Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-27

! Our new friend. 1t seems. had himself
been prominent racing bicyclist a rev
years back. and was presently. at Hewitts
l request, exhibiting neat gold medal That
| hung at his watch guard. That was won,
he explained. in the old tall bicycle days,
| the days of bad tracks, when every racing
| cyclist carried cinder scars on his face
| from numerous accidents. He pointed to a
| blue mark on his forehead. which, he told
| us. was trick scar. and described bad
| fall that had cost him two teeth and broken
| others. The gaps among his teeth were
plain to he smiled.
Presently the waiter brought dessert, and
| the young man opposite took an apple.
Nut-crackers and a fruit knife lay on our
| side of the stand, and Hewitt turned the
| stf nd to offer him the knife.
No, thanks he said; Il only polish a
| good apple. never peel it. It's a mistake,
| except with thiok-skinned foreign ones
| And he began to MUNICH the apple only
\ boy or a healthy athlete can. Presently
he turned his head to order coffee. The
| walters back was turned, and he had to
| BE- called twice. To my unutterable amaze
| ment Hewitt reached swiftly across the
| table, snatched the half-eaten apple from
| the young mans plate and pocketed it,
| gazing Immediately. with an distracted air,
| at painted Cupid on the ceiling.
Our neighbor turned again, looked doubt
! fully at his plate and the tablecloth about
( 1t. and then shot keen glance in the direc-
! ton of Hewitt He said nothing, however.
| but took his coffee and his bill, delibera tely
| drank the former. gazing quietly at Hewitt
as he did it, paid the latter, and left.
Immediately Hewitt was on his feet and,
| taking an umbrella which stood near. fol-
| loved Just as he reached the door he met
| out late neighbor, who had turned suddenly
| back.
Your umbrella, 1 Think" Hewitt asked,
| offering it.
Yes, thanks" But the mans eve had
| more than Its former hardness, and his Jaw
| muscles frightened as l looked. He turned
ana went. Hewitt came back to me. Pay
| the Dill, he said, land go back to your
! rooms; VIII come on later. / must follow
| this man-its the Foggatt case" AS he
| went out | heard cab rattle away. and
| immedia tely after it another
| paid the bill and went home 1t was 10
O clock before Hewitt turned up, calling in
| at his office below on his way up to me-
MIR. Sidney Mason he said. sis the gen.
| teman the police will be wanting tomor-
row, expect. for the Foegatt murder. He
| is as smart a man as | remember ever
meeting, and has done me rather neatly
twice this evening"
You mean the man we sat oDnosite at
Luzattfs, of course ~
Yes l got his name OF course, from the
| reverse of that gold medal he was good
| enough to show me. But | fear he has
bllked me over the address. He suspected
me, that was plain, and left his umbrella
| by way of experiment to see if 1 were
watching him sharply enough to notice the
Gil Cumstance, ard to avail myself of it to
| follow him. | was hasty and fell into the
| and cabbed it after him. He has led me
pretty dance up and down London to-
night, and two cabbies have made quite a
stroke of business out of us. In the end he
entered a house of which, of course, I have
taken the address, but l expect he doesn't
live there. He is too smart a man to lead
me to his den; but the police can certainly
find something of him at the house he went
in at-and, | expect, left by the back way.
BY the way, you never guessed that simple
little puzzle as to how l found that this
was murder, did you? You see it now, of
coLrse?"
Something to do with that apple you
stole, l SUDpOse?"
Something to do with 1t? I should think
so, you worthy innocent. Just ring your
bell: Wen borrow Mrs. Clayton's sewing
machine oil again. On the night we broke
into Foggatt's room you saw the nutshells
and the bitten remains of an apple on the
SlCeboard and you remembered it; and yet
you couldn't see that in that piece of apple
possibly lay an important piece of evidence.
or course. | never expected you to have
arrived at any conclusion, as 1 had be-
cause l had ten minutes in which to eX
anime that apple, and to do what did with
it. But, at least, you should have seen the
possibility of evidence in it.
First, now, the apple was white. A
bitten apple, as you must have observed.
turns of a reddish brown color if left to
stand long. Different kinds of apples
brown with different raptdities, and the
| browning always begins al the core. This
is one or the twenty thousand tiny things
| that few people take the trouble to notice
but which it is useful for a an in my posi-
ton to know. y russell will brown quite
quickly The apple on the sideboard was
as near as l could tell, a Newtown pippin
or other apple of that kind, which will
brown at the core in from twenty minutes
to half an hour. and in other parts in a
quarter of an hour more. When we saw it.
Is was white. with barely tnge of brown
about the exposed core. Inference, some
body had been eating it fifteen or twenty
minutes before perhaps a little longer-an
II ference supported by the fact that 1t was
only partly eaten.
Il examined that apple and found II bore
marks of very irregular teeth. While YOU
were gone, l oiled it over and rushing
down to my rooms where L always have a
l I plaster of Paris handy for such work.
took mold of the part where the teeth
had left the clearest arks. l then re-
turned the apple to it's place for the police
to use If they thought fit. Looking at my
mold. 1t was plain that the person who
had bitten that apple had lost two teeth,
one at top and one below, not exactly op-
posite. but nearly so. The other teeth. al
though they would appear to have been
larry sound, were irregular in size and
line. Now. the dead man had as I saw n
very excellent set of false teeth regular
ana sharp, with none missing. Therefore
II was plain that somebody else had been
clcar?"
Quite! Go on"
Ihere were other differences TO be made
-,slghter, but all pointing the same way.
fof instance, a man of Foggatts age does
NOT, as a rule MUNICH an unpeeled annie
IKE school boy. Inference a Young man
and healthy. Why / came to the conclu-
sion That he was tall, active, a gynnast
and perhaps sailor. l have already told
you, when we examined the outside of Fog
gatts window. 1t was also pretty clear
that robbery was not the motive. since
rcthlng was disturbed, and that a friendly
conversation had preceded the murder-wit.
ness the drinking and the eating of the
apple whether or not the police noticed
tneSe Things ] can't say. If they had had
thelr best men on, they certainly would. |
mink; but the case, to a rough observer.
looked so clearly one of accident or sui
eide that possibly they didn't
AS SAID, after the inquest I was unable
10 devote any immediate time to the case
but resolved to keep my eyes open. The
man TO look for was tall, young strong and
active, with a very irregular set of teeth
tooth missing from the lower Jaw lust to
the lett or the center. and another from the
upper Jaw little farther still toward the
iett- He might possibly be a person I had
seen about the premises q have a GOOD
memory for faces), or of course. he possi-
bly, might not ''' p'''i-
Just before you returned from your bo1-
4