The Opelousas courier., 1902-02-01

After supper | returned to my oom
to examine the results of my days
picture taking, which consisted Of a
dozen or more views Of the town taken
at various attitudes with my flying
parachute camera. After looking over
two or three of the plates, l grew
tired of the work and put the job off
until the following day, when I would
have more time. l then sauntered
forth for a quiet stroll and a smoke
before turning in for the night.
My walk led me in the direction Of
the county Jail, on reaching which /
was surprised to see the place sur
" Funded by a large crowd of people.
Upon inquiry I learned that murder
had been committed and that The vic
tim was Nh. Warren, Ren's adopted
father. One of the Jail officers did me
that Rem, after leaving me-, PROCEEDED
directly to his home and finding Mr..
Warren absen&,from his room, we 1t to
the roof, thinking that the old man
might have gone there, as the light
was warm. Heew was Mortified to Vnd
the lifeless body Of his foster fatheas
who had been strangled to death.
Rushing to the street, he Immediate
ly gave the alarm, but the assassin
had left no clew to his identity, and
must have had ample time to escape
between the time the murder was done
and the finding of the body by Rem.
The theory that seemed most plausi-
BILE was that the murderer had en-
tered for the purpose Of robbing the
place, knowing that Rem was absent
and that the old man kept no servants,
but upon being surprised by Mr.. War
rem in his work of plumber, he had
s%trangled the old man to death and
then carried him to the roof intending
to throw him to the street below, and
thus give color to the opinion that the
old man had come to his death by &C
cident. But evidently fearing that he
would be discovered in the act, he
abandoned the scheme. left the body on
the roof and made good his escape.
had but five days more to stay in
this town, so I set about packing my
trunk in order to be in time for the
express which would leave on the com
ing Thursday. Before taking my de-
rarture / invited Rem TO my rooms to
spend an evening, which perhaps
would be the last in his company. Rem
accepted my invitation and promised
to be on hand early. On Wednesday
evening, .Ae evening designated, / was
busy working on the photographs
which l intended to turn over to Mrs.
Good and had completed my task with
the exception of one plate, which | was
working on.
I produced a clear picture on the
plate, and no sooner had I gazed on
its contents lnan a feeling came over
ne that / will retain in my memory
to the longest day Of my life.
Everything was too clear to me now.
On the afternoon that Mr.. Warren was
murdered, / was up in the mountains
and had sent my parachute camera fly
ing through the air in the direction
of Mr.. Warren's house. It happened
along just It the tint when the tHRffoT-
tunate man was going to his death at
the hands of a murderer whom I had
photographed with his face upturned
to the eye of the camera, which was
passing directly above MIR. Warren's
roof. The murderer in the picture was
just in the act Of throwing the old
gentleman to the street below, but, his
attention being attracted at seeing my
camera flying in the air, his curiosity
he was photographed in his murderous
act.
It evidently could not have taken
him long to come to the conclusion
that he had foolishly trapped himself,
for, leaving the body of the old gen.
tleman on the roof, he had escaped.
I wal very much excited by the i'm
portant discovery I had made, but de-
eided to wait until Rem should call be-
fore / had made the affair public. A
sudden knock at the door brought me
to my senses and l fastened to open it,
hoping that it would be Rem. To my
surprise. a tall stranger confronted me.
He described himself as Thomas Car
ter of New York City, a photographer
by profession, and said that he came
to this town on some business and had
engaged rooms in this house and on
the same floor with me. He added
that while in conversation with Mrs.
Good he had learned that l was an
amateur photographer, and said if
had no objection he would like to as
sist me in putting my plates and maya
tiyes into shape.
A second look at the mans face con-
WINGED me he was the very person
whom | had photographed in the act
of numbering Mr.. Warren. 1t no long
er was q mystery. The murderer,
knowing that he had been photo
graphed in the act of leaving the old
man on the roof, hurried to the street
and traced the course OF my camera
to the mountains where / was sta
toned. His next was to follow
me to the boarding house, where he
engaged rooms from my landlady and
trusted that by describing himself as
a professional photographer in ap-
preaching an ambitious amateur, it
would be easy for him to gain admis-
sion to my apartment on the strength
of his bluff. Then he would carry
off the very photograph that would
have convicted him as a murderer.
I recovered my senses, and drawing
my pistol pointed 1t at the mans head, |