The San Francisco call., 1905-03-12

I found very quickly that the late la
rnented Oldacre was a pretty consid-
erable bIackguard. The father was
away in search Of his son. The moth
er was at home--a little, fluffy, blue
eyed person, in a tremor Of fear
and indignation. OF course, she you'd
not admit even the possibility of his
guilt. But she would not express
either surprise or regret over the fate
OF Oldacre. On the contrary, she
spoke of him with such bitterness that
she was unconsciously considerably
strengthening the case of the police,
for. of course, if her son had heard
her speak of the man in this fashion,
it would predispose him toward hatred
and violence. He was more like
malignant and cunning ape than hu-
man being said she, and he always
was. ever since he was a young man.
You knew him at that time:'
said L.
Yes, 1 knew him we'll, in fact, he
was an old suitor of mine. Thank
heaven, that L had the sense to turn
away from him and to marry better.
if poorer, man. was engaged to him,
Mr.. Holmes, when / heard of shock
ing story of how he had turned cat
loose in an aviary, and 1 was so hor-
rified at this brutal cruelty that l
would have nothing more to do with
him. She rummaged in a bureau and
presently she produced photograph
OF a woman, shamefully defaced and
mutilated with a knife. That is my
own photograph" she said. He sent
it to me in that state, with his curse,
upon my wedding morning
Well said I. at least he has for
given you now, since he has left all
his property to your son.
Neither my son nor / want any
thing from Jonas Oldacre, dead or
alivei' she cried, with a proper spirit.
There is God in heaven, Mr..
Holmes, and that same God who has
punished that wicked man will show,
iu his own good time. that my sons
hands are guiltless of his blood.
well. 1 tried one or two leads, but
could get at nothing which would help
cur hypothesis and several points
which would make against it. gave
it uD at last and off I went to Nor
wood.
This place, Deep Dene House, is a
big modern villa of staring brick,
standing back in it's own grounds,
with a laurel-clumped lawn in front
OF it. To the right and some distance
back from the road was the timber
yard which had been the scene of the
fire. Here's a rough plan on leaf OF
my notebook. This window on the
left is the one which opens into Old
acres room. You can look into it from
the road, you see. This is about the
only bit of consolation 1 have had to-
day. Lestrade was not there, but his
head constable did the honors. They
just found a great treasure trove. They
had spent the morning raking among
the ashes of the burned woodpile, and,
besides the charred orgaNic remains.
they had secured several discolored
metal disks. / examined them with
care, and there was no doubt that
they were trousers Buttons. even
distinguishes tnat one of g6gas
marked with tie nafe OF r. IS,
who was oldgcre's t8lor.efr a4hen
worked the i3wfl Vss - sJ9iy for
signs and II aces, out mis-, sse;fglls ,srrss
made every tlsins SIS as4r6 s. a. fil.
Nothing W. So ee seer 49, ,Ra 4
some body L4nte haG hs.A Stss9 ~
through a l'w Pr lsat s<sa fsbAeh -
in line with the NooEplit f9tB tnSt,
of course, fl in VS., * 7lf' E.4seial
theory. / ciewiea 80ul rae lfe
with an Augtas{ SCR o. rny back. bat
1 got up at he erd q IA hour nQ
wiser than before.
We'll, after this ll&sco L went into
the bedroom and examined that also.
The blood-stains were very slight,
mere smears and discolorations, but
undoubtedly fresh. The stick had
been removed. but there also the
marks were slight. There is no doubt
about the stick belonging to our client.
He admits it. Footmarks Of both
men could be made out on the carpet,
but none of any third person, which
again is a trick for the other side.
They were piling up their score all
the time, and we were at a standstill.
"Only one little CLEAN of hope did I
get-and yet IL amounted to nothing.
I examined the contents of the safe,
most of which had been taken out and
left on the table. The papers had
been made UP into sealed envelopes,
one or two of which had been opened
bv the police. They were not, so far
as I could judge, of any great value,
nor did the handbook show that Mr..
Oldacre was in such very affluent cir
cumstances. But it seemed to me that
all the papers were not there. There
were allusions to some deeds-pos-
sibly the more valuable-which L
could not find This, of course, if we
could definitely prove it, would turn
Lestrade's argument against himself;
for who would steal a thing if he
knew that he would shortly inherit it?
Finally, having drawn every other
cover and picked up no scent, I tried
my luck with the housekeeper. Mrs.
Lexington is her nane-a little, dark.
silent person. with suspicious and
sidelong eyes. She could tell US
something if she would am con-
vinced Of it. But she was as close as
wax. Yes she had let Mr.. McFar-