Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-09-09
CHAPTER "


 As time wore on tho situation of the ac- cused became more serious. It was more and more impossible to believe that Mrs. Brownlow had left the house of her own free will. After discussion of all the the ories they could possibly evolve, the report CTS, in order to keep the matter well before the pubic in an attractive shape, origin ated this theory: That Mrs. Brownlow had simply gone with her husbands consent to take journey, the object of which they did not care to reveal. Although this theory gained credit in the papers, especially be- cause of efforts on the part of some of MT. Brownlows friends to substantiate it, the detectives paid little attention to it. It was so evident that Mrs. Brownlow, had such been the case, would have returned as soon as she had heard the accusations directed against her husband, that the theory seemed to be of no importance. Day after day, of course, the detectives gave Mir. Brownlow every opportunity to talk and state his side of the case, but he obstinately re- mained silent. It was disappointing to the detectives engaged upon the case that they could not get direct and incontrovertible evidence of the fundamental fact in the case, namely, that Mrs. Brownlow was dead The fact of her disappearance need ed no proof; the object of the accused in committing the crime was established; he had refused to account for the time passed, where and how no ono knew, during the evening and part of the night of Tuesday, the 14th And his attitude from the time of his arrest had been compromising in the extreme; but there was still no evidence that seemed to justify conviction. One day the detectives found just the clew that they seemed to have been waiting for so long.
 It came partly as chance and partly as the result of keen detective work. Seth Ketcham had reasoned with himself that as Mrs. Brownlow had left the house, or had at all events been last seen in evening dress, and as those garments were not found in the house at the time of the search she must have had them on whenever the deed was committed. Next to the difficulty of hiding the body would be the difficulty of disposing of this peculiar clothing. He had made tireless searches among the second hand clothing stores and pawn-shops of the city to eeif therein might not be found some of the garments which Mrs. Brownlow had worn, his idea being the vague one that perhaps Mir. Brownlow had taken that means to disguise any trace of the crime that might be found on the clothing. Hav- ing found nothing in any of those places that he went through, he thought over the possible ways ir which the crime might have been committed. Any noisy violence in the city would be liable to attract atten- tion; therefore he concluded that the deed must have been done some other way. In the course of his investigations he found that the deck hand of Q ferry-boat that had been crossing the North river upon that night about ten o'clock had seen man and wom- an quarreling in lsw tones upon tho after part of the boat.
 He had paid blA little attention to them, although he confessed that hls post of duty should nave been at that end of the boat. He went forward to the engne-room for @ moment, and when he returned he saw the man standing by the rail alone. As he ap- preached the stranger the man turned abruptly and walked into the gentlemen's cabin. The deck hand had paid no atten- tion to it, because circumstances of that nature are so common where crowds assem- ble, and had thought nothing further of it until the detectives had put their usual inquiries to him as to whether he had seen such people as MT. and Mrs. Brownlow come over on his boat on the night in ques- tion. Ketcham reasoned from this that the murder had been done upon the ferry-boat, and he strongly believed that there was 8 clew to the crime. He was therefore watch ing the river as patiently as possible.
 One day a ragamuffin, who was fishing from the end of long dock that ran out into the North river, pulled up somethin g heavy on his line. He knew that It was no fish, and was in some disgust that his line should have caught in a snag. But when he brought the object to the surface It proved to be garment of somo kind. He quickly pulled it up to the wharf and found at the end of the line fashionable opera cloak in an advanced state of ruin. The cloak was made Tn the latest fashion, in | black Indian cashmere, embroidered in gold | passementeries. Few such garments are worn by people who cross on the ferry boats or who ramble about the docks. The ragamufin was much rejoiced at his find, and, although the garment was SC