The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-21

English, but with curious liSping
accent. 1 have myself seen this old
man cross the Grimpen mire by the
path which Stapleton had marked out.
1t is very probable, therefore, that in
the absence of his master it was he
who cared for the hound, though he
may never have known the purpose for
which the beast was used.
THE Stapletons then went down to
Devonshire, whittier they were soon
followed by Sir Henry and you. One
word now as to how 1 stood myself
at that time. 1t may possibly recur
to your memory that when 1 exam
ined the paper upon which the printed
words were fastened l made a close in
spection for the water mark. In doing
so l hold it within a few inches of
my eyes, and was conscious of a faint
smell of the scent known as white jes-
samine. There are seven-five perfumes,
which it is very necessary that a GRIM
inal expert should be able to distin-
guish from each other. and cases have
more than once within my own ex-
perience depended upon their prompt
recognition. The scent suggest
ed the presence of lady,
and already my thoughts be-
gan to turn towards the Stapletons.
Thus had made certain of the hound,
and had guessed at the criminal before
ever We went TO Cle west country.
1T was my game to watch Staple
ton. 1t was evident. however. that Z
could not do this if 1 were with you.
since he would be keenly on his guard.
/ deceived everybody, therefore. your
self included, and I came down secret
| ~ when / was supposed to be in Lon
don. My hardships were not so great
as you imagined, though such trihirg
details must never interfere with tho
/ tv1rv IT,, e. - g..
| most part at Coombe Tracey, and only
used the hut upon the moor when 1t
| was necessary to be near the scene of
| action. Cartwright had come down
| with me, and in his disguise as a coun-
| try boy he was of great assistance to
me. I was dependent upon him for food
| and clean linen. When I was watching
| Stapleton. Cartwright was frequently
watching you, so that I was able to
| keep my hand upon all the strings.
81 have already told you that your
| reports reached me rapidly. oeing for
warded instantly from Baker street to
| Coombe Tracey. They were of great
service to me, and especially that one
incidentally truthful piece of piogra-
| ply Of Stapleton's. 1 was able to es
tablish the identity of the man and
the woman. and knew at last exactly
how l stood. The case had been con-
siderably complicated through the in
cident of the escaped convict and the
relations between him and the Barry
mores. This also you cleared up in n
very effective way, though 1 had al
ready come to the same conclusions
from my own observations.
"By the time that you discovered me
upon the moor l had a complete knowl-
edge of the whole business. but l mad
not a case which could go to a jury
Even Stapleton's attempt upon Sir
Henry that night which ended in the
death of the unfortunate convict did
not help us much in proving murder
against our man. There seemed to be
no alternative but to catch him red
handed, and to do so we had to use Sir
Henry, alone and apparently unpro-
tected, as bait. We did so, and at the
cost of a severe shock to our client we
succeeded in completing our case and
driving Stapleton to his destruction
That Sir Henry should have been ex-
poed to this is. l must confess a re-
proach to my management of the case,
but we had no means of foreseeing the
terrible and paralyzing spectacle which
the beast presented, nor could we pre-
dict the fog which enabled him 10
burst upon us at such short notice. We
succeeded in our object at a cost which
both the specialist and DR.. Mortimer
assure me will be temporary one. A
long journey may enable our friend
to recover not only from his shattered
nerves, but also from his wounded
feelings. His love for the lady was
deep and sincere. and to him the sad
dest part of all this black business
was that he should have been deceived
by her.
"It only remains to indicate the part
which she had played throughout.
There can be no doubt that Stapleton
exercised an influence over her which
may have been love or may have been
fear, or very possibly both, since they
are by no means Incompatible emo
tons. 1t was. at least. absolutely eff
fective. At his command she CONSENT
ed to pass as his sister, though he
found the limits of his power over her
when he endeavored to make her the
direct accessory to murder. She was
ready to warn Sir Henry so far as she
could without duplicating her husband
and again and again she tried to do
so. Stapleton himself seems to have
been capable of jealousy, and when he
saw the baronet paying court to the
lady, even though it was part of his
own plan, still he could not help inter
rupting with a passionate outburst
which revealed the fiery soul which
his self-contained manner so cleyerIv
concealed. By encouraging the intira.
cy he made it certain that Sir Henry
would frequently come to Merrinit
House and that he would sooner or Ia
ter get the opportunity which he de-
sired. On the day of the crisis how
ever, his wife turned suddenly against
him. She had learned something of the
death of the convict, and she knew
that the hound was being kept In tba
clubhouse on the evening that Sir Hen
ry was coming to dinner. She taxed her
husband with his intended crime ana
a furious scene followed. in which he
showed her for the first time thar she
mad rival I'm his love- Her fde1ity
turned IN an instant 10 bitter hatred
and he saw that she would betrav hin,
lie TED her up, therefore that she
might have no chance of warnIng 81.
Henry and he hoped, no doubt M
When the whole countryside put down
me baronet's death TO the curse az ~
lainliy as they certainly would 40 ~
could win his wife back TO accent a.
accomplished fact and 20 Keen stle,,
upon what she knew In this / fsnc,,
thst IN any case he made a niseaic,,-
ianon' and that II We had not beer
mere ms doom would none the isss
nave been sealed. woman az 49,.
- blood does not eond0ne sueh ~ ~
saIg 30 lightly And now nv 49,