The record-union., 1897-05-30

and great-coat and. followed by his
wife, went to the door. There was no
need to go further, for there lay a man
almost on the threshold. PROSTATE in
the snow, which showed in long track
where he had dragged himself in, on
hands and knees, from the gate on the
highway. He was well-nigh spent from
exposure, they saw that instantly. 1t
was all the pastor could do to lift him
and carry him in, but he did it. and
laid him, dead weight on a couch in
the corner of the room, where he lay
with his eyes closed. They poured
brandy down his throat. and took off
his shoes and rubbed his feet, and
worked over him with might and main
long time before he gave a sign of re-
turning consciousness. Finally, how
ever, he moved and opened his eyes and
looked about him.
Il am murdererl" he said, almost in
a whisper
They thought his mind wandered, and
the pastor tried to soothe him, but he
feverishly insisted, and they finally did
not try to check him. 1t took long
time to tell it, and parts they did not
understand, for he was often incoher-
ent, but in the end he had told them
his story, and lay, as at first, with his
eyes closed.
1T is only a short matter with him -
the pastor whispered to his wife. IF
he lives until morning. l will try TO get
word to the doctor at Frydenlund."
Toward morning, however, he once
more opened his eyes. The nastor.
who had never left his side. saw his
lips move, and stopped to catch what
he said. 1t was apparently part of
the same story, but he could only hear
distinctly the one word murderer" 4"
and then thrill ran through him and
he was dead.
Inc pastor had only half believed the
story when he heard it, as the delirious
lihaSlhlngs OF dying man, yet its de-
talIS We're circumStantial enough, when
ne came to think them over, and the
whole was perfectly commonplace in
the annals of crime, and possibly in
every detail
The man had been, as he had gathered
from the broken narrative, half ped
dler, half-vagabond. and as such had
wandered through the country. Eight
years ago he had come into Lilleham-
mer late one night, and on the edge of
the village had been attracted to a
house by the light still shining from a
window. When he had crept up nearer
he had seen an old man inside, seated on
a Shoemaker'S S bench, and counting some
money into leather apron on his lap
he could see plainly and counted it over
after him. There was 200 crowns in
gold and silver. He saw where it was
finally put away, and then waited until
the light had been put out for some
time, when he lifted the window with
out difficulty and climbed in. He had
just secured the money, when the sleep
ing man stirred, and. thinking he was
discovered, he picked up a shoe knife
that lay on the bench near him and
stabbed his victim, who never moved
again. He went out as he came. and
closed the window behind him. The
knife he straightway threw into the
street drain opposite. 1t was the sea-
son of short nights and was already
light enough to see perfectly. He then
hurried up the road to the ravine of the
Mesna, which he followed by the path
on the left bank until it came out on the
stream, at the foot of the high fall. Here
he washed his hands, and, noticing that
his cotton shirt was bloodstained, he
took it off and thrust it back into a
crevice of the rock just within reach.
but beyond the chance of discovery
Then he had walked all night, and by
was far away from the scene
of the crime with which suspicion had
never, for a moment, connected him.
The more the pastor thought about it
the more he came to the conclusion that
the story must be true. He remem-
bered indistinctly, now that his atten-
ton was drawn to it, something about
a murder in Lillehammer several years
ago, and he at length wrote a full ac
count to his colleague in that village of
the narrative of the man who had not
dared to die with his crime unconfessed
investigated the knife was discovered
where it was said to have been thrown
and tucked away in a dry crevice of the
rock by the fall a cotton shirt was found
yellow with age, but still distinctly
a number of rusty brown spots,
which the microscope readily deter
mined had been made by blood.
The interest of the Lillehammer au
thorities was now thoroughly aroused.
1t was next proved, with some difficulty
as to the date, that the man with his
peddler's box had been repeatedly seen
in the villages along the lake, going in
the direction of Lillehammer, the month
of the murder but owing to the time
that had elapsed his movements could
not now be more accurately traced A
still more convincing bit of testimony
was found in the fact that although he
at all before, he had lived the whole year
succeeding the crime, at his home in the
west of Norway, in idleness, and had
paid ready money for his necessities
1t took a long time to gather these
facts together, but ultimately there was
left no rational doubt as to the true
perpetrator of the crime. Lars Olsen
was innocent. Attracted, doubtless, by
the heavy breathing, he had gone into
the room where the old shoemaker lay
wounded to death, probably few min
utes only after the murderer's escape
He had recognized the character of the
deed that had been committed, but in
the muddled condition in which he then
was it left no clearer impression. When
the memory of what he had beheld
the night before came back to
him. like a flash, in the morning, there
was also with it the hallucination that
he had done the deed. 1t was seen now
why he had not known about the knife,
and for the first time it was remember
ed that there had been neither upon
him nor his Clothing the slightest stain
of blood.
Nearly ten years after the prison had
c.laSad 11raxa L