The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-10-06
AUntoe oe az ART1sE sM CRIME &C.


ICopyright, 1891, by G. P. Putnam's Sons.l
AS clearly as though they spoke. I
cannot trace the dogs movements, for
his marks are all over the lawn, but at
one point on my diagram you will OBJ
serYe that No. SIS feet show q grest
many imprints in one place. Here be
was stopped by the dog, whose foot
marks are numerous at the point indi-
Gated. Their exaggerated shape, too,
shows clearly that the dog jumped upon
J the man, and that in falling back upon
his launches the mark Of his whole leg
was made. Again, from this point to-
ward the gate T note that the stride of
\ the man increased. This means that he
ran away. You followed the other two.
What did You discover
gave you NY drawings, and you
have them showing quite accurately. No.
( 3, made byawoman, commences, as you
know, at the steps of the dining room
piazza and leads to the summer house.
From there traced it over to the river,
where found boat landing. Thence
{: she returned to the steps again. No. ],
mans, commences at the river bank
+ abont- -200 feet south of the landing and
leads directly to the steps. Thence it
follows around the house and out
through the main gate. Outside, I'M
fortunately. our party this morning
made SO many footprints that I could
not follow No. ]. =
Did you cross the river, Tom:
No, but there is a boat there, and /
meant to suggest that We go over to
gether. think wewiH find evidence on
the other side that my lady crossed last
night. Why else should she have gore
10 the boat
Certainly; we viii go at once, but
first ] have something more to commu-
nicate ~ our theory was that the shot
was fred from withou. and by wom-
ans and sou inclined to the. belief that
you knew the identity Of that woman.
What. then, do ycu think Of this?' He
handed Burrows beautiful silver
mounted revolver lin the chambers Of
which were four loaded cartridges and
one empty cartridge The weapon had
apparently been recently fred. Burrows
looked at it a moment in amazcmeEt
and then asked: I,
Where did yoh find this?''
Outside of the summer house, lying
IN the snow, just where I claim that
the woman stopped. Now yoh see what
Z meant when said ! could guess why
she did SO. But yon have not seen all
yet. There is name ON it. BEAD. .
Burrows examined the butt more at
tentively, and there saw piece Of plate
let into tie stock, and neatly engraved
thereon the name, Alice Marvel. %
Mr. Barnes, what do you make OF
4haf?''
81 think that some one had that pistol
last night and fred it From other evi-
dence that / have I should say it is
circunstantial probability that Miss
Marvel herself was here last night and
fred her pistol "
's9.his IS the second time you have
nsed that phrase, 'circumstantial prob
ability Won't you explain its''
Certainly. We are considering
case purely on circumstantial evidence.
u have all my life made speciality Of
such. and I divide it into three grades,
according to the logical deduction which
it indicates. The first of these I call a
.circumstantial possibility For exam
pie. had the wound in this case been
differently located it might have been
q tcircumstantial possibility that it
was a suicide Second, we have cir
eumstantiai probability such as have
here and viii explain. Third, the cir
scumstantial proof where the attendant
facts leave absolutely no room for
doubt is in my experience rare thing. .
understand. Now Will you tell me
why you think ita circumstantial prob
ability that Miss Marvel was here and
fred the Iistol?''
From the facts which have already
given you / should say it was ques-
tion whether she was here OF whether
some one e.se had her pistol But l
found another pistol .
The deuce you did!''
ssAnd this one, y producing dupli-
cate of the one already shown, "also has
a name-Harry Lucas. Now follow my
argument Squire Olney told us that
these two young people are sweethearts.
The tracks indicate that a woman play
ed the spy on man who came to meet
another woman. The weapons bear the
names of a man and his sweetheart Is
it not plain? Miss Marvel came to hear
what the other girl had to say To- her
lover, and he to her. y
You are right, said Burrows ex-
citedly, land is it not equally evident
that the seccId woman is Miss Lewis?
Remember, the meeting was in her own
grounds. .
IT am 1oore inclined to think SO than
at first. though do not commit myself