The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1903-08-27
Of articles which had eesn taken from

Of articles which had been taken from
the body OF his father,.Iswas strongly
confident that he Mas thesmnrderer.
IT. seemed to- me hhPossibIeS to evade
The Neutrality-suspicious. of guilt. But
when ivent I'd WrighTs house to
loeasfor hisspistol Iaceidentally dis
covered that it had been taken away
and a very pretty revolver with an
-empty.:barrel had been placed in-its.
stead. I thought the case over this
Way D.: This pistol thus substituted
tells the story of the crime. It an
nounces its responsibility for the
murder of John I: Wright. Its pres
nee here is intended. to- implicate
Herbert Wright in the crime and to
shield the real murderer. I Gbecame
at once satisfied that we of. the po-
lice force had been way off the track,
and I proceeded to a thorough inves-
tigation of! the case AS: soon as I was
employed by Mr.. Everett I 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,i and.I
had, been dropped from the police
force. My own case being the sim
plest I sought to 'unravel it first.
The: first substantial discovery I
made was that Pat Kernigan was q
stockho1der in the Shelby County
Real Estate &. Investment company.
Then a letter of inquiry to a friend
in Denver showed that he was also
a stakeholder in the Diamond Mining
company Consequently he was: a
man whom James Franklin would be
likely to control. In order to satisfy
myself I went to Kernigan. He's a
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 obIiga-
ton to the colonel that he could not
refuse to use what little influence he
had with the mayor. I 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 I. ,desired-namely, that
Col. Franklin was at the bottom of
my dismissal, and. that it was all on
account of my distasteful activity in
the. Wright case. From that time on
Col Franklin played a 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
IA pretty character to do. For in
stance, l went to every shoe store in
the. city in search of a pair of .~arctics
of a particularly broad and square
.toed make, but only at Hauptmann's
could find them. Having settled: this
point I had no trouble in a~scertaining
that a pair of these arctics had gone
to the office OF Col. Franklin. ; Then
K took that unidentified watch and
went from .jewelry store to jewelry
5tOtc ullli dU IaSC L was IOTtUEOl 10
'enough'to find the man who had sold
it,: Again I 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
heen found to fit in the case. I paid
a visit to Uncle Dick Norri~, and
again crossed the trail OF, Franklin,
learning that. he had been in tire
Bayou woods on the day of the mur-
der. In the meanwhile I studied al
odd. times the lives and careers of
Old Tom. Bob Padgett and the red
flannel shirt man, and learned that
all of them We're in communication
with the man whose presence seemed
to pervade the ease from end to end.
ITO Be C~ontinued!l .ss.