Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-02-12

|
"Those are the main facts Of the case,
stripped of sll surmise and stated as
badly as possible, l shall now recapit-
ulate what the police have done In the
matter.
Inspector Gregory, to whom the case
has been committed, is an extremely
| competent officer. Were he but gifted
with Imagination, he might rise to great
heights in his profession. On his ar
rival he promptly found and arrested
the man upon whom suspicion naturally
rested. There was little difficulty In
| finding him, for he inhabited one OF
those villas which l have mentioned.
( His name, it appears, was titZroy Slmp-
| son. He was man Of excellent birth
and education, who had sQuandered a
| fortune upon the turf, and who lived
now by doing little quiet aud genteel
| bookmaking in the sporting clubs OF
! London. An examination OF his betting
! book shows that bets to the amount OF
| five thousand pounds had been regis
tered by him against the favorite.
ION being arrested he volunteered
the statement that he had come down
TO Dartmoor in the hope of getting
some information about the Kings Py-
| land horses and also about DeSoor-
ough, the second favorite, which was in
charge of Silas Brown, at the Maple
ton stables. He did not attempt to deny
| that he had acted as described upon the
! evening before, but declared that be
/ had no sinister designs, and had simply
wished to obtain frst-hand information.
| When confronted with his cravat he
turned very pale, and was utterly una
bic to account for its presence in the
hand OF the murdered man. His wet
clothing showed that he bad been out
in the storm of the night before, and
mis- stick, which was a Penang lawyer,
weighted with lead, was just such
weapon rs might, by repeated blows,
have inflicted the terrible injuries to
which the trainer had succumbed.
ION the other hand, there was no
wound upon his person, while the state
of Straker's knife would show that one,
at least, of his assailants must bear his
mark upon him. There, you have 1t ali
in a nutshell, Watson, and II you can
give me any light l shall be infinitely
Obliged to you"
1 had listened with the greatest in
terest TO the statement which Holmes,
with characteristic clearness, had laid
before me. Though most OF the facts
were familiar to me, had not sufficient
" appreciated their relative importance,
nor their connection to each other.
us it not possible" | suggested,
that the incised wound upon Straker
may have been caused by his own knife
in the convulsive struggles which fol-
low any brain injury"
"Iti is more than possible; 1t is proba-
ble," said Holmes. "ln that case, one
OF the main points in favor OF the &C
cused disappears.
"And yet" said I, "even now I fail
to understand what the theory OF the
police can be-"
81 am afraid that whatever theory
we state has very grave objections TO
it." returned my companion, "The po-
lice imagine, take il, that this tltzroy
Simpson, having drugged the lad, and
having in some way obtained a dupIi-
cate key, opened the stable door, and
took out the horse, with the intention,
apparently of kidnapping him alto
gether His bride is missing, so that
Simpson must have put this on. Then,
having left the door open behind him,
he was leading the horse away over the
moor, when ne was either met or over
taken oy the trainer. A row naturally
ensued, Simpson beat out the trainers
brains with his heavy stick without re-
celving any injury from the small knife
which Straker used in self-defense, and
- - 81 loA h0rGA n n
to some secret hiding-place, or else II
may have bolted during the struggles land
be now wandering out on the moors.
That is the case as IL appears TO the po-
lice, and improbable as IL is,
all other explanations are more improb-
able still. However, shall very quick
" test the matter when am once upon
the spot, and ntil then Ireally can not
see how we can get much further than
our present position"
1t was evening before we reached the
little town OF Tavistock, which lies,
like the boss of shield, in the middle
of the huge circle OF Dartmoor. Two
gentlemen were awaiting US at the
station; the one a tall fair man, with
lion.like hair and beard, and curiouSly
penetrating light blue eyes, tho other
small alert person, very neat and dap
per, in frock-coat and CATERS, with
trim little side-whiskers and an eye
glass. The latter was Col. Ross, the
well-known sportsman, the other In
spector Gregory, man who was rapidly
making mis- name ia the English detect
i've service.
~ am delighted that you have come
down. Mr.. Holmes" said the Colonel.
1.-The Inspector here has done all that
could possibly be suggested; out | wish
to leave no stone unturned in trying to
avenge poor Straker, and in recovering
my horse"
"Have there been any fresh develop
ments?" asked Holmes.
81 am sorry to say that we have made
but little progress" said the Inspector.
1--WE have an open carriage outside, and
as YOU would no doubt like TO see the
place before the light fails, we might
talk 1t over as we drive"
Aminute later we were all seated In a
comfortable landeau, and were rafting
through the quaint old Devonshire
town. Inspector Gregory was full OF
his case, and poured out stream Of re-
marks, while Holmes threw In an occa-
sional question or interjection. Col.
Ross leaned back with his arms folded
and his hat tilted over his eyes, while |
listened with interest TO the dialogue OF
the two detectives. Gregory was formu-
latiug mis- theory which was almost ex-
actly what Holmes had foretOld in the
train.
1.-THE net is drawn pretty close round
Fitzroy Simpson" he remarked, land l
believe myself that he is our man. At
the same time, recognize that the evil
dence is purely circumstantial, and
that some new development may upset