Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-01-16
THE SECRET OUT.

'tJorlette will be on board the 7:30
mail train. Follow him to Liverpool.
Will meet you there. Look sharp.
Cathcart."
This was the wording of the tele-
gram l received one wet, ugly night
last December. l was sitting in my
little snuggery back of my office before
a blazing crate with my feet in slippers
and my body in a warm dressing-gown.
/ had a mug of hot punch and a cold
mince pie on the table before me, along
with an uncut novel and a genuine
Havana, with which [ intended to re-
gale myself presently. And although
/ had a very strong anxiety to secure
Jorlette, it must be confessed that I
was altogether too comfortablysituated
to relish going out into the cold that
dismally dirty night.
This telegram was from my chief,
who, l might as well say, was a de-
t%ectiye, and | had followed that thank
less and ~precarious business for several
years. People considered me very
successful in working up difficult
cases, but | was never quite satisfied
with myself. | wonder if any man
ever lisp
This same Jorlette had given us a
great deal of trouble. We had never
had so keenly cunning a spirit to cope
with. Strategy was matched with
strategy, diplomacy with diplomacy,
and scores of times, when we were sure
of him, he had slipped from under our
fingers like flea and left US wondering
how he managed it.
Perhaps it would be well to explain
that Pierre Jorlette was a murderer,
upon whose head was set a purse of
e., 900 by the crown. A Frenchman
and nobleman by birth, a gentleman of
education, he had when very young
married a beautiful English girl, with
whom he passed two years of Unalloyed
happiness. At the end of that time
some fearful shadow came between
them-none knew of what nature-and
the inhuman husband stabbed his wife
to the heart. Her confidential maid
witnessed the deed and attempted to
save the life of her mistress, but Jor-
lette fell upon her with savage ~ferocity
and left the two corpses lying side by
side.
These are the facts as briefly as l can
state them to you. Of our there
were many minor circumstances not
worth recording, as they have little
bearing upon the short story | am writ
ing.
1t seemed from this telegram that
Jorlette was to be on the 1880 train. I
hn" Co+haa, L,1 oOE III, -,
formation; but he had armies of spies
constantly working for him, and prob
ably some of them had made the dis
covery.
| had only to follow instructions.
For the hundredth time l took Jor-
lette's photograph from my pocket
book and examined the features of the
murderer. 1t was a singularlv hand
some face that l saw-clearly cut, with
large hazel eyes shaded by long, dark
lashes, a mouth delicate and sensitive
rs a woman's, a high, rather narrow
forehead, half hidden in clustering
curls of auburn hair, a form rather
spare, yet well knit, and a hand SYM
metrical and rounded as a woman's.
The picture would have answered
sBlSIANlOiN AOI Ildb VI Il ScuI1IlleHIil,
sonnet-making poet-but for a muir
derer it was a dead failure. Neverthe-
less, somewhere in the past, before
crime had scathed him, Jorlette had
sat for it.
L changed my slippers for boots and
got myself inside my fur overcoat,
stuffed a yalise with brown paper and
blacking-brushes, that | might appear
a respectable traveller, and. looking at
my watch, found l had just time to
reach the station.
The train stopped ten minutes for
refreshments, and taking the guard,
who was an old friend of mine, suffi-
GENTLY into my confidence, / was given
an opportunity of looking through the
carriages previous to the starting of the
train.
1t was a full train, but, s~ingularlv
enough, there was not a red-headed
man on board of it. Jorlette was
r~ed-headed, and aside from that cir
cumstance he had a face which l flat
tered myself | could not readily mis-
take.
As | stood irresolute and feeling very
much as if | had been fooled there
came toward me from the dining-room
an individual. tall and spare, with a
slOuched hat, a white cravat. a huge
piece OF game pie in his hand-and
this person had red hair! And dark
eyes!
| watched him closely. There was a
certain logged, skulking look about
him; he would not meet my ewes. and
he walked off to the extreme end of the
platform by himself and remained
there munching his pie until the
last bell rang, and then he hurried on
board with the air of one who felt that
a great deal depended on his getting a
seat.
l was convinced that he was my man,
though he vas not altogether like the
photograph. Still, faces and photo
graphs differ a great deal, since to the
picture there is little expression or no
expression; and do not the charac-
teristics of a face depend more on color
and expression than on mere outline of
feature?
He entered carriage No. III. and at
a hint the guard put me in the same
a There were three persons al
ready there besides my pie-eatino
<'iend and myself. An elderly oantla-