Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-10-30

| PROBABLY pistol, Alright over the
I heart. The coarse blue uniform
shirt and the fine undergarment Of
Isle thread showed by burn and
powder-stain that the pistol had been
held close to or even against the
breast of the deceased The bullet
was lodged, he believed, under the
shoulder-blade, but no post-mortem
had yet been permitted, a circum'
stance the doctor referred to regret
fully, and it was merely his opinion,
based on purely superficial examina'
ton, that death was instantaneous,
the result of the gunshot wound re-
ferred to. DR.. Brick further gave it
as his professional opinion that post
norton should be no longer delayed
And then at last came Stuyvesant's
turn to speak for himself, and in
dead silence all men present faced
him and listened with bated breath
to his brief. sorrowful words.
He was the officer halted by the
sentry on Number and called
not catch his name and had to have
it spelled. He frankly admitted his
impa thence, but denied all anger at
the enforced detention. The infor-
nation about the fire at Col. Brent's
had caused him anxiety and alarm,
and as soon as released by the SEN
try he had run, had passed the patrol
on the run, but there had been no
alteration, no misunderstanding
even. The sentry had carried out his
orders in a soldierly way that COM
PEELED the admiration of the witness,
and before leaving him Stuyvesant
had told him that he had done ex-
act1y right. The news that the SEN
try was found dead five minutes
| thereafter was shock. Lieut.. Stuy-
! vesant declared he carried no fire.
! arms whatever that night and was
utterly innocent of the sentry
! death. He recognized, he said, the
; revolver exhibited by Maj. MacNeil.
He did not hesitate to admit that he
had seen and examined it late the
previous afternoon at the quarters
of Col. Brent, that he had actually
put it in his trousers pocket not two
minutes before ne left the house to
go in search of Lieut.. Ray, but he
solemnly declared that as he left the
veranda he placed the pistol on a
little table just to the right of the
broad entrance to the salon, within
that apartment, and never saw it
again until it was produced here.
Frank, candid, ''open and above
board as was the manner of the
witness, it did not fail to Danish in
great measure the feeling of an
tagonism that had first existed
against him in the crowded throng.
But in the cold logic of the law and
the chain of circumstantial evidence
they plainly saw that every state
ment, even that of Stuyvesant him
self, bore heavily against him. A
lawyer. had he been represented by
counsel, would have permitted no
such admissions as he had made. A
gentleman, unschooled in the law,
preferred the frank admission to the
distress of seeing Mrs. Brent~-and
perhaps others-called into that
presence to testify to his having had
the pistol with him when he left the
gallery.
Brent in his bewilderment had
blurted out his wife's words in the
hearing of the provost-marshal's
people late the night before, and he
and his household were yet to be
called, and when called would have
to say that though they passed and
possibly repassed through the salon
between the moment of Stuyvesant's
departure and that of their going out
to dinner, not one Of their number
noticed even so bright and cleaning
an object as Maidie's revolver. True,
the lights were not brilliant in the
salon. True, the little table stood
back against the wall five or six feet
from the doorway. Still, that pisto!
was a prominent object, and mar
must have been in extra ordinary
haste indeed to leave a loaded weap
on Lying round loose" in the hall.
That was the way thinking Bay
onets' argued it, and soldiers by the
score crowding the sidewalk and en-.
trance and unable to force their way
in, or even to make room for a most
importune female struggling on the
outskirts, hung on the words of an
orderly who, dispatched in further
search of Lieut.. Ray, was forcing a
way out.
'How is it going?" said he. "Why,
that young feller's Just as good az
hanging himself. He admits having
had the pistol that did the business
Ten minutes later Filipino serv.
ant went to answer an imperative
rap at the panel in the massive door
of No. 100 Gale San Luis. DR.. Frank
had been early to see his patient, and
had enjoined upon Mrs. Brent and
Miss Porter silence as to last night's
tragedy. Not until she was stronger
was Miss Ray to be allowed to know
of the murder of Private Benton
''By that time," said he, 1--WE shall be
able to clear up this-myself- hope.r
The colonel had gone round to the
police station. Mrs. Brent, nervous
and unhappy, had just slipped out
for ten seconds, as she said to Miss
Porter, to see an old army chum and
friend who lived only three doors
away. Miss Porter, who had been
awake hours of the night, had finally
succeeded, as she believed, in reading
Maidie to sleep, and then, stretching
herself upon the bamboo couch
across the room, was, the next thing
she knew, aroused by voices.
Sandy Ray had entered so noise
lessly that she had not heard, bu,
Maidie had evidently been expecting
him. In low, earnest tone he was
telling the result of his search the
CiCht before She heard the words