The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-09-02
N EDITORS STORY.


was holding down the city desk on o
aily for the first time. We had O man
kn the paper who was simply crank
IN homicide, and he was moro than (,
8 mere reporter, for he had detective tai
: mt OF the highest order. He didn't care
nuch for the common crimes-bur.
- Slarles, larcenies and such-but give
Ellm good. mysterious murder, and he
&#vas splendid. Not only did he have tho
R1story of all the famous murders ut
l1s hngers' ends, but he delighted in
81 erreting out the most mysterious crimes
Fl that came within our province. In every
Roase, except the one am telling about
-and there were good many killings
81 n that town-he traced out the muir
~ 1ercr before the detectives even dreamed
8$bf his identity
II have since thought tho secret Of
#pis success was that no put himself
#mentally i'll the place Of tho murderer
#end reasoned it out from motives rather
|#than from the 'clews' of tho ordinary
Rdetective.
a There is seldom much method in
: tmurder, he once said to mo when in a
&rarcly communicative mood. Most men
&under tho same circumstances. 1t is
sEonly when murderer goes about it
Systematically, as do tho thugs of In
#dia, that q murder becomes truly mys-
8terious.'
II once asked him why he did not
! become q regular detective
was born and bred newspaper
4 man, no said, and habit is too strong
4ito break. That was literally true in his
Il case. Otherwise 1 might not have to
j tell this story.
Ono morning the body of fine look
q ing man was found in an alley adjoin-
4 ing tho electric light works in the very
heart Of the city. Tho afternoon papers
CHAD q chance at it. but didn't mako
4 much out of it, SO I ut once assigned it
& to Jones, as we will call him. Although
4 he did not show up at tho usual hour, l
\ had no doubt that he was already at
work on it, rs it was as mysterious
J case as even he could desire
"The victim was identified as trav-
4 cling man who had just arrived and,
!, as far as known, no had no friends or
i acquaintance in tho city. 1t was not n
case Of robbery, for all his money and
valuables were left on the body There
was Slight confusion Oh the back of
the head and small nocdlclike hole di-
rectly through the mans heart 1t was
especially strange that sucL crime
could have been committed in public
thorOughfarc, while there was absolute
~ no clew to tho murderer or his mo
tive.
''But these difficulties wcrc only such
as would ordinarily put Jones on his
mettle, SO l did not doubt that he would
have Il good account of the affair 1
was therefore somewhat surprised
when he camo sneaking i'll about 6
O'Clock in the evening to see what his
! assignment was. He looked worn and
haggard, but denied that he was i'll, so J
gave him tho murder assignment 1
thought | saw u startled look in his
eyes, but he maintained his outward.
composure and went ont without a
word
II did not sec him again that even
ing. About midnight began to wonder
why had not heard from him, but
only speculated on the possibility Of
something having happened to him, for
the idea that he could possibly fail
never occurred to me- Finally, after al
hour had gone by, I teephoned to the
police station. Word came back that
there were no new developments in tho
case, and that Jones had not been there.
Sending two men out to hunt him up, 1
set to work myself to make up q story Of
the murder from the afternoon papers.
Just then Jones came in. His step was
unsteady and his face flushed. He bud
evidently been drinking heavily-ss1Me-
thing 1 never knew him to do before
but he was not drunk, rather he seemed
at high nervous tension, although out
wardly as calm as ever
81 decided to let this breach of dis
oipline pass and merely asked him for
his murder story He replied that he
hadn't written it.
We'll, get to work on it at once
said rather sharply.
'Then he really surprised mo by say
ing that he had nothing to write beyond
the bare facts already known. The po-
lice had developed nothing new, and he
supposed thar had worked up the story
from the evening papers.
"'And has it come to pass that you
wait for the police to develop murder
case FOR your exclaimed angrily. AS
for the reports in the evening papers,
you can fake q better story than they
had!'
HE sat down, in apparent despair,
at his desk. Then / rclentcd and ca
toled him little, begging him not to
spoil his great record by falling down
on such an assignment. There's start
or for you, said I, throwing him the
toll