Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-02-16


dence," he remarked; las 4 matter OF
fact, my mind is entirely made up
upon the case, but still we may as well
learn all that is to be learned"
"You amaze me, Holiness" said L.
"Surely you are not as sure as you pre-
tend to be Of all those particulars
which you gave"
There's no room for mistake" he
answered. ''The very first thing
which / observed on arriving there
was that cab had made two ruts with
its wheels close to the surb. Now, up
to last night, we have had no rain for
a week, so that those wheels, which
left such deep impression, must have
been there during the night. There
were the marks of the horses hoofs,
too, the outline of one of which was
far more clearly cut than that Of the
other three, showing that thst was a
new shoe. Since the cab was there
after the rain began, and was not
there at any time during the morning
Il have Gregson's word for that-it
follows that it must have been there
during the night, and, therefore, that
it brought those two individuals to the
house"
THAT seems simple enough" said Il;
"but how about the other mans
height?"
"Why, the height of man, in nine
cases out of ten, can be told from the
length of his stride. 1t is a simple
calculation enough though there is no
use my boring you with figures. 1
had this fellows stride, both on the
clay outside and on the dust within.
Then had a way of checking my cal
culation. When man writes on a
wall, his instinct leads him to write
about the level of his own eyes. Now,
that writing was just over six feet
from the ground. 1t was child's play"
"And his age?" | asked.
"Wel, IL a man can stride four and
a half feet without the smallest effort,
he can't be quite in the sere and yell
low That was the breadth of puddle
on the garden walk which he had
evidently walked across. Patent
leather boots had gone round and
Square-toes had hoped over. There
is no mystery about it at all. am
simply applying to ordinary life few
of those precepts of observation and
deduction which | advocated in that
article. Is there anything else that
puzzles you?"
1.-The finger-nails and the Trichinop-
oly," | suggested.
''The writing on the wall was done
with mans forefnger dipped in blood.
My glass allowed me to observe that
the plaster was slightly scratched in
doing it, which would not have been
the case II the mans nail had been
trimmed. l gathered up sor1e scat
tered ash from the floor. It was dark
Ia color and faky-such an ash as is
only made by Trichinopoly. I have
made special study of cigar ashes
In fact, have written monograph
upon the subject. | flatter myself that
| can distinguish at a glance the ash of
any known brand either Of cigar or of
tobacco. 1t is just in such details that
the skilled detective differs from the
Gregson and Lestrade type"
"And the forid face?" asked
"Ah, that was q more daring shot,
though ! have no doubt that | was
right. You must not ask me that at
the present state of the affair"
1 passed my hand over my brow.
''My head is in a whirl," ! remarkedi
''the more one thinks of it the more
mysterious IL grows. How came these
two men-if there were two men-into
an empty house? What has become OF
the cabman who drove them? How
could one man compel another to take
poison? Where did the blood come
from? What was the object Of the
murderer, since robbery had no part in
It? How came the woman's ring there?
Above all, why should the second man
write up the German word ''rache" be-
fore decamping2 confess that ! can
not see any possible way of rsconciling
ell these facts"
My companion smiled approvingly.
"You sum up the difficulties of the
situation succinctly and H." he said.
"There is much that is Ill obscure,
though have quite made up my mind
on the main facts. AS TO poor Les
trades discovery it was simply n blind
intended 10 put the police upon wrong
track, by suggesting socialism and
secret societies. 1t was not done by a
German. The A, il you noticed, was
printed somewhat after the German
fashion. Now real German invaria-
bly, prints in the Latin character, 30
that we may safely say that this was
not written by one, but by a clumsy
imitator. who overdid his part. II was
simply a ruse to divert inquiry into Il
wrong channel Pm not going to tell
you much more of the case, doctor.
You know n conjurer gets no credit
when once he has explained his trick,
and II / show you too much of my
method of working, you will come to
the conclusion that am very ordinary
individual after all"
81 shall never do that" answered;
''you have brought detection as near
an exact science as 1t ever win be
brought in this world"
My companion flushed up with pleas
ure at my words and the earnest way
In which / uttered them. | had al
ready observed that he was as sensitive
TO fattery on the score Of his art as any
girl could be OF her beauty.
"I'll tell You one other thing" he
said. "Patent-leathcrs and Square
toes came In the same cab, and they
walked down the pathway together as
friendly as possiblc--arm-in-arm In all
probability. When they got inside
they walked up and down the room
or rather, Patent-leathers stood still
while Square-toes walked up and
down. could read all that In the
dust; and | could read that, as no
walked, he grew more and more ex-
cited. That Is shown by the increased
length Of his strides. He was talking
all the while, and working himself up,
no doubt, into n fury. Then tho
tragedy occurred. I've told you all
know myself, now, for the rest Is mere
surmise and conjecture. We have II
| good working basis. however on which
TO start We must hurry up, for
want to go TO Halle's concert, TO hear
Norman Neruda, this afternoon"
This conversation had occurred while
our cab had been threading its way
through long succession OF dingy
streets and dreary by-ways. In the
| dingiest and dreariest OF them our
driver suddenly came TO stand.
"That's Audley court in there" he
said, pointing 10 a narrow slit In the
line Of dead-colored brick. You'll
find me here when you come back"
Audley court was not an attractive
locality The narrow passage led us
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