Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-05-25
BLEW OUT THE GAS.

and paper Money, and no had II hidden
In vault built by himself. He lived h
substantially built stone house within the
city limits, and In the center Of this house
be 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
q 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 bed and toilet stand and a 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 the
door again. He never left the room except
when 1t 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
Q crippled girl-a niece Of the miser's. The
girl was delicate child Of 10 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 the
morning Of the murder. When the time,
o'clock, arrived, the crippled girl--this Il
the story she told me-waited before the
iron door for her uncle to open It When
the clock in the hall struck 0, she went to
the door and found 1t open.
II opened the heavy from door," she said.
land peeped in. had never been in that
room before"
"Wellt"
His face was black, and knew he was
dead, and l 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 be had
been murdered was In the fact, which ]
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-
trance to the rooms
From the little girl and the old woman I
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 opentd, as
the little girl was there and must have seen
any one from the threshold
The autopsy showed that he had been suf-
located by the escaping gas, and the only
superstition we could form was that the gas
had been turned on somehow. Ny 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 70
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
took fancy to the child, and she used
to come to my house and play with my chill
dren. Her deformity was a short and weak
leg that had to be kept In braces. don't
to effect cure.
About four months after her uncle'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 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 IL
could find them and give them whole lo4
of money"
While she was speaking she kept fum-
bling with something in her lap. leaned
over it, 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 feet
and looked wildly about. reached to catch
her. She eluded my grasp and with anoth.
er unearthly scream sprang giddily down
the hay. Her lame foot slipped, and she dis
appeared.
When I got down the ladder, she lay
across one OF the managers. She was white
and still. The poor little things back was
broken.
She lived long enough to make COMES
sion. Her uncle had taken her into his
vault and showed her his treasure. It
would all be hers, he said, when he died II
she was good girl.
She asked him to have doctor fx her
leg, but he frowned at tho suggestion and
told her doctors were expensive luxur1es
couldn't lind 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 she
blew through the pipe In her room and put
out the gas In her uncle's.
He always slept with the gas turned low.
When 1t went out, the escaping fluid sufo-
Gated him.
She then waited until the door opened,
and gathering up the bank notes-shs
knew where they were-secreted them IN
the barn. She was O remarkable murder
ess, but somehow, when they buried her,
felt glad she was beyond the laws revenga
New York Advertiser.
The Difference.
A good story was told at Middlesboro by
tha Raw prvau nala He aaid that at tba