ONE

A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED

IBetween 7:30 and 8:30 every morning except Sundays, Johnnie Butt madethe round of the village of Chipping Cleghorn on his bicycle, whistling vo-ciferously through his teeth, and alighting at each house or cottage toshove through the letterbox such morning papers as had been ordered bythe occupants of the house in question from Mr. Totman, stationer, of theHigh Street. Thus, at Colonel and Mrs. Easterbrook’s he delivered TheTimes and the Daily Graphic; at Mrs. Swettenham’s he left The Times andthe Daily Worker; at Miss Hinchcliffe and Miss Murgatroyd’s he left theDaily Telegraph and the New Chronicle; at Miss Blacklock’s he left the Tele-graph, The Times and the Daily Mail.

At all these houses, and indeed at practically every house in ChippingCleghorn, he delivered every Friday a copy of the North Benham News andChipping Cleghorn Gazette, known locally simply as “the Gazette.”

Thus, on Friday mornings, after a hurried glance at the headlines in thedaily paper

(International situation critical! U.N.O. meets today!

Bloodhounds seek blonde typist’s killer! Three collieriesidle. Twenty-three die of food poisoning in Seaside Hotel,etc.)

most of the inhabitants of Chipping Cleghorn eagerly opened the Gazetteand plunged into the local news. After a cursory glance at Correspondence(in which the passionate hates and feuds of rural life found full play) nineout of ten subscribers then turned to the PERSONAL column. Here weregrouped together higgledy-piggledy articles for Sale or Wanted, frenziedappeals for Domestic Help, innumerable insertions regarding dogs, an-nouncements concerning poultry and garden equipment; and variousother items of an interesting nature to those living in the small communityof Chipping Cleghorn.

This particular Friday, October 29th—was no exception to the rule—