The Dickinson press., 1894-10-27

get to the mill 1 had to pass round
to the head Of the peninsula Il won
dered whether Steinhardt had taken
that route on his journey with his hor-
rible burden. OF whether he had boldly
f0rded the stream opposite one Of the
side gates. to the grounds of his works..
This led me between two old rafting
mills OF some sort, past piles of lumber
broken wagons and fragments of old
machinery rIsting lwly-past some
flourtshtng pigstics. constructed Of old
boards n old sacks. I had to pick
my way very carefully. for 1t was beset
With gallics and holes worn out by
rain torrents. and with entertainments
Of cinders and ''clinkers." At length
i came out upon an open space round
the mill. ] approached the wall with
4 s!.utldertng but fascinated ense. In
tht middle Of it. toward the edge which
had been the top. was a bolted iron
plate. answering exactly to the require
ments of Fraulein Haas vision.
My eye was Mt once attracted to a
part Of the wall. near its base, winch
was altogether unlike the TEST. Most Of
the wall was as bare of anything like
vegetation AS a mill wall commonly IL,
but this part was covered with q fine,
acknowledgment fungus on the bricks,
and grass in the mortar of the inter-
stices. This, l was satisfied, vas the
spot. Under these bricks had lain, for
cig";een months, the. mutilated remains
of lne unfortunate LacrOix probably at
TO great depth; hence the engerness Of
s. ,:nhardt to cover them with 50 wide
sih .ading Il tOmb-slab as this fallen
wall. and hence. also. probably. this
traitorOus gro With of green. As I
looked. l wondered how much Stein
hardt would give now to be able to
move his Titanic tombstone and re.
move his dead! The wall was TOO Sc
cure a covering! 1t was the grand mis-
take of n strong. resOlute and original
criminal-the enormous blunder Of the
bold, uncompromising villain. entirely
confident in his security against every
risk Of discovery!
I hurriclly Withdrew to consider my
course Of action. 1 began to find that
vas in an awkward dilemma. NV
promise 10 FraElein Haas forbade q
public examination Of that spot, yet
how could my promise to Louise, that
her fathers remains should be proper.
ly inferred how could that be fulfilled
without the discovery becoming public;
There was another point which gave
me pause: Suppose this rude grave,
broken into, and Its contents identified
as the remains of Mr.. LacrOix, how
could l show that S%teinhardt had bur.
led them! How, then, could 1 bring the
crime home so as to move him as !
desired?
I resolved to so t. Freeman, and talk
the difficulty over with him. I had
l coon 1tf1o rf mn, F,SDrd eSv, A. nS~ roA,,.,,
from London; he had been much from
home on some business of his denOmi.
nation. He did not even know yet of
the successful result of our inquiry
upon old jacques.
I found him in his study, in which
he was always most ut ease. In &C.
cOrdance with his request I posted
him ''up to date in my doings and
disc0veries-from the finding of the
French papers in Jaques's cottage,
through the revelations at Basel, to
the discovery l had made a few min.
utes before. He was most impressed
with my account of the visions of Frau.
lein Haas. He was something Of a mys.
tic, of the misunderstanding kind well
known i'll these latter days and he
would turn his attention to no other
point till he had found an explanation
of the Fraulein's experiences. His ex.
PLANTATION ut least satisfied himself, and
it certainly was very plausible. He
described the phenomena al magnetic
clairvoyancc." Here, said he, were
two people who had at one time been
deeply interested in each other, one of
whom uhe more sympathetic subject)
still thought much of the other; the
IL was highly nervous. the other was
strOng-willetl. The strong-willed per.
son was in an extraordinary difficulty,
in which lie had to put q; resolute strain
upon all his resources of mind and body
and memory. IN his casting about in
his excited mood for aid to remove
his difficulty, he might well have
thought. "If She were hcre!-she who
has been Of all beings the most de.
voted to me! Or. If 1 were only with
her, rid of this horrible business!'
This strong wishing, this reaching out
Of spirit" for her, would sink to q mere
nothing when the di1iculty of the time
was once settled, and the bond OF at.
traction would sink loose and lifeless
till it was drawn tense again, and
thrilled again with vigor when his need
Of her returned upon him with a new
difficulty. This would account fol
Fraulein Haas's feeling Of being drawn
as If away from herself at those times
when she had her visions.
You see," said Freeman, "you have
absolutely nothing yet Of q reliable kind
that can point even circumstantially
to S%teinhardt as the murderer"
rs there no way.at ALL" I exclaimed
"but the way of evidence to bring the
crime home to him!-to really satisfy
ourselves that the crime is his, and to
make Linn feel that We know. it is?"