The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1909-01-15
Following a Trail.

citation
OF all the trails ! ever followed tn
longest was In tracing n murderer.
lust before taking 1t / was employee
10 look into the loss Of a $4,000 Ola
mond riug. It belonged to Louis BAN
berger. He missed It one day, and
was ssnt to his house iuc0g 10 inyes
tigatc. He didn't k#ow when the rluG
had been taken, since be had not seer
1t for n fortnight ut least before he
missed II. It was kept In u bureau
drawer In his bedroom
For ten days | Kept my eyes open
followed up every clew, however
slight. but made no Roadway what,
ever. ! told Mr.. I}amb"rgcr thnt II
any one In the house had taken the
ring | couldn't find out who wns the
criminal, ! gave NJ the job.
A month later | took n murder case.
While driving along n country rOad IN
the n~elghborsood Of the scene Of the
murder on a fencepost | noticed some
thing that resemblcd n Masonic syIh-
Dol. II was II circle and Il triangle
roughly cut, The circle everything the
triangle. one Of the angles " the lat.
Ter being acute. | pulled mp beside the
post to examine II. Any one but n de.
tective would have likely considered II
the work Of como idle boy. did not
regard It so lightly, but | had not then
a knowledge I gained aftcrward which
would have enabled me to deciphor 1t
! drove on much puzzled.
Later | came to n point where an.
other road joined the n was 0n.
Not a hundred yards before reaching
the fork ! saw Il duplicate Of the cir.
Gle and triangle carved on u tree stand
ing Il short distance from the road, II
at nee occurred to ne that these sym,
bols Indicated a route, Again ! stop.
ped and studied | noticed that the
acute angle OF the triangle pointed IN
seen cut on the post, a direction the
reverse Of that IN which | was drty-
ing. Ten miles farther on the murder
had been committed the traces OF
which | was looking for. II these
signs continued at intervals to 4 point
near the house Of the murder | had
nude III important discovery. | drove
on. watching for the sign, and saw
two. each ut n road fork or crossing.
On the way | passed the BNmbcrger
house aud q mile farther on came TO
the house of the murder, A mile and
a half before reaching the latter the
road forked, and | found the circle and
angle. This was the last signal In that
direction. | turned and drove back
past the symbols and two miles he.
yond the first ! had seen came to m,
other, then another and another, driv.
ing till It was too dark to see them
Then | put up at a farmhouse and
spent the night.
expected that | might have n chase
before me lasting several days, but !
never dreamed OF what | had really
undertaken. Every morning | would
start ont, drive all day, seldom having
to do much hunting for the symbols,
and turn In at night. hoping the next
day to come to the end Of my pilgrim.
pge, ! had started from n point near
Cleveland, followed the "bInzcd" route
across Illinois 10 st, Louis, thence to
Topeka. thence 10 Santa Fe, Il distance
las the crow tiesl OF some 400 miles.
On reaching Santa Re | examined ev-
cry route leading IN every direction,
finding no symbols on any of them.
BY this time ! had done n good deal
Of thinking and had come 10 the con,
clusion that some one was showing the
route to some one else. HID the some
one else arrived ! examined the last
symbol carefully and shw that II was
fresh cut, ! had no clcw to discover
the person who had been showing the
route. so ] determined TO look out for
whoever might be following. There
was 4 house near where the last sym
boi had been cut, and | took 4 room
there, watching Nil day from my win.
dow or while sitting on the porch. |
felt confident thnt | should discover
some n who had been engaged In the
murder, He would not travel at night.
for he could not see In the dark the
signals Intended for him any better
than ! could,
One morning six days after | had
begun my watch n tramp came down
the road, wal In tho yard at the
time cleaning my revolver. As usual,
upon seeing any M approach | kept
my head bent down, hut my eye on the
tramp, The moment be caught sight
Of the symbol ! knew that | had found
my man. He made no secret Of his In.
tercst. Why should he? He was some
LEGO miles by the shortest roads from
where the first signal had been cut
near the house Of the murder, lie
went up TO the circle and angle, looked
at II ~squarely and was proceeding on
his way when I covered him with NV
revolver and ordered him 20 throw Ny
his hands lie turned white. put his
hands over his head, and ordered
him to walk on ahead Of me toward
Santa Fe, a few miles distant
Taking him to II police station, the
nrst thing ! did after getting there
was to search him for evidence con
meeting him with the murder. What
did ] findi A ring set with n tremen.
deus diamond.
Well, to close up, II turned out that
about a week before the Rnmberscr
diamond was missed a couple Of
frainps stopped at the housc and we're
fed there. Relng left alone nv n care.