The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-02-18
instructions. Stephen Elliott"
Within three hours. 1 received this re-

L
ply:
stephen Elliott, Panama:
please photograph body without fail.
| Highly important you should do So Bury
| him in metallic. coffin. Will send our rep
resentative for the remains. Preserve his
| effects, particularly all papers. Have
opened a credit for you for G1 900 at the
| Banco International Should you require
| Davidson, sails tomorrow, via New York,
| Write us details. please.
-"Colamore & Wilkes, Solicitors"
Mr.. tombstone and Simmons agreed
| with me that the man must have been
| of some Importance or.I would not have
received such message from such we'll
| known solicitors as Messrs. Collamore &
| Wilkes. The consul knew them well,
f, and by his advice I did as requested,
| although it was no end of trouble. re-
member how I almost drove the Jamaf-
| can tinsmith crazy by making him drop
all previous engagements and work with
| his three assistants, making a metallic
| coffin of thick tinplate, after my plans
| and suggestions:
We searched the dead mans clothing
most carefully, Simmons, the consul, a
| policeman and l. but his pockets were
| absolutely empty We did not find even
a pipe. AS for papers, there was not SO
much as a scrap At Mr.. Johnstone's
| suggestion I preserved every stitch of
| the dead mans clothing, and later L
wrote a full description of him and an
account Of all the incidents and swore
an affidavit of the truth of it all before
| the British consul and forwarded it to
Collamore & Wilkes.
| We photographed and buried him in
| new clothes. The first photograph of
| him ] had taken just as he was, in his
| own disreputable tatters. But, fearing
| to horrify his family, I had the corpse's
| hair trimmed and brushed very neatly
! and his face shaved, and then we ''dress-
| ed him up and photographed him again.
| cannot say, though, that he looked
much more respectable dead in his neat
| suit of black and clean white shirt than
| he did alive in his dirty rags. He was
| what he had been-a plain, everyday
| .shobo" drunkard. acGs zs 81;
We often wondered whether there was
some interes ing story connected with.
| the mans lie. He was a tramp. Yet,
he could get money for the mere asking
indeed. he had asked for e20O and they
| sent him $500. What was the quarrel
| or the deed that drove him to drink and
| a tramps life? l fancied that he was
| some younger son of noble house,
whose dissolute habits made his family
! ship him off to Chilli or Argentine. But
| Simmons thought there was woman in
| the case Mr.. tombstone believed the
man was an ordinary everyday tramp.
| who once might have done some fair or
! foul service to Burlington" But he
could not explain to us why whilom
| servant or a disreputable blackmatler
| should sign Jack" to a cablegram.
| Moreover, the man had spoken like an
| educated man. AS for Burlington
| that wasn't exactly the name), there
I was the Earl of Burlington, British am
! bassador to Portugal. but we had read
an Associated Press dispatch from LIS
! bon in the Star and Herald two or
| three days after Jacks death, stating
| that the Earl of Burlington had stopped
| the Queens runaway ehorse and had
| saved her majesty's life at the grave
| risk of his own. Mr.. tombstone SAID ne
] knew several families of Burlington In
| HAMPSHIRE We three pondered ON and
| argued over and discussed the mysterl-
| Gus messages, and Simmons, who was
great admirer of the date Mr. oheriock
Holmes. evolved a. really ingenious the
| ory. which laid great stress on the Yew
and the dog and the Nineteen, but which
| explained nothing.
One morning, about three weeks after
| Jacks death, two men walked into my Of
fee One. a stoutsh, rudy man of some
| forty-five years, said:s SIS this MI.
| Stephen Elliott?'' He spoke with a very
| pronounced English accent.
|
"Mine Is Davidson-William Davidson.
You received Messrs. Collamore Wilkes
| cable?"
| yes 1 answered you've come about
| Jack, / presume?
Precisely Permit me to present to you
the-er-Mr James Herbert"
"How dye do l said to his companion.
H., was we'll built, blond young man.
apparently under thirty with a clean
| shaven, typical English face. Both men
| were well dressed.
I'm Jacks brother said Herbert We
| should very much like to hear all aboat
my brothers life here and his death. You
see it is twenty-two-it@ is a long time
| since We saw him.
Yes" said, 'he told me as much.
And when 1 told them all, from first to
last, without mincing matters much. I
never saw such surprised men. They in
| terrupted me frequently, and from re-
marks they dropped | gathered they had
] thought he had lived a long time in Pan
| anna under an assumed name. l think
| they were somewhat incredulous and
imagined 1 was fulfilling some wish of
| Jack $ until I brought out a valise con-
tanning the dead manssSfilthy clothes and
opened it. 1 showea them the tatters he
| died in. ss
| Heavens! was it as bad as that?' NUT
tered Herbert, in horror-stricken tones I
said nothing, but silently handed him
| the photograph of the dead tramp-the
first picture had taken in his rags.
Good Cod" burst out the Englishman;
| sit would kill the duchess to see this!
Frightful! Frightful And he began to
| pace up and down the room.
Here" / said, "ijHlaHother photograph.
This was taken after we washed him and
| fixed him up a bit, Tits is the way we
buried the poor fellow
lie looked at the likeness. ''It's not
| much better" he said docs this look
| like him, Davidson?Tisf
Davidson took the photograph and
studied it very carefully. sMy-Mr Her.
BERT he said at length, this Is abso-
1utely unlike your brother as / remember
him. Not one of the features resembles
what it used to be. the last time I saw
him"
1t Ncannot be my brother said .Her-
bert to me. ''It must be a mistake
"a careless life in the tropics said.
plays the very deuce with an Anglo
Saxon
did you notice any marks on tae
body?" asked the solicitor.
Yes" / answered. He had peculiar