Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-11-30
DAILY SHORT STORY
A Well Laid Plan.
IOriginal.I


New York and Morristown, was shut.
ting up his house preparatory to- go
ing to bed when a traveller rode up on
horseback and demanded a nights
lodging. He was apparently about if
ty years old, with grizzly gray black
hair, a full beard and mustache, both
sprinkled with gray. He carried strap
ped behind his saddle a 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
it from a bank in Morristown dur
ing the day and had noticed at the
teller's window a young man in a
brown overeoat, beaver hat, tan
gloves and a single eyeglass-some-
thing unusual in America-who cast
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 n room which could
be both locked and bolted. Having
seen his funds properly disposed Of, he
went upstairs.
The next morning about daylight
housemaid who was lighting the fires
saw n young man come downstairs
with paper parcel under his arm. BE
had on brown overcoat, a beaver
hat, tan gloves and single eyeglass.
When a 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-
Spouse, 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 n 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
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 no
tel without attracting attention. 1t Is
not the soluble that interests people; it
is the insOluble.
There were no organized detective
agencies at that time, but the landlord
of the Essex tavern could not rest con-
tent with the matter unexplained. sol
lie offered the $50 left in his keeping
by the traveller to whomsoever should
solve the mystery. Abner Morgan, q
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
Ter 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
NIorristown. The cashier was 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 a view to getting
q 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-
tied the $3.50 with the landlord, intend
ing to leave it there to strengthen the
suspicion of murder, for he would not
be suspected of leaving such sum I'M
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
hight before in a dark part Of the hall
where he could be only dimly seen, it
occurred to him to engage the man TO
larry the trunk. This link in his plan,
which he considered at the time the
weakest, proved the strongest Having
uttered his room, he waited till just be-
ore daylight, then groaned loudly, then