The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1865-02-10

This was Ill the letter contained; no
names were mentioned. 1t wrs cyi-
dent that the request to destroy the
note had not been complied with; why,
I could only conjecture Either the
recipient meant to keep it for futurt
use, or it had been lost sight Of; for
when l found it, it was imbedded with
in the folds Of the coarse lining Of the
valise in such manner as almost to
escape the notice of any one but that
Of detective bent upon getting every
clue lac possibly could to ferret out a
murderer The reader has seen how
near even I came of throwing away
this perhaps important document.
made strict inquiries whether any
thing bad been purloinod by this wo-
man, and was answered in the mega
tive; at least they supposed not, for
nothing as yet had been missed.
The kitchen door leading out into
the yard at the gate had been left I'M
fastened b. the woman | followed
the paths n had probably taken when
leaving the mansion, and came upon a
clunlp Of bushes where were strewed
some scraps Of newspapers; these I
examined, and saw they were pieces Of
a london paper.
While mechanically placing the
pieces Of newspaper in my pocket I
cast my eyes around the spot, and pre-
sently they alighted on square cut
glass bottle, Of about four ounces ca
pacity. picked it up the cork was
in it and the bottle contained limpid
liquid, perhaps two ounces. A label
on it designated that it contained chic
reform. ] opened it, and was soon
convinced that such was the case.
The label had on it the business
place Of an apothecary well known to
me. / concluded to keep the bottle
for the purpose Of ascertaining who
had purchased il and its contents.
had no doubt now that the subtle
drug had been used as a means to stu
pefy the-nmates of the mansion while
the murder was committed The wo-
man had probably put the servants to
sleep, and her husband, from the out
side, committed the dastardly deed.
The reason he did not enter the house
and do the deed while the servants
were rendered insensible, was proba-
bly, owing to the fact that Mr.. ST.
monds invariably barred the library
door when he retired at night The
fact must have been known to the as
sassin, hence The mode adopted to ac-
complish has sbiect
obtained no futher clue; in fact
I thought had sufficient for my pur-
pose. I came to the following con-
clusions, and contemplated acting up
on them.
Some intelligent person, who desired
revenge on Mr.. Simonds, had hired
another person and his wife to do
the deed he probably shrank from.
had every reason to suspect Morris
Obdyke as the principal in this affair,
and it was my object, first, to find out
where he resided in Lonlon, and then
to take measures to ferret out this left
handed murderer
The reason / wished TO see Morris
Obdyke was to discover whether he
was left-handed, or whether he was
minus finger on the other hand. I
forebore questioning the servants on
this subject; probably they might have
informed me correctly, bat then ser
wants will talk, and my secret would
hayo been thrown to the winds, which
might have waited my suspicious into
the ears of the eulplit 70 avoid these
contretemps, | held my tongue, and
started for London.
| called upon the apothecary and
handing him the bottle / asked him if
he reeollected to whom he had sold
the chloroform he at once replied in
the affirmative and gave the name Of
Obdyke.
was quite surprised at the infor-
nation, and could not speak for mo-
ment, so unexpected was it. l had
only hoped to get partial description
of the purchaser, and intended to COM
pare it with that of Obdyle, descrip-
tion of whom / had obtained of the le-
gal adviser Of the late Charles Simonds
"Are you acquainted with Mr., OBJ
dyke % / asked
mo sir
'How, then, do you know it was he
who purchased The drug? n
Because, inst as he payed for #,
another gentleman entered the shop,
and called him by name