INCIDENT OF THE TALKING CORPSE

When, three days after the raging blizzard ended, neither of the two mysterious and silent men who lived in a small shack at the foot of towering Mount Finger had put in an appearance at the tiny village of Elmo, Professor Fordney headed a rescue party. Fighting its way through huge drifts, it arrived at the shack at dusk.

On a rough bunk lay the body of a man with his head blown to pieces. He had been dead for at least a week.

Nothing was known of the shack’s two occupants, who infrequently called for mail at Elmo, but their names—Ed Morely and Tom Neal. Discouraging all attempts at friendliness they had threatened to shoot anyone who intruded on their solitude.

A torn half of a letter signed “McGee” was in the dead man’s pocket, identifying him as one of McGee’s gang. McGee had broken prison and was the object of an intense police search. The Professor knew also that every member of McGee’s gang knew their leader had been framed by a rival mob member and all had openly threatened to knock off McGee’s betrayer.

The only other information Fordney could discover concerning the two was contained in torn bits of paper which, when pasted together, disclosed that Neal and Morely had quarreled when, through accident, Morely discovered that Neal was the man who had framed McGee.

“Now we got a killer to find,” drawled Sheriff Egen. “If we only knew who this leader is, we’d know which one to look for, but…

“The corpse,” said Fordney, “is…so go out and bring in…”

Who was the dead man? How do you know? Turn page for solution.