Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-01-10
CHAPTER III.

CHAP LEN Ii.
Thomas Crane testified at the inquest
to the conflict he had seen, and to being
with the man at his death. To his
father and to Harry Fentc only die he
tell of the fearful oath he had taken in
the tempest of that January night.
Both grieved that he had taken it, but
neither said one word to induce him to
break it.
My legal knowledge is at your COM
mand," said Harry Fenton.
My fortune is at your command,
said his father.
Long before noon the dead mans rel
atives had come to claim him-his wild
owed mother and his sister; but they
had nothing to tell which would throw
any light on the murder. Charlie Jack
son had spoken the truth when he said
he had not an enemy In the world. He
had no great amount of money. 1t was
a most terrible mystery.
The next day Thomas Crane began his
search. Search around the scene of the
murder was rewarded by finding the
knife with which the deed was done.
The police had failed to find it. Crane
found it himself.
Days followed in which he carefully
examined the stock of cutlery in one
store after another in his search for
knives like it. He found its mate at last
IN little variety store far out IN the
suburbs, the only one like it which he
had seen for sale in the whole city. He
bought 1t, treated the man who had sold
1t to glass Of beer, praised the little
child who came into the store from the
dwelling behind ii, and so won upon the
man that he learned where the other two
knives from the quarter dozen he had
had, had gone when sold.
He took the likeliest case first.
A fellow who had been indicted for
man slaughter once, and who was
popularity believed to have escaped by
false swearing, was followed first, what
ever he had been doing, he was evident
ly covering up his tracks. But when
found at last, late in March, thousand
miles away from where Crane had COM
menced to follow him, he was sitting in
a bar-room whiting a shingle with the
mate OF the knife which had killed
Jackson, and two months of hard work
had come to nothing. Crane was dis
gusted, not disheartened.
The next day he was on his way back
to begin again.
The other man was an express mes
senger. An honest, Woodworking.
straightforward man, it seemed almost
mockery TO follow him. Crane took an
other step forward in regard to the
knives themselves before he began. He
went to the manufacturers, and from
them to the wholesale dealers, telling
them just enough for his purpose to Sc
cure their aid, and traced the knives
from the place where they were made.
In towns not far away knives like these
had been bought and sold again, but
only three he had already known of had
ever been sent to the city in which the
murder took place.
There was nothing left to do but fol-
low the express messenger. Crane be-
gan bis work. He had seen the man
sight. He found him one morning in
his neat yard at home. He was cutting
limbs from the trees next the walk; and
to Cranes disappointment, the knife he
used was not the mate of the one which
had killed young Jackson.
Thomas Crane went that afternoon to
see the Jacksons. they had known for
some time that he was following up the
case, and he had been to see them sew
eral times. He told them what he had
done, and what he had found, but he
did not tell them why he was following
the murderer. It was beginning to be
a CHASTITY piece of business in his esti-
nation, and yet he scarcely dared hope
for so welcome q thing as failure.
Think of it A man bending all his
energies to one dread end, and hoping
that the CHASTITY necessity of being the
avenger of murder may pass by him.
How the man longed for January again,
that beautiful April morning. If he
could only fall sick; but his oath kept
him from exposure; the year of life his
was to be given in honesty though un-
willingly.
In the evening Crane called on Harry
Fenton,