Charlotte Armstrong - Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 17, No. 90, May 1951

“There’s no trick to this,” began Ellery, “and no joke, either, even though the men who were murdered were so old that death had grown tired waiting for them. The answer is as simple as the initials of their last names. Who knew that the supposed fortune was in Confederate money and therefore worthless? Only the three old men. One or another of the three would hardly have planned the deaths of the other two for possession of some scraps of valueless paper. So the murderer has to be someone who believed the fortune was legitimate and who — since until today there was no clue to the money’s hiding place — knew he could claim it legally.

“Now, of course, that last-survivor-take-all business was pure moon-shine, invented by Caleb, Zach, and Abner for their own amusement and the mystification of the community. But the would-be murderer didn’t know that. The would-be murderer went on the assumption that the whole story was true, or he wouldn’t have planned murder in the first place.

“Who would be able to claim the fortune legally if the last of the three old men — the survivor who presumably came into possession of the fortune on the deaths of the other two — died in his turn?”

“Last survivor’s heir,” said Doc Strong, and he rose.

“And who is the last survivor’s heir?”

“Zach Bigelow’s grandson, Andy.” And the little mayor of Jacksburg stared hard at Bigelow, and a grumbling sound came from the people below, and Bigelow shrank against the wall behind Cissy, as if to seek her protection. But Cissy moved away.

“You thought the fortune was real,” Cissy said scornfully, “so you killed Caleb Atwell and my great-grandpa so your grandfather’d be the last survivor so you could kill him and get the fortune.”

“That’s it, Ellery,” cried Nikki.

“Unfortunately, Nikki, that’s not it at all. You all refer to Zach Bigelow as the last survivor—”

“Well, he was,” said Nikki.

“How could he not be?” said Doc Strong. “Caleb and Abner died first—”

“Literally, that’s true,” said Ellery, “but what you’ve all forgotten is that Zach Bigelow was the last survivor only by accident. When Abner Chase died early this morning, was it through poisoning, or some other violent means? No, Doc, you were absolutely positive he’d died of a simple cerebral hemorrhage — not by violence, but a natural death. Don’t you see that if Abner Chase hadn’t died a natural death early this morning, he’d still be alive this evening? Zach Bigelow would have put that bugle to his lips this afternoon, just as he did, just as Caleb Atwell did a year ago... and at this moment Abner Chase would have been the last survivor.

“And who was Abner Chase’s only living heir, the girl who would have fallen heir to Abner’s ‘fortune’ when, in time, or through her assistance, he joined his cronies in the great bivouac on the other side?

“You lied to me, Cissy,” said Ellery to the shrinking girl in his grip, as a horror very like the horror of the burying ground in the afternoon came over the crowd of mesmerized Jacksburgers. “You pretended you didn’t believe the story of the fortune. But that was only after your great-grandfather had inconsiderately died of a stroke just a few hours before old Zach would have died of poisoning, and you couldn’t inherit that great, great fortune, anyway!”

Copyright, 1933, by Christine Sabatini

Copyright, 1917, by The Crowell-Collier Publishing Co.

Copyright, August 1949, by Esquire, Inc.

Copyright, 1933, by W. A. Darlington

Copyright, 1926, by Mystery Magazine Company

Copyright, 1931, by J. B. Priestley