The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1909-03-05
Following a Trail.

OF all the trails ] ever followed the
longest was In tracing a murderer.
Just before taking IT | was employed
70 look into the loss Of A $4,000 Ola
mond ring. II belonged to Louis BAN
berger. He missed II one day. and !
was sent to his house incog. to inyes-
tigate. He didn't know when the ring
had been taken. since lie had not seen
1t for a fortnight at least before he
missed It. II was kept In a 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.. Bamberger that II
any one In the house had taken the
ring | couldn't find out who was the
criminal l gave up the job.
A month later | took a murder case.
While driving along a country road In
the nelghborhood Of the scene Of the
murder on a fencepost | noticed some
thing that resembled a Masonic sym
Dol. 1t was a circle and a triangle
roughly cut, the circle everything the
triangle, one Of the angles Of the lat
ter being acute. | pulled up beside the
post to examine II. Amy one but Il de-
tective would have likely considered 1t
the work Of some idle boy. | did not
regard II so lightly, but l had not then
a knowledge | gained afterward which
would have enabled me to decipher 1t,
| drove on much puzzled.
Later ! came to a point where an
other road Joined the one | was on.
Not a hundred yards before reaching
the fork ! saw a duplicate Of the cir
Gle and triangle carved on a tree stand
ing a short distance from the road. II
at once occurred to me that these sym
bols indicated a route. Again ! stop.
ped and studied. | noticed that the
acute angle Of the triangle pointed in
the same direction as the one | had
seen cut on the post, a direction the
reverse OF that In which | was drIv-
ing. Ten miles farther on the murder
tad been committed the traces of
which | was looking for. II these
signs continued at intervals to u point
near the house Of the murder I had
made an important discovery. drove
on. watching for the sign, and saw
two. each at a road fork or crossing.
On the way l passed the Bamberger
house and a 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. l turned and drove back
past the symbols and two miles be.
yond the first ! had e came to an.
other, then another and another, driv.
ing till 1t was too dark to see them.
Then | put up at a farmhouse and
spent the night.
expected that ! might have a chase
before me lasting several days, but !
never dreamed of what I had really
undertaken. Every morning I would
start out, 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.
age. I had started from a point near
Cleveland, followed the ''blazed" route
across Illinois to st. Louis, thence to
Topeka, thence to Santa Fs, q distance
las the crow fiesl OF some 1,400 miles.
On reaching Santa Fe | examined ev-
cry route leading in every direction,
finding no symbols or any Of them.
BY this time ] had done q good deal
Of thinking and had come to the con
clusion that some one was showing the
route to some one else. Had the some
n else arrived7 | examined the last
symbol carefully and saw that 1t was
fresh cut. I had no clew to discover
the person who had been showing the
route, so ! determined to look out for
whoever might be following. There
was a house near where the last SYM
Dol had been cut, and | took a room
there. watching all day from my win
dow or while sitting on the porch. !
felt confident that ! should discover
some one who had been engaged In the
murder He would not travel at night,
Tor 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 a tramp came down
TIE road. l was In the yard at the
time cleaning my revolver. As usual.
upon seeing any one approach | kept
my head bent down. but my eye on the
tramp. The moment he caught sight
Of the symbol l knew that l had found
my man. He made no secret of his In
terest: Why should he? He was some
l,6o0 miles by the shortest roads from
where the first s,gpal had haop ,ut