Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-08-29
CHAPTER yIu-(Continued)

make very good detective. Recollect |
that in nine cases out of ten, the obvious |
reason is always the wrong one. A smart |
villain, who knows enough to carry glass
stilettos, and how TO use them skillfully, |
would not have unnecessarily alarmed |
the household by firing pistol in the |
dead of night. Oh, no /. he would simply
have smothered the woman, already insen- |
sible and unresisting. with pillow, or
choked her to DEATH
Il see l see," acquiesced the physi-
clan. Go on"
Let US assume, now, that this I'M
known person entered the house through
the window in Monsieur Van Lith's cham
Der. While creeping through the room
be espies case of pistols. He has come
unarmed, save with the Venetian stiletto.
But once in the house, his courage fails
him. He picks up a pistol from the case,
saying. This will protect me if l have
to proceed 70 extrenities.' He passes on
TO Madame Roupelrs chamber, and falls
70 searching among her papers She is
woman Of large property, and must
have valuables- He is not after money,
for the diamonds which she wore to the
opera have not been taken. While thus
engaged, he is interrupted by Madame
Roupell, who rushed forward to save her
papers He jumps from his chair, over
turning 1t, and raises the stiletto; she
turns and fees he pursued and slabs her.
Do you understand, monsieur"
Yes, l understand everything. except
his firing the pistol into the head OF
woman whom he had apparently already
put out of the way of harming him. l
am assuming. of course that his object
was not murder. OF course, Madame
RoupeN may have recognized him, and he
may have wanted to be sure she was
dead"
Even that would not have warranted
his risking firing the pistol. Recollect,
as l have already said, he could easily
have smothered her without making any
noise" replied Cassagne.
True Then why did he fire the pis-
tol?"
1T is easy to conjecture" returned the
Frenchman. He did it to direct suspi-
cion from himself to the owner of the
weapon"
The diabolical villain exclaimed the
doctor, and apparently so impressed was
he with NJ Cassagne's theory that he kept
repeating the phrase over and over again,
The diabolical villain ~
But NJ. Cassagne paid no heed to the
calculations of the. physician. He was
down upon his knees, running about on
all tours on the carpet, totally regardless
of the injury to his pantaloons. His nose
was within an inch of the floor At last
he stopped in the middle of the apart
ment, and exclaimed:
Give me the knife"
The doctor handed it to him. He at
once proceeded to cut away the carpet,
and then to dig furiously into the wooden
flooring.
What on eartn are you looking for?"
inquired Mason.
Never mind" replied Cassagne wait
moment. and you'll see."
He kept on digging away with the
knife as furiously as ever. At last he
stopped, and, still on his knees, held
trium phantly aloft small. oblong, black
object Then he exclaimed breathlessly:
"All right have got the bullet"
IF we only had Van Lith's pistol
here" said Mason, 1.-THE evidence would
| be complete, but it Is in Paris"
The detective arose and smoothed out
the knees of his pantaloons which he had
sadly crumpled.
I'VE have got what is quite as good,
he said. Go into the next room and
bring me the other pistol. Ten to one
| they were mates"
Taking the pistol from the Doctors
hands. he pushed the bullet into the muz-
zle. 1t fitted TO a nicely.
1--WE have thus far" said VI. Cassagne,
established our theory successfully in
regard to one very important point
Neither your friend Van Lith nor Mon
sieur Chabot had a hand in this murder
1t was committed by a third party
| someone who entered the house unknown
to anyone and who left it in an equally
secret manner. Let us see, now how be
got away. and what means of escape pre-
sented themselves He could not have
made his exit by any of the doors, be-
cause one of them led to the room in
which Van Lith was hiding. and another
| opened directly into the chamber occupied
by Monsieur Chabot. There is still, of
course. a bare chance that he retired by
the door leading into the corridor; but it
| is altogether improbable that he would
take such risk. as that corridor was
thronged with people hurrying to Mad
! anne Roupell's chamber at the sound of
the shot"
THAT is so.'' acQuiesced Mason. Had
he attempted to escape into the corridor
he would undoubtedly have been seen
and captured
He must. therefore" continued Cas-
sasne, have gotten out Of the windows.
! The man | have in my minds eye at the
present moment would have been smart
enough to raise the window before he
fred the shot He would be particularly
careful not to leave any clew that he
had been in the chamber, for that would
exonerate the owner of the pistol. He
would certainly not have leaped from the
window. because that would have left
| footprints on the ground; you will look
in vain for such Yet he did get out of
this very window"
How can you tell that?' asked Mason.
| In amazement 1T has been already in
spected by the project of police. He
has also searched carefully under the
window. for l saw him doing it. If any
one had passed through that opening he
would surely have discovered it,
The project is doubtless a good Off
GER" replied Cassagne, but if he had
looked closer, he would have seen that in
climbing through the window the man
br ushed the dust off this gera MUM leaf
| with his coat"
The doctor bent down and placed the
leaf indicated alongside one that had not
been touched. The truth of the detec-
tive's discovery became then convincing
| One was covered with dust, the other had
been swept partly clean. NJ. Cassagne
smiled with pardonable pride, and saying
that he had for the present nothing fur
| ther to examine IN the bed chambers led
the way down stairs, first of all, however,
replacing. carefully, the seals which he
had removed
Taking his hat from the rack in the
hall. and inviting DR.. Mason to accom-
pany him, he passed quickly around TO
1 81.