The Winslow mail., 1901-01-31

InuIVluudl, WHO Will appear upon the
scene later on. He has not vet re-
eeived his cue. But, since you mention
him, we may put him down in the cast
as *, the unknown quantity of the
problem; for I do not yet know his
name. Now, then; let me see. Where
was L? 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. It was warm in the
bank, as 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
the 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. I 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. L 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 not
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 a
more or less protracted period of ago.
nizing nervous tension, of which you
and 1 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 supreme
decision. This letter is the work of a
cold and calculating nature, incapable
of 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 L know of Arbogast, 1 do
not believe he 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. Icannot
believe that if Chatham had been
aware of the important nature of it's
contents, he could have been willing to
leave it for an instant within Arbo-
CASTS reach"
But who, then, could have been it's
author, and why should he have in
trusted the letter to Chatham?"
''To your second question, my answer
is, probably because he wanted it
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 * 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 to 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 it flashed
upon his mind, his resolution was in
stantly taken. He stealthily crept to
the paving teller's wicket. Through it