Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1880-11-10
WOODSTOCK, VT, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 10, 1880

house during these terribly lmpoftah'
) minutes tho stain Of murder might
never have rested upon my hands
I found the font door OF my lods-
ing.house unlalched and little way
oper. as Ihad lett 1t, As near as J
have been able 10 determine, ] could
rot have been absent longer than
twelve minutes NJ the most, The
door leading from the hallway into
my own room was open on my return
As ] cnteredllhc apartment I started
back with cry OF horrors for there
lying PROSTATE on the hoor with q
whitehandled dagger piercing his
breast, and the pistol with which he
had attempted my lie lying by his
side-there, close to the table whcreon
lay the cards in scattered heap, and
in a position so that tho argand light
shed It's full rays upon the paid face
there lay the man who was at once
my friend and my enemy, Ralph
Branch, dead!
Istartod forward with second cry
of Eorror, and instinclively bent over
the PROSTATE body to draw ont the
dagger. | recognized it at once as
the weapon which had come into my
possession years ago, and which had
always lain on the mantel during my
occupancy Of that room. lremembcrd
distinctly Of seeing it in i's accus-
toned place that evening. Al that
very instant DR.. Balch appeared at
the doorway, while tehind him fol-
lowed Mr. Richards and two or three
of the dodgers. They had been start
led by my cry at the discovery of the
tragedy, and in dishabille had has
tened to my room. lrose up at their
entrance with face as pale MS that OF
the dead. Irose up with the blood
stained dagger in my hapd, aud with
my faculties halt.numbed by the shock
ing events of the night.
"Great God, Jack, what does this
mean?" said the doctor in husky
tones.
"It means," answered, "that either
Branch has taken his own life, or else
that murder has been committed.
have done il 2
All, how many, many times in the
weary days that followed that awful
night did l put that question to my
self. will not here attempt to de-
scribe the terrible dread that came
over me when it flashed first ON my
mind that suspicion pointed its finger
at me. Let me pass hastily over my
arrest, the preliminary examination,
my long trial and my final conviction
What chain OF circumstances, every
link pointing directly to my guilt, the
prosecution wove about me. Here
was man with whom the prisoner
sat down to play at cards for money;
an hour later the house is awakened
by loud voices, which plainly reveal
the quarrel that IS passing; in his
room, just at the head OF the stairs,
Dr.. Balch can hear threats and re-
ordinations bitter enough to culml-
nate in murder itself; then comes
sudden and unaccountable silence va.
riously estimated at from three to six
minutes (oh, that one witness conld
have been found to double the number
of those minutes then the household
is again startled by two agonlzlns
cries, and the doctor, the landlady and
three lodgers, rushing hastily to the
room, discover the prisoner in the
very act of drawing a dagger-a dag
ger, the ownership If which stands
confessed-out of the heart OF the
murdered man.
More than circumstantial evidence
is this-it is the direct testimony OF
eye.wltpesses. And how absurd seems
the story told by the prisoner in his
own defence. He admits quarrel,
the angry words, but presumes to say
that in that undetermined period OF
silence he rushed out of the house
bareheaded, with no definite purpose
in view. and remained away just long
enough to permit some one else to 40
the deed Not witness who met
him on the strcet-nO. one III the
house who heard his going out or MS
coming in. And yet he would ask
, ;urv TO believe that in that brief peri
cd somebody entered the room' drove
! the dagger into the sc'or's heart ane
, made his escape with the none,
b. which was lying on the table the
= five hundred dollars had disappeared
: Surely no jury could accept that stor.
t TO offset the overwhelming evidence