Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-24

who carried Rarneau's body awayr'
= 0 W deuce you haveI Whsrs7 Bring him
An right don't be in q hurry: he won't
bolf- Ans Hewitt stepped OFT to the cab
ana produced his prisoner, who, pulling ks
ma. farther over his eyes. hurried furtiveiy
the breast CT his long coat, and below the
wide brim OF his hat a small piecs of white
bandage conld be seen. and, as he lifted bis
Inspector Nettings." Hewitt said cere-
moniously. ALLOW me to introduces Mr..
Cesar Raineau.'
MEETINGS gasped.
WHAT" he at length calculated. 'sWhat!
You-you're Rameau?"
The negro rocked round nervously. and
shrank farther from the door.
Yes, ne said; '.but please not SO loud
please not 30 loud. ley may De near. and
I'm 'fraid."
You will certify. will you not" asked
Hewitt. with malicious glee. mot only that
Victor Goujon, but that in fact. you were
not murdered at all? Also, that you carried
your own oody away in the usual fashion.
on your own legs"
Yes. yes." responded Rameau looking
haggartlly about: but is not zis-zis room
publique? should not be seen"
NONSENSE replied Hewitt rather
testify: you exaggerate your danger and
your own Importance, and your enemies
abilities as well. You're safe enough"
Il suppose. them MEETINGS remarked
slowly, like man on whose mind some
thing vast was beginning to dawn, II sup
pose-why, hang it. you must have just
got up while that fool Of girl was
screaming and fainting upstairs. and walk
ed out. They say there's nothing SO hard
as niggers SKULL and yours has GER
tainly made fool of me. But. then, some
body must have chopped you over the head;
who was 1t To-
My enemies-my great enemies-enemies
politique. / am a great man'-this with a.
faint revival of vanity amid his fear-a
great man in my countree ley have great
secret cub-sieties to kill meme and my
fren's; and one enemy coming in my rooms
does zis-one, two"-he indicated wrist and
head-"wiz choppa."
Rameau made the case plain to Net
tings, so far as the actual circumstances
of the assault on himself were concerned
A negro whom he had noticed near the
place more than once during the previous
day or two had attacked him suddenly In
his rooms, dealing him two savage blows
with chopper The hrst ne had1 caught
on his wrist, which was seriously damaged.
as we'll as overwhelmingly painful. but the
second had taken effect on his head. His
assailant had evidently gone away then.
leaving him for dead; but; as a matter
Of fact. he was only stunned by the shock.
and had. thanks to the adamantine thick
ness of the negro skull and the ill-directton
Of the chopper. only very bad scalp
wound, the bone being no more tnan
grazed He had lain insensiple for some
time, and must have come to his senses
soon after the housemaid had left the
ROOM Terrified at the knowledge that his
enemies had found him out, his only
thought was to get away and hide him
self He hastily washed and tied up his
head. enveloped himself in the biggest coat
he could find and let himself down into the
basement by the coal lift, for fear OF OBJ
servation. He waited in the basement OF
one of the adjoining buildings till DARK ana
then got away in cab, with the luea VI
hiding himself in the East End. he mao
IL vrrff
fight. and it was by reason OF this circum,
stance that Hewitt, when he found him, hao
prevailed on him to leave his hlding place,
since 1t would be impossible for him 10
touch any of the large sums OF money III
the keeping of his bank SO long as ne was
supposed to be dead. With much diincuity'
and the promise of ample police protection,
he was at last convinced that ~ Wou.o
he ga fe to declare himself and get his prop
erty, and then run away and moe Wherever
he pleased -, .or..har
for a few minutes and ehatted, leaving tne
wretched Rameau to cover IN corner
among several policemen.
well, Mr.. Hewitt" MEETINGS said. tins
case has certainly been shocking Deatinf
for me- 1 must have been as biind as Das
when I started on 1t. And yet I don't see
that you had q deal to go on, even now.
What struck you first?'
well. In the beginning 1t seemed rather
odd to me that the body should have oeen
the written paper had been pinned on II.
Why should the murderer pin label on the
body of his victim IL he meant carrying
that body away2 Who would read the label
and learn of the nature of the revenge graf
flied? Plainly, that indicated that the per-
son who had carried away the BODY was not
the person who had committed the murder
But as soon as I began to examine the
place 1 saw the probability that there was
no murder, after all There were any num-
Der of indications of this fact, and can't
understand your not observing them. First,
although there was a good deal or blood on /.
the floor just below where the housemaid
had seen Rameau lying, there was none be-
tween that place and the door. Now. IL the
body had been dragged. or even carried, to
the door, the blood must have become
smeared about the floor. or at least there
would have been drops. but there were
none. and this seemed to hint that the
corpse might have come to itself. sat UP on
the sofa. stanched the wound and walked
out. l reflected at once that Rameau was
full-blooded negro. and that negros head
is very nearly invulnerable to anything
short of bullets. Then. II the body had been
dragged out-as such a heavy body must
have been-almost Of necessity the carpet
and rugs would have shown signs Of the
fact, but there were no such signs. But be-
black overcoat was left with the other
clothes. although the housekeeper distinctly
Rameaus possession Of such a
garment. / judged he would use some such
lining W dSSlSl OiSSulSe, WHICH was why
asked her. Why he would want to dis
guise was plain, as you shall see presently
There were no towels left in the bath room:
Inference. used for bandages Everything
seemed to show that the only person re-
sponsible for Rameau's removal was RAJ
meau himself. Why. then. had he gone
away secretly and hurriedly, without max
ing complaint, and why had he STAYED
away? What reason would he have for
doing this IL it had been GouJon that
had attacked him? None. Goujon was
going to France. Clearly. Rameau was
afraid of another attack from some inn
placable enemy whom he was anxious
to avoid-one against whom he feared
legal complaint or defense would be use
less. This brought me at once to the pa
per found on the floor If this were the
work of Goujon and an open reference to
his tortoise. why should he be at such
pains to disguise his handwriting? He
would have been already pointing HIM
self out by the mere mention of the tor
toise. And. ii he could not avoid a
shake in his natural, small handwriting.
how could he have avoided 1t In a large,
clumsy. slowly drawn. assumed hand?
No, the paper was not Goujon's"
las to the writing on the paper" Net
tings interposed. I've told you how
made that mistake. 1 took the readiest
explanation Of the words since they
seemed so pat. and I wouldn't let any
thing else outweigh that. AS to the