Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-06-01
CHAPTER XVIII.

The f1utter that followed the read ing of these letters sudsided into ab-s ' solute quiet as the detective cleared his throat, and, at the instigation of Mr. Everett, continued his testimony
 "Franklin's letters were of course ingenious n1isrepresentations de- signed to secure money, with which he hoped to be able to suppress all . the testimony against his ownership. I had no trouble in satisfying Meri- vale that the statements contained in the lettegs were almost entirely false. came back to Nilus resolved ! to play bold game with Franklin. ], He, knew, did not want to see much . of Merivale just then, so he had my coming made as public as possible and hinted that had come to invest. money. This of course took me off his hands a great deal, but managed J to see him considerably. Tn my con- yersations with him I was impatient over the delay, but he had all sorts of gaudy excuses to offer. After worrying him right smart said to him one day: Franklin, do you know I have found you out?'
 ".What do you nean2' asked he, l turning bit pale. "'You have deceived me from the start in this matter said I, Efand by. | so doing you have lost my assistance. l If you had let me entirely into your, confidence from the first, we would, have been operating those mines to- gether by this time; but by your, cursed dilatory policy, your scruples l of fear or conscience, you allowed. 1 things to drag along, and all the while the millions were slipping be- l tween our fingers. You are entirely 1 too squeamish to suit me-
 He smiled at the idea of being squeamish, as if I did not know him. "sI have picked up,f continued, ! some of the threads of the case, and you might as well tell me the whole 1 truth and let us work together 'He was slxittish of me at first, and l wanted to learn how much I knew, so I startled him with a few facts, and then he frankly admitted that he had been scheming to get possession l of the agreement. To test me he asked my advice as to the best way to get possession. I replied that there was only one way, and that was to take it.
 "'How would you take it?' said he.
 "'In the good old way replied I. Pay some handy ruffian to do 1t for you . "He smiled and said: That. is ] what I shall do if do not succeed in ] getting it from the person who now l has it.
 l 1T pretended to have handled sev- eral little difficulties like this and in- timated that if we were out west it would not be difficult to get rid of such an obstacle as human life. I persuaded him that was willing to commit any crime, even murder, in order to secure my object; and em- boldened by finding me a congenial
 e;ir1t, he grew more confidential. lie
 told me that he had hired Morris to steal the agreement from Wright's safe. wormed from him all the de-
 fails of his association with Old Tom, Bob Padgett and him of the red fam hel shirt. also managed to become acquainted with them and learned how and where to find them when I wanted them. I convinced Franklin that was such cold-blooded scoun- drel that he took me completely into his affections and made me his con- fdante. He was charmed with my affable villainy, and he spoke with a good deal of pride of his scheme to shut the mouth of Herbert Wright and his little arrangement for the removal of Irving Warde. One day told him that I had the ingenious theory that he made away with John T. Wright. He looked scared at that and changed the subject. I tried to appeal to his pride in his criminal achievements, but on this one sub ject--while he never made any posi- tive denial--he was entirely uncom-
 municative. The intimate association had with him leads me to believe that there is no sort of cowardly crime which James Franklin would not commit provided his personal safety waa a&k1lrad-