Books › Blue Book v57 n04 [1933-08], 1933 › scan 117
Scan 117
Blue Book v57 n04 [1933-08], 1933
42 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1There's Murder
3A powerful and fascinating novel, based on an idea that is really new, by the brilliant author of "The Game of Death" and "The Eternal Light."
5By ROY CHANSLOR
7The Story So Far:
9A GIRL was playing the violin in a house in New York on the evening of February 15th, 1933, a girl who was young and beautiful—and blind and who was gifted with a strange power. With her were her father—Daniel Tyler, a former district attorney; and Nathaniel Benson, a young scientist.
11Suddenly, there was a crashing discord and the music ceased.
13The girl stood stiffly, bow aloft.
15"Murder!" she said, hoarsely. "Murder! Black hate…. A mind churning with hate! Death…. Kill all rulers!" She gave a little gasp of horror.
17"He is going to shoot Mr. Roosevelt!"
19"Roosevelt is speaking at Miami Beach tonight!" Benson cried.
21He ran to the radio, turned the dials. A confused roar could be heard, then the voice of the radio announcer:
23"An assassin has just attempted to kill the President-elect! Mr. Roosevelt is unharmed, but Mayor Cermak of Chicago and others were struck by bullets."
25"Mr. Tyler," said Benson later, "this is nothing supernatural. But we may be on the threshold of something so big—so important that it may affect the whole future of mankind.
27"It's something that science has not been able to explain yet. We know that some persons, a very rare few, seem to have the power of receiving, as it were, thoughts or images or something from the minds of others. Almost as if the mind were a sort of super-acute radio antenna. Your daughter seems to have this power to a remarkable degree. Think what it may mean if, instead of knowing when disaster strikes, she can foretell it!"
29"What a terrible responsibility for a child!" said Tyler.
31"And for us," Nat said, gravely; for by the advice of Dr. Jan Karasc, an eminent psychiatrist, Tyler had engaged him, without Ruth's knowledge, to live with them and study her strange power.
33A few weeks later this power was manifested again. This time also it was while the blind girl was rapt in the music of her violin that the message came to her—some one, somewhere hated with a fury that meant murder. Finally the name came to her—Paul Gordon.
35Tyler looked up that name, found it that of a wealthy financier. They called upon him at his country place—a great estate, close-fenced and guarded, where he lived with his son David, his second wife Carlotta, his daughter Hélène and his adopted daughter Doris.
37He proved skeptical of Ruth's power—though guards about him proved what he denied: that he lived in fear of attack.
39But a few nights later, the message came to Ruth again; Nat Benson called Gordon on the telephone to warn him; and even as Gordon answered, the crash of a pistol shot drowned his voice over the wire. But Gordon's movement in answering the phone was sufficient to distract the assassin's aim. The financier escaped—that time. And the would-be killer vanished. It seemed all too probable that he would try again, however; and it was therefore arranged that Ruth, with her father and Nat, should occupy a cottage on the Gordon estate, so any future warning might be given instantly. An elaborate burglar-alarm system, which would floodlight the whole place in case of intrusion, was also installed.
41Sure enough, Ruth received another warning. And almost immediately the burglar-alarm sounded, and the great floodlights illuminated the whole estate. A man leaped from the ledge where he had stood outside Gordon's window and ran; but Nat intercepted him with a football tackle, and he was captured.
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