Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1903-06-17

NEW YORKER AND THE STURDY
FENTON."
ice force had been way off the track,
and proceeded to thorough inves-
tigation of the case. AS soon as L was
employed by Mr.. Everett / took steps
to find out the source of all the
startling things that had happened to
those of us who had manifested an
undue interest in the crime. Herbert
Wright had narrowly escaped death
from poisoning; Irving Warde had
come near being assassinated, and 1
had been dropped from the police
force. My own case being the sim
plest l sought to unravel it first.
The first substantial discovery
made was that Pat Kernigan was a
stakeholder in the Shelby County
Real Estate & Investment company.
Then a letter of inquiry to friend
in Denver showed that he was also
stakeholder in the Diamond Mining
company. Consequently he was
man whom James Franklin would be
likely to control. In order to satisfy
myself I went to Kernigan. He's Il
politician, as everybody knows, and
likes to keep on good terms with all
men, and he told me quietly that Col.
Franklin had requested my dismissal
and the appointment of my successor,
and that he was under such obligu-
ton to the colonel that he could not
refuse to use what little influence he
had with the mayor. then went to
Col. Franklin and asked him why he
had requested Kernigan to bring
about my dismissal. Well, by playing
one against the other secured the
information Overwhelmingly, that
Col. Franklin was at the bottom of
my dismissal, and that it was oil on
account of my distasteful activity in
the Wright case. From that time on
Col Franklin played very important
part in all my considerations; and
every effort of mine was directed to-
ward unmaking him.
"There was plenty of hard work of
pretty character to do. For in
stance, I went to every shoe store in
the city in search of pair of arctics
Of particularly broad and. square
toed make, but only at Hauptmann's
could find them. Having settled this
point had no trouble in ascertaining
that pair of these arctics had gone
to the office of Col. Franklin. Then
took that unidentified watch and
went from jewelry store to jewelry
store until at last I was fortunate
enough to find the man who had sold
1t. Again ran across Col. Franklin
as the purchaser. The unidentified
diamond pin was also traced to him.
A good deal of minor information was
incidentally picked up, which has
been found to fit in the case. paid
visit to Uncle Dick Norris, and
again crossed the trail of Franklin,
learning that he had been In the
Bayou woods on the day of the muir
der. In the meanwhile studied ut
odd times the lives and careers of
Old Tom, Bob Padgett and the red
flannel shirt man, and learned that
all of them were in communication
with the man whose presence seemed
to pervade the case from end to end.
Having gathered great deal of
evidence here and done all that could
be done for the time, it was decided
that should go to Colorado and find
out the actual facts about the min
ing tract. made my way to the
mine adjoining the Wright tract, and
there found horde of miners wait
ing hungrily for the signal to begin
work in the new field. A great stony
wedge which marked one of the boun-
daries of the tract had, by some up
heaval centuries ago, been thrust
straight across the vein of gold. This
doubly rich vein, 1t had been found,
extended into the Wright tract. Old
gold hunters told me that it was
probably the most valuable piece of
land in the state, and that it would
make its owners fabulously rich.
ut was my good fortune while 1
was loafing about the mine to become
acquainted with Mr.. Frederick Meri-
vale, the chief stakeholder in it. He
had come out from New York some
time before, when the report reached
him that his vein had run up against
u stone wall, and that the jig was
up. The object of his journey was
to make thorough investigation, To-
cate the severed thread Of gold, and
purchase the land that continued it
A very casual examination convinced
him that just over the wall of stone
lay the biggest bonanza in the state
The next thing was to get hold of it
1t was registered in the name of the
Diamond Mining company, of which
Franklin was apparently the presi
dent and chief stakeholder. Well, Mer
ivale wrote to Franklin and asked Il
he wanted to sell. He did not get al
answer for some time. Franklin wa.
evidently Investigating through othe!
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