Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1899-12-21
CHAPTER HI.
At Fault.

/ saw Inspector Trail several times
during the following week, and he
seemed more and more worried ana
anxious each time we met. The rea-
son was simple. The Cato Street case
had been intrusted to his special
charge, and had proved TO be n of
unexpected difficulty. 1t had seemed
to be a foregone conclusion that the
missing tenant, Tom Webb, must iney-
itably be traced and captured within a
few hours. Yet, so far, not the fa;ntest
clue to his whereabouts had been OBJ
tanned; while, as for his supposed ac-
completes, they were equally undiscov-
cradle.
This. from a detectives point OF
view, was a most a~ggravating state of
affairs; but, perhaps, worse still, he
had, despite the most strenuous efforts,
entirely failed to establish the identity
of the murdered man. l attempted to
console him by pointing out that the
entire police force was equally respOn-
sible for these failures; which were
due to the stupidity or lazinesS or an
army of ~constables scattered all over
the country; but he found no comfort
in my words.
THAT sounds reasonable enough" he
remarked, blumly: but it won't go
down with my chiefs, nor with the
public, either, for the matter Of that.
The man in charge of the case Is the
man the chief looks to for results. /
am in charge of this case. l have got
no results, and I'll be hanged if / see
any way Of getting any!'
'"Then you deem this case to be an
exceptionally difficult oneT'
"Yes. now / do: though / did not
think so at first" he acknowledged.
"Webb's capture seemed certain, and |
counted on hearing something in the
Soho slums; especially as / believed in
your theory as to the murderer being a
workingman. You ought to know, by
this time, Mr.. Weston, that in tracking
down a criminal, we rely, almost en-
tirely, upon what is officially termed
Information received And, of course,
this simply means information extort-
ed by brides or threats from the sus-
pected mans pals. But very careful
1 luQullltS HdNt SdtISlICu hic luil, III Tue
present case, no such information will
Eve be forthcoming; because the mar
/ want had no pals, at least among the
known law-breaking lot"
Well, but what about Webbg" I
asked. 81 am convinced he did not
leave the house in Cato street by him
self, otherwise he could not possibly lin
his drunken condition) have escaped
the search that was almost immedi-
ately made for him. 1t was the other
mantle nan with the strong grip
who got him away; and it's very long
odds against his being alive now. 1t
stands to reason that the murderer
would not intrust the .afety of his
neck to the keeping of a nervous
drunkard, who might, at any moment,
blab the fatal secret. No, no! The rea-
son Webb has not been found is that
he las been made away with"
There was a ring of conviction in
Trails voice which, backed up by the
obvious force of his reasoning, made
me feel very Respondent as to poor
Webb's fate. Let me frankly admit
that it was not from any especial love
/ bore the a l doubt If it were pos
sible for any M Except, perhaps, some
poor martyr-wife) to care long for q
confirmed drunkard. But 1 was very
fond of his youngest sister, Madge.
We were tacitly, almost avowedly, en-
gagged to be married; and, in every let
ter / received from her, she begged for
news of her brother, who had long
ceased to correspond with any Of mis-
own people. Hitherto I had managed
to evade telling her the truth as to
Toms downfall. Why make her, and
the kindly old couple, her parents, mis-
cradle by telling them that the hope
and pride of the family had gone ut
terly to the dogs? And so | had kept
back the real facts, hoping almost
against hope) that he would turn oyer
a new leaf and be a man again.
l had latterly felt more ~awkyardly
situated than ever with respect to
Madge, and had put off writing to her
because / simply had not the moral
courage wen to hint at the disaster
which had overtaken her vagabond
brother. 1 preferred, somehow, to let
her get the first new OF the trouble
through some other Source-say, n
chance newspaper paragraph. Yet /
felt now that / could not well remain,
silent any longer in the face OF Inspect
or Trails conviction that Tom had
met with foul play. The question sim
ply was, how / could best break the
sad news.
AS SO often happens in real life. The
problem solved itself. BY the last post
that night I received two letters. one
of them from Madge. 1t was very
short, but very much to the point. She
implored me to ascertain, and let her
know at once, that the inciosed cut
ting from he Dorset Courier had no
reference to her brother. The Enclosure
ran thus:
Another London Mystery-The corpse