The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-01-04

take my advice. would tel you to give
| it up, and break stones on the road for
a living. if you could do nothing else
/ HE was all broken up. Like 9TH
er eminent men. he was very sem
sitive fellow. and had a great deal Of
! imagination. The same high faculties
that had made him what he was were
his weakness also However, time
! helped him, as it does all of US. and in
! the course of week or SO he was ap-
! parently the same as ever.
But meanwhile had been doing a
good deal of thinking, and some invest
igating, without saying anything to
anybody. BY degrees was led to GER
tain conclusions; and at last thought
| / could not do better than 60 and con-
suit Bacarac about them, even at the
risk of renewing his morbid state Of
mind. So I turned up at his Office one
evening, and he received me as if he
was glad to see me. I wish you would
! come oftener.' he said.
Before long the talk got round to
the Talbots 1 have made some queer
discoveries about that, DOCTOR said ].
Discoveries? How's that? said he.
looking round at me.
"'Why, doubt if Talbot killed him.
self. after all
HE straightened up in his chair as
| if an electric spark had been run
| through him. He looked at me as if
he'd look through me. That's seri-
| Gus thing to say he said at last
"1 know it, and that's why I've come
to ask your advice before going fur
theE. For if anything is to be done
; about this thing, doctor. we ought to
do il together
"He had seemed a9itated at first, but
now he became quiet as . stone.
Well, what is It you think you have
! got hold Off said he, leaning back in
his chair and crossing his feet on the
hearth ruy. les ill work digging up
the past
IFS ID work digging up corpses OF
any kind, doctor. OF course. it's done
| in cur profession every day, but
! It's risky work. Whether the motive is
good or bad from our point of view. the
outsiders don't like it
But poor Talbot's motive was GER
4nanly excusable, though
Il interrupted him: Another idea
Of mine is,' said. that it was not Tai.
bot who disinterred her.
Really! You have oomplete new
Theory, then? said he. with a smile.
4 don't say It's complete, doctor;
but # you and put our heads together
we may make It So I'll just explain
where am. and them we'n see For
one thing. she was buried in . white
dress. with a lacs edging round the
throat; you remember th2t?'
4 can't say do; but what Of it?'
".Vhat we found in Talbot's sitting.
room was her naked body, with only
some black cambria round it. He had
had the white dress put on her for the
funeral; why should he have taken it
off after digging her up? And, after
taking it off, why should he wrap her
in coarse, black cam bric2 What was
his object in bringing her home at all?
One can understand his killing himself
on her grave. or even digging her up
and dying on her corpse; but he must
have got a vehicle to take her home
with, with the risk of exposing himself,
and with no compensating advantage.
Then, having got her home. why didn't
he put her on the bed, or on a sofa, at
least, instead Of on the floor? She
was tossed down any way, as If she
were a bundle of carpet
"'All these things, my dear sir, said
Bacarac, ARE strange enough from
ono point of view, but easily ex-
plicable on another. There is no doubt
in my mind that Talbot was actually
insane; and what an insane man may
OF may not do is past conjecturing
"'That explanation occurred to mo
doctor; but it won't cover some of the
other facts. For instance, though the
street door was locked, the key was
not on the inside; and it has never
been found at all. Why should
ing tho door, and why should he
have been at Ehe pains to hide it? 4
man so insane as he would never have
thought Of that Then, again, he
must have brought the body
either In a wagon or in wheel
barrow; if the first, what be-
came of the team after he got tho body
home, for he had none of his own; and
if wheelbarro:-, what became of
that? Besides. he could never have
wheeled that body, in its white dress.
through the streets of the town. in
wheelbarrow. Supposing him to have
firEt wrapped it in the black cambria,
what did he do with the dress? He did
not burn it, nor did he bury it in the
grave Then, as to the grave: Why
Gid he fill it in % carefully. instead of
leaving it open? Having got the body,
he would want to bring 1t right home;
he would never stop to fill up the
grave again. Besides, it was a damp
night. and the loan was muddy: but
there was no dirt on his dress. or even
on his boots No, doctor, whoever else
dug up Mrs Talbot and carried her to
Talbot's house, it is as plain as day
light that Talbot himself could not
have done it. We may take that as
settled
"'Possibly; but u it not still more
impossible TO suppose that anyone else
could hare done it? What motive
could such person have had, not only
in disinterring her, but of taking her.
Of ell places in the world, to her hus:
bands house?'
1--WE are coming to that doctor, but
first there is something ta be said
about Talbots body: He was stabbed
through the heart, and q carving knife
I, -