The Winslow mail., 1901-01-10
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. A3AG
: THE STURGIS WAGER !
A DETECTIVE STORY. <
y BY EDGAR MORETTE.
e Copyright, 1899, by Frederick A. Stokes Co. 81
SXA&N&H&N& N&e&N&S&N NN1
CHAPTER V.-CoNTINUED.

| rlSnC arm was DfOhen just dDONe the
wrist"
"Yes," said the physician, 81 thought
at first that the arm might have been
broken in the collision with the cable
car; but the discoloration of the flesh
proves conclusively that the fracture
occurred before DEATH
Precisely. Now, il is possible that
the man broke his arm when he fell,
after being shot; but the confused
| wound looks to me as if it had been
made by severe blow with some blunt
instrument"
Possibly" admitted Thurston.
"This broken arm, if we can place
it in it's proper chronological position,
may prove to be of some Importance in
the chain of evidence" mused Stur-
gis. ''If the fracture occurred before
the man was shot, that, of course, eX-
cludes the possibility of suicide; but
on the other hand, it also brings in an
obstacle to the hypothesis of muir
der"
"How so?"
Because we have settled, you will
remember, that the shotwas fired from
the right of the victim, and close to him.
Now, if he did not fire the shot himself
the person who did must have reached
over his right arm to do so. In that
case, unless the victim was asleep or
stupefeG, would he not instinctively
have raised his arm in self-defense, and
thus detected the weapon upward ?"
Evidently"
swell, it is idle to speculate on this
line for the present. Let us come to
point six. You remember I called
your particular attention to the cab
man. DO you still think he was only
drunk?"
''No," replied Thurston; "while he
had unquestionably been drinking
heavily, he also showed symptoms of
narcotic poisoning"
"Then the presumption is that he
had been drugged by those who wished
to place the wounded man in his cab.
/ observed him closely and am salts
fed that he knows as little about his
dead passenger as we do. He prob
ably knows less about him, at all
events, than the young man in the
sealskin cap who gave the police the
slip during the excitement which fol-
lowed the overturning of the cab"
Sturgis paused a moment
"This, | think" he continued, ''cov-
ers all the evidence we have thus far
collected in the Cab Mystery. 1t is
quite satisfactory, as far as it goes,
for it is circumstantial evidence, and,
therefore absolutely truthful. In the
Knickerbocker bank mystery we have
as yet no satisfactory data whatever;
for everything we have heard concern
ing it has its origin in the fallible evil
dence of witnesses, and has, more
over, reached us third or fourth hand.
There is, however, one fact that may,
or may rot, prove to be important. Have
you noticed that these two mysteries
are 'contemporaneous and, therefore,
that they may be related?"
''Do you think there is any connec-
tion between the two?" inquired Thurs
ton, interested.
81 do rot allow myself to think about
it at all as yet" replied Sturgis; 81
simply note the fact, that, SO far as time
is concerned, the Cab Mystery could be
the sequel to the Knickerbocker Bank
Mystery-that is all. Facts, my dear
boy, are like words. A word is only
an assemblage of meaningless letters
until it becomes pregnant with sense
by context. So, fact, which, stand
ing by itself, has no meaning, may,
when correlated with other facts, be-
come fraught with deep significance.
''And now" he continued, after
pause, 81 think our work is concluded
for the present. l shall be able to lay
it aside for the night. Let me offer
you glass of sherry. Pleasant evening
we spent at Sprague's tonight. have
a great admiration for him as an artist,
and great fondness for him as man.
Most of his friends are strangers to
me, though. You know l have very
little time to indulge in social dissipa-
ton. BY the way, who is that DR..
Murdocll with whom l have made this
bet?"
"Oh! he is physician, though now
retired from practice. He devotes him
self entirely to scientific research, es-
pecially in the domain of chemistry.
He has made some important discov-
cries in organic chemistry, and they
say he has succeeded in proving some
of the supposed elementary metals to
be compounds. He has quite an envi-
able reputation in the scientific world.
1 understand he is a remarkable man."
''That is evident at a glance. He
showed himself this evening to be
clear thinker and a brilliant speaker.
/ should say he was something of a
genius, and l should judge, moreover,
that he was a man of magnificent nerve,
capable of the most heroic actions,
Or
Sturgis hesitated.
Or" asked Thurston.
Cor Of the most infamous cruelty
and crime. 1t all depends upon wheth-
er or not his great mental attributes
are under the control of heart;
point upon which | am somewhat in
doubt
CHAPTER VI.
THE ARTIST.
Sprague was dilettante in art as
he was in life. If he had not been
rich, he might perhaps have become