The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-08-28

room of the suit and had not heard the
! knocking, yet Knight felt sudden,
| overpowering horror and leaned weak
| ~ against the casing of the door. AL
most instantly he sprang away, with a
| cry holding up his right hand to the
dim gas flame in the hall. His fingers
were Redeemed with half dried blood.
| He cried out without reason to sup
pose that there could be an answer, for
he already pictured Hadley as dead
and believed himself to be otherwise
| alone in the house. Bet a voice re-
sponded from the stairs below, and.
turning with convulsive haste, he saw
the face of George Warren, man
whom he employed as janitor in the
building. Warren's work was usually
over between I and 8 O'Clock, and
Knight was therefore the more sur
prised to see him at that hour.
you here?" he exclaimed.
1--WE been at work in the basement"
answered Warren. "Did-did you hear
anything? 1 thought l heard sound
like
He checked himself suddenly and
which lay upon the stairs. 1t was n re-
volver. Both men stared at it without
the self command to speak Ineligible
words. Then, with common impulse.
they ran to the door of the Hadleys'
apartment and burst it in.
They saw Hadley's body upon the
floor. 1t lay face downward and was
directly opposite them as they entered.
It was at full length, the feet near the
farther wall of the room, the head near
a desk that stood under the chandelier.
There was much blood upon the floor,
and it was still flowing sluggishly from
a wound in the back of the young
mans head.
Knight knelt beside the body and
raised it up, turning the face to the
light. Life still fingered and spark of
consciousness. The eyes met Knights
with look of recognition which grad
ually faded. Both Knight and Warren
addressed frantic questions to the dy
ing man; but, although it seemed to
| them that he understood, he uttered
not word.
They laid him on couch, and then
the janitor ran out for help, returning.
in less than five minutes with a doctor
who lived next door. 1t was too late
Indeed. no help could have been Of use
from the moment when the shot was
fired. Before the doctor had finished
his first hasty examination the soul
had gone out of Hadley's body.
The physician turned away, with a
| - %ho%
had come.
"How was this done?" he asked.
1--WE found the body on the floor" an
swered knight. "There's his pocket
book, empty. The drawers of his desk
have been pulled open and searched.
The revolver was on the stairs. The
murderer, whoever he was, must have
gone down. But why did not see him
is mystery which,
"Gone DOWN." echoed Warren, inter-
rupting. THAT can't be- l heard the
shot. l was on the stairs leading up
from the basement. If anybody had
gone down l must have seen him."
HE may have gone upward-to the
roof perhaps" suggested the doctor.
''That might have seemed his best way
of escape"
knight shook his head.
Impossible" said he. mo one could
have fed that way. l was upstairs"
The doctor looked from one to the
other of them with blank amazement.
"Well," he said, with a sort Of gasp
"well this is bad business"
1t proved to be 50 indeed. The inves-
tigation which was Immediately be-
gun disclosed no escape from the con-
clusion which the simple facts here
stated seem to make inevitable. Ernest
Hadley's death lay absolutely between
Willard knight and the janitor, George
Warren. Their own evidence totally eX-
Guided all other persons. The revolver
upon the stairs, the blood stain on the
door frame, the key Of the locked door
found lying upon the carpet in the hall,
the lack of any other possible exit from
the room-all these things combined to
force an irresistible conclusion. Yet it
was conclusion which contained an
alternative. The crime was not one in
which an experienced detective would
see any evidence of a conspiracy before
| Tic luNt IL Suth Il IIIlllNi tiiC Susc
would stand thus:
Either Warren had killed Hadley for
purposes of robbery. the crime grow
ing out of that large sum which Had
ley had told knight in Warren's hear
ing that he was to receive that day, or
Knight. who was known to be a chol-
eric man in money matters, had shot
Hadley in quarrel about the young
mans Indebtedness and had construct
ed the evidence of a robbery rs a hasti
~ devised ruse to shield himself.
If the latter alternative We're true
then Warren, who had been long IN
; Knights employ and was strongly at
tached to him, must know the truth
and must be regarded as an accessory
after the fact. Within Il few days this
, view bpyan to no strongly urged nv