The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-01-06

the murder; for was SO near that it
would have been all but impossible for
the murderous thief to have rified her
body, and then what likelihood was
she-e of sufficient spoil to compensate
aim for the awful risk he ramp
Fenton stopped and once more co.,
cred his eyes YEARLY with his hands. I
felt it would be useless to dwell longer
on the details of the murder. He had
told me all he knew, and further dis
cussion seemed needless cruelty to my
friend. Besides, my time had expired.
So rose.
"By the bye. " I asked. shave you no
photograph of her you could let me
have? l feel confident that we could
throw some light on this awful mys-
terry if we could only trace her ante
cedents. If you have her picture, is
would no doubt help u.s.
EYES," he replied, 81 have one pho
tograph Of her which she gave me after
much pressing and reluctantly enough
in all conscience. left it at home that
awful night. You will find it in a
leather case in the top left hand drawer
of my dressing table, in which keep
my tics, under the, paper at the bottofA
of the drawer. Ask Mabe. to give it
you. /"
said goodby to my friend as cheeriIy
as possible and assured him thai we
were doing everything that could be
done in his interests and that no stone
would be left unturned to prove his in
pocence, but l left him with heavy
heart, for I felt the all but utter hope,
lessness of the task before us.
got the photograph that same day.
Il was cabinet vignette of a remark
ably handsome girl, and for the mo-
ment could not believe this was the
poor woman, the memory of whom,
huddled in the gutter as had first seen
her. would forever remain with me,
but a second glance showed me that it
was indeed the same woman before the
storms and blasts of life had furrowed
her cheeks and dulled her eyes. Here l
saw face breathing inward happiness
and contentment-the face of woman
to be remembered. Beneath wealth Of
dark hair were q broad forehead and
eyes of marvellous depth and beauty.
The chin betokened unusual decision,
and it was evident she was not woman
to be lightly dealt with. On the other
hand, her nostcils and lips gave the i'm
| preston that she sought some one to
care for and even lean upon and on
whom the wealth Of no ordinary love
would be lavished in return. Altogether
it was an exceptional face-one of a
woman whose influence for good should
have reached far and wide. What ter
rible fatality had warped her path SO
that it led through trouble to such q
pissous end:
The photographer name had been
erased and turned the card round, hop
ing to find some c!ew OH the back, but
it was blank. say the name had been
erased, but it had not been completely
scratched away and there were still in
dications of print but SO trivial that it
seemed hopeless to expect any clew
therefron.
My next business was at Scotland
Yard. There was just hope that Har-
riet Staples had been advertised for as
missing by her friends. and if so her
photograph would probably be there. 1
explained ny business to an official,
and we soon had before us the albums
| of some years back. We went carefully
through them, comparing each one with
the photograph 1 had with me, but Of
the many thousands / saw not one bore
any resemblance to it, and at last we
gave up the search as hopeless. A
| young detective helped me in my search,
and az was about to place the picture
in my pocket he pointed to the nearly
obliterated letters at the foot.
"There's the clew. sir, take my word
for it. If you could only restore the
whole word from those fragments, yoa
would have it at once.
''That's all very well," said /, ssbut
I'm afraid it's an impossible feat"
II wouldn't be too sure of that, - he
replied. GIVE known good deal come
from slenderer hint. Why not have
few facsimiles made of them and send
them to c-perts:"
left the place with this suggestion
ringing in my ears. and as / turned it
over in my mind it bore unexpected
fruit. Capital! 1t should be as he sug-
gested, but instead of few facsimiles
l would have hundreds Of thousands
struck off and carried the length and
breadth of the land. How? By enlisting
the popular press in my cause.
The next day managed to obtain a
letter of Introduction to the editor Of
one of those weeklies which have SO hit
the public taste that there is scarcely
one household in the country which
does not buy its weekly copy. To him
l preached my plan, which was nothing
less than securing the services of his
readers to aid me in my search. asked
him to print facsimile of the almost
erased letters in his next issue, with a
prize of $50 for the first correct addi-
ton Of the missing portions. The ex-
citement which the murder had aroused
was still great, and the public were
following with scarcely abated interest
every fresh development of the case.
The editor scented big increase in
his circulation if his paper became in