The Portland daily press., 1900-10-06
FLIGHT OF A BULLET.
How An Army officer solved Shoot
ing Mystery.

Some OF the detectives were chatting
together at headquarters the other night
and spinning yarns to pass away an idle
half hour or so, and one who had been
holding forth on the peculiar ways in
which the source of bullet shots coming
from an unseen direction were traced
told the following story:
Il was down In Hot Springs, Ark,
once when a very peculiar accident hap
pened to a policeman there. He was,
more properly speaking, an applicant for
admission on the force and was under
going a physical examination. They had
him standing up against the wall and
had just adjusted the measuring machine
to take his height when, zip, Mr.. Police
man clapped his hands to his right eye
and fell all in a heap. He was picked
up almost unconscious, and an examina-
ton disclosed the fact that he had been
hit just above the eye by a partially
spent bullet, which had fallen to the
floor with him.
"We doctored him up and found him
only slightly hurt, but every body was
wondering where in the world that bullet
had come from. No shot had been heard,
and no shooting affray had been reported
all that day, but there was a young ar
my officer at the reservation there who
was pretty well known as an engineer in
the artillery arm of the service. He
heard Of the queer happening and became
interested in the case He came down
to headquarters next day and had a talk
with Chief -, and the upshot Of it was
that he was given permission to work
%I,O off eor,, 1,O ~,t1
could locate the exact spot whence the
shot came.
1.-THE first thing he did was to examine
the measuring machine, and he found it
just as it was left when the prospective
policeman had been bowled over, so he
had him get under the bar again and
stand just as he had stood the day before.
When he had rugged up his own machine,
he got the exact altitude of the place
where the ball struck and the direction Of
the bullet in the wound. / can't give you
the technical description, but he worked
at his instruments and worked at his pa
per and finally told US he was going to
ascertain the trajectory of the bullet in
its flight. He weighed the bullet and
measured it also to a hairs breadth and
planted his machine so that his needle
would be exactly in the spot where the
wound would have been in the police
mans head had he stood there. forgot
to say the bullet had evidently come
through the window opposite, and outside
was perspective of house tops, with the
ridge of mountains away to the back Of
them.
''Of course we were all mighty curious
and a whole lot skeptical, but the militia
ry chap kept his mouth shut and worked
away nearly all day. Finally toward
dusk he jumped up and put on his coat
and told the chief to follow him. You
can wager we all did, and those fellows
who were on duty were awfully sore-be-
cause they couldn't go.
DO you see that tall house behind the
waterworksY said the officer.
Yes,' said we.
well, do you see the white house to
the right? Now do you see the edge OF
that shanty lying up und the hillside
about half way upY
eve saw it and told him so.
All right said be; that's where the
bullet came from. If it didn't, III set up
the dinners down at the Park House.
''Well, you may believe we all struck
the road pretty quick, even if some of US
did doubt him, for we wanted to get that
dinner. 1t took us half an hour to make
the place, having to do a deal of twisting
about, and at last we came to the shanty.
The shanty belonged to an old fellow
who was a unique fellow and lived there
all alone, and he was suspected of having
a stocking full of gold hidden somewhere,
but none Of US was prepared for the sight
we beheld when the chief opened the
door, There was the old fellow lying
prone on the floor and moaning family.
We went up and examined him, and
there was blood all over his clothes and a
bullet hole "a his neck.
''The army chap felt sorry, I guess,
but he didn't look it, but we all set about
bringing the old fellow around, and when
we had removed him down the hillside to
a neighbor's house he rallied all right
under the physician and told US his tale.
He said he had been set upon by Big
Mike a notorious gambler and despera-
do Of the Springs, who had been away to
the races at Memphis and had came
back broke just couple Of days before.
''The old man said he had found him in
his shanty rummaging among the mat
tresses and when discovered had drawn
a revolver and let him have it. The first
shot missed, but the second put a ball
through the muscles of the old mans
neck, and he WAS almost dead from loss
of blood when we found him. To cor
roborate the old mans story "a caliber
Colt revolver was found in the bushes
outside, and this was the same caliber
as the ball that had hit the policeman.
The army chap didn't set up the dinner
that night but the chief did, and you
can put it down that we didn't make any
more fun Of that West Point graduate
,ke. or,6
trajectories after that. He owned the
whole town, or would have if he'd want
ed to.'5New York Mail and Express.