Daily camera., 1897-07-21
copyright. 1896. by J. B. Lippincott Col

half large enough for them, though
they had doubtless been drawn on over
a pair of boots | saw by the shape OF
the track that the right one had come
off once as the wearer drew it from the
mud"
! -Ah! curious!" exclaimed the cap
tain; ''but l don't yet see what you are
driving at, though l think you suspect
but how could you? Why
But that is not ALL" the detective
went on, smiling. You remember, per-
haps, that l asked if it had rained out
there recently. Well, l was trying to
account, since there has not been any
rain lately, for that naturally dry spot
of clay being soft enough to have re-
ceived such distinct footprints. On
close examination, I detected the faint
semicircuar mark of vessel in the
etge of the grass, and, at exactly the
right distance from it, a spot where a
little water had trickled down from the
spout on the clay"
"Ah, the watering pot!" cried Welsh.
Wonderful. wonderful! Now | know
what all that rigmarole to the garden
er meant"
"Yes and I found little water in it,
too, and learned that it had last night
been left on the floor when Robert de-
clared that he usually hung it up, and on
the bottom of it the stupid rainmaker
mad left trace of the very clay in
which we found the footprints. But /
am too fast; foryou remember, las stood
at the big tracks. | sighted along over
| the fence at my umbrella on the lawn
"I remember said Welsh, with a
laugh. And l own ! thought you
were making blooming ass of your
self, and simply pretending to make
Investigations when you knew you
were wholly at sea. But what were you
doing it for?'
when l got my bearings in that
way, | calculated that the handle of
my umbrella was just about where her
sleeve must have been when she was
bending over. AS l sighted along at
It, saw that if a bullet We're fired from
where | stood and passed through her
sleeve it must-as it would naturally
go in a straight line-strike certain
portion of the wall of the conservatory
beyond her I found, on examining the
wall, that it had not"
so you knew no shot had been fired?
calculated the captain.
"No, not that" returned Hendricks,
for there were the specks on the gown,
you know. [ was, you see, convinced
that the specks were made by revolver
at short range, and a woman of nerve
made them. captain, for the ball passed
very near the arm"
81 begin to see what you suspect
said Welsh. 'but [ am so much aston
ished that I am unable to grasp it all.
Surely she could not be"
"Wait till have finished" the detect
i've interrupted. Don't jump to con-
clusions. | don't think you were watch
ing my work in the mayors study, for
you seemed on pins and needles to get
away"
you don't mean that you did not
really want to write that note?"
'No; for 1 wanted her to do it" said
! the detective, with smile, taking from
his pocket the threatening letter ad-
| dressed to the mayor, and the note
| Lillian Walters had written at his die
tation. He opened them side by side
on table, and continued: Notice
this, captain; in the letter to the mayor
the writer has misspelled the word re-
ceived. 1t struck me, you see, that in
1 nine cases out of ten a person that mis-
spells word once will do it again; SC
in my make-believe note l purposely
made use of that word. You see the
mistake occurs on both these sheets .
'And you infer that"
"That the two communications were
written by the same person"
"But evidently not on the same ma.
chine" said Welsh. "This is purple
and the other black"
''True; but don't you remember l
surprised them all by telling Round
tree he had discarded an old machine"
"Yes. All, that's fact"
"Well, while you and the others were
at the telephone, the mayor showed
me upstairs to look at the grounds
from the lumber-room. There saw the
typewriter, examined the ribbon, and
found that it was purple and beaten in
holes, as the writing in the threaten
ing communication shows by the badly
printed letter through it,
81 understand so far said Welsh
"But shat kept you so long in the rose
bushes when you went after the um'
brella? l thought you would never
come"
Hendricks smiled. 81 went to find
her revolver. I knew it must be some
where near, for I had seen freshly
broken lockwood twig near the tracks
and knew that she would not have
wished to be seen with the revolver
after the report. ! found it carefully
hidden in a thick cluster OF long grass
about two yards from her footmarks