Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-03-29
DAILY SHORT STORY
CAPTURED BY DEDUCTION.


pen In the town of Brinley, England.
The place is town of about 5000 in
habitants. 1t has several manufacture
ing plants and public institution that
will be mentioned later on. One morn
ing the owner of n livery stable woke
up to find that eleven of the thirteen
horses he had to hire had been ham
strung and rendered useless during the
night.
The next night two cows in the barn
of citizen had their threats cut. On
the third night n horse in a pasture ia
the suburbs was stabbed to death. On
the fourth night an old woman living
alone in the town was dubbed to
death. on the fifth night there was an
incendiary fire that did $4,000 worth
of damage.
The reader may we'll believe that
these things stirred up great excite
ment. The local police were busy. and
the newspapers demanded arrests, but
no results were attained. 1t might
have been figured that the Hveryman
had an enemy who was determined on
his ruin but for the fact that the other
crimes seemed to have been committed
by the same hand. The man who killed
the horse in pasture certainly had no
Crudge against the owners of the cows.
And why should the man who set the
fire want to kill the old woman?
"A Fiend Abroad was the heading
of the newspapers, and it certainly
seemed to fit the character of the I'M
| known He appeared to he imbued
with the idea of destruction, and it
mattered not what he came to. There
was such excitement over the outbreak
that citizens to the Number of hun
dred turned out as patrol. On the
| fourth night. with Il policeman or Citi-
| zen at every corner. the unknown ruin
ed memorial windows in two churches,
lie threw stones through the windows
| of several residences, he broke down
two lamp posts and he assaulted citi-
zen in his own yard.
The chief of police and two detec
| tives had to go to satisfy popular
clamor. and the city sent to London
for Scotland Yard detective to come
down He came and looked the ground
over and heard all the details and then
announced that it was the work OF
some tramp who wanted revenge for
| being sent to Jail or the workhouse.
He was shown that there had been
great craft and cunning exercised, and
lie was asked how Il tramp could hang
around the town so long, but he had
made up his mind and wouldn't change
it, More than fifty suspects" were ar
rested within Il week. but within an
other all were discharged. The detec-
tive was not cast down over this fact
He simply used it to further his views.
| He had not caught the man he was
after. but the hullabaloo had certainly
driven the fellow out of that part of
| England, and he would be heard of no
more He was working on the case for
Il month. and, though he accomplished
nothing, the town had to be satisfied.
Another three months passed by
without hearing from the ''fiend." Then
he broke out again. In raiding around
the town for four nights he destroyed
$4,000 worth of public property, burn
| ed two barns, killed two donkeys. de-
! faced the doors of the town hall and
assaulted the Waterman of a private
| bank. The Waterman heard some one
! fumbling at the door at midnight and
| opened it to see who was there. He
was struck from behind with an iron
bar. and. though knocked senseless. the
thickness of his hat saved him. No one
| had entered the bank while he lay I'M
| conscious. 4 great public howl went
up and had suspicion pointed TO any
particular person there would have
been Il lynching after the latest Ameri-
can fashion. While things were seeth-
| ing Il salesman in Il dry goods store sat
down to reason the case to himself,
and he reasoned as follows:
1.-THE crimes have been too numerous
to point to revenge as the motive. Pub
| lie as well as private property has
suffered Had only one tombstone
been thrown down we could say that
the ghoul wanted to show his hatred
for one dead person. but he threw
down those at the graves OF men, wo-
men and children to the number of
twenty-five. 1t is doubtful if he knew
or had ever heard of the people he as
saulted. A man might be hired TO
burn a building so that the owner
could get the insurance, but would
the same man on the same night kill
horses or cows or ruin shade trees and
statuary? There can be no connec
| ton between running memorial Win
dows and assaulting Il citizen living
two miles away The crimes are COM
| mitted at intervals of about three
months. 1t would seem as if the man
had periodical outbreaks. Some Of his
| doings have been absolutely silly and
freakish, as tipping over the beehives,
for instance. while others have been
of q frenZied character. This plainly
shows the mind of a person who is
off We have an insane asylum here.
Suppose this 'fiend' to be patient who
has found a way of escaping when
ever he wishes. The craft and cunning
of the 'fiend' would be the craft and
cunning of a lunatic."
Don't you see how easy it was? De
duction was worth more than the
whole police force, The salesman went
to the mayor and stated his case, three