Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1900-02-02

simply become .,clews- that shall assist
the chase r. -.
The stained knife with which the
deed was committed would doubtless
freeze the blood of any favored visitor
when it was added to detective bu-
reau's collection of criminal weapons.
but to Darrent it formed only one i'm
portant item in the complicated puzzle
that he was putting together. He put
it together piece by piece: : It seemed to
him to fit too easily. Everything point
ed too much in one direction. What to
an ordinarily constituted mind would
have looked SO exceedingly simple be-
came to Darrent all the more difficult
because Of that very simplicity.
Every bit of evidence that he had col
lected pointed directly to Astray Mars
den as the murderer There was no get
ting away from it, for already the knife
had been recognized. Astray was con-
demned by every circumstance and,
more strongly than all, by the letter Of
the murdered man, the stained and
crumpled letter that Dobson had tried to
conceal.
Darrent could hardly keep from half
wishing that old Marsden had not left
the paper. He felt little annoyed that
what promised to be big mystery,
upon which he could exercise his tai
ents, should turn out to be none and
that he, the American Lecoq, should be
sent down to discover the murderer, to
trace him inch by inch, when casual
acquaintance on the ice had told him
at once who had done the deed and a
dunder headed fraud of policeman had
tried to conceal the actual paper that
accused the murderer.
To clever detective who had hoped
for a tangled skein to unnravel, which
would add yet another laurel to the
many which he wore, it was annoying.
and when Darrent arrived in Chicago
and took q cab to headquarters he was
not in the very best frame of mind and
really regarded himself as a little i'll
used
At 10 o'clock next morning Darrent
alighted from hanson at corner
Lear the Royal hotel, and as he started
to cross the street tall bootblack &C.
costed him.
''shire, boss?'' -
The detective halted and slowly took
off his glove.
"It S all right, " the bootblack rapidly
continued in an undertone. ''He's still
there, Theater last night; not out
SINCE And he accepted with becoming
humility the coin which Darrent drop
ped, at a respectful distance. into a
very dirty palm.
Send my caro- mp to Mr.. Marsden, :"
vas Darrent's instruction to the clerk
at the Royal hotel, 'and say that I
must see him at once on importst4o
African business. -
Astray MarsdeD, who sat idlinr over
his breakfast and Swimming the morn
ing paper, glanced at the card wl1icl,
the smart page boy brought him and
listened to the message. "'The Honor
able Rupert Grey Hum! Don't know
the name, and I'm not used to calls
from honorables, especially in this
country. Very we'll; show the gentle
man up"
1.-THE Honorable Rupert Grey" he
repeated. "Well, it doesn't matter, aft
er all. suppose shall soon learn his
business; bought a claim out there,
perhaps. But how in the world does he
know me or that I'm staying here?'
Rising from the table. he stood by
the fire, with his elbow on the mantel-
piece and his chin resting in his hand,
awaiting the arrival of his visitor.
Astray Marsden was a fine, we'll built
and tolerably good looking, half Amer
icanized young Englishman, with the
figure of a Hercules, but Dame Nature,
in one of the many tricks she is SO fond
Of playing upon her children had given
him an utterly weak disposition, which
was betrayed by a glance at his face
form of strength, a mind. Of weak
ness; good fellow, but no backbone;
ever ready to procrastinate, never ready
to act He was a man people would
turn and look back on in the streets. as
he lowered above the passersby. The
embodiment of strength without, they
could not know how weak and vacillat-
ing he was within. He was. Simply the
outcome Of one Of natures little hui
mors that prevent monotony IN the hui
man race.
Herbert Darrent could scarcely re-
press a start as he entered the room.
Astray Marsden was as he had himself
described, as he had pictured him to
the life even to the position in which
he stood, the very position that the de-
tective had coniured up as he stood in
the library at The, Grange. Sea-.
It was only another proof of the
wonderful accuracy Of his deductions.
It really seemed that the man had posed
to complete the case which the detect
i've from such tiny .clews had waven so
skillfully around him. -. 4
''The Honorable Rupert Grey % said
Astray interrogative1y. * -
7. Darrent shrugged his shoulders and,
taking the card from Astray's hand,
quietly tossed it behind the fire as he
replied: t'Herbert Darrent Of the Chi
cage detective bureau. Lone is obliged
to nse an alias sometimes. The enemies
Of the force usually do SO we're level
on that - ST. SsS.::$5 = i$lE.s h, .&Iaf i4s