Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-29

that she breathed again more freely. BY
the manner in which she uttered AmblerS
name l detected that she was not at all
well-disposed toward him. Indeed, she
spoke as though she feared that he might
discover the truth.
After half hour left and. more Duz-
zled than ever, returned to the house in
Richmond road. Sometimes l felt entirely
convinced that my love was authoress of
the foul deed, but at others there seemed
something wanting in the confirmation OF
my suspicious. Regarding the latter L
could not overlook the fact that. Short had
told story which was false on the face of
1t, while the utter absence of any motive
on my loves part in numbering the old gen.
tleman,seemed to point in an entirely oppo-
site direction
DR.. Diplock, the coroner, had fixed the
inquest for eleven o'clock on the morrow;
therefore l assisted DIR. Farmer of Kew,
, the police surgeon, to make the post-mortem.
We made the examination In the after
noon, before the light faded, and If the cir
Cumstances of the crime were mysterious,
the means by which the unfortunate man
was murdered were. we found, doubly So
Outwardly the wound was an ordinary
one, one inch In breadth, inflicted by
blow delivered from left to right. The
weapon had entered between the fourth
and fifth ribs and the heart had been COM
pletely transfxed by some sharp-cutting in
strument. The injuries we discovered
within, however, increased the mystery
ten-fold, for We found two extraordinary
divided the heart from side to side, the
only remaining attachment of the upper
portion to the lower being small portion
of the interior wall of the heart behind the
sternum.
Such wound was absolutely beyond ex-
PLANTATION.
The instrument with which the crime had
been committed by striking between the
ribs had penetrated to the heart with an
unerring precision, making terrible wound
eight times the size within, as compared
with the exterior puncture And yet the
weapon had been withdrawn and was miss
ing.
For fully an hour We measured and dis
cussed the strange discovery, hoping all
the time that Sir Bernard would arrive.
The knife which the man Short confessed
he had taken down in self-defense we COM
pared with the exterior wound and found
as we anticipated, that Just such wound
could be caused by it. But the fact that
the exterior cut was cleanly done, while
the internal injuries were jagged and the
the tissues torn In a most terrible manner
caused doubt to arise whether the Indian
knife. which was double-edged, had ac-
tuauy been used. To be absolutely clear
upon this point it would be necessary to ex-
anime It microscopically, for the corpuscles
of human blood are easily distinguished be-
meath the lens.
We were about to conclude our examina-
| ton in despair. utterly unable to account
| for the extraordinary wound when the door
| opened and Sir Bernard entered.
He looked upon the body of his old
| friend, not pleasing spectacle, indeed, and
| then grasped my hand without a word.
II read the evening paper my way
| up, he said at last. In a voice trembling
with emotion The affair seems very mys-
terious. Poor Courtnay! Poor fellow!'
! 1T is sad-very sad I remarked I'VE
| have just concluded the post-mortem;" and
| then introduced the police surgeon to the
| man whose name was a household word
throughout the medical profession.
! L showed my chief the wound explained
| its extraordinary features, and asked his
| his shirt-cuffs, adjusted his big spectacles,
| and bending beside the board upon which
| the body lay, made a long and careful in
| spection of the injury.
| EXTRAORDINARY" he calculated. 1--WE
| never known of such wound before One
/ would almost suspect an explosive bullet
| If 1t were not for the clean incised wound
| on the exterior. The ribs seem grazed. vet
| the manner in which such hurt has been
| inhicted is utterly unaccountable."
I'VE have been unable to solve the enig-
| ma" Dr. Farmer observed II was an
army surgeon before entered private prac-
| tice, but have never seen a similar case
Nor have L. responded Sir Bernard. 1T
| is most puzZling."
| do you think that this knife could have
| been used?' l asked, handing my chief the
weapon.
He looked at 1t, raised it in his hand as
though to strike. felt it's edge and then
shook his head, saving:
| No, / think not. The instrument used
was only sharp on one edge. This has
| both edges sharpened."
1t was point we had not overlooked but
| In a moment We agreed with him. and at
| once abandoned our Informed theory
that the Indian dagger had caused the
| wound
With Sir Bernard We made an examina-