerged again, and . .." "One set of footprints," Fen pointed out, "on the hill floor. Not three." Humbleby nodded. "I've been a fool about this; But what was Sir Charles's motive -- the motive Sir Lucas didn't know about?" "Belchester," said Fen. "Bel- chester cathedral. As you know, it '* Wilburn noted. jwas bombed in the war, and a new (one's to be built. "Well, I've just rung up the Dean, who's an acquaintance 3 mise, to {ask about the choice of tect, and he says that it wa toss- between Sir Chrles's Gesign Sir Lucas's and that Sir Lucas'g won. "The two men were notified by! post, and it seems likely that Sir Charles's notification arrived on the morning of Christmas Eve. Sir Lucas's was sent to his home, even forwarded it can't, in the rusk of Christmas postal traffic, have reached him at Rydalls before he was killed. ; "So only Sir Charles knew; and since with Sir' Lucas' dead Sir' Charles's design would have been | accepted. . . Fen shrugged. "Was it the money | I wonder? Or was it just another blow to his professional pride? Welly well. Let's have another drink be- fore you telephone. In the hang- man's shed it will all come to the same thing." ) 33 KING ST. E. long with our warm Christmas Greetings we send to you and those dear to you every good wish for a joyous season filled with good health, good . cheer, and contentment. And may your Holiday happiness extend throughout the New Year. NESBITT'S LADIES' WEAR OSHAWA, ONT. Wilson 87 SIMCOE STREET NORTH NM. this happy Yuletide season brim over with all good things ~-- with surprises as merry and pleasing as the findings under your Christmas tree. To all our friends, both old and new, go our warmest and sincerest wishes for a Joyous Holiday Season. and. Jeo Jimuted MUSIC STORE DIAL 5-4706