The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-05-15

knocking, yet Knight felt a sudden,
overpowering horror and leaned weak
ly 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 hail. His fingers
were reddened 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. But 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 and O'Clock, and
Knight was therefore the more sur
prised to see him at that hour.
You here?" he exclaimed.
"I've been at work in the basement"
answered Warren. "Did-did you hear
anything? 1 thought 1 heard sound
like
He checked himself suddenly and
then stopped and picked up something
which lay upon the stairs. 1t was 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.
OF f,111 1nnoth hn ha
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
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 a 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 d word
They laid him on couch, and then
the janitor ran out for help, returning
in less than five minutes with 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
gesture which signified that the end
had come
"How was this done?" he asked.
eve 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 hay : 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. :sMo 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 so 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-
cluded 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 a conclusion which contained an
alternative. The crime was not one in
which an experienced detective would
see any evidence of conspiracy before
the fact To such a mind the case
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 a quarrel about the young
mans Indebtedness and had construct
ed the evidence of robbery as a hasti-
ly devised ruse to shield himself.
If the latter alternative were 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 few days this
view began to be strongly urged by
the newspapers and the police were
blamed for failure to place both men
under arrest.
The authorities were unwilling to
take this course because they could not
themselves believe that Knight had
committed this crime. AS there is
no intent of making a mystery in this
narrative, knights innocence has been
declared in advance.
The torment which he suffered dur
ing this period need not be described.
He was forced to labor under an I'M
just suspicion and to fight against one
in his own breast, for since he was