The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1903-12-30
A WELL LAID PLAN.
Ioriginai.l

Of the Essex tavern, midway between
New York and Morristown, was shut
ting up his house preparatory TO GO
ing TO bed when traveller rode up on
horseback and demanded a nights
lodging. He was apparently about ff-
y years old. with grizzly gray black
hair. full beard and mustache. both
sprinkled with gray. He carried strap
ped behind his saddle bundle wrap
ped in paper. which he unstrapped and
brought into the house In lieu OF bag
gage. Before going TO bed he deposited
with the landlord for safe keeping $3.50
| in bills, saying that he had drawn
| 1t from a bank IN Morristown dur
ing the day and had noticed at the
teller's window a young man In a
brown oyercoat. beaver hat. tan
gloves and single eyeglass-some-
/ thing unusual in America-who cast a
covetous glance at the bills. He had
met the same man on the road and
was sure the fellow was following him
! TO rob him For this reason he desired
the landlord to put the money in his
safe and give him a room which could
be both locked and bolted. Having
seen his funds properly disposed of. he
went upstairs.
The next morning about daylight a
housemaid who was lighting the fires
saw n young man come downstairs
| with paper parcel under his arm. He
had on a brown overcoat. a beaver
hat. tan gloves and single eyeglass.
When guest came down to break
| fast he reported having heard groans
in the next room, which proved to be
the one occupied by the guest who had
deposited the money. The landlord
hurried to the room in question. found
it locked, knocked. received no re-
| sponse, gained access through win
dow opening into a court and found
no one there.
That the traveller had been murdered
by the man in the brown overcoat
would have been accepted by every one
had any plausible theory been hit upon
as to what had been done with the
body. This difficulty was, however.
partially obviated by a porter's state
ment that he had met man in the hall
the night before who had notified him
that he would require his services in
carrying out trunk the next morning.
1t was assumed that the murderer
had found some other means of remov-
ing the trunk, which must surely have
contained the body. Curiously enough.
as soon as this phase of the mystery
appeared people ceased to speculate up
on who committed the murder and be-
gan to dispute upon how the trunk con-
tanning the body was got out of the ho-
tel without attracting attention. 1t is
not the soluble that interests people: it
is the insoluble.
There We're no organized detective
agencies at that time, but the landlord
of the Essex tavern could not rest con-
tent with the matter unexplained. so
he offered the $3.50 left in his keeping
by the traveller to whomsoever should
solve the mystery. Abner Morgan,
young lawyer without practice, took
the matter up with view to reaping
the reward. He discovered that three
weeks before the disappearance of the
stranger at the Essex tavern the CASH
fer of bank in New York had default
ed and run away with all the currency
in the safe, some $4,000. But the
traveller had come in on the road from
Morristown. The cashier was a man
of thirty-five and sandy haired, while
the traveller was fifty and dark. The
supposed murderer was very young.
also dark. Morgan on account of these
discrepancies gave up the theory of the
murdered traveller or the supposed
murderer being the missing cashier
and turned his attention to hunting up
the real cashier with view to getting
a higher reward for his capture offered
by the bank.
Hearing of a man living at Albany
N. Y, who was unaccounted for. though
he did not answer the cashiers descrip-
ton, Morgan went there and found one
whom he watched for time and then,
taking his chances as to the mans
identity, arrested him on a trumped up
charge. AS soon as he got his prisoner
TO New York he sent for the president
of the bank that had been robbed, who
at once identified the man as the miss
ing cashier. though he was made up
to look fifty instead of thirty-five. Then
the culprit broke down and confessed.
This was his story:
After the robbery he lay In hiding
for awhile in Morristown, but as he
was in danger of discovery left the
place one evening on horseback, having
concocted the following plan to become
lost to the world: In his paper parcel he
carried the bills and articles for dis
guise. Arriving at the tavern he depos-
ited the $3.50 with the landlord. intend
ing to leave 1t there to strengthen the
suspicion of murder. for he would not
be suspected of leaving such a sum un-
claimed If he were alive. What trou-
bled him most was how to throw the
police on the wrong track concerning
the body. A man murdered is not an
easy thing to remove without the fact
being known. Meeting the porter the
night before in dark part of the hall
where he could be only dimly seen. 1t
occurred to him to engage the man to
carry the trunk. This link in his plan,
which he considered at the time the
weakest, proved the strongest. Having
entered his room. he waited till Just be-
fore daylight, then groaned loudly. then
made himself up as the man in the
brown overcoat whom he had concoct-
ed as part of his plan. let himself
down, to lower story by means of a
lightning rod and. entering a window.
walked downstairs. meeting the maid.
In this way he hoped to convey the i'm
preston that he had been murdered
and his body spirited ayyay in n +runl-