The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-06-01

the uplifted knife, showed man OF
about 80 years of age, with short,
stubby beard and dressed as a laborer.
"What does this mean?" asked,
turning to Gerald in establishment.
DO you recognize either Of the faces
in the picture?" he asked.
"Yes, l replied. lone has the face
and form of the man who was muir
dered."
You are sure of it?''
Yes"
A bright light cleaned in the young
artists eye.
You knew the deceased them"
asked.
"No.
lyon have seen him
Never"
"Yet you drew this picture3"
Eyes,
II don't understand surely
He interrupted me with wave of his
hand. =
Listen, he said. II will explain.
l said that would solve the mystery
| would discover the real murderer, for
whose crime have been arrested. This
is his pictured" AS he spoke he placed
his finger upon the picture of the man
with the uplifted knife in the drawing
l looked at the speaker in amazement.
Had he taken leave of his senses?
He saw the establishment upon my
face and continued hastily:
81 see you are surprised-I am often
surprised at it myself-it is something l
cannot explain, but the scene you see on
this paper came to me In the middle of
the night following that on which the
murder was committed. 1t has twice
been repeated. Call it dream, vision or
what you will, it so stamped itself upon
my brain that | was able to reproduce
it in the drawing as accurately as if it
had actually transpired before my very
eyes. Photographs of this drawing are
now in the hands of the detectives, and
l have hopes that the murderer will
soon be caught. -
l could not help but be impressed
with the sanguine manner of the young
artist; yet, being very skeptical, l could
regard the matter in no other light than
that of an illusion or the product of an
excited imagination. But there was the
likeness of the murdered man-that was
something that set my whole reasoning
faculties into tangle
Believing that Grace Dangerfield is |
innocent, how do you account for her
,onfessing to have committed the
.rime?' l asked.
. 1t is all very strange, +" he answered
'fter pause. why, it is absurd to
hink she is guilty. for as near as 1 can
udge by the evidence in the case must
ave been with her at the very moment
hat the murder was committed. re-
nember that the clock struck 8 Just as
came through the hall after left her.
'ut, then, there is her confession, and
n addition to that there is the mystery
the missing finger. All taken to-
ether makes the whole affair seem de-
idedly strange"
"Havs you ever thought that she I
night be laboring under a spell of tenn
orary insanity" l asked. Il have
nown in my own practice patients that
lbored under halluoinations of almost
milar character.
Il have thought of that he replied,
and your words strengthen the belief
nat such may prove to be the case.''
remained in the cell for over an hour
the subject with the prisoner.
hen took my leave and went to see
Iiss Dangerfield, who was still lying in
a unconscious condition at the sheriff S
ONE. l found a little change in her
for the better.
So the days went by till a week had
issed. Grace Dangerfield had recov-
ed her consciousness, but was very
eak. As yet she had spoken to no one
gardlng the murder, and | had given
'ders that she must noe be allowed to
Tx on any subject till she was stronger.
1t was two weeks later before Grace
recovered sufficiently 10
ave her bed. Then she was taken to
e Jail. where she was confined in a cell
await the sitting CT the court.
One evening about week later Ger