San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-10-17

She turned on the detective like a
wild animal at bay, bending her head
aside as if half crouching between fear
and desperation, her large dark eyes
looking larger by contrast with the
blanched face in which not a vestige of
color was left.
This is serious matter, Mr.. Gift.
ford" said Inspector Borderham
"What grounds have your"
ASK her totell you where is the bit
of lace that is torn from that place.
You'll see the pattern of the lace is
very marked one and the tear very sin.
gular in FORM"
"Well, what do you say?" asked Mr..
Borderham, turning to the woman.
"You need not answer unless you like,
and if you do answer what you say may
be used against you. Mind that.
There was pause, during which the
woman breathed twice through her
widespread nostrils. Then, with an as,
sumption of indifference, but i'll voice
that showed her nervousness, she said,
with shrug of the shoulders:
"How can tell how l tear every lit
tie bit of lace that wear?'
well, when did you wear that dress
last?" asked Mr.. Clifford.
How can remember? Do you think
I have but one?"
"What dress did you wear the night
Pierre Turrian was killed."
lo,,st ro,,a,,,hor How nap 90
"You liep' cried Mr. Clifford sternly
"You wore that dress, and you went to
meet Pierre Turrian in it. You had it
on when you stabbed him to the heart,
and 1t was when You delivered that
blow that he clutched at your dress
and tore from it the piece of lace that
fits exactly into that tear. | have it
here, and l myself took it from the dead
mans fingers.
The woman reeled back before this
indictment, and, cropping with her hands
behind her for the wall, leaned against
it for support, all the bravado and dar-
ing gone out of her manner.
ut is all lie, liel' she gasped
through her livid lips, which would
hardly frame the words.
"See, inspector, said Mr.. Clifford,
showing how exactly the piece of lace
fitted into the torn lace of the dress.
81 don't seem to understand" said
Sir Jaffray, like one in complete be-
wilderment. when did you find all
this out? Why, this morning thought
you had thrown up the case.
1.-THE scent was getting keener than
ever then, and | wanted little help,
That was all, :" answered Mr.. Clifford,
with smile. 81 had suspicious yester-
day or the day before. TIE thing looked
all so bright and clear against her lady
ship there that | began to suspect it,
and wanted to know badly who it
was that was sending those anonymous
letters All, you may well start, French
womanw He turned to her. You set
up the suspicion yourself when you did
that.
The woman tried to shrug her shout
ders in reply, but she failed.
81 saw, as any one might have seen,
and he glanced hurriedly at the inspect
or, THAT whoever sent those letters had
a strong interest in getting Lady Wal
cote into this trouble, and the fact that
the writer knew so much about where
the dagger and the bracelet were, or,
rather, where they were not, on the
night of the murder made me quite
ready to think that she knew little
more. Again, another fact struck me
as peculiar. Why should Lady Walcote
carry away one bracelet only out of all
her jewelry? If she had wanted it for
its value, she'd have taken the lot, and
the odds were dead against her wearing
any such conspicuous piece of jewelry
as an ornament when she was flying
from home and didn t want to be traced.
That set up the notion that these things
had been dropped just for effect, and
that whoever had dropped them had
done it with the object of planting this
business on Lady Walcote.
"There was another little thing:
That bracelet was broken in two, sug
costing that if the thing We're genuine
there had been a regular rough and
tumble struggle between the murdered
man and the woman who had done the
deed, but there was no evidence what
ever Oh the spot of any struggle, bar
ring the bit of torn lace, while the two
parts of the bracelet were found at such
a distance from each other that only a
most unusual sort of a struggle could
have caused that. This helped me to
think, therefore, that whoever had put
that bracelet there had first broken it
in two.
"But it was one thing to see that the
trail was too broad and another to find
the right track. / made up MY mind
that if Lady Walcote had gone out in
tending to kill that Frenchman she
wouldn't have been so determ ined to
prove that she had been there as to use
dagger which every one knew by
sight and to leave on the ground a
bracelet which all the countryside could
identify, a piece of lace with enough
character in it to hang half a sEopful of
women and, as if that wasn't enough, a
with her name carefully
-, LOT IN tho