The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1899-03-16

the enigma may be right, and yet IL
seems to me that either one or the other
of them would account for all. am
utterly incapable Of solving the mystery
! that surrounds her death. Without any
special circumstances, mere robbery
would hardly be sufficient reason for
the murder; for was SO near that it
would have been all but Impossible for
the murderous thief to have rifled her
body, and then what likelihood was
the-e of sufficient spoil to compensate
! him for the awful risk he RAM"
! Fenton stopped and once more COW
cred his eyes YEARLY with his hands.
] 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 I rose.
"By the bye," asked, shave you no
photograph of her you could let me
have? feel confident that we could
throw some light on this awful mys-
terry if we could only trace her ante
oedents. If You have her picture, it
would no doubt help u.s..
"Yes," he replied, 81 have one pho
tograph of her which che 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 I keep
my ties, under the paper at the bottom
of the drawer. Ask Mabel to give it
you.
said goodby to my friend as cheerily
as possible and assured him that we
were doing everything that could be
done in his interests and that no stone
would be left unturned to prove his in
nocence, but I left him with a heavy
heart, for felt the all but utter hope
lessness of the task before u.s.
got the photograph that same day.
1t was cabinet vignette of 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 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 I
saw face breathing inward happiness
and contentment-thef face Of q woman
to be remembered. Beneath wealth of
dark hair were 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 nostrils 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
1t was an exceptional face-one of q
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 a
piteous end? s.A
The photographers name had been
erased and turned the card round, hop
ing to find some clew ON 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
therefrom.
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. I
explained my 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 l 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 as 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
'or it. If you could only restore the
whole word from those fragments, you
would have it at once.
"That's all very WE'LL" said T. "but
I'm afraid it's an impossible feat"
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