The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-08-07
PRIZE DETECTIVE STORIES, No. Ie.

jelly were arranged on that shelf and
they had not been disturbed. There was
only that bloody clutch ON the edge.
found on this closet floor, under the
shelves, as IL il had been rolled there by
careless foot, button, evidently from
a mans clothing. IT is an ordinary black
enameled metal trousers button; 1t had
evidently been worn of and clumsily
sewn on again, for quantity OF stout
white thread is still clinging to IL. This
button must have belonged either TO a
single man or 10 one with an idle wife.
II one black button has been sewn on
with white thread another is likely TO be.
/ may be wrong, but regard this button
as a clue.
The pantry was thoroughly swept
cleaned indeed, by Rufus wife the day
before she left. Neither my father nor
Rufus could have dropped IL there, and
they never had occasion TO go To the
closet The murderer dropped the
OI'iSR, Sane a white pasteboard box which
] have marked "clues." In II i have put
the button.
This afternoon Phoebe Dole came in.
She ID very kind. She has recut the dyed
silk, and she fitted il to me. Her great
shears, clinking in my ears, made me
nervous. l did not feel like stopping to
think about clothes. / hope / did not
feel ungrateful, for she Is the only soul
beside Henry who has treated me as
before this happened.
Phoebe asked me what i found to busy
myself about, and L replied, 81 am
searching for my fathers murderer. F"
She asked IL thought i should find a
clue, and / replied, 81 think so" l had
found the button then but j did not
speak of it. She said Maria was not very
well.
saw her eying the stains on the doors,
Il u,sA 4 a a ..ff H..
thought they might yet serve purpose
in detecting the murderer. eaooked at
those on the entry door-the brightest
ones-and said she could not see how
they could help, for there were no plain
finger marks there and she should think
they would make me nervous.
s'pm beyond being nervous" said /.
Saturday. To-Day have found some
thing. which i cannot understand. /
have been at work in the room where my
father came to his dreadful end. OF course
some OF the most startling evidences
have been removed. The bed is clean,
and the carpet washed, but the worst
horror OF il all clings TO that room. The
spirit OF murder seems to haunt II. IL
seemed TO me at first that i could not
enter that room, but in il i made a
strange discovery.
My father, while he carried little money
about his person, was in the habit OF
keeping considerable sums in the house;
there is no bank within ten miles. How
ever, he was wary; he had hiding-place
which he revealed TO one but myself.
He had small stand in his room near the
head OF his bed. Under this stand, OF
rather under the top OF IL, he had tackled
large leather wallet. In this he kept all
his spare money. j remember how his
eyes twinkled when he showed il to me.
1.-The average mind thinks things have
either got to be in or on, said my
father. "They don't consider there's
ways of getting around gravitation and
calculation.'
In searching my fathers room / called
TO mind that saying of his, and his Pc
culiar system of concealing, and then
made my discovery / have argued that
in search of this kind ought not only
10 search for hidden traces of the GRIM
tnal, but for everything which has been
Tor any reason concealed. Something
something from his past history may fur
nish motive for someone else.
The money in the wallet under the
table, some 900, had been removed and
deposited in the bank. Nothing more
was TO be found there. 1 examined the
bottom OF the bureau, and the undersides
of the chair seats. There are two chairs
in the room, beside the cushioned rocker
green painted wooden chairs, with flag
seats. / found nothing under the seats
Then turned each of the green chairs
over, and examined the bot
toms of the legs. My heart leaped when
i found bit OF leather nicely tackled over
one. i got the tack hammer and drew
the tacks. The chair leg had been hol-
lowed out, and for an inch the hole was