Daily globe., 1881-07-31

in the chamber of the crime 1 sought
the police inspector. Annoyed as, l was
at the charge against my friend, had at
this moment not the least doubt either of
his innocence or of his being able
thoroughly to clear himself. Roberts
was sympathizing and fairly cOmmuni-
cative, but it was easy to see that beneath
his civil sentences lurked the conviction
that he had arrested the right man.
"You see, SIR" he said, "Mr. MYRTLE
more was observed on his way down from
the Hall by the keeper who lives at the
chalk pits. Brown says he was out In
the garden, smoking, and, dark as the
night was, noticed Mr.. Myrtlemore par
tieularly. Mr.. Myrtlemore passed quite
cbse, and was in tremendous hurry,
groaning, and, Brown says, swearing to
himself all the way; things which, when
put together, seem very odd, because
generally that gentleman is quiet one
very. And then there's the pistol!''
"What did Ger-Mr. Myrtlemore say
when you went down to Ashdale Lodge?''
"He was in bed, sir; and when l saw
him he looked as pale as death; but all
he said was, 4 am very sorry, Roberts,
Pm perfectly innocent, but of course I'll
GO with you at once" ="
"And innocent / am sure he is" |
answered, warmly; "but somebody has
committed a foul crime and must be
detected. You have made thorough
search, of course, indoors as well as out,
and have examined the servants?''
"Every one, sir, without exception;
but they are all accounted for right
enough. And, what makes it darker,
Mr.. Parke, harder to make out, is, that it
clearly wasn't done for robbery
"Unless the thief thought to find the
room empty, and, to save himself, shot
| Captain Tranten.'
"No, sir, no! There's not the least
sign of breaking In. Besides, the pistol"
| Redtape was bringing me mercilessly
back to his fixed idea; it was horrible!
A business like thought seized me.
81 am the family solicitor, as you
doubtless know" said. "You will al
low me to 60 into the room and make in
vestlgations for myself"
Certainly, Mr.. Parke; man IS on
guard there all the while, of course"
Divided by several unused rooms and
the whole width of the hall from the rest
of the house, this chamber was very lone
ly. Fitted up as library, with heavy
oak appurtenances, it wore always a
sombre appearance. l had been in it
many times and knew it well With the
blinds drawn and so CHASTITY an occupant,
the gloom was tenfold more oppressive.
Only the faint hope of stumbling on some
clew, overlooked by the rest, could have
induced me to spend the next half-hour
as / did spend it. Disordered as the
place had been by the events of the night,
method still reigned on Captain Tranton's
table and desk. There.was tin case of
documents, bills, and receipts, evidently
brought home the day before from Scot
land; probably the issue of my own latest
advice was hidden there; but l had no heart
to look. There were filed letters, answ-
cred and unanswered. There was mixed
pile of pamphlets, political and legal.
There was county y-court handbook, and
the little red backed book in which the
unfortunate gentleman had made notes
of our last meeting. [ opened this, and
found it to be a record of engagements
and important memoranda. Brevity was
it's chief feature. a full half of the en-
tries were quite unintelligible to any but
the writer. Letters did duty for words,
and numbers had apparently mysterious
and hurried meaning. Money was, from
the first page to the last, its great burden.
If had been looking for evidence of the
captains secret money lending business
instead of for the elucidation of life
and-death mystery, my search would have
been amply rewarded; as it was, there
was very little to interest me. Stay
What followed the memorandum of the
visit to my Office? Only this:
&C. on r. H-19S--1O 80, Goth. Imp
Qurr.''
Only line that seemed as inscrutable
as any of the others. l ran my eye hasti-
ly down the remainder of the leaf--there
were few, very few, more entries
and closed the book, baff1ed.
AS the inspector had said, the room
bore no trace of any violence preliminary
to the one great crime. Neither had
there been a struggle. An alteration
with Gerald Myrtlemoore-a death
wound. In any unprejudiced case, l was
bound to confess to my own judgement
that, like the policeman, should have
liked the two facts together.
Gerald was imprisoned in the inspect
or's own part of the village Jail, and
thither went to seek him.
On the road 1 met Mr. Markham, ,popu-
larly known as "the Squire" All the
old mans pomposity was shaken out Of
him, and he reined up his steed, with a
face as grave and bewildered as my own
GA terrible affair, sad business, Mr.
Parke!' he said.
every. Mysterious to a degree"
81 really would not have believed it OF
young Myrlemore.
I II don'tl" dryly, with an accent of in
dlgnation.
"No more does Bronze. nor I--nor l.
thoroughly"
"We shall have to get London detec-
tive down; 1 do not believe these police
will unravel it.''
"Roberts thinks it's plain"
eyes; that's just the reason. Possessed
| by the insane idea, they will allow the
real criminal to escape"
| "Ah! Have you seen Myrtlemore?'
ono; am just going there; to Jail,
indeed"
Even from so friendly an encounter as
this, it was plain that the tide of suspic-
ion was running heavily against my
friend; amongst strangers it would be
ten times worse. Sick and sad at heart, l
held on my path.
Gerald was sitting bowed down at the
little deal table as entered the room.
He rose to his feet, and looked me fully in
the face-a look that went through me
| like knife, and yet had no enmity in it.