San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-08-08

Knew of the death of my uncle at tina
time. -
Exactly. You had gone into tn,
parlor, and you had found the body,
which you recognized as that of your
uncle, or may say stepfather, before
the squire and the others arrived"
Eyes, sill"
Ibid you take anything from the
room?'
Eyes, sir; took pistol. T"
"Where did you find this pistol?"
ION the door. "
"Why did you take it?"
Because it is mine and has my
name ON the stock, and because If found
by any one else it might have been un-
pleasantly suggestive.
81 believe it showed evidence of hav-
ing been fired off, did it not?'
'That was another reason why was
anxious to have it. +"
Virginia was causing profound aston
ishment by her admissions. Even Mr..
Barnes himself was puzzled to under
stand why she should acknowledge that
she had purloined the weapon to avoid
suspicion, when that very confession
would undoubtedly attract closer in
vestigation into her CONNIE otion with
the crime
"MIss Lewis" said Mr.. Upper,
show came your pistol to be dis
charged?''
II use it constantly, and therefore it
is quite possible that / fred at some
thing on Saturday"
"That is, the day before the murder"
Eyes, sir"
"How did it happen to be out Of your
possession on Sunday night?"
81 had it when started out, but
changed my mind about taking it with
me, and as passed through the parlor
I laid 1t on the mantel."
This answer suggested the possibility
that this was the pistol used by Mr..
Lewis when he fred at Lucas, as had
been testified by Miss Marvel. The next
question was:
Now, if You please, will you explain
why, if you were SO anxious to avoid
suspicion by hiding the pistol, you
should now be SO ready to tell the whole
story?'
II never intended to conceal the fact
that the weapon was found by me where
it was, but thought that if offered it
in evidence myself I would avoid the
suspicion which might naturally enough
have been aroused had any other person
made the discovery.
Mr.. Barnes knew this was not true
and that her first intention had been to
destroy all trace of the use of the pis-
tol, as was plainly proved by her hav.
ing cleaned the barrel He knew also
that she was at. present following out
the plan which she had formed after she
had seen him pick up the cartridge cap
in her room, the first step in which had
been to replace the empty shell by
another. Her examination was con-
tinued.
"Did you remove anything else from
the room where the corpse lay2'
~ did,"
This reply was complete surprise to
Mr.. Barnes. He knew that Mr.. Topper
was abiding to the paper upon which,
they thought, was written the name Of
the murderer, and he was astonished to
find that she appeared about to admit
its possession. The next question was:
"Will you kindly state what that
was and why you took it?"
1T was medallion locket. / took
that also because it is mine"
Mr.. Barnes now understood why she
had admitted taking something. since
it was not the paper. He was never
theless curious about this new point
Where did you find this locket?"
asked Mr.. Upper.
II noticed that my uncle had his fist
tightly closed, as though holding some
thing, and, forcing it open, I removed
the locket."
"Haye you it with you?'
yes, sir" Taking it from her bosom,
she handed it to him. Mr.. Upper ex-
amined it closely and opened i. Look
ing at the portrait which it contained,
he asked:
do you know whose likeness this
is?'
at is mine. 1t was taken when I
was quite child"
Mr.. Upper was about to pass the
trinket to the squire, when, as he closed