Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-09-09
Mystery Of the
Bayou Woods
BY WALKER KENNEDY.
Copyright, 1908. by A. N. Kellogg Newspaper Co.
CHAPTER VI.

Irving Warde could not have eX-
planned the impulse which caused him
to seek an interview with Miriam
Wright when the coroner's jury had
finished it's investigation. It was
certainly not idle curiosity, nor the
mere professional instinct of the
newsgatherer; but some occult sym
pathy seemed to draw him to the
cold, emotionless young woman
whose beauty had been as great a
revelation to him as her personality
had been a mystery.
Miriam Wright had had no expert
ence with newspaper people, and had
no horror of the interviewer. At that
time he had not attained the pin
nacle of caustic opprobrium that has
since then been erected to his indus
try and his dicredit. So when Irving
Warde sent up his card she came
down Immediately to the parlor to
see what was wanted of her. He had
the appearance and manners of a
condemnation he was one-and SO
Miss Wright's suspicious of a prying
newspaper reporter were never
aroused.
From her appearance it was evident
that she was the victim of a nervous
relapse from great mental strain.
Her behavior on the witness stand,
her marvellous self-possession until
she was led to testify in the dark,
had visibly been the result of an in
tense benumbing excitement. The
iciness had gone from her face, and
it was a helpless, feverish woman
who confronted him.
Warde found himself, strange to
say, endeavoring to allay her alarm.
Miss Wright" he said, 81 am one
of those who believe that your
brothers innocence will eventually
be established, and I have come to
ask you whether I can be of any as
sistance whatever to you.'
After he had said this it sounded
very foolish; but she evidently ap-
preciated his good intentions, for
she said: ''It is very kind of you, Mr..
Warde. 7 hardly know what to say.
1t has come upon us so suddenly, SO
horribly that [ cannot tell what we
shall do. If, however, we should see
way in which you could assist
believe me, shall be only too
ready to do So"
Herbert and have been peculiar
ly attached to each other since child
hood, and I need hardly say, Mr..
Warde, that his implication in the
murder is to me more terrible even
than my fathers DEATH and l cannot
conceive how it would have been pos
sible for him to bring himself to
commit such crime. 1t is true that
he was always high-strung and pas
sionate, but that he could have taken
his fathers life, II cannot believe
it."
81 have become deeply interested
in this case, Miss Wright, because [
am satisfied that the mystery has not
yet been solved 1t has taken hold of
me completely, and I have thought
of making some Investigations in an
entirely new line. The police have
taken up a plausible theory, and have
made out a strong case without a
doubt; but it is not complete case,
for the reason that there are several
minor clews which they have ignored
entirely"
He then went on to give her an
account of his operations in the
snow, and then continues: 'The po-
lice dismiss this circumstance with
the clumsy explanation that the man
with the arcties stumbled across the
corpse by accident, examined it
through curiosity, then rambled
about the woods awhile, took the
short way for town, met the COM
pany following the coroner's jury,