The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-07-17
A SINGULAR CASE,
b. r. a. MITcHan


the business
''The smart detective In real life
usually gets left Instead Of letting
The case work itself out he forms the
prizes and fits facts to them. It's the
methodical detective who wins. He
works on the lines OF what would nat
hrally come about narrowing proba-
bilities till he drives the remaining
few through one hole The interest
Ing features In detective work are
the happenings. have known many
singular circumstances 10 betray a
criminal knew Of one case where a
man was brought to the gailows by a
twig growing up out Of the ground,
CARRYING a key with t."
PLEASE explain"
MY chief called me into his private
Office one day and showed me a shoot
of some kind OF bush. AS twig II
bad come up out OF the ground, its
zip running through the elliptical iron
end Of key, whinh h carried up some
I've or six feet growing around the
key at the same time. He told me
that some boys had found It In a
thicket, and beneath It under an older
growth lay the mpldeFing body OF a
man. The chiefs theory was that the
key had been IN the mans pocket and
BIS the clothing decayed the key fell to
the ground. A twig had sprouted I'M
der It through the eilipse. and as it
grew OF course the key came up with
it.
ut was to be.supposed that the body
bad been hidden there and the man
had been murdered was put to
work on the case and began. as / al
ways do, msthodically. That meant
fn this case 10 inqnige into all disap-
peaFances az far back as possible, You
may noe be aware how many people
will disappear within a given time.
f0und that from the village near BY
where the body was found and its
surroundings no less than six persons
had disappeared In ten years and had
never been accounted for. I tried my
key on che doors Of the houses, so
Tar as could find them, where the
missing ones had lived, but il fitted
none Of them.
AT last / heard Of one Peter Moxon,
sTho had lived alone on small farm
In the neighborhood, having one hired
man. Some ten years back the man,
Tx CoIburn. gave out that Moxon had
sold him hts farm on easy payments
and gone TO Alaska. Colburn had
worked the farm for several years,
then deserted 1t. learned that his
assertion had occurred shortly after
some one Of Moxon's relatives had ar
rived TO look up his kinsman. But the
farm had remained unoccupied ever
since Colburn's disappearance.
sS0melow as soon as / heard this
STORY 1t struck me that 1 had got a
cIew 60 the mystery ] went to the
Moxont farm and put the key into the /
lock Of Athe front door II was too
small. Going round to the rear, tried !
1t on che kitchen door and unlocked (
it as easily as was possible for a rusty I
key. From that moment ! knew that I
the body found by the boys In the
shicket was that Of Peter Moxon. AS /
I told you in the beginning, the inter- T
est in the case wasn't owing to any +
shrewdness Of mine, but to the raising /
mp Of hey out Of the soil by grow I
sng twig. One might fancy the little I
Eprout the singer Of an averaging angel. I
'srhe next thing was to lind Colburn.
This, of course, was a mere matter Of +
search. Hunting for a known person
Is quite a different matter from hunt (
ing for an unknown person. The find /
ing Of a known person consider (
matter Of certainty that Is, II you 20 I
about It right and follow II TO the end, /
Just as by a given number Of questions
one may always guess an assumed OBJ /
ject or course assume that the per- 4
son to be found IL alive.
THAT'S the theory Of It. In practice I
1t may not pay to make search OF the +
whole world But my experience is +
that criminals Of the unprofessional /
kind don't 90 or don't stay far from
the scene OF their crime. was order
ed to get police reports from that part I
of the state. and Ii Colburn had gone /
of limits the matter was to be given
up. / sent out description Of the /
man., but without success. He had
gone too far
"If one can find a woman in whom a
criminal has been interested there's al I
ways chance Of finding him. There
was such a woman in Colburns life,
and gave orders at the village post
Office that any mail coming for her
should be examined Six months after
4 gave the order letter from Colburn
10 his friend was handed me giving his
whereabouts
WELL ! had the man arrested. But
1 hadn't any proof against him except I
what was remotely circunstantial. No
body had seen him Kill Moxon. Indeed,
tie only proof existing that Moxon had
been killed was key that had grown
% d bush. No man could even be in
dicted. much less convicted on such
evidence. But when we know what
we can't prove there are ways of get
ting the criminal to give himself away.
took the prisoner to the spot where
the body had been found and showed
him the key, telling him at the same
time that it would ct Moxon's kitchen
door. II needed but this Bit Of blur
10 break down man with crime on
his conscience He confessed and was
hanged.
mo, it isn't the shrewdness Of the de-
kective that makes detective work in