Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-06-29
.'But are they sufficient evidencew

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 had scarcely sat down to my break
 fast or the following morning wher
 Hewitt came into the room and put [
 long letter before me.
 From our friend of last night" he said. Read it."
 This letter began abruptly and un
 dated and was as follows:
 "To Martin Hewitt, Esq:
 "Sir-I must compliment you on the
 adroitness you exhibited this evening
 in extracting from me my name. The
 address was able to balk you of for
 the time being. although by the time
 you read this you will probably have
 found it through the law list, as I am
 an admitted solicitor. That, however,
 will be of little use to you, for I am
 removing myself, think, beyond the
 reach even of your abilities of search. I knew you well by sight and was
 perhaps foolish to allow myself to be
 drawn as I did. Still I had no idea
 that 1t would be dangerous, especially
 after seeing you as witness with
 very little to say at the Inquest upon
 the scoundrel shot Your somewhat
 discourteous seizure of my apple at
 first amazed me-indeed, was a little
 doubtful as to whether you had really
 taken it-but 1t was my first warning
 that you might be playing a deep
 game against me, incomprehensible as
 the action was to my mind. I subse-
 quently reflected that I had been eat
 ing an apple, instead of taking the drink he first offered me, in the dead
 wretch's rooms on the night he came
 to his merited end. From this I as- sume that your design was in some way to compare what remained of the two apples, although I do not presume to fathom the depths of your detective system.
 T do not know by whom you are commissioned to hunt me, nor to what extent you may be acquainted with my connection with the creature l killed. I have sufficient respect for you, how ever, to wish that you should not re- gard me as vicious criminal, and d couple of hours to spare in which to offer you an explanation that may per suade you that such is not altogether the case. A nasty and violent temper l admit possessing, but even now I cannot regret the one crime it has led me into-for it is, suppose, strictly speaking, a crime-for 1t was the man Foggatt who made felon of my ia ther before the eyes of the world and killed him with shame. It was he who murdered my mother and none the less murdered her because she died of a broken heart. That he was also thief and hypocrite might have con cerned me little but for that.
 "Of my father I remember very lit tie. He must, I fear, have been a weak and incapable man in many re- spects. He had no business abilities in fact, was quite unable to under stand the complicated business mat ters in which he largely dealt. Fog gait was a consummate master of all those arts of financial jugglery that make so many fortunes and ruin so many others In matters of company promoting, stocks and shares. He was unable to exercise them, however, be- cause of a great financial disaster in which he had been mixed up a few years before and which made his name one to be avoided in future. In these circumstances he made sort of secret and informal partnership with my fa- ther, who, ostensibly alone In the busl- ness, acted throughout on the direc- tions of Foggatt, understanding as lit tie of what he did-poor, simple man as schoolboy would have done. The carried on went from small to large And unhappily from hon orable to 'dlIhonorable. In brief, my unhappy and foolish father was a mere tool in the hands of the cunning scoundrel who pulled all the wires of the business, himself unseen and ire sponsible. At last three companies for the promotion of which my father was responsible came to grief in heap. Fraud was written large over all their history, and. while Foggatt retired with his plumber. my father was left to meet ruin, disgrace and From beginning to end he. ard he only, was responsible. mere was no shred or evidence to con meet Foggatt with the matter and no means of escape from the net drawn about my father. He lived through three years of Imprisonment. and then, entirely abandoned by the man who had made use of his simplicity, he died-of nothing but shame and a broken heart.
 "0f this I knew nothing at the time. Again and again as a small boy re- member asking of my mother why I lad no father at home, as other boys lad, unconscious of the stab thus In- iIcted on hes gentle heart. Of her my earliest as we'll .as my latest memory s that of a pale, weeping woman who yrudged to let me out of her sight.
 Little by little learned the whole ,ause of my mothers grief, for she had 10 other confidant. and fear my char lcter developed early, for my first CO., ierent renembrance of the matter is hat of a childish design to take a ta- ,le knife and Kill the bad man who had made my father die in prison and l ,aused my mother to cry.
 'one thing. however. I never knew: he name of that bad man. Again and i Igain. as I grew older. I demanded to inow, but my mother always withheld | from me. with a gentle reminder hat vengeance was for q greater hand l han mine
 T was seventeen years of age when nv mother dfad I believe that nofh. |