Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1893-10-13
BLEW OUT THE GAS.

The victim was miser. He had no faith
in banks and less in human honesty. His
wealth-and it was big pile-was in gold
and paper money, and he had it hidden
in vault built by himself. He lived in
substantially built stone house within the
city limits, and in the center OF this house
he constructed the vault. 1t was made OF
heavy, chilled boiler iron. There was one
small door, which was closed with time
lock- This door was the only outlet or inlet
to the room, save in the iron roof there were
dozen three-quarter inch holes bored for
purposes of ventilation. These holes COM
municated with an iron pipe inches in
diameter, which led to the roof.
The old man always slept in this room at
night 1t was his habit to go to bed-there
were a bed and toilet stand and few
chairs in the place-early, lock himself in
and then in the morning, when the time for
| which the lock had been set was gone, he
would come out and Immediately lock tho
door again. He never left the room except
when it was locked and was there always
before the time for the lock to open.
| His household consisted OF one old wom-
an servant, who was practically blind, and
! crippled girl-a niece of the miser's. The
girl was delicate child of II years. There
was a nephew--a man about. Pa brother
of the child, but no one knew his where
abouts.
was sent to make an examination tho
morning of the murder. When the time,
8 o'clock, arrived, the crippled girl-this is
the story she told me-waited before the
iron door for her uncle to open it. When
the clock in the hall struck 9. she went to
| thu Ioor md fcr1pd r. oman
II opened the heavy iron door," she said,
"and peeped in. had never been in that
room before"
"Wellp"
His face was black, and knew he was
dead, and I got frightened and ran down
stairs to nanny"
Nanny was the half blind old servant.
Going into the room. professional instinct
at once told me that the old man had not
committed suicide His proximity to the
| door-the bed was in the far corner of the
room-was sufficient to show that he had
not murdered himself
These thoughts passed rapidly through
my mind as ran my eyes over the room.
But the clinching argument that he had
been murdered was in the fact, which I
quickly discovered, that all his money ex-
cept the gold was missing Every bit OF
! the paper was gone. The murderer had
taken all the notes and left the gold.
| But how had the assassin obtained en-
i trance to the room?
! From the little girl and the old woman
learned that the murdered man had retired
as usual the night before. They had heard
] him lock the door, There had been no
chance for any one concealed in the house
to have entered after the door opened, as
the little girl was there and must have seen
any one from the threshold.
The autopsy showed that he had been SUI
located by the escaping gas, and the only
| supposition we could form was that the gas
| had been turned on somehow My associ.
ates finally were forced to the conclusion
that he had committed suicide, notwith-
standing the fact of the missing money.
had to admit that was beaten, but 1 re.
manned firm in the belief that the old man
was murdered.
The nephew would force himself upon my
mind, although had never seen him, nor
had any one else except his little sister and
the servant, and they said that he had new
er visited the home.
The gold-it was considerable in amount
was placed in trust for the little cripple
and guardian appointed to take care Of
her.
I took fancy to the child, and she used
to come to my house and play with my chill
dren. Her deformity was short and weak
leg that had to be kept In braces. don't
know that any particular pains were taken
. to effect cure.
About four months after heruncle's death
| surprised her in the hayloft. She did not
see or hear me as came behind her, and as
she was talking to herself l stole up and
listened. pitied the child and wonld
have done anything could to cure her at
Fiction.
There's DOCTORS" she was saying to her
self, "who could make my leg straight if
could find them and give them whole lot
of money"
While she was speaking she kept fun
bling with something in her lap. leaned
over 1t, and my eyes opened very wide when
I saw large bundle of bank notes that
completely filled her apron.
An involuntary exclamation escaped me
She turned with the most shrill, uncanny
scream had ever heard.
She made trembling and frantic effort
to hide the notes. She jumped to her fee
| anu lOOktu Wlluly HUOuU AIcdCueu IOCdoCA
her. She eluded my grasp and with anoth
er unearthly scream sprang giddily down
tho hay. Her lame foot slipped, and she dis
appeared.
When l got down the ladder. she la!
across one of the managers. She was whit
and still. The poor little things back wa
broken.
She lived long enough to make comics
sion. Her uncle had taken her into hi
vault and showed her his treasure. i
! would all be hers, he said, when he died i
she was good girl.
She asked him to have doctor fix he
leg, but he frowned at the suggestion ant
told her doctors were expensive luxuries.
! couldn't find out where she got the idea
but the gas pipe in her uncle's room ran in
to hers, and on the night Of the tragedy sh,
blew through the pipe in her room and pu
out the gas in her uncle's.
He always slept with the gas turned low
When it went out, the escaping fluid suffo
Gated him.
She then waited until the door opened
. and gathering up the bank notes-sh,
knew where they were-secreted them ii
2 the barn. She was q remarkable murder
ess, but somehow, when they buried her,
felt glad she was beyond the laws revenge
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