The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1898-01-05
CHAPTER XVIII.
DETECTIVE BARNES SURPRISES DETECTIVE

BURROWS.
GA noble man destroyed by cruel
chain Of circumstances, thought Mr..
Barnes, as he concluded the perusal Of
the tale. He then leaned his elbow on
the table and, with his mouth partly
open, beat tattoo upon his teeth with
his finger ends, habit of his when lost
in thought and intent upon some knot
ty problem. He sat thus for more than
a quarter Of an hour, and then NUT
tered:
"I have it. That mans secret shall
be preserved %
Carefully placing the document in
his pocket, he then gathered up all the
writing materials that lay on the table,
his idea being to prevent any one from
entertaining the suspicion that the dead
man had left any telltale writing be-
hind him. Satisfied that this was ac-
complished, he descended to the room
below and awaited the arrival of the
squire, who, in due time, came with
Virginia, accompanied also by Burrows
and DR.. Snow.
"Ah! Mr.. Barnes. :" said the squire,
>"Virgie tells me that you have solved
the mystery of this murder. -
Eyes, sir. Chance has favored me,
and I am glad that have succeeded III
saving the accused without the necessi-
ty of trial. %
care you sure yca can do that?" ask
ed Burrows.
"Oh, yes. I could demand Marvel's
discharge. even though had not dis
covered the real murderer, for have
the disguise which he threw into the
river, and in the pocket of the vest l
found the locket which be said would
be there. -
Burrows was astounded, but was un-
willing to give up his pet theory with
out struggle.
"How do you account for the initials
of the accused being On the locket
found in the dead mans hands?"
"They also appear on the one which
I found in the vest and which I have
here You may examine it, and you
will observe that it is the facsimile Of
the other. Thus it is plain that there
were originally two, and I presume
that by coincidence these are the I'M
tials also Of Miss Lewis mother. She
is not certain, as she only knows one Of
the names, Matilda The other must
have begun with W. %
Mr. Barnes knew better than this,
but he had decided to suppress the
truth, and therefore he accounted for
this point as best he could He then re-
lated the means By which he had recov-
cred the bundle, and Burrows, at the
conclusion of his tale, exclaimed:
"Wel, Mr. Barnes, you have entirely
overturned ny theory. and the only sat
isfaction left to me is that the innocent
will not be made to suffer through me. y
"Mr. Barnes, % said the squire, you
have not told us yet who the murderer
is and how you discovered him. %
1t is very simple. By an unaccornt-
able prejudice suspected that this man
was not what he claimed to be. You re-
call his story of having been at school in
New York. REPAIRED thither and learn
ed that no sach boy had ever beeu there.
Mr.. Lewis. it seems, made a present to
the academy years ago, and this man
must have found some of the letters
which Mr.. Lewis received while stop
ping there, and, using the envelopes to
get the dates right, forged the inclosed
letters which be showed to you. y
Then you cane back here, suppose,
to arrest him?''
Exactly, and find him dead. That
would seem to prove that he feared dis
covery and took his life to evade arrest
However, that is not sufficient for me.
I must find out the exact object of this
crime and will Go so. I promise you
that if you will delay the inquest TIL
| Tuesday, SO as to give me chance to
follow up c!ew which l have, will
endeavor to clear up the whole matter .
The squire willingly acquiesced. Mr.
Barnes hastened to New York as speed
lily as possible and learned from the spy
that the woman had made no effort to
change her place of residence, perhaps