The Mena weekly star., 1897-10-20

pointing 10 DlulSn-reu StaD over the region of the heart, and slight in-
 cision under the left shoulder blade,
 added: "A clean drive of the knife like
 that speaks for itself"
 In due course the body was conveyed
 to the mortuary, there to await identi- | fication and inquest. On examining the paper found in the carriage I made d ghastiy discovery. Upon the pages
 were strange streaks, varying in color l from a dull coppery brown to bright
 crimson-blood, undoubtedly. In a flash the inevitable conclusion forced
 itself upon me. The murderer had evil
 dently wiped his foul hands upon the
 paper, crushed it up and thrown it un- der the seat.
 l There was a morbid fascination for
 me in that copy, in those smears; a
 horrible, grewsome interest became at tached to those pages-two especially
 attracting my attention. On one page
 was the blurred imprint of four fingers
 and a thumb; on the other were four l lines only; one short and thin, two
 thick, heavy strokes, and one a mere
 blot. l reasoned. The thin line drawn lower than the others stood, say, for the 1 little finger; but between this and the
 next strokes was a gap. What did it mean? Without a doubt, following
 the same line of reasoning, those other | two strokes represented the middle and
 forefngers, and the blot was the thumb
 But where, asked myself, was the third
 finger? Missing.
 Gradually, certain facts came to light
 A ticket from Manchester to London,
 issued on the day of the murder, was
 missing; and eventually inquiry in Manchester led to the discovery of the victims identity. He turned out to be
 one Carl Heinrich Strauss, a commer- cial traveller representing a German | firm in England. He had been a resi- 1 dent in this country for only a short time, spoke the language very imper- fectly, and, so far as could be ascer- tained, had neither relatives nor friends
 here. Nothing further transpiring, an inquest was held and an open verdict returned.
 It was some days after the inquest when, turning the matter over in my
 mind, one evening, an idea struck me
 an idea so palpable that l wondered at
 myself for not thinking of it before.
 Was it possible, thought, that the mur- derer had purchased that copy at one
 of Smiths bookstalls along the line? had already prosecuted inquiries, sta ton by station, in vain endeavor to elic- it some information from railway of ficials as to whether they had noticed anything particular or extraordinary
 happen on the fateful night, but with out success; and now, starting from
 London again, I questioned the assist
 ants at every boolSstall on every station
 at which the train had stopped.
 Then it seemed that had struck the right trail at last; for at a Smiths stand at Ecclesborough, station some 40
 miles down the line, one of the boys in-
 distinctly remembered selling a copy of the paper to a man who had mal- formed left hand. But at this point I stopped. The lad could remember noth-
 ing of the personality of the individual; he only recollected the malformation
 of the hand. didn't know which way to turn. Was the man a resident of Ecclesborough? In the middle of these cogitations I received orders from head quarters that compelled me to turn my attention to other matters.
 You must remember how, some years ago, the whole of the civilized world
 was suddenly stirred by the discovery
 of an anarchist plot of such vast dimen-
 sions as to cause universal alarm. Ar rests were made broadcast; clubs were
 raided; prominent politicians walked
 abroad under strong guard of detec- tiyes in plain clothes; and so strong was
 the excitement that anything found conspicuously wrapped up in brown pa per was certain enough to be escorted to the nearest police station by officials who considered the object in question nothing less than bomb.
 At such a time, therefore, the "Ex- press Mystery" as my case was called, sank into nificance-dropped, so to speak, out of public notice-and l perforce put it aside to attend to more
 pressing matters. These latter consist ed in shadowng the members of cer-
 tain club not a hundred miles from Tot tenham Court road.
 One night the club was quietly sur rounded, and a wholesale arrest made. A close examination of the premises fol-
 lowed, and certain papers were found,
 but nothing among them likely to add
 to the knowledge we were already pos sessed of. On turning out waste
 basket, 1 discovered several envelopes hnarinn fha Eecleshnrnnnh rnsinnrl