Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-12-24

full if ne could have been convicted. A
bit Of good detective work would have
also put a different face or the matter
at the outset.
1t was six months after Ransom cana
to prison before l heard his story from
his own lips. There are but few men
among the convicts who will not talk
if given a chance. The talEing mood
came to him and l encouraged him to
go ahead and make a clean breast Of
it. He might not have told me all had
be not heard that day that his wife
had renowned him and gone back TO
her parents, thus breaking him all up
and making him feel that he must tell
his story to somebody to relieve his
overburdened mind. He told me
everything and concealed nothing and
when he had finished l was satisfied
that he mad told the truth and was a
wronged man. He had a brother who
was quite well to do, and who strongly
believed in his innocence. and in the
course OF a fortnight we had a detec-
tive at work. l ted you that a clerk
had been presumably burned with the
store. This was looked Upon by
nearly every one as a fact, and it en-
tered into the ease greatly to the mans
prejudice and that without even a
search OF the ruins for the bones Of
the victim. The young man had gone
10 his room over the store at eight
o'clock and he was not seen after the
fire. Owing to there being a lot o.
barrels of oil in the cellar it had been
a hot fire, and there had been an e.
| plosion that had SHAKEN the walls
down. The clerks bones were no doubt
under the heap Of debris, but they
had not been found and identified.
That was a queer thing, you viii say,
would take no steps as the real charge
was arson. and so it was left to be
assumed that the clerk persisted in the
flames.
did he or did he not?" was the first
question to be solved by the detective.
Every shovel of debris was taken from
the cellar after q weeks hard work, but
no bones were found. If the young
man was burned some evidence ought
to exist. He was known TO have a
revolver in his room, and to carry a
silver handled pocket knife. Neither
of these were found. He likewise had
half a dozen rare old coins, but not one
was found in the ruins. His best suit
of clothes had metal buttons, but not a
button Of the sort was discovered. In
a week the detective was satisfied that
the clerk was not burned with the
store. II alive where had he gone to.
and why did he go away at all? There
was another clerk who had not gone,
ard after a vigorous pumping he was
led to say that he believed his fellow
clerk had been guilty Of stealing and
had run away. In the next ten days
he was found at the house of an uncle
800 miles away, and two hours after he
was found he owned up that he Lad
| embezzled about 5000 inside of three
| months, and had fed because he knew
the merchant was overhauling his ac-
counts. He left the store about nine
O'Clock that night, and knew that Ran
som was below. As to the fire, he had
not heard of it, but remembered that
he had left a candle burning in his
reom. When the detective returned TO
Colwell and talked with those who first
| discovered the fire he found they were
agreed that the flames worked down
ward instead of upward, proving that
the FIRE had started from above
Where had Ransom put Il the time
from nine to eleven O'CLOCK? He had
already told me- He had visited the
house OF a woman In the outskirts with