The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-07-27
THE STRANGE CLUE,
BY an Ex-DstsctIve.
CONCLUDED.

room was llBnteu only Dy tne cuhuio
which the young nobleman held above
his head; and 1t appeafed to be excel
lently painted. But what drew my
attention was, that as a part of the
confusion In which the struggle between
the old man and his murderers had
placed the room, the washstand had
been upset, had fallen into the fireplace,
and the ever had rolled into the CRATE,
where II was shown as unbroken,
although the water was flooding the
boards-all exactly as l had seen the
same things five years before--so exact
iy, that was perfectly sure no chance
coincidence had produced the resem-
blance, but that whoever had painted
this picture had seen the room where
Miss Parkway was murdered, and had
had the features of the scene stamped on
his memory. Who SO likely to have the
scene so stamped, / instantly thought,
as the murderer himselfY AS this rush
ed on my mind, could not repress an
exclamation, although pretty well guard
ed as rule. The only other person in
the room heard me, and came to see
what had excited me so strongly. Ap-
parently, he was disappointed, for he
looked from the picture to his catalogue,
then to the picture again, then at me,
back TO his catalogue, and then went
away with discontented grunt / did
not move, however, but remained quite
absorbed in the study Of this mysterious
painting and the more l looked the
more convinced 1 became that it was
copied from the scene of Miss Parkway's
murder There were several little
points which had not at first noticed,
and in fact had quite forgotten such as
the position of the fire-irons, the direc-
iion in which the water had run, &C.,
which were all faithfully shown in the
picture. To be brief, had made up my
mind before left the room that L had
at last found the real clue to the Combe-
stead murder.
The artists name was Wyndham
and ] determined that L would very
soon, as natural beginning, make
some inquiries about this Mr.. Wynd-
ham; and, indeed, began before left
the exhibition. 1 engaged the hall
keeper to have glass with me at the
nearest tavern, and when got fully
into conversation with him, asked care
lessly where Mr.. Wyndham lived, as l
thought 1 had known him many years
ago, giving description Of some entire
ly imaginary person. The hall-keeper
said no: I" No, that was not the sort of
man at all. Mr.. Wyndham was" (here
he described him !; ''and he doesn't live
at the west end of London, as you said,
Sir, but at place in Essex, not very far
from Colchester" He knew where he
lived, because he had several times
posted letters to him at "The Mount" I"
This was all that I got from the hall
keeper, but it was as much as 1
wanted.
1 am not greatly in the habit of taking
other people into my confidence, but
this was altogether an exceptional case ;
so, after a little reflection, l went
straight to the address John Lytherly
had given me, and told him what I had
seen. He of course introduced me tC
his wife, very pretty dark-eyed young
woman; and when I had told all they
exchanged looks less of surprise than
triumph. "Oh, it is coming all right!''
he exclaimed. 81 knew the murder
would cry out some day. And now you
will have little more respect for Indian
fortune-tellers."
81 am not quite sure about that"
said. "But don't you go making SC
certain that we are going to find out
anything, Mr.. Lytherly; this may bC
only an accidental resemblance" Be
cause, as you may suppose, l had no
told them how confident 1 felt ia my
own mind.
Accidental Nonsense!'' was all h,
said to that; and then he asked m'
what was the first step 1 proposed t.
take. / told him that 1 thought w
ought to go down to this village and Sc
if we could learn anything suspicion
about Mr.. Wyndham; and by my oil,
detective habits, and the way in which
the officers about would be sure to he'll
me, thought we might reckon Oh
finding out what was wanted. He wa
delighted, and asked when we shoul
start, and when / said that very nighl
he was more delighted still.
1t is always my rule to strike the iro
while it's hot, and nothing could poss
bly, be got by waiting now; so ha
made up my mind just to run home
get few things in my bag, and g