The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-03-06
By MAPYR.P. HATCH.
Author OF
"The Bank Tragsdy."

]
"Who is Pierre?" asked Swan.
"Pierre drowndeed."
yes: Pierre was drowned at Grove
dale with three others Italians said
the boss. walking with Swan to a
little distance. "They went across the
river for liquor, and the boat upset
and they We're all drowned"
What sort of man was Pierre?"
THE worst of the gang" said the
boss. They are a murderous set, too.
/ would rot have them, but the corpor-
alton get them cheap and they work
| well. The four men that were drown
ed were buried in the dump by the
| others without any more ceremony
than would go to the covering up of
a dead horse. 1 tried to have them
make box. but they would not until
l threatened them with a discharge.
| They made two, at last, and put two
men in each and buried them SO. They
are a bad lot"
Would they kill a man, do you
think?"
yes, if they were not afraid of be.
ing found out. They value life no
| more than a pebble"
| AS can easily be imagined, Swans
/ Investigations were made with i'm
| mense difficulty, the Italians retreat
1 ing into ignorance. either real or as
| sumed, as a turtle does to its shell,
| whenever the questioning grew
| troublesome. But at last Swan became
| convinced that they really knew very
little about the matter. his practised
| eyes discerning no signs of actual
guilt. and che was forced to believe
! that if any of the gang assaulted
| Hamilton it must have been Pierre
| and his companions who were drowned
and this was the opinion of the boss.
| The man who had the button, and
| which he sold to Swan for small
sum, at last confessed that he stole
| it from Pierre the day previous to the
drowning, and that Pierre showed it to
| him and said he found it by the river
/ bank the Friday before.
BY dint of vigorous questioning, con-
| sulting with the boss and other labor
| ers, Swan discovered that the place
where Pierre said he found the button
was at or near the spot where the
cap was found. and that the Friday
| before the drowning of Pierre and his
| companions was the twenty-fourth of
May.
Here was something defingtei but
| seemingly of but little consequence.
No amount of investigation could
bring forward anything further to
| throw light on the matter, and Swan
was forced at last to go back to Grove
| dale with the modicum of information
| couched in the above words.
well. that is something" said Tony
when told of it.
Something, yes" said Swan, slight
ingly; but am suspicious of it, after
ALL"
"suspicious?"
Yes: it looks to me as if the two
buttons and the cap were dropped
where they would be likely to be dis
| covered by some person, who did it
| to indicate a false scent"
Tony looked startled.
II never thought of that" he said.
You think, / see, that Hamilton did
| not go to the bank, but some other
| person did, who dropped the button
| there and on the river-bank, throwing
| the cap there, also, to prove, what?"
Either suicide or murder
Suicide if 1t was Hamilton, murder
| if it was not"
Swan nodded.
| "Why?"
TOO much clew; two buttons, mates,
| and a cap, all marked, are too much.
| l am suspicious of them
1T does look a. little that way; but
| / am certain of one thing"
What is that?"
ut was Hamilton who came to the
bank"
Then he may have planned the mat
/ Ter TO look ike pTODdbly ulu,
I if he ran away with another woman.
| Or if innocent, he was followed, robbed,
| button and cap left on the bank, and
| he spirited away somewhere"
"Or sunk in the river" said Tony.
| Eyes, or sunk in the river. / have
taken means to have it thoroughly
| searched this week, and then we shall
! know, but l incline to the belief that
the Italians had nothing to do in the
| matter"
On the day following this conversa-
| ton the search began. The river was
| dragged as far as the falls, where it
| was impossible a body could remain,
| and far below the falls. 1t continued
three days, and at the end of that time
decomposed body was found, with a
few rags clinging to it, but nothing
about it which could lead to recogni-
ton. 1t was a frightful sight, and
| Constance was not called upon to iden-
tify it, as many of the bank officers
| and Mr.. Carter himself said that there
would not be the slightest use in do
ing so. So Constance was spared the
narrowing scene and encouraged to be-
lieve the body could not be that Of her
husband, particularly as it was dis
covered that fifth Italian had been
missed from his gang one night, and
philosophically left to his fate by his
companions, though they believed him
to have been drowned. This informal
ton was received through the boss to
whom Swan wrote for information.
| Nevertheless, the body was decent
ly buried at the expense of Mrs. Ham
ilton, though not in the family lot, and
Constance, with a new doubt eating
into her already troubled heart, felt as
if all efforts in calculating the mys-
terry of her husbands disappearance
only made it denser, more unfathom-
able.