Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1900-09-20
CHAPTER XT.
A RECONSTRUCTED DRAMA.

A RECONSTRUCTED DRAMA.
AS he spoke, Sturgis handed Dunlap
the sheet of paper upon which he had
traced q plan of the Knickerbocker
bank
From this point on he continued,
II have indicated the various trails on
the diagram. The dotted lines repre-
sent Arbogasts footprints; the con-
tinuous lines show Chathams trail"
How can you distinguish between
the two?" inquired Dunlap.
There is no difficulty about that"
replied Sturgis. The differences are
very marked. / know Arbogast's foot
because [ have seen it; and | know
that the other one is Chatham's be-
cause you recognized the man from
the description l gave of him"
YES, l know. But how could you
describe him so accurately when you
have never seen him?"
II shall come to that presently" said
Sturgis, smiling; you must let me
tell my story in my own way, if l am
to tell it connectedly"
very we'll" said the banker, resign
edly. Hold on, though" he ex-
claimed; you speak of two sets of
trails; but what is this third set of
lines, marked by alternate dots and
dashes?"
They represent the traces of third
individual, who will appear upon the
scene later on. He has not yet re-
ceived his cue. But, since you mention
him, we may put him down in the cast
as 'X,' the unknown quantity of the
problem; for / do not yet know his
name. Now. then; let me see. Where
was [? Your interruption has made
me lose the thread. Oh, yes; the men
were in this room. Arbogast, nervous
and excited, paced back and forth,
like a Gagged animal. Chatham was
more collected. 1t was warm in the
bank, az compared with the intense
cold outside; he removed his overcoat
and threw it over the back of that
chair in the corner. This fact is
shown by the direction of the footsteps
toward the chair, and by mark di-
rectly below the arm of the chair
where the garment trailed upon the
wet floor. Chatham's carelessness was
fraught with serious consequences;
for as luck would have it, there was,
in one of the pockets of his coat, an
important letter, which slipped out
and fell upon the floor superscription
uppermost. Here is the envelope it.
self, which l have pieced together.
You will see that it is soiled only upon
he back, and here near the chair is
the faint oblong mark which is left
upon the floor. Chatham went to the
telephone in the cashiers office. He
probably did not see the letter fall.
1t caught Arbogast's eye, however;
and you can imagine his surprise when
he saw that it was addressed to his
wife. What had his accomplice to
write to his wife? Arbogast evidently
was not restrained by any feelings of
delicacy in the matter, or else he was
already suspicious of Chatham; for
he picked up the envelope, tore it open,
and read the letter which lies before
you. as 1 have pieced it together. 1t
makes interesting reading. | do not
wonder that Arbogast lost his head
when he saw it. Read it for yourself"
"Why," exclaimed Dunlap, after read
ing the letter, this announces his in
tention of committing suicide"
"Precisely, and yet Arbogast did not
commit suicide; probably never had
any intention of doing so; and, at any
rate. did not write that letter. You
will observe that it is not signed; the
name is typewriter, like the rest of the
letter, which, moreover, was not writ
ten here. as the superscription would
seem to indicate. | have tried your
typewriter, and although it is of the
same make as the one upon which this
letter was written, there are several
characteristic differences in the align
ment and in the imperfections of the
type.
Besides" continued Sturgis,
thoughtfully, "the letter itself bears
evidence on its face, that it could no5
have been written by Arbogast. Your
bookkeeper was of weak, nervous, ex-
citable temperament, as all his actions
plainly show. Before such a man is
brought to the point of taking his own
life, he must have passed through
more or less protracted period of ago
nizing nervous tension, of which you
and | can hardly form any adequate
conception. Under the circumstances,
if he loved his wife, conscious that by
his guilt he was about to plunge her
into the depths of grief and shame, he
might have written her an incoherent
and hySterical letter, or tender and
repentant letter, but never this frigid,
matter of-fact statement of a supreme