Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-18

brush thickened and the ground be-
 came more irregular the trail strag- gled about considerably. Now it en- tered snowdrifts a foot or two deep, then it ran over the tops of small tangled growth. Warde did not find the task an easy one, but this rather stimulated his purpose and he plod- ded stubbornIy on.
 Fifteen minutes more of tramp ing and he was wondering whither this apparently aimless route of the unknown would lead him, when he found himself in the path which made direct cut through the woods. Here
 the strangers footprints merged with those made by another person, and took the direction of the city. It required but moment to see that young Wright had made the tracks leading from the city.
 What strange fatality was this
 which caused these two men to con- tinua1ly cross each others trail? Could there be any collision between them and could they have met where their footprints crossed? These were idle questions to ask and the newspaper man did not undertake to answer them, but followed the trail back to the city. On he went until he came to the edge of the Bayou Woods, and looking to his left he be- 9held the Devils Den. What was his ! surprise now to find the trail sud- denly diverted toward that locality. After all, the unknown might have been one of the habitues of the place. When Warde reached the Den there were so many footprints around it that he found it difficult to keep up with the arctics and at last he was completely bafded.
 There was no use trying to follow the trail any further, for everything was in hopeless confusion; so, lSeenly disappointed, Warde started for the roundabout path which would take him back to the scene of the murder. He, now noticed that the original
 trail over which he and the chief of
 police had gone had been obliterated
 bH number of footprints, evidently
 &ade by the coroner and his jury.
 Ks he was casually looking at these
 The suddenly uttered an exclamation of the utmost astonishment; for ] there on the snow he again detected 3 the imprint of the mysterious arctics, and he soon satisfied himself that the z unknown had joined the coroner's jury and the few stragglers who had I gone with them to view the body of the murdered man. There could be 8 no doubt of this, for he found traces of the arctics frequently, some little ] distance from the regular path. as if 8 the unknown had been pushed out there by the jostling crowd. A wild excitement took possession of Warde, and he fairly ran toward the spot where Wright had been killed, all & eagerness to look at the man who
 wore the arctics, and decide whether
 there was any probability that he had 2 any connection with the crime. Great was his disappointment to find that
 the body had been removed and that
 the inquest had been adjourned, for
 not a human being was in sight. On
 this way back he detected more evil dences of the unknown in the shape of footprints pointing toward the city.
 As fast as he could go he sought
 sE@ headquarters, where he found q %;b friend, the chief of police.
 sssWhat did the coroner's jury do?''
 e asked.
 "They simply examined the body
 nd took in the bearings, as it were,
 ordered the corpse to be taken to
 the home of the deceased, and ad-