Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-09-23
CAUGHT BY CHANCE,


open the door wide enough to get into the
room.
could hardly repress an exclamation of
horror. The body of a heavy looking man
was lying against the door, the head and
shoulders propped up by the door itself.
Blood was flowing from an ugly looking
wound in the right temple and there was
u pool of blood on the floor. There was Il
clock in the room and l noticed that it
was exactly minutes to 10.
The victim was pronounced to be not
dead, and was removed, unconscious, to
the hospital. The police took possession
of the room and proceeded to make in
yuiries and deliberate
The facts in the problem--for problem
it very soon appeared to be-were these:
One of the walters said he had been sum
| moned to the smoking room by the bell,
and that three gentlemen were then in
the room. One, whom he identified as the
victim, was sitting at the table in the
middle of the room, with his back toward
the door, reading. The other two We're
in the two opposite corners of the room.
He could remember nothing Of the appear
ance of the two men, who were strangers,
familiar to him as a frequent visitor. He
remembered the clock in the room striking
quarter of 10 when he brought the
drink
He thought he should have noticed them
| leave IL they had come down the passage
| from the smoking room into the bar, as
| he had not left the bar and had not been
at all busy during the ten minutes. Be-
sides, the position of the body against the
| door made it impossible thatany one could
| have left the room after it had fallen with
| out moving it.
The room was about 13 feet high and
had no window In the walls. 1t was light
cd by skylight about 2 feet by 1, imme-
diately over the table. This could be
opened about four or five inches by means
of cord or pulley, but it was shut. Even
the very tallest man. standing on the table
and jumping, could never reach it. The
chimney was impossible. II the two mon
had not gone out of the door, how had
they left the room? 1t seemed hopeless
puzzle.
Next evening l found my friend the
superintendent, who told me the latest de-
velopments. The victim of the outrage
was not seriously injured, after all. He
| had regained consciousness and had been
able to tell his story.
He had that evening completed very
satisfactory deal and had the proceeds-11
soyereigns-in his pocket. He had sat
| down at the table, with his back toward
the door, and taken up an evening paper.
Suddenly he felt himself seized by the
| throat and sprang to his feet, only to be
| forced back against the door. He strug
gled in vain, being pinned to the door by
one man, whom he described as having
| ford complexion and short, fair mus
| tache, while the other, swarthy looking
| fellow, rihed his pockets Then he felt
violent blow.
| In the face of this, the theory Of escape
from the door exploded. He must have
fallen at once. So the men could not have
left the room by the door.
| We gave up the skylight theory, mainly
because it seemed wholly impraotioable for
any man to reach that outlet. Even
chair on the table would not have done it,
and there was no indication of any chair
having been on the table.
A week passed and no one was any
nearer solving the mystery than ever. The
injured man, now very much better, had
been able to add nothing material to his
| original story.
happened that evening to stroll into
the Duchess theater of varieties, barely
| five minutes walk from Gialotti's, with
a friend about 8 O. clock.
We were watching the Barnardiston
brothers, a pair Of acrobats, whose contor
tions and feats of strength were exciting
rounds of applause. l think the feat which
pleased most was joint performance OH a
horizontal bar about ten feet from the
ground. One sprang nimbly on to the
shoulders of tho other and grasped the
bar. The other seized the ankles of the
| first and was drawn up until he, too, could
reach it.
[ was thoroughly enjoying this cxhibi
ton of strength and skill! when my friend
remarked:
"These acrobat fellows would make
short work of your skylight round at Clio
latti's, it strikes me.
| looked carefully at the men, They
were tall, we'll built and athletic, and,
moreover one was dark and one was fair.
1t was not much to go upon, but it was
enough to make me restless.
The next evening saw the superintend-
ent, and, though he ridiculed the idea at
first, he ultimately promised to mako in
quires about the men, He suggested that
as preliminary step the victim Of the
robbery should go to the Duchess with
view to identifying the men.
A couple of days later he went, but
would say nothing more definite than that
they certainly looked as if they might be
the men, but he really couldn't say more.
Meantime tho superintendent had been
making inquiries, and he met me outside
the theater with curious smile on his
face.
"1t's no go, young man." he said
"Your idea won't wash. The Barnardis-
ton brothers were here on the Sth-the
night of the crime--at 10 o'clock. And
they are on every night at . 80 ut the Star
Music hall-have been since tho LIST. 1t
takes them all their time between 9:45
and 10 to get here in a hanson. They
haven't missed night, either here or at
the Star I'm afraid we can't get that
kind of an alibi."
l got into morbid habit of strolling
about in the neighborhood of South street
and the Duchess, for still took an inter-
est in the doings Of the brothers Barnar-
diston. One night at 10 O'Clock was go.
ing down South street on my way home
when l saw the Barnardston brothers
again. They were strolling quietly up the
street, and they went into No. H. knew
they were on at the Duchess at 10 o'clock,
and had the curiosity to run round to
the music hall. From the gallery was
amazed to SEQ them in the very middle of
their wonderful performance.
Well, it's no use in going into all the
details. | had found the solution of the
puzzle, though it took some time to work
1t out. There were two pairs of acrobats,
very similar in appearance, and each pair
capable of performing precisely tho same
feats. They had engagements at various
music halls. and sometimes one pair at