Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1908-09-10
PAGE SEVEN

Gas he was talking he was picking at the lock with his knife, but
he was so impatient to reach the letters that he pressed too heavily on
the blade and it broke in his hand. 1 took a step backward and drove
my heel into the lock, and it burst open. The lid flew back, and we
pressed forward, and each ran his hand down into the letterbox. For
a moment we were both too startled to move. The box was empty.
II do not know how long we stood staring stupidity at each other,
but it was Lyle who was the first to recover. He seized me by the
arm and pointed exciedly into the empty box.
"Do you appreciate what that means? he cried. 1T means that
some one has been here ahead of us. Some one has entered this house
not three hours before we came, since eleven o'clock this morning.
cit was the Russian servantv [ exclaimed.
""Ihe Russian servant has been under arrest at Scotland Yard
Lyle cried. He could not have taken the letters. Lord Arthur has
been in his cot at the hospital. That is his alibi. There is some one
else, some one we do not suspect, and that some one is the murderer.
BE came back here either to obtain those letters because he knew they;
would convict him, or to remove something he had left here at the
time of the murder, something incriminating,-the weapon, perhaps,
or some personal article; a cigarettecase, a handkerchief with his
name upon it, or a pair Of gloves. Whatever it was it must have been
damning evidence against him to have made him take so desperate a
chance -.
GLOW do we know, / whispered, that he is not hidden here nowg
"'No, III swear he is not Lyle answered. I may have bungled
in some things, but 1 have searched this house thoroughly. Neverthe-
less he added, we must go over it again, from the cellar to the roof.
We have the real Glow now, and we must forget the others and work
only it AS he spoke he began again to search the drawingroom,
turning over even the books on the tables and the music on the piano.
T. "'Whoover the man is he said over his shoulder, we know that
he has a key to the front door and a key to the letterbox. That shows
us he is either an inmate of the house or that he comes here when he
wishes. The Russian says that he was the only servant in the house.
Certainly we have found no evidence to show that any other servant
slept here. There could be but one other person who would possess a
key to the house and the letter-box-and he lives in 81. Petersburg.
At the time of the murder he was two thousand miles away Lyle
interrupted himself suddenly with a sharp cry and turned upon me
with his eyes flashing. But was he 2 he cried. Was he? How do
we know that last night he was not in London, in this very house when
Itchy and Chetney metz -~~-~-----@-I
<IIe stq2d staring at me without seeing me, 1nuttering, and arguing
with himself. il ---4
"sDon't speak to me- he cried, as / ventured to interrupt him.
L can see it now. 1t is all plain. It was not the servant, but his
master, the Russian hinsef, and it was he who came back for the let
tiers! He came back for them because he knew they would convict
him. We must find them. We must have those letters. If we find
the one with the Russian postnark, we shall have found the murderer
tie spoke like a mailman, and IS he spoke he ran around the room with
one hand held out in front of him as you have seen a mindreader at a
theatre seeking for something hidden in the stalls. He pulled out old
letters from the writng-desk, and ran them over as swiftly as a gam
bier deals ont cards; he dropped on his knees before the fireplace and
dragged out the dead Goals with his bare fingers, and then with a low,
worried CRY, like a hound on a scent, he ran back to the wasteraper
basket and, lifting the papers from it, shook them out upon tile floor.
Instantly he cave a shout of triumph, and, separating a number of torn
ciaces from the others. held them up before me.
TT Be Concluded Next Week