Ladysmith news. [volume] (Ladysmith, Wis.) 1906-1907, 1906-10-20
THE
Bl'angWyn Mystery

| greatly perturbed by this misfortune,
though he made much of his regret to
Miss Lees Aunt, and took his leave
with a proper aspect of detection.
ward the station whom should he see
but Truscott seated in his motor car
and tooling it slowly round the abrupt
curve from his own drive to the road
way.
"Aha!" said Truscott, waving one
hand toward him. Going to town?
Can I give you lift?"
"Why, thanks" said Alexis, "but
I'm not dressed for it"
Jump in," cried Truscott. "Tm not
a road hog. Ten miles an hour is my
pace, and you don't need to dress to
drive with me. Besides, you can
travel sheltered if you like. Antoine
can drive. Let me offer you cigar"
Alexis accepted the invitation, and
in another minute they were bowling
| smoothly toward London.
1--WE had rare sensation down
here on Saturday." said Truscott. Il
suppose you heard about it?"
Down here?" asked Alexis. II
| never read the papers. What was it?"
''It was a murder" Truscott an
swered. "My wife and l were sitting
in the grounds Saturday night just af-
ter dinner. Everything was calm and
peaceful as you can fancy. Moon ris-
| ing, nightingale singing, typical tran
| quill evening Two fellows stopped in
the lane ten yards away and began to
! talk in French. | read French, Of
course, but I don't follow it when it's
rapidly spoken. l made out that one
of them was begging and that the
other was refusing him, and that was
about ALL But suddenly one of them
let out a fearsome yell, and when l
rushed out into the lane there was a
great burly fellow lying in the moon
light stone dead"
'Heavens!" said Alexis. What an
adventurei"
"The country was secured for
miles," Truscott went on. 1--WE gave
warning at every railway station and
every police station in the neighbor-
hood, but the assassin was gone and
had left no trace behind. Amongst
other things a newspaper man is a
sort of merchant in murder. I've dis
pensed a good deal of criminal in
telligence in my time, but | was never
so near the actual fact before, and l
can assure you that it is really quite
scary kind of thing. My wife hasn't
got over it yet, and won't forget the
horror of it for some time, I'm afraid
who was the murdered MANI"
Alexis asked.
Mystery" said Truscott. Pure
mystery. It's the most amazing thing
in modern life that man can drop
out of existence like that and not be
missed People are always disappear
ing and being sought for, and lost in
darkness. But here's man muir
dered at ones door, the fact adver-
tised in a thousand journals the world
over, the dead mans photograph cir
c,llated broadcast by the illustrated
papers, and not soul found to identi-
fly him. Now that man must have
lived a curious isolation. l made out
that he had come down by train from
London. Scores Of people must have
seen him, unless he had the gift OF
fern-seed. He needn't have been long
in London, of course, and he may have
been the merest bird of passage, but
it's an odd thing that nobody comes
forward to say, That's So and So"
Yes Alexis assented. tits very
odd"
This" said Truscott, drawing forth
a pocketbook and searching among its
contents, lis the photograph we print
ed of him in the Record. It's a strik-
ing likeness, and don't think anybody
who had known the man could fail to
recognize him from it."
Alexis took the photograph from
Truscott's hand and looked at it. He
gave ever so little a start when his
glance first fell upon it, but Truscott
was setting the contents of his pocket
book in order, and did not notice.
When he looked up Alexis was study
luS IuC lave WILL OH C1lI vi AAINA Wv
The body Of the murdered man lay
upon a table, and to the waist it was
covered with sheet which had ap-
parently been turned down from the
face by the photographer. The eyes
were closed, and the man looked
asleep. There was no pain or passion
in his aspect. Alexis turned the little
picture sideways so as to set the re-
cumbent figure upright, and sat look
ing at it for long time with his head
thoughtfully on one side.
EYES," he said at last, handing it
back again; "it looks strangely life
like, don't you think? It's a character
istic face. There's a sort of vulgar
force in it. One wouldn't have liked
to have had that man for master.
You wouldn't have cared to feel that
you were in his power. Look at the
mouth and jaw; very pitiless, don't
| you think?"
| tM'yeS." said TruscOtt. you're a