The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-10-03

themselves.
He asked lot Of questions, having
apparently no relation to each other.
and many of them seeming to have lit
tie or no bearing on the case. Then he
inquired abruptly if he could see the
will. We went to the courthouse and
looked at the document. Draper gazed
blankly at it sideways and upside
down and turned it over and looked at
the back. Finally, just as my patience
was about exhausted, he pulled from
his pocket magnifying glass and
looked through that for some minutes.
Then he reached over and took piece
of plain paper and laid it over the sig
nature and under the signature and
over and under many of the lines of
the writing in the will. Then he said
he was ready to 60. When we arrived
at the stairway leading to my Office
he turned to leave me with a careless
and preoccupied nod.
Have you solved the problem?" l
asked, sarcastically. 1 could not re-
frain from that one shot. The answer
nearly aoored me.
mot quite" Draper replied, quiet
ly. "An I have learned is that Simon
Gilbert did not sign the will, but wrote
his name to some other sort of docu.
ment. just what that was I cannot
now say, but will let you know in the
morning and also at whose instigation
he wrote his name and who fixed the
will up in its present FORM"
"How do you know these things?"
asked.
"Some of the letters are not COM
plete at the top, Indicating that they
| were completed on some paper that
| covered the one on which the will was
drawn" he replied. "Then the glass
| shows that the paper above the sig
nature has been wet-when the thin
paper which covered the will and
which contained the matter Simon Gill
bert thought he was signing, was re-
| moved"
At ten o'clock the next morning
Draper appeared at my Office and
Topped into a chair.
"Well," demanded, "what have you
found?"
"That Richard Radcliffe visited
Simon Gilbert on March II, the date
of the spurious will, and told him that
his wife was crazy to possess certain
! jeweled locket that had belonged to
her mother and that he was willing
to pay many times it's intrinsic value
to crafty her wish; that Simon Gill
bert finally sold it to him for $500 and
gave bill of sale running to Mrs. Rad
cliffe, which bill of sale Radcliffe had
already prepared; that this document
had been cleverly prepared so that
the greater part of the sheet was cov-
cred with a very thin paper which was
so skillfully attached that it appeared
to be part of the sheet, but which
left the place for signature below the
false covering; that this false cover
ing which contained the bill of sale
of the locket was afterward removed
and the spurious will typewriter over
Simon Gilbert's signature by Richard
Radcliffe"
"Do you realize what you are charg-
ing? Can you sabstantiate these
| charges?"
Il have done so," replied Daniel
Draper, in an apologetic voice.
He showed piece of paper toward
me. 1t was written statement signed
by Radcliffe and his wife and the Bel
dens that they had been convinced that
the will dated March II was spurious
and renouncing all rights under it.
"How did you run it down SO quick
ly?" asked, in amazement.
ooh, it was all run down last night
before l left you. All I had to do was
to go to Simon Gilbert's house and
find who had transacted business with
him on March II. Miss Parker went
to the library and found from the
books kept by the dead man that he
had sold the locket on that date to
Richard Radcliffe. Miss Parker re-
membered the day Radcliffe was there.
She was sure that Belden, the other
son-in-law, had never visited the house.
1 went to Radcliffe's Office and asked
for private interview, pretending to
be about to enter into little specula
ton in stocks. We were in his Office
and he was called to the phone in the
outer Office. | knew he would be de-
tanned for some minutes-because I
had arranged with friend to call him
up at a certain time and hold him
for five minutes. In the meantime l
experimental with his typewriter,
which stood in the private Office. I
wrote each letter and point on a
sheet. After l went away l made a
careful examination of it and found
that several of the letters had the
same imperfections l had noted in
the writing of the will. Last night
went to the home of the Radcliffes and
had heart-to-heart talk with Rich
ard. AT first he was going to thrash
me and have me thrown into the street
or arrested, but finally he broke down,
told the whole story and begged that
l should not ruin him. He said his
wife did not know about it, nor did the
Beldens, and that he had been driven
to the crime by some heavy losses that
rendered him desperate. / figured
that so far aS Won and 7 were cOn-