The Yale expositor., 1909-01-29


was in a hurry.
The stiffness was broken by the
policeman. Drawing his revolver he
tapped with it lightly on the glass,
calling in loud voice:
Hi, there! You in there! l see
you. Hold up your hands and come
on out O. that! Come out, l say!"
well, well. WELL 'Tis poor old
Swartz-he's hung himself!" the po-
liceman whispered in awe. Then he
remembered that the door of the shop
fastened on the outside, was secured
by means of bar and paddock. These
must have been put in place by some
body with Swartz in the shop. Then
who could that somebody be IL not
the murderer! Yes, it was not suicide,
1t was murder, and If murder, who
could the murderer be but Flanagan,
the only person besides Swartz pos
cessing key to the paddock?
With the flash of this obvious Sc
Quence into his mind the policeman
hurried to the store telephone and
called up his station, notifying it that
Swartz was murdered. that Flanagan
a clerk, had done the deed and was
missing
From the evidence not a man of the
force present entertained the slightest
doubt of how the crime had occurred,
nor who the criminal logically must
be. Flanagan, just before closing
time on Saturday night when, trade
being over and the shop deserted, the
street door was closed and the shut
ters put on all but the back window,
had for some reason throttled his
boss with his powerful hands, slipped
the rope around his neck and hoisted
him up there to make it appear to be
case OF suicide. locked up and fed
Flannigan was thick-witted, and ii
would never occur to him that he had
left all the signs pointing to himself,
and only to himself. AS long as no.
body had seen him do it he would feel
safe; for he was one of those people
who are continually repeating for the
information of their audiences that
what you don't see you don't know"
Officers were at once dispatched in
several directions for the man. The
tact that he was not at his boarding
house, but must have returned to his
room from the shop and changed his
clothes at some time between six
o'clock on Saturday evening and eight
on Sunday morning, was precisely the
evidence that the police looked to find
there, and they found it. Flannigans
lodging mistress said that on going to
his room tc put it in order on Sunday
morning at eight. the usual time, she
saw that the bed had not been slept
in, and examination showed that his
everyday clothes hung in the closet
while his best suit was missing from
Its accustomed hooks. And he had
not been seen in the vicinity since
Saturday morning, when he left the
house for his days work. To this in
formation the police, making a search
OF his room on their own account.
added certain other suggestive items.
A badly soiled shirt, torn up the back
as If discarded in hurry, was crowded
behind the bureau; a razor, unwiped
after using, and shaving paper with
dried lather on it, as IL the shaver
was in such haste that he could not
stop to clean away the traces of his
work, were on a little table near the
gas jet; a travelling bag, which the
lodging mistress asserted that he
owned, was not to be found; there was
no linen in the bureau drawers. In
fact, all the evidence tended to show
that the man had left suddenly for
parts unknown, saying nothing to any
body of his intended absence, taking
with him what few valuable effects he
possessed. If the razor remained be.
hind 1t was because in his excitement
he had forgotten It,
Inquiry in the neighborhood soon
brought to light a man who had seen
Flanagan late Saturday night with a
suit case and big roll of bills stag
gering from one saloon to another on
the way down to the south station:
and II presently being learned that
Flanagan had relatives In the little
country town OF Fairview, which was
his native place, the rest was easy.
He was just the type of man who.
having committed a crime, would i'm.
mediately make for the vicinity of his
old home, having neither sense nor
general information enough to steer
as widely away from that particular
spot as possible. Connections were
made by telephone with the police of
Fairview, and within two hours from
that time Flanagan was undergoing
examination at station five.
He was a very muscular fellow Of