Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-11-10

| LOcdIu entered.
rs that it," he said contemptuously
| Pierret rose politely. LOcard turned
| his back upon him-from hauteur evil
IDENTIFY. In short, he Immediately
agreed to give the twelve pounds and
threw down a five pound note on ac-
count, on condition that the clock should
be that same evening installed in his
dining room at his house.
This evening, friends" cried Locard
(of course he did not include Pierrety
wen drink to my new piece Of furnit-
ure."
AT what hour?"
Nine O'clock
| AS soon as Pierret found himself quite
alone he burned the bank note in the
flame of a candle. Then he went into
the room behind the shop and took up
a small box, on which there were Eng
lish labels pasted. Returning, he open
| ed the case of the clock, no doubt to
regulate the movement.
! Within the promised time it was
| placed prominently placed-amid the
rich furniture of Locard'S dining room.
Around the table from which, point
upward, a goOdly array of bottles stand
| LOcard and his friends drink, laugh and
| sing.
| Eleven o'clock-the silver bell records
| the hour. What q YOice-a song,
| rather! One could listen to it through
| the whole night. Midnight-the voice
puts forth all it's delightful power.
| Attention One-two! Light the
punch. The fame fits, goblinlike, over
the surface of the bowl, tapping it with
upthroWn tongues of yellow and blue.
The sugar frizzles Now put out the
lamp. Huzzah! Hush! The. clock Is
| going to strike.
No, it speaks.
Jacques Locard! jacques Locardr
Eth! Who spoke? Who san, Unat?"
Jacques Locard! Confess! Con
feSs''
'Locard! Locard! What jest is this?
How very pale you are!'
The voice sounds as if it came from
the cellar.
Jacques Locard, you are a murder
err
ut is false Who has dared to say
that?''
Jacques Locard, it is you who killed
old PierTet! Assassin
There are cries, groans. Locard has
risen to his feet-lost, mad. He cluches
at his cravat to tear it from his
strangled throat. The voice still pitt
| leSsly cOntinues-Ve1ed, distant, as if
| coming from tomb. 1t repeats, re-
peats, repeats the word assassin"
Locard falls upon his knees, raises,
falls again.
Il confess, confess he cries. Yes,
it was l who killed the old man and rob-
bed him, but let that horrible voice
cease"
1t did not stop, but when on repeating
its dreadful denmciatiOns with the
perSistency of a machine in motion.
1T is the clock that speaks"' scream
ed Locard, Selling it, dragging it from
its place, casting it upon the floor. The
works were scattered and in their Must
was seen u small cylinder covered with
metallic paper.
Pirret, who had heard ALL sprang
into the room through the open window
and seized LOcard by the throat.
| You are all witnesses that this man
is the murderer of my father!" he cried.
| Murder will out; but men who take
| the lives of their fellow men for gain al
ways think their cunning more than d
match for proyerbial wisdom. So
thought Locard, and had not seven
years impunity justified his estimate Of
his own cleyerness? No; it had only put
| him off the guard which the murderer
must never for moment cease to keep.
The police had utterly failed to track
him d0Wn-had not even associated him
in any way with the crime-yet there
had been Il detective at his heels, as he
now saw with horror.
A few years in the army do one OF
| two things sharpCns or deaden the wits
of a soldier; they sharpened PieIret's.
The failure in the police left in his mimi
4 deep and bitter sense of disappOint-
ment. His father had been cruelty
murdered and robbed III the light of day
"a kindly but mdPmOnstrative man,
respected by all his old townsmen; who
| was never know to have made an
enemy; who had many friends-Locard
among the number. Who but one of his
friends could have known that he lad,
| by the mereSt accident of circumstances,
| the whole savings of his life in his pos
session that day in view of an adyant-
ageOus investment to be completed on
the morrow that never came for him?
No strange could have known of this.
! No stranger? That idea haunted Pier
ret's mind day and night and goaded
him to action. Step by step he pushed
on inquiry. Bit by bit he came upon the
history of all his fathers old friends and
associates, and at length suspicion point
ed to the sudden and vaguely explained
uprising of Locard nearly simuIUan-
eOus with the old clOckmak ers assassin
alton. There was the mrdGrer'S false
reckoning of chances; too eager for the
gold, he surprised his acquaintances Dy
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 Locard. who had been an
almost daily visitor to his fathers house.
avoided him was in itself a confession.
1t was at this stage of his search for
justice that the idea of laying a trap