Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-01-13
MISS HOLIDAYS A1.TER.
NOON NAP.
ny HOWARD FIELDING.
copyright, 1895 by Bachelor, johnson =
Racheller.l
Continued from Saturday,
CHAPTER ".
HORACE PREBLE.

CHAPTER II.
HORACE PREBLE.
There Is police officer in West Point
who has a considerable reputation as a
detective. His name is Bernard Kelly.
Within an hour after the message was
sent out from Sunnyside Kelly arrived.
Meanwhile we had made several i'm
portant discoveries. First we cues
toned the servants. There were six.
Three of them believed that they had
heard a sound like a pistol shot. about
the time when the crime must have
been committed. The other three were
sure that they had not. OF the latter.
Hanley, the butler. was the most i'm
portant witness He was nearer TO the
Long Room during the critical period
than any other sperson not actually
within it. He had heard nothing. but
he had seen something of consequence
namely, q man whom he did not
know, walking hurriedly away from
the house. This person the butler had
seen from window He attached no
Importance to the circumstance at the
time indeed, he did not mention it
until L had sharply questioned him.
This was just before Kelly arrived.
My first vague suspicious had CEN
tered upon Hanley They were found
ed only upon his demeanor at the time
when he and ! were together in the
Long Room Immediately after my dis
covery of the crime. Certainly there
could not have been more perfect pic
ture of guilty terror than he furnished
then. His horror of the body, and es-
pecially of the blood; his eagerness to
escape from the room; his dread OF
questioning, were all suggestive.
But could not at first supply mo-
tive for him. That came later when,
with Kely's assistance, we examined
more closely my uncle's desk. Our first
examination Of it had but one object:
we wished to trace the course of the
bullet. This was not difficult. After
passing entirely through my uncle's
body it had penetrated the back of the
desk, and the wall also. | was amazed
at the power of the proiectile; but
Capt Marshall was not. 1t supported
his theory that the new explosive for
small arms figured in this case. He
was an expert upon this point; indeed,
he was at that time conducting expert
ments with a rifle intended for the
army. This dreadful weapon when
fired on level from the height of
mans shoulder would send bullet
nearly two miles, and at two thousand
yards would drive it through the bodies
of seven men.
He stated these facts to me with pro-
fessional calmness; he even offered to
exhibit them to me il | would go some
day to his laboratory and proving
ground, which was on the outskirts of
West Point. His knowledge of the sub
ject was undoubtedly great, and the
more | thought upon it the more i'm.
portant, in my mind. became the Co
incidence of the presence of such a man
in that house at time when mys-
terious and terribly powerful weapon
had been murderously employed.
My interest became horror when l
found soon afterward that this circuIza.
stance impressed itself more strongly
than any other upon the mind of Ber-
nard Kelly. Through Margaret he
learned from Mrs. Holiday that she
had left Marshall alone in the parlor
for fully ten minutes. He seemed not
to have moved when she returned. but
he had had time to go to the Long Room
and return.
Margaret told me of Kelly's ques-
tions, despite his warning to her to
keep absolute silence about them. She
said, frankly, that they indicated to her
his suspicion that Marshall had com
mitted the crime.
That is not to be thought of" said
the girl. He, of all others, had most
reason to wish my father to live"
Perhaps; yet it is true that living
daughters marriage, but the expressed
desire cannot be recalled when death
has sealed the lips.
Then came that other discovery rela-
tive to the desk. and it threw all my
theories into confusion.
On the forenoon of that day had
seen pile of bank notes in drawer of
the desk, and the topmost had been of
the denomination of one hundred dol
lars. How much was in the pile did
not know. NY uncle had closed the
drawer Immediately. ! had seen only
one of the bills. When we searched the
desk under Kelly's direction there was