Omaha daily bee., 1885-02-21

Professor Wild was deeply interested,
and asseuted readily ID the officer re.
quest. Without a moments hesitation
he took a cab and drove rapidly to the
scene of the murder.
The c%oroner's jury had made the clos.
es' ex minstion possible aud rendered
their virdict: "Dtath from q guushot,
fired by come unknown person, either &C.
cldentslly or intent 1nally.' 1t was all
they could say, for as no report of a gun
had been heard 1t was impossible, as sug-
gested by one juror, that anyone
mounted on ladder could
have done 1t; nor could 1t have
been fred from any neal point
outside upon the ground, since the per
f~oration OF the window proved that 1t
was from an elevation. 1t came out In
the investigation that Mr.. Vandy Ike had
no enemies that anyone knew of In the
city that about a month before, his
serving man, Adolph Werner, a Swiss,
had left him t get employment elsewhere,
taking with him q certificate OF good char.
acter, and that Pat Regan, sn Irishmsn,
had been hirsd in his place, 1t was also
shown that Mr.. Vandyke was a little
loose iu his morals and quite a lady-k Her;
that he had once been sued for preach Of
promise by a gardeners daughter, and
once been assaulted with a pistol by q
furious danseuse, whose affections he had
triie1 with. Bnt these things had hap
pened years ago. The Professor
learned thess particulars from the coroner
who had started to leave Just as he and
Powers came up.
They hurr ed to the room where the
cospse lay. and where Officer Jones was
keeping guard until his colleague should
%returo. The body had not been moved.
The Professor looked at the wound and
then at the hole through the glass. 1t
was clean cut but not round, as would be
made by a ball striking directly poiLt
foremost, but slightly elliptical in shape
and sharper at the top than at the base
He then examined the hall, which the
coroner had left on the table, and which
was batter ed 60 mewhat out of shape.
"Powerp," taid the professor, "this
shot was fired at a distance of not less
than 1000 yards, perhaps even 1900 or
more"
Then, stepping to the window, he
looked out In the direction from which it
had come, and saw 800 yards of, the I'M
finished building mentioned above, eur
rounded by tcatfoldipg, upon which
wolkmen were busily employed.
"What il beyond that hoh'e?" he
ssksd.
eff you please" said Regsn, the Irieh
serving man, "a week ago you could see
a four-s.ory building a long way of, be
yond that, but now they have run up the
walls Of that house so high that you can't
see it."
"Cou'd you Zee 1t from the roof of this
house2" questioned the professor.
MAYBE you cJuld, sir, replied Regaa;
'any way, 1t IS easy to go up and look;
there's a way out to the top"
Then show us, my man, and well
60" responded the professor.
They soon mounted to the roof, and
beheld over the top of the unfinished
building a large fou!-atory structure, at
least three quarters of a mile distant.
Officer Jones said it had been erect I'D for
a msnufactury of some kind, but now
was q sort of tenement-houss, in which a
la sc number of poor people, mostly for
eigners, lived.
After a brief inspection they de-
scended. and, at the request of the pro-
lessor, Officer JoDes was dispatched to au
instrument.msker's for an engineers
transit compass and a large spy-glss,.
When Jones wal absent on this erraud
the professor stretched a elender Irvine
from the bullet. hole In the window, out
Perpendicularly over the point where the
fatal wound was made, for the purpose
of defining the exact course of the pro-
ectile. This done, he took cut his
memorandum book and pencil, and a.
oncs plunged into the labyrinthine mazes
of the calculus Forgetful Of all else,
he was computing the approximate dis.
lance at which the shot had been fred.
He became satisfied that the path Of the
ball was between 1000 and l,225 yards
in lcpgth.
Jones o arrived with the transit
and spy-glass. Having carefully located
the former In a direct line with the
Irvine, the professor leveled it and then
noted the course of the needle. 1t
proved to be 12A degrees east of north.
The instrument was now moved to the
top of the house, and by means of
measurements from the chimney,
both below and above, was
located on its tripod directly over
the spot whers it had stood in the room
beneath. Having leveled it in this new
position, he act it to the exact bearing of
l23 degrees east Of north, and then ap-
Piled his eye to the revolving Telescope.
L. swept the east end OF the dl.tant tene-
ment building, the cross of the spid cr
lines passing in succession over the four
end windows, placed one over another in
four different stories. From this direc-
ton undoubtedly came the shot The
Telescope was permitted to rtst Oh the
fourth story window, for that one differed
in appearance from all others. Next,
taking up The spy glass, the professor
gszad through it long and steadily at the
four windows. He saw that the first,
second and third story rooms were all oc-
cupied. The windows were open, and
there was light enough to see objects iu-
side. In the frat an old woman sat sew
ing by a table, IN the second a child wa,
playing ard in the third a dog had his
paws on the window sill looking out. But
the room in the fourth story was impene-
trab!e; tbs window wa, dark and evi.
IDENTIFY curtained heavily inside, while at
the same time there was a small square
opening through one of the panes and
through the curtain into the dsrkened
room.
ITO be continued,