The Winslow mail., 1901-03-14
CHAPTER Xxx.


Sprague seated himself upon the
long pine box; and Sturgis, dropping
into the only chair, began his narrative.
AS he talked, he carelessly whitfield
the cover of the wooden box with the
knife which he still held in his hand.
He began with an account of his in
vestigation at the Knickerbocker bank.
and explained the result of his observa-
tions and differences down to the time
of his visit to Murdock's house, omit
ting, however, to mention any of the
names of the actors in the reconstruct
ed drama.
$50 you see," he concluded, tive have
established the identity of the body
in the cab, and of the young man who
disappeared after the cab was upset.
But one of the most salient features
of the case, from the start, was the
fact that neither of these two men
had derived much, if any, pecuniary
profit from his crime. The bookkeep-
er, as we have seen, was mere cats
paw in the control of the accountant.
and his posthumous confession has
given us the explanation of the power
exerted over him by his accomplice.
1t was not SO easy to establish the
motive which controlled the actions of
the accountant, who was himself only
a tool in the hands of a higher intelli-
gence. The deus eX machina of this
crime is a man of genius who has hardly
appeared upon the scene at all, but
whose traces I have found at every
turn. He was the brains of the whole
scheme; the other men in his hands
were mere puppets. Through the ac
countant. this master spirit managed
the bookkeeper; and the accountant
himself was controlled by him more
directly, but 10 less surely. If he held
the former through his fear of expo
sure and consequent ruin, he Influenced
the latter through even more potent
motives. He is the father of a beauti-
full girl, whom he did not scruple to
use as decoy. The price agreed upon
for the accountants assistance was the
hand of this daughter, for whom the
young man had doubtless conceived Il
passionate love. Whether or not the
leader would have had the power to
carry out his part Of the contract mat
ters little; for it is highly probable that
he never had the slightest intention of
so doing. He evidently realized very
early in the game that the bookkeeper
could not long escape the clutches Of
the law. But as he had taken every
precaution to prevent him from know
ing anything OF his very existence, the
fate of the unfortunate bookkeeper
would have mattered little to this
heartless villain, had not the probable
ity remained that, when brought to
bay, the bookkeeper would denounce
the accountants connection with the
crime. This would have been extreme
ly awkward, since the accountant was
very likely in possession of some dan
gerous secrets. The safest way out of
the difficulty was to quietly suppress
the now useless bookkeeper. This plan
was decided upon, and would doubtless
Lave been carried into execution, had
not fate otherwise decreed. Afte' .he
bookkeeper's death, under the circL a.
E71o1ANNo NillNI NAVE II DGCdh Z
quite probable that the accountant s
connection with the case would be dis
covered; for luck had been against
him from the start, and he became
more and more entangled in the chain
OF cIrcumstantial evidence of whose
existence his leader was soon fully
aware. In the first place, the account
ant was wounded; and thus not only
partially disabled, but also-what is
far worse--conspicuously marked. A
man who carries his arm in a sling can
hardly fail to attract attention, espe-
cially when this distinguishing mark
is accompanied by another equally
glaring one in the form of a head OF
brilliant red hair
Hold on, Sturgis!" interrupted
Sprague, who had been listening with
growing interest; don't you know the
accountants name2"
'Yes," replied the reporter; 'hls
name is Thomas Chatham"
Thomas Chatham!" exclaimed
Sprague, as the image If the miserable
young man came o his mind.
''Yes," replied Sturgis, answering his
thought, ''the man you met only few
hours ago."
ITO BE Continued