The Monmouth inquirer., 1898-03-24

four hours before they nad maze out
fair case against him, but there were
lust two requisites lacking to lay him
by the heels. The money and jewelry
were not found upon his person, and
general search of the country for miles
around had failed to secure any trace
of the murdered woman. The young
man had left the village at o'clock in
the evening and walked two miles and
a half. He had returned shortly before
IL. as he could prove by three witness
es. Out of five hours must be taken the
time to walk five miles, eat supper, etc
1t was figured that he would have only
about two hours to dispose of his vic
tim. AS he was slight man, and Miss
Jones rather fieshy, it was clearly i'm
possible that he could have carried her
-nody any distance There was no riv-
er nor any pools near at hand. The
woods and every field for two miles
were gone over foot by foot, but the
body could not be found. Then they
inspected the house and cellar out
buildings -haystacks- hedges and wha
not, but the hunt was in vain Al
though it is a legal axiom that there
can be no murder unless a dead body
is found. Fletcher was held to the as
sizes as a murderer He alone had the
motive to kill Miss Jones. If he didn't
kill her, what had become of her? Out
of a thousand people not over five
doubted more because the body could
not be found than that they believed in
him. In the course of a fortnight 5OU
people entered into the search for the
body, and had dead cat been buried
within three miles of Fern Castle
they must have found it,
Up to the time the search was ahan-
doned the case was in the hands OF the
local police. When they could make no
headway detective from London was
called down. This man was expected
to accomplish great things at once. and
he stirred the whole country up by
finding a clue within an hour after TAX
ing hold of the case. He boldly de'
clared that Fletcher had conveyed the
body to Stratford river. and had then
driven back to restore the horse and
wagon to the owner. Everybody fell
in with the idea at once, and, as a con-
sequence, the river was dragged for
miles until it gave up it's last snag. The
body was not to be found. The de-
tective then suggested that the body
had been burned by fire in the woods
but that was going too far, and he was
discharged from the Case. Fletcher
was arraigned at the asizes. and ac-
cording to law he should have been
set at liberty, but popular feeling was
so intense that his case was adjourned
to give the crown more time to COM
plete it's search. A reward of ESQ
was offered to any one who should dis
cover the body, and people living fif-
teen or twenty miles from the scene
went about looking into bitches and
beating up the woods.
| have not mentioned that Fletcher
had relatives in London who were
wealthy and influential. They believed
in him from the first and employed
counsel for him, and by and by a first
class private detective was sent down
to work in his interst. People wonder
ed what he could do, but he didn't
worry over that. He started in by be-
lieving the young mans story. A pho
tograph of Miss Jones was shown him
and he sized her up speedily. Fletcher
and the domestic agreed exactly as TO
the queer expressions Miss Jones had
used-dragged in for the benefit of the
girl She must haze been planning
when she did that, and what more nat
ural than to believe she was planning
a revenge on Fletcher? She had sug-
gested queer walk after dark; she had
shrieked out with needless energy; she
had brought him home by another
route All these things counted with
the detective and all counted III Fetch
er's favor. AS a first step in the ac-
tual work of unraveling the mystery
the detective drove to the surrounding
towns of Stratford and in each case his
business was with men who sold cloth
ing. After few days he found his
clew. At a certain date, week pre-
vious to the murder, young woman of
Miss Jones' description had bought a
suit of mems clothes at a certain store,
saying they were for her brother II
was a working suit, and new, as the
detective began to ride back and forth
across the country, he called at all the
roadside inns and looked carefully at
all the stable boys Meanwhile Fletch-
er was taken sick with brain fever. and
though given the best medical attend
ance he grew worse and worse and
finally died. When first taken i'll he
declared MS innocence OF Lne crime lul-
puted to him, and an hour before his
death, when the coming of the grim
destroyer brought him a lucid inter-
val, he reiterated his declarations.
AS the hearse with Fletcher's body
took it's way to the depot to ship the
remains to London for burial. the de-
tective drove up TO the county Jail with
stable boy on the seat beside him.
That stable boy, arrested at an inn six
teen miles away, was none other than
Miss Nancy Jones, very much alive
and in the flesh, though masquerading
in male attire. She had plotted to re-
venge herself on Fletcher, and she glo-
ried in the fact that she had caused
him great trouble and driven him to
his death. Fer weeks and weeks she
had worked as a stable boy and her
sex had been unsuspeeted but it needed
a detective with brains to find the cIew
to- unravel the case. / do not recall
the technical offense with which she
was charged, but she was put on trial
convicted, and sent to prison for seven
years. It was accounted one of the