The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1873-01-17

CHAPTER II.
In this way nearly three weeks had
passed since the murder, when received
a telegram from Lansing informing me
of his return to the city. All this time l
had been shut mp in my Office, working,
it must be confessed, with little hopes OF
success.
The day that 1 expected Lansing's re-
turn went to the place where the body
had been found, and examined carefully
the marks on the wall, but 1 could find
none other than the ones 1 had seen be-
fore, so 1 concluded that those were the
only ones. As stood looking at them,
however, saw what seemed to be n
piece of stone lying on the floor of the
cellar. As a detective sees a clew in
everything, l picked it up, and found, to
my surprise, that it was piece of putty.
AS soon as / discovered this l searched
the whole wall to find where the piece
came from, and at last discovered that
some marks near the others were filed
with putty. l scraped it away, and the
whole cryptogram appeared rs follows:
T-1225-D.
1914
4 First ono.
(The letters and figures in italics had
been concealed by putty.)
l took another copy and went back to
my retreat, leaving orders for no one to
be admitted to the cellar.
Here, now, was another mystery; and
from the revelation which had just re-
ceived, was astonished into the belief
that Albert Firstone had something to
do with the crime. But yet the cipher
was still mystery.
While was studying these new de-
velopments, Lansing came in. i grasped
his hand with pressure that made him
vince, as showed him the other letters
1 had found. He looked at them mo-
ment, and then, springing from his
chair, fairly shouted:
"Firstone is the murderer, and his
name is the key to the cipher!"
And he showed me that the word "Fir.
stone in my copy was separated into
two words, and that line read: "a First
one.' BY this key the figures read, "A b
b e." and the cipher, with the addition
of the part concealed, read:
abbed
by
A. Firstone.
We did not either of us shout ecu
reka!" or anything else. But looked at
Lansing, who was trembling like leaf,
and said, "You ought to have been a
detective"
Having written ont the cipher accord
ing to his translation, and being convinc-
ed that / had been outwitted, or some
thing Of that sort, by lawyer, leaned
back in my chair, and, can't tell why,
but burst out into hearty laugh,
which Lansing soon joined.
After my risible powers we're exhaust
ed, rang the bell for the errand-boy,
and sent note Like this to Denning:
"Come up to my den this afternoon,
and bring some handy instrument for
the detection Of foreign substances such
as pieces Of stone in blood"
After sending this I prevailed upon
Lansing to go with me to luncheon. In
an hour we returned, and found Den
ming, with large microscope and several
small walls. Immediately went to my
desk, took out Roger Lyons knife, and
handed it to him, asking him to see if
there were any pieces of stone in the
blood stains which still showed on the
knife. He knew my meaning in an in.
slant. And taking vial he carefully
rinsed portion of the stains with its
contents, letting the liquid run upon a
glass slide, which he had placed in the
suns rays.
Impatiently we waited and watched
for the evaporation Of the liquid. 1t
was soon all gone, when he placed the
slide in the microscope and turned the
powerful sun-glass upon it. On looking
in the lens, minute particles of stone,
some stained with blood, we're plainly
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