The searchlight. [volume] (Culbertson, Mont.) 1902-current, 1909-01-15
Through a
WOnnan'S Heart.
By Sidney Warwick.

| mOrS might do lncalculaDie INJURY anu
wrong to Lathom. He felt angry and
a little perplexed.
He told the police the result Of his
examination of the dead man. The
wound from the bullet that had been
the cause OF death was such that 1t
was impossible It could have been
self-iniicted. Suicide was out Of the
question. And further, he expressed
his conviction that the position of the
body in which the dead man had been
found was not that In which Philip
Hume had fallen when the shot struck
him
ITO my mind 1t Is conclusively clear
that after he was shot some one drag
ged him to the drift where he was
found to cancel the crime"
The sensation caused in the village
was intense. The news seemed to
have spread like wildfire. A little
crowd of village people had gathered
outside the great gates Of the hall
grounds. exchanging speculations In
eager. excited voices, as they stared
curiously down the drive: there was
nothing to be seen except the house
with the drawn blinds. yet the mere
knowledge that behind one Of those
darkened windows the dead man was
lying seemed to stimulate the morbid
fascination that the fact OF murder
exercises over some minds. The
crowd grew like SNOWFALL.
Repeatedly to newcomers the story
was recounted afresh.
1T was Jim the carrier as found
him-saw hand sticking up out OF
| drift OF snow. Jim did. He said 1t
made him feel fair creepy all over
that almost before he knew what he
was doing he turned to see whether
, there weren't something or some one
I as the dead squire was trying to point
out to him-the way the murderer
had gone. maybe," said one village
gossip with horribly morbid relish.
: But has Ia heerd what they've
( found in t'dead squires other hand?''
' broke in another eagerly. 1T were
E gripping a playing card-three weeks
e under tsnow that cards been clutch
- ed in his hand, for it's three weeks
4 since t'squire were last seen. I won
o der now II that card had aught to dc
e wi tsauire's death2 Close by these
@ gates, as you might say, all the while
/. as we've passed score o. times. ant
n none on us dreamed OF what was ly
d ing under t'snow!"
AYE. and who knows whether the
q chap as fired that shot isn't walking
;. among us. laughing and joking ant
Y talking just like one Of us. for all tina
he has blood on his hands?"
I And then babel of eager specula
n ton as TO who could have committed
Y the crime.
o But IL was the strange incident o
the playing card that excited TIL
n most con msnt among the villagers
p to whom such a sensation as this wa
1. an event In the monotony OF thei
A. lives. IL fastened on their imagina
n lions-a playing card clutched in tn
eead mans hand. An ace of hearts
e. 1t was the superintendent of polio
L. from Fellsgarth who made a curiou
10 discovery about this card.
ID As he took It up. limp and sudde
TO with the snow. something seemed I
r. strike him He passed his finger
IN over the back of the card and exam
at ined II with sudden look of surpris'
re did you notice anything curiou
~ about that card, doctor?" he aske,
in quietly. 1t had been DIR. Sprent VIII
i'd removed the card from the stifIene
is fingers.
We DIR. Sprent shook his head. His pr
ng fession ad made him more intereste
- in the dead man than the card
as which he. had scarcely glanced.
lat Feel the back Of it,"
no The doctor passed his fingers ov,
lit II as the superintendent had done.
We the back. he noticed. were several e
,m crescences-tiny punctures. swollt
by the moisture OF the snow in
ed warts.
! a That's been a marked card" sa
IRE the superintendent. You know. shar
ers often mark the back OF the car
Mt by pin pricks. In precisely the ",
ply that this has been marked. It's
ald regular trick OF the snide fraternit,
on A marked card In the dead maj
lge hand. How had It come there? T
ten superintendent seemed to attach 1
SO portance to II as though he thong
ing II might furnish q clue. He took o
ns eisl nnssessinn NJ the strin Of lii
lfa- pasteboard.
u As DR.. Sprent was leaving he I
wn. countered the rector In the hall.
yer What q terrible affair! You
heard the details OF course. from B,
ON holt Hume?" said the doctor. as
on and Stephen Ruthen walked aw
'ay. from the house Its q plain case