The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-08-17

ne plckeu up tHe euNelppts loIt II oliVh' |
and read the letter which lies before |
you, as | have pieced it together. 1t
makes interesting reading. | do not |
wonder that Arbogast lost his head
when he saw IL. Read IL 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 IL 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 us 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 not
have been written by Arbogast. Your
bool<keeper was of weak, nervous, ex-
citable temperament. as all his actions
plainly show. Before such II man is
brought. to the point of taltins 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 deptha of grief and shame, he
might have written her an incoherent
and historical letter. or n tender and
repentaEt letter. but never this frigid,
matter-of-fact statement Of a supreme
decision. ahis letter is the work of
cold and calculating nature. incapable
VT ordinary human feeling. The man
who wrote it would not have written
to his wife at all. or would have written
only to serve some selfish purpose.
From what | know OF Arbogast, ! do
not believe hes was capable of compos-
ing these lines"
"You think, then, that the letter was
written by Chatham" said Dunlap.
But what object could Chatham have
for writing such letter."
"No." answered Sturgis. 81 do not
think that Chatham wrote this letter.
That is the curious part of it. cannot
believe that if Chatham had been
aware of the important nature of its
contents, he could have been willing to
leave il for an instant within Arbo-
CASTS reach"
But who, then, could have been its
author, and why should he have in
trusted the letter to Chatham"
ITO your second question, my answer
is, probably because he wanted il
mailed from the main post Office at
about the time that Arbogast would
leave the bank. To the first, cannot
yet give any positive answer, although,
as you will presently see, there are
some clews pointing TO our unknown
quantity X as the author OF this let
ter. But let us not anticipate. Suppose
we return to our drama. When Arbo-
CAST read this letter, he evidently
thought, as l do, that somebody was
playing him false; that he was TO be
gotten rid of in some safer way than
exile; in short, that, as somebody said
of one of the Turkish sultans, he was to
be 'suicided.' He must have had strong
reasons 10 suspect Chatham of treach-
cry; for he at once impulsively jumped
TO the conclusion that his only chance
of safety lay in striking before he
could be struck. At any rate, while the
accountant was busy at the telephone,
Arbogast stood near this desk, mechan-
ically tearing TO pieces this letter,
while he planned the accountants
death. He had taken with him your re-
volver. AS the thought of il flashed
upon his mind, his resolution was in
stantly taken. He stealthily crept TO
the paying teller's wicket. Through it
he could see the telephone closet, the
door of which stood open. Chatham
was in direct range, as Arbogast raised
the pistol, and without word of warn
ing. fired. The accountant held the re-
ceiver of the telephone to his ear. This
saved his life; for the bullet entered his
left hand and remained embedded in
his flesh. When the bullet struck him,
Chatham fell forward, striking his head
against n corner of the telephone
box, and intlicting n slight scalp
wound. | found few hairs of an
intensely red hue, which are evidently
his / also found shreds of his cloth
ing which caught on a projecting nail
MS he fell; and | infer from these his
taste for loud dress. lie recovered
himself before Arbogast was ready to
fire a second time and ran into the
clerks room, probably hoping to make
his way TO the street through the
Exchange Place door. But at the
same time, Arbogast rushed through
the reception room and this Office
reaching the vestibule in time to head
off Chatham, who then turned back
and ran through the secretary's room
with Arbogast in pursuit. In the