The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-11-16
The Roupell Mystery

beds had not been slept in. Evidently
Miss Harriet Weldon and NJ. Chabot had
not retired, and they were the only two
persons in the chateau except Nine. Rou-
pell herself who had not done SO.
Il will assume for the purpose of ar
gument that NJ. Jules Chabot is guilty.
he began, quietly talking to himself, as
| If he were some second party. Let me
first see whether there is sufficient mo-
tive for him to have committed-this crime
which young Van Lith so strenuously de-
MES. In the first place, who knows
anything about Monsieur Chabot? l do
not. and the mayor does not, for | have
asked him. Assume him to be fortune
hunter simply, and the motive grows
stronger. But why? Is it because he
is paying attention to the Mademoiselles
Weldon! Not entirely; but because as
long as Madame Roupell is alive, the
Mademoiselles Weldon do not succeed to
her fortune? Monsieur Chabot may have
killed Madame Roupell in order to Sc
cure to himself the fortune he was after.
And he may have contrived to throw sus-
picion upon Monsieur Van Lith, not only
for the purpose of diverting suspicion
from himself, but in order to rid himself
of a very dangerous rival. But why a
dangerous rivA, when there are two young
ladies, and Monsieur Van Lith cannot
marry both? Because there must be some
provision in Madame Roupells will by
which the first of her nieces marrying
will have the larger share of the estate.
And if such provision exists, it is not I'M
likely that a sharp, shrewd fellow like
this Chabot would have made himself
master of it's contents, for he is an init
mate friend of the family; and his rela-
lions must be almost confidential. This
is a mere theory, of course" concluded
the project to himself but in pursuance
of it, let us see how Monsieur Chabot
spent the hour which elapsed between his
retiring and the time of the murder"
He again entered the chamber which
had been occupied by Chabot, and with
his new theory thus in his mind looked
around him. He now sought to make
each triding incident reflect some suspi-
cion against the late occupant of the
chamber. He examined the bed clothes
with greater care this time. 1t was evil
dent that Chabot had not even lain
down outside of them. He looked under
the bedstead even, but espying nothing
but a bootjack, directed his attention
next to the toilette table. He was about
to despair, when his eye fell upon small
black object, not over a quarter of an
inch in length. He picked it up, and
found it was the broken point of lead
pencil. NJ. Chabot had evidently passed
the time in writing. The question was,
how much of the time?
According to the mayors written notes
of his examination of the inmates of the
chateau, an hour had certainly elapsed
between the time of Nine. Roupell's re-
firing and the sound of the pistol shot,
At what precise period of that interval
had the pencil point been broken? The
accident to the pencil had not occurred
at the time of the firing of the shot,
for if it had been caused by reason of the
writer's starting with surprise, he would
mot, naturally have taken time to put
away his writing materials before going
to ascertain the cause of the noise. He
must therefore have been thus employed
for only portion of the interval. The
question now uppermost in Victor La
blanche's mind was: How did Jules Cha
bot consume the rest of his time? If he
should fail to properly account for the
whole hour, there would be strong reasons
for holding him in custody.
Having revolved these matters in his
mind, the project of police arose from
the easy chair into which he had thrown
himself and approached the door leading
tom Jules Chabot's room to the cham
Der of Nine. Roupell. OF course it was
fastened, as by again referring to the
mayors notes it transpired that Jules
Chabot had entered the chamber by an
other way. Almost mechanically he seiz-
ed the handle and turned it. The door
was unlocked. When he had made these
discoveries he descended with a lighter
heart than he would otherwise have done.
Much would depend upon the evidence to
be ELECTED by himself and the testimony
to be taken before the judge of instruc-
ton.
He strolled out on the terrace to COM
plete his official inspection of the prem
Uses. He commenced his examination at
the back of the chateau. He went into
all the outhouses he visited the servants
of6ces-even the cellars and dairy. Then
he emerged again into the open air and
inspected the windows and searched
among the flower beds beneath them for
the prints of feet. Nothing, however, re-
warded this careful scrutiny, until cross
ing the lawn he went through an ancient
UNCOVERED archway and gained the front
of the building. Then his quick eye de-
tected that a shrub had been brushed
aside, and STOPPING on the graveled walk,
he discovered that a weed had been crush
ed beneath heavy foot. A little further
on he found further signs, and a little
later stood looking down upon a footprint
in the soft mold.
Following these footprints, he found
they led directly beneath the window of
the chamber occupied by Harriet Weldon.
This puzzled him. He was nonplussed
for the moment, when he noticed that
the vines on the lattice seemed lately to
have been disturbed. There was another
window below Miss Weldon's within easy
reach. He put up his hand, and it swung
open. Looking in he saw that it afforded
access to a small pantry, and the door of
the room was ajar. He took rule from
his pocket, and carefully measured the