The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-12-10

0Us
but that he wished to review with me
all the evidence at hand
"You see," he said, "the thing that
renders the solution Of this mystery |
so difficult is the fact that all our
clues, while they would be Of the ut
most service in the conviction of the |
assassin had we found him, are almost
destitute Of any value until he has
been located. Add 7 to this that we
the crime and you can see how slight |
are our hopes of success. If ever we
chance to find the man-for I feel
that such contamination would re-
suit more from chance than from any
thing else-I think we can convict him.
"Here, for example, he said, TAX
ing up a small slip Of glass which
window of the Darrow house, is
something I have never shown either
you or Miss Darrow. It is utterly
worthless, so far as assisting us to
track the assassin is concerned, but,
if ever we suspect the right man, the
evidence on that glass would probably
convict him, tho there were ten thou
sand other suspects" - ~ ~<7...-E-" : =
I took the. glass from him and, ex-%%
aiming it with the utmost care, I de-
ff't nothn s~ntsn OF pap sFs
Maitland!' said in establishment, "of
what possible use can that form
less daub of paint be,x or is
there something else on the glass that
has escaped me9' He laughed at my
excitement as he replied: "There is
netting there Their put the paint SPOT Re-
to very natural tho erroneous conclu-
sion. It is not formless;V and he
passed me a jeweler IS eyeglass to assist
me in closer examination. He was
right. The paint lay upon the glass in
themselves concentrically about a cen
t tbaps oval centn1ed pplTifit
: as I returned him the magnifying glass,
! "what do you make Of it9''& " IF you
hadn already attasbgd s 50 much import
pronounce it a daub Of paint trans
ferred to the glass by somebody 8
thumb, but, as such a thing would be
clearly useless I am at loss to know
m.Well," he reioined, ".you'v hit the
but you are entirellyFwrong in your, as
sumption that the thumb-mark can have
no value as evidence: Do you not know
that there are no two, thumbs in the
world which are capable of making
9g ik?s maTkss d. was not
I asked, Tthat this mark was made
by the assassin9 1t seems to me there
can hardly be a doubt that one Of the
painters, while. printing the sill, acct
dentally pressed his thumb against the
glass. His hands would naturally have
as naturally have resulted.V
"What you, say: replied Maitland
. reasons for believing this thumb-mark
was made by the assassin are easily
.. understood. First: there was another
; paint of the sill directly under that upor
the glass. Both marks were made by
, the same thumb and, in the lower one
the microscope revealed minute traces
, of gravel dust, not elsewhere discerniblt
upon the sill. Che thumb carried tn
hand pressed into the gravel-the hant
, of which I have a cast. You see how
+ this shows how the5thumb came to hav'
,, paint upon it; when pressed upon tn
. glass; Second the two men engaged
in printing the house, James Cogan am
> save the ASSASSIN. known to have, bee1
the the m StrI ciO' "Here," he said, Care
r fully removing two strips Of glass from
a box, "are the thumb-marks of Cogal
q and Rice made with the same paint
. could by any possibility have made tn
a mark upon the glass. So there you are
y But we are missing the question befor
a a us. What line Of procedure can yo
\. suggest, Docs I m all at sea-"
n RIVE must ind7some one;" I sal!
+ "who could have had a motive. Thi
e some one ought -td have a particularly
4 prints, and is evidently lame besides
d I can't for the life Of me see anythin
n else we have. to go by, unless it be tb
d long nail of the little finger, and
don't see how that Is going to help u
find the assassin-un1less we can I'm
r that it might assist u.s.. As have a
ready suggested, a Chinaman migl
have a long nail, on the little fnge
but he would also have the other mai
long, wouldn't he? Furthermore, I
II might use the boards to conceal tt
n. ordinary to types If he had time to pr
70 pare the boards-the whole affair show
o. meditation-clearly he had time
1t change his boots The Chinese are u.s.
~ ally small, and this might easily a
t. count for the smallness Of the hand j.;
a. shown by YOU: cast: These are tt
er pros and cons of the only clue that SUI
n gests itself to me. By the way, Mai
1t land, it a shame we did not try b
r. fore it was too late, to track this fe
1T low down with dog.''
ly "Ah,V he replied, Hthere is anoth
to little thing I have not told you. Aft
le you had left the house with. Miss Da
N row on the night Of the murder, al
n, all the servants had retired: / locke
I'd the parlor securely and quietly slippe
n out to look about a bit. AS you kno7
as the moon was very bright and any o
G. iect moderately near was plainly vi
ne ible T went around to the eastern sit
ne of the house, where the prints Of tt
s. hand and boards were found, and e
q amined them with extreme care. VIII
81 1 particularly wished to learn was t.
tn direction taken by the assassin as :
E: left the house and the point ct viii
TX he had removed the boards from b
Ed feet. The imprints Of the boards we
ne clearly discernible 50 far as the loo
us gravel extended. but beyond that not
~. ing could be discovered. I sat dov
IL and pondered over the matter. I b
IS about concluded to drive two nails in
Ia the heels Of my boots to enable me
m distinguish my own footprints from a.
~ other trail I might intersect, and the
us starting with the house as center,
Ia, describe an involute about it in t
:or hope Of being able. to detect some o
ret or more points where my course cross
re- that of the assassin, when / RENE
no bered that my friend Burwell, who
lp- Uncle Tom g Cabin combination rece1
ne ly stranded at Brockton, was at hon