The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-03-16

non OF my duty TO my uncle's family.
They should be informed at once, and
the painful task was surely mine.
spoke of this to Rodney, and he said
that should go at once. / shuddered
when i pictured the grief of my aunt
and my cousin Emily. who has been al
ready mentioned as the betrothed OF
Walter Norman. There was son, too,
who must be summoned from college
by this terrible news.
As / was about to leave the room,
the detective from police headquarters
arrived. His promptitude amazed me.
l would have said that scarce,y ten
minutes had elapsed since the commits
sion of the crime. In reality the inter-
val had been much longer. Also, as
subsequently appeared, one of the ten
ants in the building had notified the
central Office on the first alarm.
The detective was in appearance the
most absolutely commonplace man
that / had ever seen Perhaps 1 was
expecting the detective of romance,
and thus derived an added impression
OF the ordinary from this man, JChn-
son. He was about the medium height,
and his face was of SO conventional q
type that / began TO wonder vaguely
whether / had seen him before. His
expression was somewhat vacant, but
not with the vacance of stupidity,
rather with the lstlesness of a man
who has nothing TO do and very little
to think about. He was dressed in the
| sort of clothes that one will see the
| most of, if he walks about the city all
| day.
Excuse me-" he said, politely. ''If
| you're not really in n hurry, I'd like to
| ask few questions before you go."
He asked but very few, and seemed
almost Indifferent TO my answers. In
deed, his Indifference piqued me, and
| was the more careful to tell my story
accurately and to bring out all tha
| FONTS. 4 succeeded III arouslng Gers
tain amount of interest when / told
| him of the closing door, and of my pur,
suit of the murderer; but he ceased TO
pay attention to me when l said that
i had failed TO get glimpse of the es'
Gaping criminal.
"Whose are these?" he asked, Lam
guidly, displaying a large number Of
keys on ring.
"My uncie's," / exclaimed. "Where
did you get them?"
IL picked them up" he said, pointing
TO the floor near the door which led to
the hall.
"The murderer must have taken
them from my uncle's pocket and
locked the door Immediately after the
commission of the crime," said. "We
found il locked"
''That was the way of II, of course"
said johnson. "There are bloodstains
on the door and the casing, as you
have doubtless observed"
i had not seen them, but when john
son pointed them out they were obvi-
| GUS.
'He washed his hands afterwards" !"
johnson continued. "There is the
towel on which he wiped them"
He pointed at the towel in question,
which was thrown over the corner OF
a loolsing-glass that hung upon the
wall.
4 WHY uiu 10 UP
piuttered, half to myself.
1T was not thrown" said johnson.
"You can see that. 1t was hung up
there"
The top Of the lool<ing-glass, which
was very large one, was nearly eight
tct from the floor.
| "IIe must have beer n giant" ex-
claimed, Ito reach so high"
"A tall man, probably" said John
son. "Has anybody meddlcd with the
towel, the rack under it, the bowl,
or anything else hereabouts?'
Nothing has been disturbed" said
| Stalbridge.
johnson examined the bowl.
"No blood here,' he said; "this water
| Is perfectly clean"
He pointed into the bowl where there
| was little water. On looking more
! closely thsn johnson had done, was
able to discover few spots of blood