Fair play., 1875-12-02

woman's. Coulter instinctively assOci.
ated the letter with young Armstrong,
kate's former lover, who, as before
stated, had been driven from the house
by her father, and had, as was suppOs.
ed, enlisted. The jeering words of Arm.
strong's mother came up fresh to Coul.
ter's memory.
"Ah, Mr.. Coulter. SO you've lost your
pretty miss! Now we're even. You
drove away my boy, and the devil has
driven away your girl.''
The officers resolved to search Mrs.
Armstrong; cottage, as there might be
some indication of her sons having
been recently there. They went down
at once, and aroused the old woman,
who was doing by the fire.
"What dye want with me and
mine?' she asked, querulously; "this
is no time o. night to disturb body
On being informed that officers of the
law demanded admission, she opened
the door, and boldly confronted them.
"Take what you can find," she said,
"that belongs to other than me-"
The officers began a careful search of
the place, and were rewarded by find
ing a pair of boots slowed away under
the floor, bearing on them the traces of
the peculiar black mud found on the
borders of the Black Tarn, from which,
and the singularly dark hue of its
waters, it derived its name.
"Whose boots are these?" the officer
asked.
"They were my son's," replied the
old woman, "befOre TREY drove him
away from home."
"When did he leave home?" the de-
tective inquired.
"In November, H." the old woman
answered, quickly.
"Did he put the boots under the
floOr?'' the officer asked.
"'Deed did he, the very day he left
home," Mrs. Armstrong replied.
"You saw him do it?" the detective
inquired.
"Saw him with my own eyes," was
the reply.
"And that was when?" the officer
asked.
The very day he left home, Novem-
ber 5, a." Mrs. Armstrong answered.
"And he wrapped up the boots then
as they were when l found them, and
put them under the flOOr?' the officer
said.
$50 help me God, that's what he
did, sir,'' the old woman answered.
"This is a Carlisle newspaper, in
which the boots were wrapped, and it
bears date February Q, 1S75-the very
day on the night of which Kate Coulter
was murdered.
Before the officer had finished the
sentence, Mrs. Armstrong dropped to
the ground in swOon. A neighbor
was called to attend her and the officers
left. There was no doubt on their
minds that Armstrong was the man
who visited the shoemaker's in BrOmp-
ton, that he was the "Private John"
whose name had been on the half-burnt
and that he was the outrager
and murderer of Kate Coulter.
But how had he communicated with
his victim, as he must have done? And
how had she been enticed to the Black
Tarn?
These were questions to which the
officers sought an answer in vain. They
went to work, however, Immediately ( ,
hunt down the perpetrator of the abom-
inable crime.
Mrs. Armstrong refused stubbornly
to answer any questions, although
was judged proper to arrest her as 4
cessory after the crime. All that could
be got out of her were these bitter
"He drove away nay son, and the
devil drove away his daughter!"
1t was easily ascertained that one Pr
vate John Armstrong had deserted fro,i
the 45th Regiment of Infantry, station
ed at Manchester, in February, and that
nothing had been heard of him since.
His description answered to the person
Of young Armstrong, Rates former lov-
er, in every particular. What puzzled
The detectives most was that nobody
had seen Armstrong on the road or in
me village before the murder, and that,
although he had evidently been home to
MS mothers after the crime was perpe-
rated, he had been seen by no one.
Descriptions of the man had been sert
'y telegraph all over England, and the
'fficers awaited in Carlisle some inform
Ia