The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-26


nodded his head.i The Boston detec-
tive was not without curiosity as to
how Sweetwater would prove his case.
/ s.Old James label had seen his broth.
4 er sinking rapidly from hamilton
1 this their condition amply shows. He
was weak himself, but John was
/ weaker, and in a moment of despera-
ton he rushed out to ask a crumb OF
bread from Agatha Webb, or possibly
for have heard some whisper of an old
custom of theirs-to Join Philemon at
/ his yearly merry making, and so OBJ
tain in natural way the bite for him.
i self and brother, he, perhaps, had not
4 the courage to ask for outright But
death had been in the Webb cottage be-
fore him, which awful circumstance,
acting ON his already weakened nerves,
Grove him half insane from the house
/ and sent him wandering blindly about
! the streets for "a good half hour sae:ora
he reappeared in his own house. How
! do ] know this? From very simple
fact. Abel here has been to inquire
among oJher things, if Mr.. Crane re-
members the tune we were playing at
| the great house when he came down
! the main street from visiting old
! Widow Walker Fortunately he does.
for the trip, trip, trip in it struck his
fancy, and ne has found himself hum
ming it over more than once since
Well, that waltz was played by us at
a quarter after midnight, which fixes
the time of the encounter at Mrs
| Webb's gateway pretty accurately. But,
as you will soon see, it was 1880 before
James label knocked at Lotions door
How do l know. this? By the same
method of reasoning by which I deter
mined the time of Mr.. Cranes encoun-
ter. Mrs. Lotion was greatly pleased
with the music played that night, and
had ali her windows open in order to
hear it, and she says We were playing
| Money Musk when that knocking
came to disturb her. Now, gentlemen,
went to supper promptly at 1:45, you
we were called out to supper, and as we
can see just how my calculation was
made. Thirty-five minutes, then, pass
ed between the moment James label
was seen rushing from Mrs. Webb's
gateway and that in which he appear
ed at Lotions bakery, demanding
loaf of bread, and offering in exchange
one Of the bills which had BEEN stolen
from the murdered woman's drawer.
Thirty-five minutes! And he and his
brother were starving. Does it look,
then, as if that money was in his DOS
session when he left Mrs. Webb's
house? Would any man who felt the
pangS of hunger as he did, or who saw
a brother perishing for food before his
eyes, allow thirty-five minutes to
elapSe before he made use of the money
that rightfully or wrongfully had come
into his hands? No: and so 1 say that
he did not have it. when Mr.. Crane met
him. That, instead of committing crime
to obtain it, he found it in his own
home, lying on his own table, when,
after his frenzied absence, he returned
to tell his dreadful news to the brother
he had left behind him. But how did
it come there? you ask. Gentlemen,
remember the footprints under the win
dow. Amabel Page brought it. Having
seen, or perhaps met this old man
roaming in or near the Webb cottage
during the time she was there herself,
she conceived the plan of throwing
upon him the onus of the crime she had
herself committed, and with a SlyneSS
to be expected from her, stole up to his
home, made hole in the shade hang
ing over an open window, looked into
the room where John sat, saw that he
was there alone and asleep, and, creep
ing in by the front door, laid on The
table beside him the $40 bill and the
bloody dagger with which she had just
slain Agatha Webb. Then she stole out
again, and in twenty minutes more was
leading the dance again in Mr.. Suther-
lands parlor.'
pecting the others to echo HIM But
though Mr.. Fenton and Dr. Talbot
looked almost convinced, they said
nothing, while Knapp, of course, was
quiet as an oyster.
Sweetwater, with a quiet smile call
culated to hide his disappointment,
went ON as if perfectly satisfied.
Meanwhile John awa,kes, sees the
dagger and thinks to end his misery
h11+ find aIf for 10
The cut in his vest, the dent in the floor,
prove this, but if you call for further
proof little fact, which some, if not
all of you, seem to have overlooked will
amply satisfy you that this one at least
of my conclusions is correct. Open the
Bible, Abel; open it, not to shake it for
what will never fall out from between
it's leaves, but to find in the Bible itself
the lines 1 have declared to you he
tightly clutched pencil. Have you
found them?''
NO" was Abers perpleXed retort;
cannot see any sign of writing on fly
leaf or margin"
Are those the only blank places in
the sacred book? Search the leaves de-
voted to the family record. Now! what
do you find there?"
Knapp, who was losing some of his
lIIulleTeuGG, QTeW leStIeI anu Tedd LOT
himself the scrawl which now appeared
to every eye on the discolored page
which Abel here turned uppermost.
Almost illegible," he said; zone can
just make cut these words: Forgive
me, James-tried to use dagger-found
lying-but hand wouldn't-dying with
out-don't grieve-true men-haven't |
disgracod ourselves-God bless That
is ALL"
THE effort must have overcome him.
resumed SWeetWater in a voice from |
which he carefully excluded all signs of |
secret triumph, and when James re-
turned, as he did a few minutes later, |
he was evidently unable to answer
questions, even if John was in a condi- |
ton TO ask them. But the fallen dag
ger told it's own story, for James picked |
it up and put it back on the table, and |
it was at this minute he saw, what John !
had not, the $20-bill lying there with it's
promise of life and comfort Hope re-
wives; he catches up this BILL flies down
to Loton's procures loaf of bread and |
comes frantically back, gnawing it as
he runs; for his own hunger is more
than he can endure. Re-entering his
brothers presence, he PUSHES forward
with the bread. But the relief has come
too late; John has died in his absence;
back and succumbs to his own misery.
Gentlemen, have you .nything to say in
of these various SUPPOSE
tions?''
For a moment DR.. Talbot. Mr.. Fenton
and even Knapp stood silent; then the
latter said, with pardonable dryness:
''All this is. ingenious. but, unfortun-
ately, it is upset by a little fact which
you yourself have overlooked. Have