The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1902-08-22
CHAPTER w.

us Dy LeSJrade.
There's nothing like first-hand evi-
dence," he remarked; "as matter OF
fact, my mind is entirely made up up
on the case, but still We may as well
learn all that Is to be learned"
"You amaze me, Holiness" said l.
Surely you are not as sure as you pre-
tend to be of all those particulars
which you gave"
There Is no room for mistake" he
answered. 'The very first thing which
observed on arriving there was that
a cab had made two ruts with Its
wheels close to the curb. Now, up to
. last night we have had no rain for a
week. so that those wheels. which left
such deep impression, must have
been made there during the night.
There were the marks of the horses
hoofs, too, the outline of one of which
was far more clearly cut than that OF
the other three, showing that there
was new shoe Since the cab was
there after the rain began. and was
not there at any time during the morn
ingI have Gregson's word for that
1t follows that it must have been there
during the night, and, therefore. that
it brought those two individuals to the
house."
"That seems simple enough" said I;
"but how about the other mans
height?"
why, the height of man, In nine
cases out of ten can be told from the
length of his stride. Il is a simple cal
-culation enough, though there is no
use my boring you with figures.
this fellows stride, both on the clay
outside and the dust within. Then |
had way of checking my calcula-
tions When a man writes on wall,
his instinct leads him to write about
the level of his own eyes. Now, that
writing was Just over six feet from
the ground. 1t was child's play"
"And his age?" asked
well, IL a man can stride four and
half feet without the smallest effort
he can't be quite in the sere and vel
low. That was the breadth of pud.
die on the garden walk which he had
evidently walked across. Patent
leather boots had gone around and
square toes had hoped over. There
is no mystery about 1t at all. am
simply applying to ordinary life few
CT those precepts of observation and
deduction which I advocated in that
article. Is there anything else that
puzzles you?"
"The finger nails and the Trichinop
oily" suggested.
"The writing on the wall was done
with a mans forefnger dipped in
blood. My glass allowed me to OBJ
serve that the plaster was slightly
scratched in doing It, which would not
have been the case If the mans nail
had been trimmed. I gathered ur
some scattered ash from the floor. II
was dark in color and fiaky--such an
ash as is only made by Trichonopoly
7 have made a special study Of cigar
ashes--in fact have written a mono
graph upon the subject | fiatter my
self that I can distinguish at a glance
the ash of any known brand of cigar
or of tobacco. It is In Just such de.
tails that the skilled detective differs
from the Gregson and Lestrade type"
"And the fiorid face?" | asked.
"Ah, that was a more, daring shot,
though l have no doubt that I was
right You must not ask me that at
the present state of the affair"
passed my hand over my brow.
"My head is in a whirl," remarked;
"the more one thinks of it, the more
mysterious It grows. How came these
two men--if there were two men--in-
to an empty house? What has become
of the eabman who drove them? How
could one man compel another to take
poison? Where did the blood come
from? What was the object of the
murderer since robbery had no part
In It? How came the woman's ring
there? Above all, why should the sec.
ond man write up the German word
Rache before decamping? I confess
that l cannot see any possible way OF
reconciling all these facts"
My companion smiled approvingly
"You sum up the difficulties of the
situation sueeinctly and WE'LL" he said
There Is much that is still obscure
though have quite made up my mind
on the main facts. As to poor LIE
strade's discovery, It was simply a
blind intended to put the police. upon
n wrong track. by suggesting social
ism and secret societies. It was
not done by German. The A,
IL you noticed. was printed some,
what after the German fashion
Now real German invariably prints
in the Latin character, so that we may
safely say that this was not written by
one, but by a clumsy imitator who
overdid his part. It was simply a
ruse, to divert inquiry into a wrong
channel. I'm not going 10 tell YOU
much more of the case, doctor. You
know a conjurer gets no credit when
once he has explained his trick, and
II show you too much of my method
of working you viii come to the con-
clusion that am a very ordinary indi-
vidual after ALL"
'T shall never do that" answered: !:
you have brought detection as near
an exact science as 1t ever will be
brought in this world"
My companion flushed up with pleas
ure at my words and the earnest way
in which | uttered them. I had al
ready observed that he was as sensi-
tive to flattery on the score Of his art
as any girl could be Of her beauty.
'Tll tell you one other thing" he
said. "Patent-leathers and Square
toes came in the same cab and they
walked down the pathway together as
friendly as possible-arm in arm. in
all probability. When they got inside
they walked up and down the room
or rather, Patentleathers stood still,
while Square-toes walked up and
down. could read all that in the
dust; and I could read that, as he
walked. he grew more and more ex-
cited. That is shown by the increased
length Of his strides. He was talking
all the while. and working himself up,
TO doubt, into a fury. Then the trag-
edy occurred. I've told you all know
Myself, now for the rest is mere sur
mise and conjecture. We have a good
working basis. however. on which 20
start. We must hurry up. for I want
to go to Halle's concert to hear Nor.
man Neruda this afternoon"
This conversation had occurred
while our cab had been threading lis
way through a long succession of
dingy streets and dreary by-wavs