Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-06-24
Martin Hewitt,
 Investigator.
The Affair of the
 Tortoise.
By ARTHUR MORRISON.
Published by Arrangement With
 Harper & Brothers.

v FIERY often Hewitt was tempted
 " by the fascination of some par
 ticularly odd case to neglect his
 - other affairs to follow up a
 matter that from a business point of
 view was of little or no value to him.
 As rule. he had sufficient regard for
 his own interests to resist such tempta-
 lions, but in one curious case, at least
 believe he allowed it largely to in
 f1uence him. "There is nothing in this
 world that is at all possible" I have
 often heard Martin Hewitt say that
 has not happened or is not happening
 in London"
 The case I have referred to occurred
 some time before my own acquaint-
 ance with him began. He had called
 one Monday morning at an office in re-
 gard to one of his cases, when he was
 informed of most mysterious murder
 that had taken place in another part
 of the same building on the previous
 Saturday afternoon.
 The building was one of new row
 In partly rebuilt street near the Ma
 tional gallery. The whole TOW had
 been built by speculator for the pur- poses of letting out in flats, suits of chambers and, in one or two cases on the ground floors, offices. The rooms had let very we'll and to desirable ten ants as a rule. The least satisfactory
 tenant, the proprietor reluctantly ad- mitted, was a Mir. Rameau, a negro, single, who had three rooms on the top floor but one of the particular building that Hewitt was visiting. His rent was paid regularly, but his behavior had produced complaints from other tenants. He got uproariously drunk and screamed and howled in unknown tongues. He fell asleep on the stair case, and ladies were afraid to pass. He bawled rough chaff down the stairs and along the corridors at butcher boys and messengers and played on errand boys brutal practical jokes that ended in police court summonses. He once had way of sliding down the balustrade shouting "Ho! ho! ho! yahw as he went, but as he was a big, heavy man and the balustrade had been built for different treatment, he had very soon and very firmly been requested to stop it. He had plenty of money and spent it freely; but it was generally felt that there was too much of the light hearted savage about him.
 How much longer the landlord would have stood this sort of thing, Hewitt's informant said, was a matter of con lecture. for on the Saturday afternoon in question the tenancy had come to a startling full stop. Rameau had been murdered in his room. and the body had disappeared in the most unac- countable fashion. b.EE
 The strongest possible suspicion pointed to a man who had been en- ployed in shoveling and carrying coals, cleaning windows and chopping wood for several of the buildings and who had left that very Saturday. The crime had, in fact. been committed with this mans chopper. and the man himself had been heard again and again to threaten Rameau, who in his brutal fashion had made a butt of him. This man was a little Frenchman, Victor Goujon by name, who had lost his em- p!oyment as a watchmaker by reason of an injury to his right hand.
 There was a tortoise living in the basement, of which Goujon had made rather pet. and the negro would sometimes use this animal as a mis- sile, fiinging 1t at the little French mans head. On one such occasion the tortoise struck the wall so forcibly as to break its shell, and then Goujon seized a shovel and rushed at his tor mentor with such blind fury that the latter made q bolt of it.
 Gouion, after correspondence with a in France who offered him work, gave notice to leave. which ex- pired on the day of tho crime. At about that afternoon a housemaid proceeding toward Rameau's room met Goujon as he was going away. Gou- jon bade her goodby and. pointing in the direction of Raneau's rooms. said exultantly, "Dere shall be 10 more of tie black pig for me: vit in I ave done for" And he went away.
 The girl went to the outer door of Rameau's rooms. knocked and got no reply. Concluding that the tenant was put, she was about to use her keys when she found that the door was un. locked. She passed through the lobby i and into the sitting room and there fell | In dead faint at the sight that met . her eyes. Rameau lay with his back . across the sofa and his head dropping within an inch of the ground. On the lead was a fearful gash, and below , t.was a pool of blood.
 The girl must have lain unconscious | Tor about ten minutes. When she I ,ame to her senses she dragged her self, terrified. from the room and up to Inc hOusekeeper's apartments. where. being an excitabIe and nervous crea- lure. she only screamed Murder and fell fin a fit of mysteries hat lasted three-quarters of an hour. When at last she came to herself. she old her story. and. the hall porter having been summoned. Rsmeau's 'conls were again approached.
 The blood still lay on the floor. and he chopper. with which the crime had evidently been committed. rested against the fender. but. the body had -anisbe,i, \ search was at once made. put no trace of if could be seen any where. It seemed impossible thst 1t ,Ould have been carried out Of the