Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-22
The Armcliffe Puzzle
Continued from page 8


feared. In any case, Lester would not
have permitted considerations of Ell
quette to interfere with his determination
to take charge of the case. If much junior
to DR.. Smalley in years, he was as greatly
his senior in qualifications, and he let
the local practitioner understand plainly
that he was to act as helper and obey
orders. An immediate operation offered
the only hope of saving Anglers life,
and that operation Lester performed,
with only DR.. Smalley and Simpson the
valet, in the bedroom to which the elderly
solicitor was carried at the first alarm.
Detective Brading was in no way sur
prised that a fresh crime should follow
on the heels of Lord Arncliffe's murder.
The suspicion he had entertained against
Edith was strengthened rather than
weakened by the attack on her trustee.
Of course, this was no womans work,
but the all-important question of motive
was, to his thinking as clear in the one
case as in the other. He saw, however,
that things had scarcely yet reached a
point where an arrest would be justified,
nor was he entirely anxious to make an
arrest at this stage, since Gagged criminal
is effectually prevented from adding to
the evidence against himself, or herself,
unless indeed he, or she, is obliging
enough to confess
But now that Anglers authority was
no longer available, Brading asserted
himself strongly upon one point. I'm
obtrusively, yet none the less effectively,
he took over the superintendent of
affairs at the Hall. One of his first acts
was to exercise strict personal censor
ship over everybody and everything that
entered Anglers room. 1t seemed that
a search for the murderer of Lord Arm
cliffe and for Anglers assailant would
involve only single quest, and Brading
was resolved that no combination of
beef-tea and misapplied science should
interfere with the lawyers chance of
recovery. With the exception of Mrs.
Angler and the medical attendants, no
one, in fact, was admitted to the sick
room, pending the arrival of trained nurses.
Angler recovered consciousness di-
rectly the portion of bone pressing on his
brain was raised. Though he remained
in weak state, his mind was perfectly
clear, and he had not the slightest idea
as to how or by whom he had been
attacked.
This was a sore disappointment to the
detective, who, however, limited strongly
to inquirers that Angler had been able
to give an important clue bearing upon
the identity of his assailant. Brading's
theory was, of course, that he would be
able to judge by demeanor if any of the
household were concerned in the crime.
This notion was shrewd enough under
certain conditions; its weak spot was that
he did not allow for the possibility that
he might have master mind opposed
to his own.
Harry Warren or indeed any ordinary
assassin. would probably have made
tacit confession by an immediate flight
in the direction of the nearest seaport.
But Mrs. Warren was on guard over her
son, and she paid the detective the COM
pliment of supposing that he was not
such a novice in his profession as to take
all and sundry into his confidence if he
had, indeed, discovered anything.
CO. 4