1939-09-15 — Page 16

SHORT STORY

THE ROPE

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THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 15, 1939

By Peter Cheyney

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through the aperture into the passage.

GETLIN made up his mind that he o'clock in the morning and left about the dressing-gown rope was still there.

There he transferred both hands to was going to kill Tommy Varne, five. She had a key to the front door. It was,

He smiled again and returned to his the door handle his side and, exerting merely because there was no other way Varne of course had his key and Getlin

all his strength, dragged the door shut. out of the situation.

had a key which Varne had given to vigil by the window.

He knew by the pressure from the At first he had simply played with him. He said that he liked Getlin to

other side that his plan had succeeded. the idea. Like everyone else he had be able to come in any time he want-"

It was twelve-thirty when Getlin

He went down the stairs. ` Opened read dozens of thrillers and police ed. The fact that Getlin had this key

the front door an inch and looked out. stories of murderers who'd got away was known, but he considered that saw Varne returning home.

Varne was in a bad way. He was The street was deserted. with it or nearly got away with it, and this would have no effect on his plot.

Once he fell over Getlin sidled out into the shadows. it seemed to him that the discovery

Varne went on a drinking bout staggering badly, and arrest of these murderers was, in practically every week-end. He would and took two or three minutes to get All he had to do now was to burn the

After this he reeled a few LOU. most cases, due to their own careless- start off when fie closed his business to his feet.

business which more steps and then leaned up against ness in their modus operandi.

on Friday night-a

to a wall.

It was ten o'clock when Getlin's He thought too that murderers were was losing money steadily owing

Getlin told himself that Tommy housekeeper knocked at the door of always in too much of a hurry and his neglect. By Saturday night he

Varne must have been drinking heavi- his bedroom and told him that rather vague in planning their mur- was usually "a case."

Police-Inspector was downstairs and der. They missed some essential point

leave ly. At eleven o'clock he would

Varne, having pulled himself to- to a.

wanted to see him as soon as possible. or they were careless in the execution the local hostelry, stagger off

Getlin said he would be down in a "Club" of which he was member gether sufficiently to leave the support

a of the deed.

Getlin made up his mind that he until twelve, and when he left after of the wall, was negotiating the twen- few minutes. He wasn't at all sur- prised. He knew just what had hap- would take lots of time over his mur- that time he was quite stupid and ty-five yards which remained between himself and his front door. He was der.

conscious He knew just how he was going hardly

pened; of anything. He

Varne's daily woman had arrived to do it.

would stagger away down the street fumbling in his waistcoat pocket for towards his house. Sometimes he was the key. He could not even find the and found the "suicide." When she now only had tried to open the door of Varne's Getlin and Varne had been friends so drunk that he could not insert the pocket. He stood there

been some fifteen yards from the front door, bedroom, the weight on the dressing- He'd often for years. Everybody in the small key in the lock,

gown cord had pulled the door handle Getlin thought quickly. He had provincial town in which they lived found next morning lying across the trying to find that elusive pocket.

out of her hand. She had gone into foreseen such a possibility as this. He the room, seen what was left of Varne believed that the friendship was of

had foreseen that Varne might be too and gone rushing round to the police the David and Jonathan type. People

Getlin realised that the time had intoxicated to open the front door," believed that Getlin had spent the last

station.. three or four years trying to get Varne come for him to act. Varne had been and might, as he had done before, o And of course the police had come and was to sleep on the doorstep. This did. to Getlin to make the usual routine to give up drinking. What they didn't especially difficult of late,

heavily that drinking more know was that it was the fact

ever. not suit Getlin at all.

enquiries from him, because he was He crossed the room, opened the Tommy Varne's nearest and best Getlin had stolen Varne's girl years During the previous three or four days ago that had started Tominy Varne on he had told a dozen people that he was door, descended the stairs, tiptoed to friend and because Tommy had no re- the downward path. But Tominy had sick of life. Getlin decided that the the front door and unlatched it. Then latives.

time was ripe for Varne to "commit he waited in the dark hall. never told anyone the truth.

Although he professed to be doing suicide."

It was Saturday night and it was his utmost to stop Varne drinking,

With his Getlin in fact encouraged him to do the thirteenth of the month. so, but always in circumstances in tongue in his cheek Getlin told him- which no one would suspect the pro- self that it was going to be a very un-

lucky day for Varne. been At seven o'clock Getlin Originally, when Varne had

told his indulging in one of his weekly bouts housekeeper that he had a bad head- of alcohol, he had been very easy to ache and that he was going to lie down handle, and it was during these periods for an hour or so before going over to across to the other side of the room that Getlin had induced him to ad- Thetterley, He often took a walk to and brought over the four-foot lounge. vance sums of money. Unfortunate- Thetterley on a Saturday night, the He placed the lounge in front of the ly, as Tommy got himself more and journey usually taking him about door about two feet away from it. more into the toils of liquor, his tem- three hours. Sometimes he did it in per did not improve.

Now the time had come when wanted paying back.

cess.

He had gone so far as to write a note to Getlin to tell him that he was sorry to have to threaten an old friend, but unless the £700 which Getlin had had from him over the last three years was repaid promptly there was going to be trouble.

door-step.

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than

This was going to be easy!.. A minute or so later Varne cannon-

He dressed himself and, whistling a ed against the door, which opened. He tune--because, of course, he had to be fell into the hallway, Getlin

very terribly surprised and shocked at the quietly stepped up to the door and

news, went downstairs. closed it. Then he took Varne by the arm and helped him up. the stairs to the bedroom.

