Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-05-13
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& HERR STEINHARDI'S NEMESIS :
Il BY J. MAcLAREN coBBAN. z
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BY ]. MACLAREN COBBAN.

Don't look SO surprised at me-"
was plqued into saying, when / fell
his sober scrutiny would be turned
upon my structure of evidence doubted
Tor the time its coherence.and stability
and this doubt in myself 1 resented
II am quite sane and serious. l have
had borne in upon me the impression
i can't quite say how it came-that
Lacroix left London that night"
"What night?"
Thursday, March the sixteenth oi
last year. Miss Lacroix has told me
he was at his hotel, it has been found
on that day."
81 hadn't heard the date ma med be-
FORE"
then told him how, on turning over
the pages of my Bradshaw, had dis
covered the existence of a very late
train from London.
"But," said he, there are trains
almost as late on other lines.''
"But not so quick" said l.
Besides" said he, "you don't know
that the train you mention was running
more than year ago."
''No; do not" was little put
out. Still urged, "I have, however,
another strong reason-which ] do not
think l am quite at liberty to tell you
at present-why I believe my specula-
tion that he left London that night
may turn out true"
LEFT for home, suppose you think?
But why should he suddenly set off
home late at night without intima-
tion?''
81 cannot tell. But might he not,
for instance, have heard somehow, or
have suspected, that Steinhardt was
still using the patent they had been
fined so heavily for infringing? 1t is
clear, surely, from this recent law
affair, that Steinhardt has never left off
using it."
"Of course" said he. looking very
serious and meditative, "that certainly
might be. But" he continued in a
new tone of alarm, "what does all this
speculation mean? You surely haven't
let your suspicion 60 so far as to i'm
agine poor Lacroix came home Toto
find violer death? Have you really
let yourself th}nk so morbidly of things
as to suspect Steinhardt of causing it?
He, l know, is without much scruple of
conscience-but that, my friend, is al
together too horrible!- too incredible!
Besides, why" he stopped, but 1
could see what he would say in the
careful, considering look he gave me-.
eyes," said I, 81 know; you think
hu 7 Lok i
have remained ndiscovered--unsus-
pected, if you like-for a year, only for
me to find out, or suspect-me, a man
Of no extraordinary perception or dis
"Well, Unwin," said he, "I will
confess l did think something like that.
You must excuse me.'
Certainly. But don't pretend to
have lighted on the things that make
me suspect through my own shrewd-
ness of suspicion; don't pretend to be |
the mover in the matter at all. In
deed. when | look back over the few |
months I have been here, am sur
prised to see how the several points of |
my suspicion have been almost forced |
On my attention in ways that appear to
me quite unusually providential.
Freeman turned and looked through |
the window, very grave and thoughtful.
SIT is perhaps" said 1, now reused
TO a considerable pitch of feeling, "not |
1 very Christian doctrine. but I believe,
or imagine, there is conscious divine |
that broods upon the world,
md that takes severe note of the per-
'istent evil deeds of evil doers, and
marks them out for unrelenting pun
secret or open, slow or swift,
md that chooses its instruments, or
agents, of punishment in fashion of
is own"
Good gracious! Unwin-what a
lreadful belief"
81 don't think you would have much
% say against it if you had been with
ne last night in the dining room of
rimperley Hall, and seen our dear
riend Birley moved almost to tears be-
ore that German ruffian, and then seen
lim leave the house ruined and heart
oroken man."
He sat in silent amazement; and I
elated the scene had witnessed.
"After hearing all that" I said,
and seeing how Steinhardt behaved
nd looked, I can believe any cruelty or
of him. l do not think
hat even you now will consider my
lorrible suspicion SO preposterous.
Freeman sat silent, pulling his big
,eard.
81 think" said he at length, with
hin smile, mature after all can't have
Intended me for a criminal investi-
ator: couldn't find it in ME to
hink any human being capable of such
crime as that-then perhaps you
Iould say Steinhardt is not a human
eing; he is only foreigner sent for
ur sins to poison us with his diabol-
ral chemistry.
As said, the instinct of detection,
r suspicion even, is not very strong in
le. But will do my best for you in {
.ondon.'
and" said I, az think 1 can make I
inquiry at Kings Cross l
asier for you. I used to be very
.iendly with an official there of hig /
l will write to him."
l wrote to my old friend as soon as
eturned to my lodgings; 1 related the
circumstances of Lacroix's disappear
nee, and mentioned the suspicion, 7
mich "those who are interested in his t
lte entertain" that he really set out by I
ain, probably from Kings Cross, to c
'turn home, and asked him to be so $