Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-08-19

AldIN "REMINISCENCES
after, in the light of your conviction.
But now to come to my actual observa-
tons. l saw the footmarks across the
fields and agreed with you Gt was in
deed obvious) that Sneathy had gone
that way first, and that the brothers
had followed. walking over his tracks.
This state of the tracks continued until
we'll into the wood, when suddenly the
tracks of the brothers opened out n
proceeded on each side OF Sneathys,
The simple inference would seem to be,
of course, the one o made-that the
Fosters had here overtal<en Sneathy
and walked one at each side OF him;
but of this l felt by no means certain,
Another very simple explanation was
available, which might chance to be
the true one, 1t vas just at the spot
where the brothers tracks separated
that the path became suddenly much
muddier, because of the closer over
hanging of the trees at the spot. The
path was, as was to be expected, wet
test in the middle. 1t would be the
most natural thing in the world for
w well-dressed young men on arriv-
ing here to separate sc as to walk n
on each side of the mud in the middle.
On the other hand, a mar in Sneathy's
state assuming him, for the moment,
to be mad and contemplating suicide
would walk straight along the center
of the path, taking no note of mud or
anything else. l examined all this
tracks very carefully, and my theory
was confirmed. The feet of the broth
crs had everywhere alighted in the
driest spots, and the steps were o. IT,
regular lengths-which meant, Of
course, that they were picking :s1ei,
way; while Sneathy's footmarss had
never turned aside, even for the dirticst
puddle. Here, then, were the rudi-
ments of a theory.
SAT the watercourse, of course, the
footmarks ceased, because of the hard
gravel. The body lay on a knoll at the
left-a knoll covered with grass. On
this the signs of footmarlls were al
most undiscoverable, although l an
often able to discover tracks in grass
that are invisible to others. Here, how
ever, it was almost useless to spend
much time in examination, for you
and your man had been there, and
what slight marks there might be
would be indistinguishable one from
another. Under the branch from
which the man had hung there was ar
old tree stump, with a fiat top, where the
tree had been sawn off. l examined
this, and it became fairly apparent
that Sneathy had stood on it when
the rope was about his neck - his
muddy footprint was plain to see; the
mud was not smeared about, you see,
as it probably would have been if he
had been stood there forcibly and
pushed off. 1t was a simple clear foot
print-another hintat suicide.
"But then arose the objection that
you mentioned yourself. Plainly the
brothers Foster were following
Sneathy and came this way. Therefore,
if he hanged himself before they ar
rived, it would seem that they must
have come across the body. But now l
examined the body itself. There was
mud on the knees, and clinging to
knee was a small leaf. 1t was a leaf
corresponding to those on the bush be-
hind the tree, and it was not a dead
leaf, SO must have been just detached.
After my examination Of the body !
went to the bush, and there, in the
thick of it, were, for me, sufficiently
distinct knee marks, in one of which
the knee had crushed a spray of the
bush against the ground-and from
that spray a leaf was missing. Behind
the knee marks were the indentations
of boot toes in the soft, bare earth
under the bush, and thus the thing was
plain. The poor lunatic had come in
sight of the dangling rope, and the
temptation to suicide was irresistible.
Bnt at that moment he must have
heard the steps-probably the voices
of the brothers behind him on the
winding path. He Immediately hid in
the bush till they had passed. 1t is
probable that seeing who the men were
and conjecturing that they were fol-
lowing him-thinking also, perhaps, of
things that had occurred between them
and himself-his inclination to self
destruction became completely ungov-
crnable, with the result that you saw.
But before l inspected the bush l
noticed one or two more things about
the body. You remember l inquired if
either of the brothers Foster were left
handed, and was assured that neither
was. But clearly the hand had been
cut off by a left-handed man with 4
large, sharply pointed knife. For well
away to the right of where the wrist
had hung the knife-point had made a
tiny triangular rent In the coat. So
that the hand must have been held in
the mutilator's right hand while he
used the knife with his left-clearly a
left-handed man.
But most important of all about the
body was the jagged hair over the
right ear. Everywhere else the hair
was well cut and orderly-here 1t
seemed as though a good piece had
been, so to speak, sawn off. What
could anybody want with a dead mans
right hand and certain locks of his
hair? Then it struck me suddenly
the man was hanged; it was the Hand
of Glory!
"Then, Won will remember, I went at