Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-08-30
LContinued from last Friday.]
VUopyrlgnt, 1875, by Irving Bacheller.)
CHAPTER IV.-THE BOX OF
CLUES.

u dlIDduhS JouIudll, begun ulleT Iuc COLI
Clusion of the notes already given to the
reader.)
Wednesday night have resolved to
record carefully each day the progress
/ make in my examination of the house.
l began to-day at the bottom-that is,
with the room least likely to contain any
clue, the parlor. l took a chalk line and
a yard stick, and divided the floor into
square yards, and every one of these
squares l examined on my hands and
knees. found in this way literally moth
ing on the carpet but dust, lint, two COM
mon white pins and three inches of blue
sewing silk.
AT last l got the dust-pan and brush,
and yard by yard swept the floor. tool,
the swecpings in a white pastebOard
box out into the yard in the strong sun
light, and examined them. There was
nothing but dust and lint and five inches
of brown wooden overwhelmingly a
travelling from some dress material. The
blue silk and the brown thread are the
only possible clues which | have found
to-day, and they are hardly possible
Rufus wife can probably account for
them. | have written to her about them.
Nobody has come to the house all day.
l went down to the store this afternoon
TO get some necessary provisions, and
people stopped talking when | came in.
The clerk took my money as if it were
poison
Thursday night.-TO-day have search
ed the Sitting-rOom, out of which my
fathers bedroom opens. | found two
bloody footprints on the carpet which no
one has noticed before-perhaps because
the carpet itself is red and white. | used
a microscope which | had in my school
work. The footprints, which are close
to the bedroom door, pointing out into
the sitting-rOOm, are both from the right
foot; one is brighter than the other, but
both are faint. The foot was evidently
either bare or clad only in a stocking
the prints are so widely spread. They are
wider than my fathers shoes. l tried
one in the brightest print.
| found nothing else new in the sitting
room. The bloodstains on the doors
which have been already noted are still
there. They had not been washed away,
first by order of the sheriff, and next by
mine. These stains are of two kinds;
one looks rs if made by bloody gar.
mcnt brushing against it, the other. |
should say, was made in the first place
by the grasp of bloody hand, and then
brushed over with a cloth. There are
none of these marks upon the door lead
ing into the front entry and the china
closet. The china closet is really pan
try, although | use it only for my best
dishes and preserves.
Friday night.-To-day ] searched the
closet. One of the shelves, which is
about rs high as my shoulders, was
bloodstained. 1t looked to me as If the
murderer might have caught hold of it
to steady himself Did he turn faint.
after his dreadful deed? Some tumblcrs
of jelly were ranged on that shelf and
they had not been disturbed. There was
only that bloody clutch on the edge.
| found on this closet door, under the
Shelves as if it had been rolled there by
a careless foot, button, evidently from
a mans clothing. 1t is an ordinary black.
enamclled metal trousers button; it had
evidently been worn off and clumsily
sewn on again, for quantity of stout
white thread is still clinging to it. This
button must have belonged either to
single man or to one with an idle wife.
If one black button has been sewn on
with white thread another is likely to be.
l may be wrong, but l regard this button
as clue.
The pantry was thoroughly swept
cleaned. indeed, by Rufus wife, the day
before she left. Neither my father nor
Rufus could have dropped it there, and
they never had occasion to go to the
closet. The murderer dropped the but
ton.
l have white pasteboard box which
have marked, Clues" In it have put
the button.
This afternoon Phoebe Dole came in.
She is very kind. She has recut the
dyed silk, and she fitted it to me- Her
great shears, clicking in my ears, made
me nervous. | did not feel like stopping
to think about clothes. l hope l did not
appear ungrateful, for she is the only
soul beside Henry who has treated me as
before this happened.
Phoebe asked me what l found to busy
myself about and | replied Il am search
ing for my fathers murderer" She asked
if | thought | should find a clue, and [
replied, Il think So" | had found the
button then, but | did not speak of it.
She said Maria was not very we'll
| saw her cycling the stains on the
doors, and l said had not washed them
off, for | thought they might yet serve
a purpose in detecting the murderer. She
looked at those on the entry door-the
brightest ones-and said she did not see
how they could help, for there were no
plain finger marks there, and she should
think they would make me nervous.
I'm beyond being nervous" said l.
Saturday l have found some
thing which l cafinot Understand. l
have been at work in the room where nv
father came to his dreadful end. or
course some of the most startling evil
dences have been removed. The bed is
clean, and the carpet washed, but the
worst horror of it all clings to that room.
The spirit of murder seems to haunt it.
1t seemed to me at first that l could not
enter that room, but in it 1 made a
strange discovery.
My father, while he carried little mon
ey 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 had revealed TO no one but my
self He had Z small stand in his room
near the head of his bed. Under this
stand, or rather under the top of it, he
had tackled large leather wallet. In
this he kept all his spare money. 1 re-
member how his eyes twinkled when he
Wv.a1f 20.