Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1893-07-11
BLEW OUT THE GAS.

and paper money, and he had II bidder
In a vault bsilt by himself. He lived IN &
substantially built stone house within tn,
city limits, and In the center OF this hous.
he constructed the vault. II was made o.
heavy, chilled boiler iron. Thtre was on.
small door, which was closed with tim,
lock. This door was the only outlet or inle'
tothe room, save In the iron roof there wer,
q dozen three-quarter inch holes bored foi
purposes Of ventilation. These holes com
municated with an iron pipe Q inches In
diameter, which led to the roof.
The old man always slept In this room al
night IL was his habit to go to bed-ther'
| were a bed and q toilet stand and few
chairs In the place-early, lock himself II
and then In the morning. when the time fol
which the lock had been set was gone, IA,
would come out and immediately lock a.,
door again. lie never left the room except
when IL was locked and was there Away,
before the time for the lock to open.
His household consisted Of one old WON
an servant, who was practically blind, and
. crippled girl-a niece Of the miser's. Tn,
| girl was q delicate child Of 10 years Thers
| was nephew-a man about Pa brothe.
| Of the child. but no one knew his where
| abouts
Twas sent to make an examination the
morning Of the murder. When the time
0 o'clock. arrived, the crippled girl--this Il
| the story she told me-waited before tbs
Iron door for her uncle to open IL. Wher
the clock In the hall struck 0, she went u
the door and found It open
81 opened the heavy from door," she said
"and peeped in ! had never been In that
room before"
"Well"
"His face was black, and knew he wa,
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 Tar corner Of the
room-was sufficient to show that be had
not murdered himself.
These thoughts passed rapidly through
my mind as 1 ran my eyes over the room.
But the clinching argument that he had
been murdered was In the fact, which
quickly discovered, that all his money ex.
oept 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-.
trance to the roomf
Learned that the murdered man had retired
as usual the night before. They had heard
him lock the door. There bad been nc
chance for sny one concealed in the house
to have entered after the door opened, a,
the little girl was there and must have seen
any one from the threshold.
The autopsy showed that he had been suf.
focated by the escaping gas, and the only
sappostion 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 re
mained firm in the belief that the old man
was murdered.
The nephew would force himself upon my
mind, although bad never seen him, mol
had any one else except his little sister and
the servant, and they said that he had nev.
or visited the home.
The gold--it was considerable in amount
was placed In trust for the little cripple
and a guardian appointed to take care Of
her
took fancy to the child, and she used
to come to my house and play with my chill.
dren. Eer deforinity was short and weak
leg that had to be kept In braces. don't
know that any particular pains were taken
TO effect q cure.
About four months after her uncle's death
Isurprised her in the hayloft. She did not
see or hear me as I came behind her, and az
she was talking to herself I stole up and
listened. ] pitied the child and wonld
have done anything could to cure her af
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
saw q 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 feet
and looked wildly about. reached to catch
her. She eluded my grasp and with anoth.
eS unearthly scream sprang giddily down
the hay Her lame foot slipped, and she dis
appeared
across one OF the hangers. She was white
Il oho bsiiA Aho poof httie buluB . DdCk Wdk
broken.
She lived long enough to make confes
sion Her uncle had taken her into hi.
vault and showed her his treasure. II
would all be hers, he said, when he died II
she was a good girl.
| She asked him to have doctor fix hel
leg, but he frowned at the suggestion and
told her doctors were expensive luxuries.
| 1couldn'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 II 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-secrsted them II
the barn. She was q remarkable murder
ess, but somehow, when they buried her,
felt glad she was beyond the laws revengs
New York Advertiser.
/ n.t s,.. Ia