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

ARTHUR gave a cry of anger and sprang at him, and then pitched
forward into his arms. The blood was running from the cut under the
bandage, and he had tainted. Lyle carried him back to the bed again,
and we left him with the police and the doctors, and drove at once to
the address he had given us. We found the house not three minutes
walk from St. Georges Hospital. It stands in Trevor Terrace, that
little row of houses set back from Knightsbridge, with one end in Hill
Street.
GAS we left the hospital Lyle had said to me, You must not blame
me for treating him as I did. All is fair in this work, and if by anger
ing that boy [ could have made him commit himself I was right in try
ing to do so; though, [ assure you, no one would be better pleased than
myself if / could prove his theory to be correct. But we cannot tell.
Everything depends upon what we see for ourselves within the next
few minutes .:
"When we reached the house, Lyle broke open the fastenings of
one of the windows on the ground floor, and, hidden by the trees in the
garden, we scrambled in. We found ourselves in the recephon-roo1n,
which was the first room on the right of the hall. The gas was still
burning behind the coored glass and red silk shades, and when the
daylight strcaned in after us it gave the hall a hideously dssipated
look, like the foyer of a theater at a matinee, or the entrance to an all
day gambling hell The house wa oppressively silent, and because we
knew why it was 81 silent we spoke in whispers. When Lyle turned the
handle of the drawingroom door, 1 felt as though some one had put
his hand upon my throat. But / followed close at his shoulder, and
saw, in the subdued light of many-tnted lamps, the body of Chetney
at the foot of the divan, just as Lieutenant Sears had described it. In
the drawing-room we found the body of the Princess Itchy, her arms
thrown out, and the blood from her heart frozen in a tiny line across
her bare shoulder. But neither of us, although we searched the floor
on our hands and knees, could find the weapon which had killed her
"SFor Arthur's sake,' I said, 7 would have given a thousand
pounds if we had found the knife in her hand, as he said we would
""That we have not found it here,' Lyle answered, is to my mind
the strongest proof that he is telling the truth, that he left the house
before the murder took place. He is not a fool, and had he stabbed his
brother and this woman, he would have seen that by placing the knife
near her he could help to make it appear as if she had killed Chetney
and then committed suicide. Besides, Lord Arthur insisted that the
evidence in his behalf would be our finding the knife here. He would
not have urged that if he knew we would not find it, if he knew he
himself had carried it away. This is no suicide. A suicide does not rise
and hide the weapon with which he kills himself, and then lie down
again. No, this has been a double murder, and we must look outside of
the house for the murderer
while he was speaking LYLE and 1 had been searching every
corner, studying the details of each room. I was s. afraid that, without
telling me, he would make some deductions prejudical to Arthur. tlt
| never left his side. l was determined to see everything that he ~,
and, if possible, to prevent his interpreting it in the wrong way. l..
finally finished his examination. and we sat down together in the r.:
ingroom, and he took out his notebook and read aloud all that Mr.
Sears had told him of the murder and what we had just learned from
Arthur. We compared the two accounts word for word, and weighed
statement .ith statement, but I could not determine from anything
Lyle said ".:h IF the two versions he had decided to believe.
+@@ CIV sN2 1yng to build a house of blocks he exclaimed, with
half of the biock5 missing. We have been considering two theories he
went on; .>1e that Lord Arthur is responsible for both murders, anu
the other tat the dead woman in there is responsible for n of thcm,
and has committed suicide; but, until the Russian servant is ready 10
talk, I shall refuse to believe In the guilt of either
"'What can you prove by HING asked. He was drunk and
asleep. lie saw nothing'
"Lyle hesitated, and then, as though he had made up his mind to be
quite frank with me, spoke freely.
"I do not know that he vas either drunk or asleep, he answered.
Lieutenant Sears describes him IS a stupid boor. am not satshed
that he is not a clever actor. What was his position in this house
What was his real duty here? Suppose it was not to guard this woman
but to watch her. Let us imagine that it was not the woman he served
but a master, and see where that leads US. For this house has a master
u a mvsterious absentee landlord, who lives in St. Petersburg, the m
IL known Russian who came between Chetney and Itchy, and because OF
n whom Cheney left her He is the mar who bought this house To-
n Madame II hw, who sent those rugs and curtains from ST. Petersburg
8 to furnih Il for her after his own tastes, and, I believe, it was he ais"
81 who place. 6a Russian servant here, ostensibLy to serve the Princess
n but in rea iv TO spy upon lcr. At Scotland Yard we do not know wh'
ID this gentleman is; the Russian police confess to equal ignorance con
MI corning him. When Lord Cheney went to Africa, Madame Zlch.
ID lived in 81. Petersburg; but there her receptions and dinners were $
Nj crowded VII members of the nobility and of the army and diplomats
u that among 50 many visitors the police could not learn which was III
S one for whom she most greatly cared:
"Iyle pointed at the modern French paintings and the heavy sill
n rugs which hung upon the walls.
"oThe unknown is a man of taste and of some fortune he sale
N mot the sort of man to send a stupid peasant to guard the woman h
ri loves. So ] am not content to believe, with MI. Sears, that the servar
N is a boor. 7 believe him instead to be a very clever ruf6an. | beiev