Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-16


1t was a strange coincidence that the
editorial on the trial should contain
such q glaring error Emotional people
would have called it "the finger Of
Providence, " but Of course it was not
1t was simply the error of n compositor
who perhaps had had too much to drink
or NJ any rate was not ut the instant
thinking of what he was doing
Let us account for all things natural
" if we can. We abominHte superstition
in the nineteenth century and really
never care TO discuss "tho finger Of
Providence" at all
"A--s-t-r-a- A stranger, Oar
rent muttered "Supposc old Marsden
died before he could write what he in.
tended tot Suppose another second of
life would have altered all things Why
did not the defense think of that7
Astray Marsden qrarreled with Josiah
and left him. a third person entered,
and that person was The one who COM
mlt,ed the deed Josiah Marsden, dying
and alone. remembered Something
warned him that Astray would be ac-
cusod. and he wrote what he intended
should prove his innocence No one can
say what We're the exact words he in
tended to write i am dying, muir
dered by a strange man, who forced his
way into the house. 1t might have
teen that, it might have been anything
after the word strange, the word in
the writing Of which and before he
could complete it death overlook him,
and his very handwriting condemned
the man whom he had tried to save
The more Darrcnt thought the more
moody became his reflections Was it
possible he had Numbered? Was it pos
siblo that the man now under sentence
Of death was only the victim Of a series
of circumstantial incidents that he
had so cleverly put togetherY He turned
to finish the breakfast that he had neg
lectod but all inclination for food had
vanished, and he pushed his plate aside
and stared out of the window again.
and, rs he gazed, there continually
dinued in his ears one sentence: "Sup-
pose you've been mistaken Suppose
you We been mistakenl
The repetition grew simply madden
ing He could bear it no longer; he
would retest every theory; he would
rctrace his steps, 60 right back to the
beginning, follow every clew from a
different standpoint and see where it
led him-see If there was anything no
matter how minute, that he had over
looked. lie turned to the newspaper
once more, and as he glanced down the
columns chess diagram caught his
eye, the usual weekly problem, "White
10 play and mate in two moves. In an
instant DaIrents mind was alert Oh
new scent.
/ SO easy had beenthe trail that he had
followed, so clearly had it pointed to
the guilt of Astray Marsdcn, that he
had quite overlooked the robbery Of the
/ chessmen. They had seemed to have no
real connection with the actual murder.
and they had slipped from his memory
Now, and il came forcibly back to him,
he had better try to trace them and find
/ what bearing they had upon the case
/ He recalled how he had built ~ a
theory that if he could only find those
chessmen heWould be very near achiev-
I
What step should he take now? lie
somehow could not disabuse his mind
of the uneasy feeling that had possessed
it-that perhaps he had put the hemp
round an innocent man $ neck. and in
few weeks time, unless he proved
himself to have been wrong, to have
followed d bad theory to false end
the moose might be drawn and Astray
Marsien gone beyond recall
He Went up stairs to his room and
took from his bag the odd pawn and
the piece of tissue.paper containing the
chip of ivory, his new clews
1t was a big manly task Darrent was
going to enter upon, because if he
proved that the conclusions he had al
ready arrived at were'talse and that all
along he had followed IA false scent lie
wrote for himself and his landed ability
an awful denunciation. If, on the other
hand, he only confirmed his first theory,
there was nothing further to 20 on
working for beyond self satisfaction
and cDntentmcnt Was it worth while
after all ne ponlorod Why not let
things take their course?
lie stepped ont into the street and
paused, i,resolute, for a few moments.
Then, suddenly making up his mind,
he walked rapidly to the railway sta
ton and took the train for BidefOrd
He had decided that the fist new
step he must pursue was to ascertain
from Ethel Kingston anything be could
rs to the real relationship between