The herald., 1895-09-15

that he had been killed with his own re-
volver, as l knew that he would never
have loaned it to a stranger. True, any
one might have slipped it out of his
pocket when he was STOPPING over the
basket, and then fired the fatal shot, but
J did not consider that practical. and as
later events proved l was right in my
reckoning, for few days later the sack
of gold, containing $1,000, was found on
the front doorstep, thus canceling the
theory of robbery, unless. as some sad,
the assassin was afraid some one would
with the crime. That, too l thought i'm
practicable, and began looking for deeper
motive than robbery.
About year prior to the old man S
death his wife was found dead in els
tern. whose entrance was scarcely large
enough to admit her body. Suicide
was the verdict. After the death of his
old partner he secured as help family
consisting of husband. wife and two sons,
aged about Is and respectively. Every
thing went we'll until about two months
before the old man was Killed, when they
had quarrel. in which some threats
we've made on both sides, about some
trivial matter. The result was that tho
man whom | shall call Williams moved
his family away.
After that until his death the old man
grandson remained with him at night.
Suspicion fell upon this man from the
start, and though be was not arrested it
was openly declared oy the relatives of
the deceased that he was guilty. The
ones most emphatic in their declarations
and who seemed ever anxious to fasten
the crime on Williams, were the family
of tho ola mans daughter, who lived less
than half mile from his house. Their
names were Smith. Smith had two grown
sons; one whom Twill call Jack. figured
very conspicusously in the famous cass,
| as later events will prove-by the way,
this was the one that bad been staying
| with his grandfather.
soon discovered that Williams was
innocent and turned my attention to
| Smith and his son jack as | saw that
they were too anxious to have the crime
| fastened on Williams. Smith had Offered
a reward of $1,000 for the assassin AMI the
state $500, which brought several local
officers in the field and olly tended to in
| crease the nervousness of Smith and his
son. They were restless and ever on the
alert, as il anticipating something. l
made friends with Williams as l soon
| found that be knew somethIng damaging
about the Smiths, hence their zeal to
have the crime fastened on him. He was
| as close as an oyster and would only hint
that he knew soemthing, but would not
| divulge a word.
The old adage of money talks" didn't
work in this case, for money kept his
mouth closed.
To all threats of arrest made by the
other side he would simply laugh and
say ''go ahead
Finally, on two or three occasions, they
did have him arrested, at my request, in
the hope of obtaining some definite evil
| dence by means of the court. but it was
useless. Several months passed without
securih G anything of convicting nat
ure, but in the meantime 1 had solved
the motive for the crime; this much |
learned from Williams. The old man s
relatives wanted him to make division
of his property which amounted to over
$75 900; this he steadfastly refused, al
| though he was entirely alone and had
plenty of money to keep MIN comfort
ably.
Although he was 10 years of age he was
remarkably strong and healthy. and bid
fair to live twenty-five or thirty years; then
his relatives would be shut out from q
vast amount of property until his death.
| l was now fully convinced that the
Smiths were either guilty of the crime OF
had instigated it their haggard looks and
restless appearance would suggest it, be-
sides they kept pretty well filled up on
lioror