Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1888-02-02

III luendtfiug the c0kk. 4ne tnroal
} wss cut. or rather, as itseemsd to me
torn almost through zith frightful
wound bat The facssEas uninjured
and still bore an expression Of sudden
horror that was very ghassly. We
did not care to look on The sight long.
When the covering bad besn replaced
the cOnstables told us III they knew.
Some workmen. coming % their work.
at one of the unfnisksd houses on
the new road. had found he body, ly-
ing on its back in pod of clotted
blood. There we're ncI marks of q
struggle that they Iosseed they had
put the corpse on short ladder left
in one of the houses, and carried it to
the police station. The nearest sur
geon had been called in, and had pro-
nounced that life had bean extinct for
some hours. A purse and gold
watch were found in the pockets. AS
to the hand or the weapon that had
done the deed, neither thu surgeon nor
the police would offer any suggestion;
and we could not help them. Only,
as We left the station, ;he police SER
geant remarked that he thought he
had clew to the murder. "Do you
hear that Standish ?" said Macbane in
a mocking tone; she thinks he has a
clew."
We walked back to Wolseley road
and left Macbane there; and then
Standish and l trudged off to our
work-for work must be done, who
ever has died. And all that after
noon and evening, whenever l was
within sight or sound of main street
my eyes were greeted with sensation
al placards, and my ears deafened
with the shouts of newsboys Ieitera-
ting the same burden: Third edi-
tionl Awful Murder in Craddock Park
A Glasgow Merchant Murdered y
and over every placard l seemed to
see the vision of the dead face, and
that cash in the throat.
The inquest was held few days
afterward, and of course we all attend
ed it. The story of the quarrel with
Angus Macbane came out, In its main
outlines, from his evidence and ours;
and could tell from the Coroners
pointed questions that he suspected
our friend. But there was no reason
able doubt that Duncan Macdonald
had been killed within an hour after
he left the lodging house; and it was
perfectly clear from our evidence and
the landlady's that Macbane had been
in his room long after this, and prac-
tically certain that he had never left
the house at all that night. The
medical evidence, when it came, was
conclusive; the distinguished surgeon
who had made the post.mortem ex-
animation gave it as his opinion that
the wound in the throat could have
been inflicted with no species Of wea-
pom with which he was acquainted;
and as far as he could venture to form
a hypothesis, death had been caused
by the bite Of some animal armed with
exceedingly large and powerful cut-
ting teeth. This unexpected state
ment caused quite a sensation in court,
and Standish jumped up. "By Jove,
l forgot the cat T. he said to me; and
then advancing to the Coroner he in
formed him that he had an addition
to make to his former statement. He
was sworn again, and told the story
of the mysterious death of poor Me-
phistopheles in a straightforward way
that evidently impressed the jury. l
confirmed his tale in every particular.
There were no more witnesses, and
the Coroner summed up. He began
by stating that all the evidence that
could be collected still left this terri
bic affair in a very mysterious state.
So far as he could see, however, there
was happily no reason for regarding
it as a murder. There had been no
robbery of the body, though robbery
would have been perfectly easy; and
though there might have seemed some
prima facie grounds for suspecting one
person of completely in the sct-here
the worthy Coroner glanced at Mae
bane, who smiled sliahtly-yet it had
beed proved by reputable witnesses
whose testimony had not been i'm,
pugued (here Standish blushed. and
think, I did, too, } that the person il
question could not possibly have beer
present on the scene Of Macdonald
death at the hour when it took place
and had apparently confined the ex
preston of his ill-will to mere words
which it would Be unfair to inves
with any special signifcance-and 8
on, in the usual moralizing vein o