Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-22

He gave vent to allow grunt, from which
| knew that the explanation was unsatis-
factory, and replaced the knife in it's faded
velvet sheath
Save for the men upon whom suspicion
had thus fallen, the servants had all gone
to the house where their mistress was lodg-
ed, after being cautioned by the police to say
nothing of the matter and to keen their
mouths closed to all the reporters who
would no doubt very soon be swarming in
inc u district eager for every scrap of in
formation. Their evidence would be re-
qulred at the inquest, and the police for
bade them until then to make any comment
or to give any explanation of the mystic
rious affair The tongues of domestics WAC
quickly and wildly in such cases and have
many times been the means of defeating the
ends of justice by giving away important
clues to the press
Amber Jevons, however, was a practtced
hand at mysteries. He sat down in the IL
brary, and with his grabbed handwriting
covered two sheets of paper with notes upon
the case. l watched as his pencil went
swiftly to work, and when he had finished
1 saw him underline certain words he had
written.
Thorpe appears to suspect that fellow
Short" he remarked when | met him again
in the library quarter of an hour later
I've just been chatting with him, and to
me his demeanor Is not that of a guilty
man. He's actually been upstairs with the
coroners officer in the dead mans room
murderer generally excuses himself from
entering the presence Of his victim
Well 1 exclaimed, after pause, you
know the whole circumstances now Can
you see any clue which may throw light on
the affair?'
He slowly twisted his mustache again;
then twisted his plain gold ring slowly
round the little finger of the left hand-a
habit of his when perplexed
mo, Ralph, old chap, can't say I do" he
answered. There's an unfathomable mys-
terry somewhere but in what direction I'm
utterly at a loss to distinguish"
But do you think that the assassin is a
member of the household? That seems to
me our first point to clear up"
That's just where we're perplexed.
Thorpe suspects Short; but the police so
often rush to conclusions ON a single sus-
picion. Before condemning him 1t is neces-
sary to watch him narrowly and note his
demeanor and his movements. If he is
guilty he'll betray himself sooner or later.
Thorpe was foolish to take down that knife
a second time. The fellow might have seen
him and had his suspicious aroused thereby.
That's the worst of police inquiries They
display so little ingenuity. It's all method
method-method. Everything must be done
by rule. They appear to overlook the fact
that window in the conservatory was I'M
doubleday left open," he added.
'Well?' I asked, noticing that he was
gazing at me strangely, full in the face.
well, has it not occurred to you that
that window might have been purposely
left open?'
You mean that the assassin entered and
left by that window
have been connived by one Of the household.
if the man we suspect were not the actual
ASA SSin himself
The theory was curious one, but I saw
that there were considerable grounds for
it. AS in many suburban houses, the con-
servatory Joined the drawing room, an I'M
locked glass door being between them. The
window that had been left unfastened was
situated at the further end and being low
down, was in such position that any in
truder might easily have entered and left
Therefore the suggestion appeared a sound
one-more especially SO because the cook
had most solemnIy declared that she had
fastened it securely before going up to bed
In that case some one must have crept
down and unfastened 1t after the woman
had retired, and done SO with the object of
assisting the assassin.
But Amber Jevons was not man to re-
main idle for single moment when once
he became interested In a mystery To his
keen perception and calm logical reasoning
ton Crescent Mystery" which, as all read
ers of this narrative will remember. for
six months utterly defied Scotland Yard;
while in a dozen other notable cases his
discoveries had placed the police on the
scent OF the guilty person. Somehow he
seemed to possess peculiar facility in the
solving OF mysteries At ordinary times he
struck one . 9 q rather careless. easy-going
| man, who drifted on through life tasting
and dealing In tea, with regular attendance
at Mark Lane each day Sometimes he
wore a pair of cheap pince-nez,-the frames
of which were rusty, but these he seldom
assumed unless he was what he termed 'at
fore he stuck the pince-nez the bridge of
his nose, giving him keener and rather
more Intelligent appearance.
Excuse me-" he exclaimed, suddenly