Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-01-01

" HOtOf.
"And has made notes Of his discoveries
and his ideas in reading tho c~vide2cog'
YES; l have noted down whatever oc.
Cured to me-that is, whatever seemed
worth preserving"
'If Monsieur will read his notes, that, l
think, would be the quickest way Of going to
work. With permission Of Monsieur, l will
light a cigar and listen.n
l took out the notes I had made AID read
them; at first not without some ~trcpidat.on
in submitting my amateur work to such @
critic. But the attention with which n.
Blery listened treasured me.
The first point taken up in my notes was
this-that Girard could not bo supposed to
V p~remeditated the crime. Had he done
., he would not, on the very night Of tho
murder, have applied such language to his
uncle G5 no had done; he would not have
uced and left behind him q weapon that must
infallibly connect him with the crime. A
mailman might act in this manner; but
Girard, when be left the Cafe de IL Source.
when he parted from his hetrothed on that
fatal Christmas eve, had been perfectly sane;
Of that there was no doubt wAlcTor.
'Girard then, N went on, 'did not premed-
itate the crime. If he murdered his uncle
Without reconciliation, what is tho most
natural thing to supposel Surely tht5-that
he entered tie room, asked his undo for
money, was refused with taunts end Isults
that dashed him into fury, and finally, in a
paroxysm of fury, slew the old man with a
single blow.
''But against this conjecture there is the
medical and police testimony as to the position
in which the corpse was found. All the wit
nesses concur in stating that he was found
lying between his chair and the writing
table, as if he had been struck suddenly and
silently from behind. Had the blow been
preceded by an altercaticY, that would GER
tainly have been heard by the copyist Pernet,
whose room is divided from Meissner's by a
thin partition. Had there BEEN hot dispute,
face to face, between uncle and nephew, thG
blow would almost certainly have been strucd
in front, and not planted under the shoulder.
blade.
''Therc being a difficulty in the wayof both
Of these ccnjectures, the judge Of instruction
adopted a third. He supposed that Girard
had armed himself with a dagger merely to
brighten the old man, and that he had beer
led to murder him in a moment of homicidal
mountaineering his purpose before q word
had passed. This conjecture is one way out
of the difficulty"
Ingenious, but unsatisfactory, observed
II. Blery.
II I'M charmed to find that Monsieur agrees
with me. Now, as to the question Of time"
"Ahl as to the question of timer said M,
Blery, relighting his cigar.
Gas to that, there arc three witnesses of
chief importance--Sophie Mouton, daughter
Of the %janitor; the police sergeant GARNER,
and Pernet the copyist. None Of these wit
nesses were able to make definite statement
Pernet was so positive in his uncertainty that
hisevidence may beseta aside. Onthe night OF
no murder Girard parted company from me,
as you will remember, at 10 o'clock precisely;
going by the Rue dc rOdeon, he can scarcely
have reached the Passage dc Mazarin before
twenty minutes past ten. Sophie Mouton, "a
little before or o little after tent quote her
words exactly-sees the figure of aman, not
one Of the tenants, pass herdoc going towards
the court. IF this was q little before ten, the
man cannot have been Girard; and "a little
after ton is probably not SO much as twenty
minutes. The police sergeant GARNER began
by stating his belief that it was half-past ten
when the man rushed>past him in the Rue de
Biche. Girard himself asserted in his evidence
that it was half-past ten O'Clock when he
anne to the Passage; no has since explained
this to NJ. Sapinaud, his counsel, by the sta6o-
ment that he did not follow tho nest direct
way from the Rue de pOdeon to the Passage
But putting aside Girarl's statement, and
taking simply tho evidence of Sophie Moutor
and OF GARNER, apart from the judges in
sp.ration, / reach this conclusion-that the
man whcrn the police sergeant saw rush by
him in the Rue de Bicho and tho man whom
tho j~anitor's daughter saw Fastening through
the passage were not one and the same per.
son. The former Cas RaouL Girdrd; the
latter traS the assassin"
"Ah, another pointI AID now shall I tell
Monsieur how he goes on2 lie has shown that
Girard did not premeditate the crime; he
goes on to show that the real assassin did
that he had bs plan Of operations. Is it moi
sog'
THAT Is certainly how I go on" I answered,
admiring the readiness with which the de
tectiye took up my train Of reasoning.
Eyes" continued Blery, ''that is the next
step, undoubtedly" He was now walking
up md down the room as he spoke, empha-
sizing his words by flourishes Of his cigar,
which had gone out. "Girard entered Meiss-
ner's room by the window; tho assassin did
not. No man with a plan Of operations would
attempt such a thing; he would calculate his
chances, and find them twenty to one against
his doing it unobserved. Your friend is a
of unusual agility, is he notT
eyes, he is q trained gymnast,"
"Ah, but was the assassin q trained gym.
The balance Of probabilities is against
II. No; he did not enter by the window.
How, then, did he entera Yousay, naturally,
by the door. 1 say yes, but how9 The door
Of Meissner's room is found locked, the key
within; the janitor has declared in
evidence that there is no duplicate key to any
room in the house. You tell me that the
assassin must have procured a second key to
fit the lock of Meissner's door. l say, good;
but again, howa You tell me-but no, | for
get; Monsieur cannot know this; he has not
seen tho key of Meissner's door"
"No; YOU were beforehand with Ine there"
swell, here is the key.n-M. Blery laid it
before me on the table. sc Dur assassin has his
plan of operations; that is agreed. What,
then, does he dol His natural course is to
obtain tcmporarypossession Of Meissner's key,
n order to have a duplicate made from it.
Now, observe the key. 1t is of simple con
truction; an expert locksmith could fashion
nc Like it in half an hour. This key Of Meiss