The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-01-10

10 nave pOlSOnoQ 0ai1 q dozen people. Inc
vehicle In which she had taken the poison
was an egg dip made of sherry. which she
was in the habit Of having regularly every
night.
III.
When the evidence was heard at the in
quest. there was good reason to doubt that
the girl had committed suicide. and rumors
of foul play began to spread about. / re-
ceived instructions TO make an investiga-
tion; my first inquiries were directed to
trying to discover if she had ever been
known to express wish to get rid of life.
But without single exception every one
questioned was emphatic in the statement
that she was singularIy cheerful and fond
of life; and was in the habit of talking of
the time when she would return to her
native country. Italy, and build herself q
grand house; for. though illiterate and un-
as . person of wealth and position.
next endeavored to ascertain If she
had purchased poison anywhere. but
could got no evidence that she had done so.
Then / asked myself. Where did the
poison come from that had destroyed herf"
thorough and minute search of all her
things. her boxes. her jewel-cases. the
pockets Of her clothes failed to discover q
trace of poison of any description, and the
more i examined into she matter the more
convinced i became that Tostilini had not
committed suicide, bat had been murdered.
When she had left the stage to change her
costume for the great ballet scene she was
exceptionally lively, for she had received
q tremendous reception, and had had
at her feet Nothing that 1 could
unearth in regard to her tended
to make the theory of suicide in
the last degree probable. OF course there
was the possibility of accident, but the
most careful inquiries failed to prove that
alter for any purpose whatever. But even
supposing that it had. by what strange
concatenation of circumstances did such q
quantity get into the unfortunate woman's
room. and into her egg flip. which was her
nightly drinkf This decoction was always
made M for her from new-lAId eggs, which
her maid brought daily, and the sherry
used was part of u small stock she kept for
room. and to which no one had access save
the Signorina herself and her maid. An
examination OF the cupboard proved that
there were six bottles of sherry with the
seals unbroken, and the remains of bottle
that had been in use. This bottle contained
about one-third or the original contents,
aud analysis failed to detect any poison in
It. 1t was evident therefore the deadly
drug had been put into the egg-tiip, which
was usually kept warm In glazed earthen-
ware pot. that stood OH the hob of the fire.
place. This pot still contained some of the
flip, but it was free from poison. The prus-
sic acid therefore had been put into the
glass from which poor Signorina Tostilni
had drank preparatory to descending to the
stage to go through her arduous perform
ance as the chief dancer In the ballet.
The fatal draught must have been
almost instantaneous in its effect.
although it was clear she had
suffered spasm of agony as was evidenced
BIZ the contortion of her body. Such. then,
were the facts In connection with this
mysterious and extraordinary case. And
every step OF my investigation only served
to confirm the opinion had come to-that
1t was murder; cruel and revengeful muir
der, for no other motive save revenge
would fit in as feasible. 1t was on these
lines that began to work; and though
was confronted with as strange case as
had ever been called upon to unravel.
nevertheless bad strong hope that
should succeed in clearing the mystery ND.
need scarcely say, perhaps, that 1 was
convinced in my own mind that the hand
which had administered the deadly drug
was the hand of some one employ ed in the
theater. Now the theater was very large
one. and the employees during the panto-
mime season were numbered by hundreds.
But 1t was reasonable to say that at least
90 per cent. of these could be left out of
was Thus narrowed down. Nevertheless,
at that stage of the inquiry it was an ex-
ceedingly difficult task TO point to any in
dividual as the probable criminal, and
fully recognizing the difficulty, i pro-
secrecy. for desired that the guilty person
should for tho time remain in fancied Sc
curity. inssmuch as By believing himself
secure be would probably relax his caution
aud by some careless act play into my
hands.
Such q case as this was one which neces-
sarily required very great deal of tact
and discrimination, to say nothing of
patience and perseverance,. SfDntly as the
AID step by step traced Signorina Tosti-
llni's career backward to the time when
she made her hrst appearance IN Lon
don as an infant in the basket on
the hand-barrow. | brought to light
a secret which she had kept we'll. and tina
it was that while she was in Italy. and be-
fore she was twenty. she was married to
an actor whom she met at La Soda. But
he turned out q worthless scamp, and they
separated few months after marriage;
and o little later he drove himself mad
with drink. and had been confined in q
lunatlc asylum ever since. This marriage
had no bearing upon the case. and merely
mention IL as an interesting incident in
connection with Tostilinis strange career.
Let il not be supposed that during all the
time l was pursuing my inquiries that
lost sight of the possibility that the guilty
baud was that of Tostilini's maid. This
woman was widow of about thirty years
of age. Her husband had been q cornet-
player, and had fulfilled engagements at
various theaters in the metropolis. His
wife-whose name was Jane SpaldIng-had
also been connected with theaters nearly
all her life. and had been in Tostilini's en-
ploy as dresser and maid for long time.
kept Spaldine closely under surveillance.
hut learned nothing that justified
my harboring suspicion against her.
Indeed. she had everything to
lose by the death Of her mistress. who had
been an exceptionally good friend TO her.
and for her to have killed this friend would
have been to have killed the goose that
laid tho golden eggs. As matter of fact,
Spaldiug wss bowed down with grief, and
her grief was genuine; Of that / had no
doubt Although up 20 this point had