Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-12-25


Within the promised time IT was
Locard's dining-room.
Around the table. from which, point
upward, a goodly array Of bottles
stand. Loeard and his old friends drink.
laugh and sing
Eleven o'clock. the silver bell re-
cords the hour What = yoice-a
song. rather. One could listen To il
through the whole night. Midnight
the voice puts forth 81. its delightful
power.
Attention. One. two! Light the
punch. The fame fits. goblin like,
over The surface OF the bowl. tapping it
with upthrown tongues Of yellow and
blue. The sugar frizzles Now put
oat the lamp. Huzzah! nush! the
clock IS going 10 strike.
No. it speaks
jacques Locard. Jacques Locard."
"Eh! Who spoke! Who said that?"
jacques Locard, Confess confess
''Locard. Locard. What jest is this?
How very pale you are."
The voice sounds as il it came from
the cellar.
Jacques Locard. you are murder
err
1T is false. Who has dared to say
that?"
Jacques Locart. it is you who killed
old Lierrctl Assas.inl'
There are cries, groans. Locard has
risen TO his feet-lost, mad He clutches
ut his crevat TO tear il from his strang-
ling throat The voice still pitilessly
continues-veiled, distant, as ii coming
from the tomb. IL repeats the word
assassin"
LocarG falls upon his knees, rises and
falls again.
II confess. Iconfessr' no cries. ''Ycs,
it was l who killed the old man, and
robbed him; but let that horrible voice
cease"
1t did not stop, but went on repeating
it's dreadful denunciations with the per-
sistency Of machine in motion.
1T is the clock that speaksr
screamed Locard, seizing it, shaking it,
dragging it from its place, casting it
upon the floor. The works were scat
tered, and in their midst was seen a
small cylinder covered with metallic
paper.
Lierret. wno had heard all, sprang
into the room through the open window
and seized Locard by the throat.
''You arc all witnesses that this man
is the murderer of my fatherl" he
cried.
Murder will out; but men who take
the lives of their fellow men for gain
always think their cunning more than
a match for proverbial wisdom. So
thought Locard. and had not seven
years impunity justified his estimate
of his own cleverness? No; Il had only
put him off the guard which the MUIR
derer must never for a moment cease
to keep. The police had utterly failed
to track him down-had not even as
sociated him in any way with the
crime; yet there had been q detective
at his heels, as he now saw with hor-
ror.
A few years in the army do one Of
two things-sharpen or deaden the
wits of soldier; they sharpened Lier.
ret's. The failure OF. the police left in
his mind deep and bitter disappoint-
ment. His father had been cruelty
murdered and robbed. almost in the
light of day-a kindly but undemon-
strative man, respected by all his old
townsmcn; who was never known to
have made an enemy, who had many
friends-Locard among the number.
Who but one OF his friends could have
known that he had, by the merest ac-
cidcnt of circumstances, the whole saw
ings of his life in his possession that
day, in view of an advantageous invest
ment, to be completed on the morrow
that never came for him? No stranger
could have known of this.
No stranger? That idea haunted
Lierrcts mind day and night and goad-
ed him TO action. Step by. step he
pashed on inquiry. Bit by bit he came
upon the history Of all his fathers old
friends and associates, and at length
suspicion pointed to the sudden and
vaguely explained uprising OF Locard,
nearly simultaneous with the old clock
makers assassination. There was the
murderer's falsereckoning of chances;
too eager for the enjoyment of his
murder stamped gold. he surprised his
acquaintance by his ostentatious dis
play of means, bait Lierret he provoked
10 make inquiry as to their origin.
Still the proof, the legal proof,
eludcd the young m ans search. though
he had come close enough to it to salts.
fy the instinct of his heart; while the
persistency with which Locsrd, who
had been an almost daily visitor to his
fathers house, avoided him was in IT,
self confession. II was at this stage
of his search for Justice that the idea
of laying a trap for the criminal came
into his mind.
Gentlemen of tho jury" said the
prosecuting barrister, you sec here Oh
what social utility is the progress OF
science. Was II not trait OF genius or
the part of poor ciockmaker TO have
utilized, by adapting il to the mechan-
ism of IA ordinary clock, that immor-
tai iurention of Edisou's-thc phono.
graph?"-San Francisco Argonaut
ALWAYS ADMIRED IT.