The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-11-04

7
/ ever to commit the rash act which had
so prematurely deprived him Of life of
his own accord. And the regiment con-
sequently got to asking: WAS it MUIR
! der or suicde?'' And the thinking por-
! tion of the officers and the deceased
mans comrades came to the opinion
! very reluctantly (for, mind. it affected
/ the character of the corps) that it was
the former. They only mentioned their
! opinion amongst themselves. There is
! an innate feeling amongst soldiers that
{ you must never wash your dirty linen
/ in public.
But this was aGueer business and one
! which touched regimental feelings to
| the quick, and so, amongst themselves,
strict search and inquiry was being
made.
The case seemed plain enough for an
ordinary mind-in fact, a coroner's in
quest held that "the deceased had COM
mitted suicide while insane" but there
was still that uncomfortable feeling,
| that nasty taste in the mouth, that
some one unknown, at present in the
regiment knew more about the matter
| than he ought.
Private James Nolan came from Pres
| ton, Lancashire. He had been born
fore him, afterw ards taking to the dec
Grating trade. And he had belonged,
for short time, tcEthe militia-the
Third battalion of his present regiment.
His whole life could be, and was,
traced back to his earliest days. AS l
said, he was an inoffcnsive sort of a
man, and, as such, had no enemies even
in his schooldays. He was given to en-
during insult and thrashing sooner than
inflicting it.
The more inquiries W made the less
reason we had to suppose that he had
an enemy who would proceed to such
an extremity as murder.
Yet the cut in his throat which let
out his life was, SO the doctor said, GER
tainly not inflicted by hinself-the de-
| ceased. 1t had begun from left and ran
across to right, where it ended in a
deep. dete rnained cash. And yet the
razor was found on his left side, and
his left, not his right, hand was COW
cred with blood; and he was right.
handed man.
have always had fair share of Gu
riosity in my nature; and, putting
aside all eXtraneous ideas divesting
my mind of every opinion promulgated
Il set myself to work to solve the mys-
terry. l confess had a su spicion of one
man, but l also must confess that it
was utterly unto unded, and felt very
much asham ed of myself for having
entertained the suspicion.
There was an old French minister q
believe) who, whenever he had any
case brought before him, from the
early days when he was local magis-
trate until he attained high dignities,
used invariably to ask: "Who is she?"
inferring that woman was at the bot
tom of every trouble. The correctness
of his maxim I leave for others to
judge.
Personally have found that in nine
cases out of ten a woman was the mov-
ing machine.
Well, l had but little to go upon.
And, as is usual with Impractical
hands, and even old hands (as 1 was to
learn later in life), began on wrong
tack by assuming an idea.
l got Private Nolan's history from his
earliest days down on paper. But that
afforded me no information. His hab-
its l knew, as belonging to my COM
pany, as a company officer does-to
certain extent.
toh o1,
my has chum-could not tell me
much. He was a wooden-headed Lam
cashire lad, with a broad accent and
very dense mind.
No ! found l must trust to my un-
aided wits and, besides, did not wish
to work openly-or. as said, turn out
the regimental dirty clothes basket in
public. do not remember mentioning
it, but this occurred in India in 1878,
and l have no doubt that some of the
old officers of the old corps of my time
will remember the case.
| Private Nolan as an actor. How he
got the strain in him don't know; but
there was no doubt about it. The
quiet. retiring man in public or on
pCSohC a iASi. Va q
jovial step dancer, once you got him on
/ the boards. And as l was stage man
ager l ought TO know. Naturally he
| had his de:ractors, and those who were
| jealous of his -enown.
| 1t was among those that / settled in
my own mind to prosecuts my re-
searches and inquiries first
A long. loose-liu bed Scotehman
named Macdoucau was my primary
essay knew him TO be. as are most
OF his race. an intensely jealous indi-
viduaL But he did not seem TO me to
''ft" the position OF murderer for such
mere tribe as occasional professional
| jealousy.
Then. again, there was an Irisbmau-
He might have loose principles on the
| tenure of life and the advisability of
| permitting . rival to live TO eclipse
| his own talents: but didn'tthink even
ne would go so far as eoid-blood~s muir
/ der.
! short, the more dived into the bHs.-
/ ness. the more puzzled became; and, !
I think. so would anyone else
Mcss foIks who love THAR Saatas-