The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-01-01
The House Opposite
"a M Us T E r T.

SonIIect the latter two, even in the most
indirect way, with the catastrophe IN
fortunately, that is not the case with the
young lady. One person, at least has iden-
, ,lned the BODY as that of her visitor. and
your DehaVlor. he added, with smile,
led me TO believe that you suspected her
OF something. Not of the crime. / felt
sure or that, but of what, then? ! de-
termined to find out, and now that l have
done so. let me tell you that L am still
convinced of her innocence"
i jumped up and shook him by the hand
80 am l, so am L. | exclaimed.
But this is very queer case" he con-
tinued, and / shall need all the assistance
you can give me. if
You shall have it," / broke in, en-
Enthusiastically; anything 1 do. But
tel me, first, how you found out about
Miss Derwent's brother?'
Not so fast, young man, At present
we know nothing about brother. / only
said that L had discovered in the apart
ment traces of the recent and prolonged
presence of man, and l may add of a
man OF some means"
How did you find that out? Especially
about his means?' l inquired, with a smile.
=, quite easily. In the parlor, which was
the frst room | entered, noticed that
every piece of furniture had been lately
moved from its place Now, this was too
heavy job for girl to have undertaken
single-handed. Who helped her, l won
dered? Her visitor of Tuesday evening
might have been the person, but for vari-
Gus reasons L was inclined TO doubt it. 1
thought 1t more likely TO have been the
woman whose existence your behavior had
led me to infer. 1 next examined the din
ing room. A few crumbs showed that it
OF her mysterious companion. The library
had not even been entered. On the floor
above. the front bedroom alone showed
signs OF recent occupation. Two crumpled
sheets were still on the bed and in the
drawers were several articles of womans
apparel Returning TO the lower floor by
the back stairs, L found myself in the
kitchen. Here, in the most unexpected
place, discovered an important clew." Mr..
Merritt paused, and looked at me with
CLEAN OF triumph in his eye.
Yes, yes, and what was that?" / in
Quired, breathleSSy.
only the odor, the very faintest ghost
or an odor. may say, of cigar smoke"
I'm the Kitchen" l exclaimed incredu-
lousy.
I'm the Kitchen" repeated the detective
Il at once drew up the blinds and looked
out. The window opened directly on the fire
escape, with nothing opposite but the roofs
OF some low houses. Pulling out my mag
nifying glass. L crawled out. L soon salts
fed myself that the stairs leading up and
down had not been recently used; on the
other hand, l was equally sure that some
one had very lately been out on the small
landing. SO L sat down there and looked
about me. l could see nothing. AT last
by peering through the bars of the iron
flooring, thought L could discern a small,
brown object, caught in between the Stats
of the landing below. / climbed down there
mighty quick, L can tell you, and in a
moment held the butt end of a cigar in
the delicate odor it had left behind, one
which had cost about so cents. L now ex-
tended my search downward, and examined
every windowsill. every crevice, till 1
reached the basement, and, as a result of
my hunt, collected five cigar stumps, all
of the same brand. From the number, j
concluded that whoever had been in the
apartment had been there a considerable
time. From his only smoking in the kitchen
or on the fire escape, 1 gathered that he
was anxious to leave no traces of his pres
/ lnctlx q IL
cigars, judged him to be man of means.
So you see, / had discovered, even without
your assistance, that. although Miss Der
went may have told us the truth she GER
tainly had not told US all of it,
i nodded gloomily.
What you tell me of this dark haired
woman is still more puzziing." the detec-
tive continued. She has covered up her
tracks so well that not only did / find no
trace of her. but no one, not even yourself.
saw her either enter or leave the building.
And / should never have dreamed of her
existence If i had not noticed your surprise
when Miss Derwent lifted her veil. Now,
| the first thing to be done is to try and
| find this strange couple, and We will begin
| by tracing the man whom you saw leaving
| the Rosemere with a market basket. 1t
| will be easy enough to find out If he is
nothing but a local tradesman, and If he
! is not, then in all probability he is the
man We want The detective who is watch
| ing Miss Derwent-"
"A detective watching Miss Derwentv' /
| exclaimed.
why. yes. What did you expect? 1 sent
! one down with her to the country yester-
| day."
| Perhaps 1 ought to have been prepared
! for IL, but the idea of a common fellow
logging May Derwent's footsteps was quite
a shock to me, so l inquired, with con-
| siderable i'll humor: And what does he
report?
Nothing much. The young lady re-
| turned to her mother. as she said she
would. and since then has kept to her
room. but has refused to see DOCTOR
Have you discovered yet who the dead
man really is?" L asked, after a slight
NO" answered the detective, with a
| troubled look, land i can't make il out.
Jim and Joe each persists in his own
| Identification. l expected Jim to weaken,
! he seemed so much less positive at first
| but whether he has talked himself into
| the belief that the sorpse is that of the
| does resemble him so much as to give
the boy grounds for thinking so, 1 can't
| make out"
II see, however, that you believe the muir
| dered man to be Mrs. Atkins's friend, OF
| whose history and whereabouts she was SO
| strangely Ignorant
| We'll, / don't know" the detective re-
| piled. I'VE have found out that an Allan
| Brown did engage berth on the midnight
! train to Boston,
Really? Why, was sure that Allan
| Brown was a creation of the little lady's
| imagination. By the way, it is a strange
| coincidence that two mysterious Allans are
connected with this case"
| Yes, L have thought of that" the de-
| tective murmured; land Allan is no COM
| mon name, either. But it is still stranger
| circumstance that neither of Allan Browr
| nor of the murdered man q am now taking
for granted that they are not identical
can we discover the slightest trace beyond
the solitary fact that an upper berth or
| the Boston train was bought on Tuesday
| afternoon by a person giving the formers
| name, and whose description applies OF
| course equally to both, Mrs. Atkins volun-
| teers the information that Brown was
| stranger i'm the city, and so far L have nc
| reason to doubt il. Now, a man who car
| afford to wear a dress suit and who is 9
| friend Of a woman like Mrs. Atkins, pre-
| sumably had fairly decent quarters while
| he was in town. And yet inquiries have
| been made at every hotel and boardinl
| pensive, and not one of them knows any
| thing of an Allan Brown, nor do they rec
ognize his description as applying to any
! of their late guests. The deceased, OF
| course, may have had rooms somewhere
| or fiat. or even house, in which case
| IL will take longer to trace him; although
| even so, il is remarkable that after sucf
| wide publicity has been given to his descrip
| ton, no one has come forward and re-
| ported him as missing. The morgue ha:
been crowded with idle sightseers but no
! body as yet claims to have seen the victim
| before
THAT is queer" / assented, especial,
as the dead man was in all probability
| person of some prominence. He certainly
! must have been rich. The pearl studs h,
| wore were very fine"
| ''Oh. those were imitation pearls. sait
| the detective land 4 am inclined m thirl