The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-12-08

IN tins way, BIZ The tire the FIRE had
destroyed tie satcheI, the clothes would
I be dry enough to bbnrn Then ! should
! haYe Eaked cut ard sshrosvn away the
ashes, q point 81 sieh would not strike
saimma1 as quickl as a detective
least It seems that it seldom does
thInk Inay as weH examine the ire
place g q:
Reaching this point N has reasoning,
;he went To- the chimney and found souae
ashes He carefully brushed the pile on
toa piiece OF newspaper, which he took
nm his oYercoat pocket This done. he
laid the whole On the floor near the
window, and then with piece OF
ssicks radnally moved the soft ashes
efun tie center TO the side. As he did
this he was careful TO examine every
:sIlsazrticle searching foz any thing that
may have escaped combustion. It was
smot long before his patience was re-
Warded for first a few iron buttons
and hen several other Ideces OF iron or
metal of some kind were separated from
4 the debris The buttons of course,
proved that something more than an or
dinary Ere had been made On the
hearth, and i6 was but fair to suppose
that clothing had been burned. The
other things, however, puzzled him
awhile, for though not entirely destroy
90, estiH found it hard to tell exactly
whit they were. After some thought he
concluded that the majority OF the met
\ 90 had originally belonged to the frame
work of the satchel One piece still re-
NAMED to be accounted dGr. Ttiswas a
bit of wire. Burrows was almost on the
point Of throwing this sway. as unim-
sportant; when it suddenly occurred to
shim that it .nnst be all that Was left OF
the false wniskers There W4s nothing
more that he could make out Of the ASH
es; SELL he carefully wrapped all up
and placed the package in a small
satchel. which he had brought with
him. Burrows smiled as he thought to
himself: Marvel lied when he said the
locket was sill IN his pocket. There is
no trace OF it here, SO il is evident that
the one found was the game which he
had with him that night "
Burrows was now anxious to find the
pistol He recollected that the squire
had told Of the pistol which Marvel had
left at the horse, and as he knew that it
had not been found he deemed 1t prob
able that twas the weapon used in the
murder. This Eas not so readily reason
ed ont as the other matter, for, as pis-
toi could not be burned, it must be hid
den, and as there was no way Of guess
ing the hiding place there was but one
course open to him-namely, to hunt.
This he did as thoroughly as Mr.
Barnes had taught him to do, and when
he went down stairs again be felt al
most sure that the weapon had not been
concealed above. He was just as thor
ough in going over the rooms on the
lower foor and finally reached the kitch-
en- without having found it. he had
not looked long in this place, however,
before he noticed that the tiles in front
of the stove had been disturbed. One OF
the stones had been so poorly replaced
that Burrows muttered to himself, He
must have wanted this TO be found /"
Removing it, he disclosed hole below,
in which was pistol he took this out,
and another object attracted his atten-
ton. This proved to be small piece OF
silver plated metal, and a closer scrutiny
revealed the fact that rame was en-
prayed thereon. This name was "John
Lewis. ("
aBetter and better, - thought the de-
tectiye. .'How nicely the precautions of
a criminal, as usual, serve to convict
him. This is a plate which he wrenched
from the satchel, and the name proves
that he got that at the farm. I am not
surprised any longer that he did not dis
turb any Of his own people that night,
for he did not go home at all He OBJ
tsined change at the house Of his vic
tim. He is cool hand, to kill man
and then wear his clothing away from
the scene of his crime.
Burrows now turned his attention to
the pistol, and at once noticed that
there were three empty chambers. He
concluded from this that Marvel must
have fred both shots found in the body.
Still lookiDS at the weapon, he noticed
that a name was engraved On the stock: