The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-04-20

the Clapham mystery, and the scene
of the mystery was Mrs. Latymer-
Wynne's house.
It appeared that as the various
rooms in the upper story were in
the hands of the painters and paper
ers Mr.. Latymer-W -Wynne occupied
temporarily the library on the
ground floor as bedroom, while his
wife slept with the children on an
other floor. Nothing occurred dur
ing the night to disturb those who
slept up stairs, but when the serv-
ants came down in the morning and
proceeded to call their master they
were unable to rouse him. After
knocking repeatedly without recelv-
ing any reply they informed Mrs.
Latymer-W -Wynne of the state OF at
fairs. That lady was naturally much
alarmed and at once sent for assist
ance. The door was forced open.
The scene which then presented it.
self was one calculated to excite the
most serious apprehensions. There
was no sign of Mr.. Latymer-Wynne,
but there were various indications
of desperate struggle. One OF the
windows was open below, and be-
tween this window and the bed the
floor was strewn with fragments OF
the heavy china ever belonging to
tho washstand. 1t appeared as if
this had been used by the unfortu-
nate man as the only thing in the
nature of a weapon within reach.
More ominous still, a closer inspec-
ton revealed blood stains on the
carpet.
The bed had evidently been occu-
pied, bat the pyjama suit in which
Mr.. Latymer- -Wynne generally slept
was missing. He happened not to
have dressed for dinner the night
before, and the ordinary morning
clothes which he had been wearing
were found folded up on a chair in
his usual neat and methodical man
ner. But his valuable watch and
chain, together with large sum OF
money of which he was known to
be in possession, had been carried
off by the perpetrator or perpetra-
tors of the outrage.
Mrs. Latymer-Wynne was in de-
spair. Of course the police were
sent for Immediately. They came
in the persons of a district inspector
and a sergeant. They looked at ev-
erything with eyes full of terrible
meaning and nodded to each other
Significantly and occasionally grunt-
ed ejaculations. At last, in response
to an impassioned appeal from the
lady, the inspector succeeded III de-
livering himself of one or two con-
secutive sentences
s'v " sorry, mum it looks like
a bad business Aa.Aa-, 1T 5 de-
tectiye job. W. il wisc f.'r one at
once
A little later Inspector Bicks.-
dyke, the celebrated 'rlvcslsc, mace
his appearance or thr >ce'':. Tie
made IL careful examination OF cv-
erythiug in the room and then went
outside. followed by Mrs. Latymer-
Wynne and her servants. Here ne
pointed to 4 number Of footmarks and
said:
..wny, there seems TO nave peen
a whole gang at work. 1t isn't in
reason that one man could do the
job all by himself, but this looks
like an army. Hello, what's thisi'
He pointed to two holes in the soft I
gravel which were conspicuous
among the crowd of footmarks.
II expect they were made by the
ladder - said Mrs. Latymer- -Wynne.
"There was a ladder against the
house yesterday for the workmen to
do some painting"
"Oh, then, most of these are their
footmarks, said the inspector,
greatly disgusted "That compli-
Gates matters good deal,7for now
we can't get any clew from the foot
marks. y
It almost seemed as if even In
spector Bickerdyke would, for once,
be bafded. But at last his patience
was rewarded; a sweep made his ap- |
pearance on the scene and informed |
the detective that, as he was passing
the house in the early dawn, he had /
seen a man, very shabbily dressed
in gray suit, stealing from the
premises. At the moment he had
not attached any importance to the
circumstance. as he thought the man
was one of the servants Now, how
ever, he felt it to be his duty to men
tion it.
The Inspectors small eyes twin
kled with satisfaction as he listened
to this statement. The mere fact
that the criminal wore a gray suit
did not seem much to go upon, but
Inspector Bickerdyke felt pretty
sure that it would be enough for
him. He would track that gray suit
to the remotest corner Of the earth.
When he had completed his inves-