The record-union., 1897-05-30

nee. pue, having QOue II, Hdu uCSh ASie'
for some reason to the spot until he
could no longer stand the strain in ST.
lence. 1t was the magistrate who pro-
pounded the first theory, and the
doctor the second. One or the other,
however, they decided must be true.
The knife he had readily disposed Of;
that was the easiest matter of all.
AS for Lars Olsen himself, when they,
by and by, went to the Jail to take his
deposition. he told them a perfectly
straightforward story of his own utter
infamy. He was calm, now, with the
despair of having forfeited everything
worth caring for, and he looked but the
bloodless ghost of the man they had
known yesterday. They let him tell
the story through in his own way with
out a question. He had been drinking
and did not know at what time he
came home. He had only just gone into
his own room when he heard noise in
the workshop, on the other side. The
day before Nils had upbraided him for
his habits, and although he knew it had
been kindly meant, it had angered him
for some reason more than ever before
and now ranked in his muddled brain.
He crossed to the other room and found
Nils asleep, but breathing heavily, and
he had crept upon him and with one
blow had stabbed him to death. Then
he went to bed in his own room and
slept until daylight, and had almost
dressed himself when he suddenly re-
membered what he had done. For an
instant, only, he put it away as an ugly
dream, but he knew, then, that it must
be real and he hurried across ana
shrieked when he found Nils dead. -,
Cod he cried again, as he finished the
miserable story, "he was my friend
Olsen's account of the crime as he
had actually committed it fully sustain
ed. in every way, the theory of the Off
cials who had investigated it upon the
ground. Their first supposition, then,
was to all intents and purposes the true
one, and the temporary mystery of the
prisoners cry, so long after the COM
mission of the deed, was satisfactorily
explained. Above all, a motive had
been furnished in the anger of the man
at old Nils ell-deserved admonitions.
They asked him before they were done,
at hint from the doctor, with what he
said with a knife.
What sort of a knife?" they inquired.
why, a knife" he said. Il don't
know what knife"
His own wooden-hand knife was
still, in Norwegian fashion, in its sheath
at his side, and they for the first time
noticed it and took it away. There were
no signs upon it of having been used
for such a purpose.
.sXVaS if this knife 2'' thew asked.
NO" he said, 1T was not that"
"Was it your shoe knife?''
NO" he answered, that is among my
tools on my work bench
They told him that it was not there,
and asked him what he had done with
it, but he protested that he had left 1t
there the day before and knew nothing
further about it. They thought this
simply a proof of the benumbed sensl-
bilities of the drunken man at the time
he did the deed, that he had forgotten
the instrument with which it had been
done. There was no doubt, however, in
their minds, nor had there been any
since they discovered that Olsen's shoe
knife was missing, that was what he had
used There was not missing link In
the chain that bound him to the crime.
His own confession bore out, in every de-
tail. the circumstantial evidence of the
case, that now lay open from every pos
sible point of view, as clear as daylight.
At the formal inquest that followed, it
was adduced as additional testimony
that Olsen had left the company in
which he had been drinking shortly be-
fore midnight, but that did not prove
when he had ultimately reeled home, and
at what time the crime had been done.
That, however, was not essential de-
tail, any more than was the circum-
stance of the missing knife. One I'M
portant fact, nevertheless, had been
completely overlooked, and was neither
brought up at the inquest nor supse-
uuently at the trial, and that was the
utter absence of bloodstains on Lars
Olsen's hands or garments. There was,
beside. no sign in his room of any at
tempt to remove such marks, though
they must have been present on the per-
son of the murderer. Even had the
point been CHANGED upon it could have
made no difference with the result. Lars
doubt. So the inquest adjudged him,
and he was promptly committed 1or
trial at the next asszes. When the
case finally came up short work was
made of it in the face of such over
whelming evidence. and Olsen, still a
Young man, was sentenced to solitary
confinement for life.
He accepted it all as his just desert
His spirit had been crushed by his bitter
self-reproach and lay dead within him.
When, a few days later, the great doors
of the prison closed forever behind hlm'
he heard and saw it all impassively, as
if his senses to all outside impressions
had been drugged into numbness. There
was only one thing he saw, day ana
night. and that was old Nils stark on
his bed. staring straight up at him. as
he had seen him the morning afterhe had
killed him, and one cry always rang in
his heart: How could 1 have done it!'
Eight years had gone by, eventful
years to all the world outside, and par
ticularly important to Norway, but
they had passed over Lars Olsen like the
shadow of a dream, only they had lett
him an old man long before his time
old and feeble, and broken in body and
mind. The memory of his crime hao
almost been forgotten. Even in Lille
hammer it was scarcely remembered, al
though the little house had never since
been occupied. and still stood with
closed shutters, silent and deserted.
It was a hard winter that year, all
over Norway, and the whole country
was half buried in snow, which sun
kant falling from day to day in undl-
minished quantity. The broad valley
of Valders, back in Central Norway
which tourists in summer on their way