The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1905-09-08

Otnef Things anu duiuAftN tHt ehA4H,
Nevertheless. / noticed three loaded
reyolvers on the pieces of furniture, as
If this man lived in constant dread 81
attack.
Il went to see Sir John Rowen
many times after that; then for some
time l did not go. We had become ae-
customed to his presence; he had be-
come indifferent to us,
Killed ia the Night.
"a whole year slipped away. Then
one morning, toward the end Of No
vember, my servant awoke me with
the announcement that Sir John RoWell
had been assassinated in the night,
"a half hour later / entered the
Englishman's house, with the central
commissary and the captain of police.
The servant, lost in despair, was weep
ing at the door. l suspected him at
first, but afterward found that he was
innocent.
1.-THE guilty one was never found.
"Upon entering Sir Johns drawing
room, l perceived his herculean body
stretched out upon its back dead-in
the middle Of the room. His waist
coat was torn, a sleeve was hanging,
aud it was evident that q terrible
struggle had taken place.
"The Englishman had been stran-
gled His frightfully black and
swollen face seemed to express an aW-
full fear; he held something between
his set teeth and his neck, pierced
with five holes, apparently with q
pointed iron, was covered with blood.
"A doctor joined us. He examined
closely the prints Of fingers in the
flesh, and pronounced these strange
words:
s'one would think he had been
strangled by skeleton
"A shiver ran down my spine and
cast my eyes to the place on the wall
where had seen the horrible torn-otf
hand. 1t was gone! The chain was
broken and dangling.
''Then / bent over the dead man and
found in his mouth a piece of one of
the fingers of the missing hand, cut
off, or rather sawed off by the English
mans teeth, exactly at the second joint.
s'Then they tried to collect evidence.
They could find nothing. No door had
been forced, no window opened, or
piece of furniture moved. The two
watch-dogs on the premises had not
been aroused.
ssHere, in a few words. is the depo-
sition of the servant:
HFor a month his master had seemed
agitated. He had received many letters
which he had burned Immediately.
Often, taking whip, he had struck
H., f,,rxy ftfcT driad hand factnuad m
the wall. ssA~Nrsea%
"He had retired late and shut him
self in with care. He always carried
arms. Often in the night he talked
out loudly, as though fighting with
some one. On that night, however,
there had been no noise, and it was
only on coming to open the windows
hat the servant had found Sir John
lssassinated.
some night three months after the
crime, / had frightful nightmare. I'll
seemed to me that | saw that hand,
hat horrible hand, running like a
scorpion along my curtains and my
walls. Three times / awoke in af-
right; three times / fell asleep and
lgain saw that hideous relic galloping
lbout my room, moving Its fingers like
Jaws.
''The next day they brought it to
ne, found IN the cemetery upon the
omh where Sir John Rowell was In
they had not been able to
ind his family. The index finger was
HThis, ladies, is my story. ! know
10 more about it,"
The ladies were terrified, pale and
One of them cried:
"But that is not the end, for there
vas no explanation We can not sleep |
{ you do not tell us what was your
dea or the reason of it all"
The magistrate smiled with severity, |
md answered:
"Ohl certainly ladies; but it will |
poll all your terrible dreams. / sim |
'ly think that the legitimate pro-
rietor of the hand was not dead ana
hat he came for it with the one that
to him. But | was never
BILE to find out how he did it. 1t was /
ne kind of revenge"