The San Francisco call., 1905-04-09

son, knows nothing of this matter, and
l should be none the worse for hear
ing the sequence of events once more.
Just give us some short sketches of
the essentials" - s- 81
Stanley Hopkins drew slip of paper
from his pocket
Il have a few dates here which Will
give you the career of the dead man,
captain Peter Carey. Heswa born in
45-flfty years of age. He was a most
daring and successful seal and iWhaie
fisher. In 1888 he commanded. the steam
sealer Sea Unicorn, of Dundee He had
then had several successful voyages in
succession, and in the following year,
1854, he retired. After that he Travelled
tor some years, and finally he bought
small place called Woodman's Lee,
near Forest Row, in Sussex. There he
has lived for six years, and there he
died just a week ago to-day.
There were. some most singular
points about the man., In ordinary life
he was a strict Puritan-a silent,
gloomy fellow. His household consist
ed of his wife, his daughter, aged
twenty, and two female servants.
These last We're continually chang
ing, for it was never a very CHEEKY
situation and sometimes it became
past all bearing. The man. was an in
termittent drunkard, and when he had
the fit on him was a perfect -fiend. He
has been known to drive his wife and
daughter out of doors in the middle of
the night, and fog them through the
park until the whole village outside
the gates was aroused by their
screams.
He was summoned once for a. saw
age assault upon the old vicar, who
had called upon him to demonstrate
with him upon his conduct. In short,
Mr.. Holmes, you would go far before
you found a more dangerous man than
Peter Carey, and l have heard that he
bore the same character when he COM
manded his ship. He was known. in the
trade as Black Peter, and the. name
was given him, not only on account Of
his swarthy features and the color of
his huge beard, but for the humors
which. were the. terror of all around
him. I need not say that he was loath-
ed and avoided by. every one of his
neighbors and that / have not heard
one single word of sorrow about his
terrible end.
You must have read in the account
of the inquest about the man cabin,
Mr.. Holmes, but perhaps your friend
here has not heard of it. He had built
himself a wooded outhouse-f1e always
called it the 'cabin'-a few hundred
yards from his house, and it was here
that he slept every night. 1t was a lit
tie, single-roomed hut, sixteen feet by4
ten. He kept the key in his pocket,
made his own bed, cleaned it himself,
and allowed no other foot to cross the
threshold There are small windows on
each side, which were covered by cur
tains and never. opened. One of these
windows was turned toward the high
road, and when the light burned in 1t
at night the folk used to point 1t out
to each other and wonder what Black
Peter was doing in there. That's the
window, Mr. Holiness which gave us
one of the few bits of positive, evidence
that came out at the inquest.
You remember that a stonemason,
named Slater, walking from Forest
Row about one o'clock in the morning
two days before the murder-stopped
as he passed the grounds and looked
at the square of light still shining
among the trees. He swears tilatsth
shadow of mans head turned side
ways was clearly, visible on the blind,
and that this shadow was certainly not
that of Peter Carey, whom he knew
well. 1t was that of a bearded man,
but the beard was short and bristled
forward in way very different from
that or the captain. So he SAYS but
he had been two hours in the public
house. and it is some distance from the
road to the window. Besides, this re-
fers to the Monday. and the crime was
done upon the Wednesday,.
On the Tuesday, Peter Carey was in
one of his blacklist moods, flushed with
drink and as savage as dangerous
wild beast. He roamed about the
house, and the women ran for it when
they heard him coming. Late in the
evening he went down to his own hut
About two o'clock the following morn
ing his daughter. who slept with her
window open, heard a most fearful yell
from that direction, but it, was no
unusual thing for him to bawl, and