The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-10-16

Hushl The clock is going to strike.
No, it speaks.
Jacques Locard! Jacques Locardp
"Eh! Who spoke? Who said thatp"
Jacques Locarll Confess Confessi"
"Locard! Locard! What Jest is thisS
How very pale you are!'
The voice sounds us if it came from the
cellar
Jacques IIocard, you are mIrdererl"
1T is false. Who has dared to say thatf"
Jacques Locard, it is you who killed old
Pierrct! Assassinp'
There are cries. groans. Locard has
risen to his feet-lost, mad lie clutches
at his cravat to tear it from his stranylcd
throat. The voice still pitilessly continues
-veiled, distant, us if coming from tomb
1t repeats, repeats. repeats the word ":s
sassin."
Locard falls upon his knees, rises, falls
again.
II confess, contest" he cries Eyes, it
was 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 persist.
ency of II machine in motion.
1T is the clock that spcaksp screamed
Locard, Selling it, shaking it, dragging it
from It's place, casting it upon the floor.
The works were scattered, and in their
hiiViSs was SUCH II small cylinder covered
with metallic paper.
pierret, who had heard all. sprano INFO
the room through the open window and
seized Locard by the throat.
You are all witnesses that this man is
the murderer Of my fatherr' he cried
Murder Will out; but men who take the
lives OF their fellow men for gain always
think their cunning more than IL match
for provcrbial wisdom. So thought
l-ocard, and had not seven years i'm
punity Justified his estimate of his own
cleverness No. it had only put him off
the guard which the murderer must never
for II moment cease to keep. The police
had utterly failed to track him down-had
not even associated him in any way with
tho crimc-yet there had been n detective
at his heels, as he now saw with horror
"a Few years in the army do one of two
things-sharpcn or deadcn the wits of n
soldiers they sharpened Picrrct's. The
failure of the police left in his mind deep
and bitter sense of disappointment His
father had been cruelty murdered and
robbed almost i'll the light OF day-a kind
~ but undcmonstrntive man, respected by
all his old townsmen; who was never
known to have made an enemy; who had
many fricnds-1.ocard among the number.
Who but one Of his friends could have
OF circumstances, the whole savings 81 his
life in his possession that day in view OF
an advantageous Investment to he com
plcted on the morrow that never camo for
him? No stranger could have known of
this.
No stranger' That idea haunted Pier.
rct's mind day and night and goatied him
to action. Step by step he pushed on in
quiry. Bit by bit he came upon the his
tory OF all his fathers old friends and us
sociates, and at length suspicion pointed
to the sudden and vaguely explained up-
rising Of l.ocard, nearly simultaneous with
the old clockmaker's assassination. There
was the murderer's false reckoning OF
chances; too eager for the employment of
acQuaintances by his ostentatious display
OF means, but Pierret he provoked to make
inquiry rs to their origin
Still the proof, the legal proof, eluded
the young mans search. though he had
come close enough to it to satisfy the in
stinct of his heart, while the persistency
with which Locnrl. who had been an al
most daily visitor to his fathers house.
avoided him was IN itself n confession. 1t
was at this stage Of his search for Justice
that the idoa OF laying trap for the Grim
inHl came into his mind.
Gentlemen of the jury" said the prose
cutting barrister, you see here of what
social utility is the progress of science
Was 1t not Il trait of genius on the pnrt of n
poor clocllmaker to have utilized by adapt
Ing it 10 the mechanism of an ordinary
clock that immortal invention of Edison's,
the phonoSrnph" -Truc Flag.