He propped Varne up against the the room, walked wall just inside

ned.

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doubts if Varne could have even mov-

"There are only three people with

odd The Inspector looked rather and spoke coldly. Getlin Was sur**** prised at the tone of his voice.

"Mr. Getlin," said the Inspector, Thomas Varne was murdered last night. We found him hanging from the hook on his bedroom door this morning. He was hanging over. the Then he took hold of Varne, who edge of a lounge seat that had been two hours and three-quarters, and he was still leaning-quite stupidly shoved in front of the door. he invariably took the single-track paths against the wall, and pushed him on

"The Police Surgeon has done an or roads across the common. It was to the lounge. Varne with a hiccup autopsy. He says that there was much seldom that he met anyone on the subsided at full length, breathing too much alcohol inside Varne for him walk out or the return.

heavily, almost unconscious.

to have tied the knot on the door and Of course, he did not intend to go to Systematically Getlin searched him, the knot of the noose round his neck,' that his He wanted to find the I.O.U. for the The two knots were much too good Thetterley. But he knew housekeeper went to bed at ten-thirty. £700, which he knew Varne carried for a drunken man. The surgeon. She would probably be asleep when in his letter case. he returned.

He found it. He found the lettered the lounge across, but he might In addition to all this Getlin disliked

Getlin got up at nine o'clock and case in Varne's breast pocket. Getlin have been able to do that." Varne. He had always disliked him, washed. He put a pair of gloves in took the case out into the passage and

Getlin began to speak, but the In- of the light

his Underneath the superficialities of their his pocket, put on his cap and took the examined it by

spector interrupted him. reputed friendship there had been con- ash stick which he used when walk- cigarette lighter. He found the I.O.U.

"I shouldn't say anything yet, Mr. cealed in the breast of Getlin a definite ing, and set out.

and put it into his coat pocket. Then Getlin," he said quietly. Then he hatred for his friend.

He walked down the main street, he went back and replaced the letter went on: After a bit the idea of murdering across the bridge and in the direction case in Varne's coat. Varne seemed quite easy and, in fact, of the common. He felt quite happy He smiled to himself in the dark- rather amusing. **

broken into.. and perfectly certain that everything ness., Everything was going as-plan- keys to Varne's house," he said. "You

see, the place wasn't Getlin knew just how he was going was going to be quite successful.

Varne had one, his daily woman had to do it.

At ten o'clock he struck away to the He moved behind the lounge seat

(Continued on Page 17) But no one would ever believe that right, off the path and began to walk to the door and found the dressing- Tommy Varne had been murdered. across country. He was walking the gown rope,

He tied one end of it se- He They would believe that he had com- straggling street, was Varne's house. curely round the clothes hopk. mitted suicide, and the greatest sup- At eleven-fifteen, having made a threw the other end over the back of port to that obvious theory would half circle round the town, he stood the lounge seat. come from Varne himself, who, dur- in the coppice on the side of Mell's He opened the door so as to allow ing his bouts of drinking, had inform- Hill. Below him, right at the end of the cord to hang slackly. Then he ed all and sundry that he was fed up the straggling street was Varne's placé. tled the other end of the silk with life and would probably finish Keeping in the shadow of the hedges round Varne's neck. Varne, snoring himself off one day during one of the Getlin began to move in the direction drunkenly, made no movement. fits of intense depression which so of the house. And his luck was in. Then came the big job. Getlin, often came upon him.

He passed nobody. Saw no one. using all his strength, raised, pulled The first thing that Getlin had done, At eleven-thirty he quietly inserted and pushed Varne into a kneeling the first move he had made, in his his key-he had put on his gloves first position on the lounge. Then keeping well-thought-out murder plot, was at -in Varne's front door and let him- the door at the back of the lounge half the Christmas before-ten months ago self in. He listened for a moment, open with his foot, he pushed the when he had presented Tommy with but, as he expected, there was nothing lounge back unit!! it was almost against a new dressing-gown. The dressing- to be heard. The house was empty, the open door. gown was one of those' lieavy, wool Getlin stood in the dark hall for a Now Varne was slumping forward affairs with a very thick strong silk moment smiling to himself, then he in a kneeling position on the lounge, cord. Getlin knew that Varne was began to mount the stairs to Varne's the noose around his neck, Getlin much too lazy to bother about tying a bedroom. He selected this room to knew that when he sidled through the dressing-gown cord, that he would wait in because through the window, door and closed it behind him Varne pull it out of its loops and throw it in which looked along the street, he would

would fall forward. He would not be the corner of his chaotic bedroom. He would be able to see Varne returning, able to move his bent lees from the did just that thing, and it was Getlin He would be able to ascertain the lounge. He would strangle inside two who picked up the cord one day with exact condition of the man he propos- minutes. a laugh at Tommy's untidiness and ed to murder.

But when he was found he would hung it on the hook behind the bed. He sat down in the chair beside the present the picture of a suicide, the room door. It had remained there window in the dark room. He kept suicide of a drunken man who had ever since.

his gloves on. He was not taking any pushed the lounge up to the door, put Varne lived alone in a small house chances of finger-prints. After a while the noose round his neck and thrown on the outskirts of the town. A wo- hề thought of something. He walked himself forward, man came in daily to clean up the gingerly across the room in the dark- Getlin took hold of the door with place. She arrived usually at eight ness and felt behind the door to see if both hands. He pushed himself

rope

MENNEN

BORATED POWDER

-ANTISEPTIC-

Soothes and Protects

MENNEN Antiseptic

ISORDTED POWDER