The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-01-06
Following a Trail.

VI all the trauS ever tO'lOWed tine
longest was in tracing a murderer.
Just before taking it / was employed
to look into the loss Of $4,000 dla-
mond ring. II belonged TO Louis BAN.
berger He missed 1t one day, and
was sent to his house incog to inves.
tlgate. He didn't know when the ring
had been taken, since he had not seen
1t for fortnight at least before lie
missed It. it was kept IN bureau
drawer in his bedroom.
For ten days | kept my eyes open,
followed up every clew, however
slight, but made no headway what
ever. told Mr.. Bamberger that II
any one in the house had taken the
ring | couldn't find out who was the
criminal. gave up the job
! A month later | took murder case.
! While driving along country road in
! the neighbOrhOod Of the scene Of the
murder on fencepOst | noticed some.
/ thing that resembled n Masonic sym.
! bol. It was q circle and 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 Il. Any one but de.
tective would have likely considered It
the work of some idle boy. did not
regard Il so lightly, but had not then
u knowledge / gained afterward which
would have enabled me to declpher It.
drove on much puzzled
Later came to a point where an.
other road joined the one was on.
Not hundred yards before reaching
the fork saw a duplicate Of the cir
Gle and triangle carved on a tree stand
ing 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. n direction the
reverse OF that I'm which / was driv-
Ing Ten miles farther on the murder
had been committed the traces OF
which / was looking for. If these
signs continued at intervals to.a point
near the house Of the murder ! had
made an important discovery. | drove
on, watching for the sign, and saw
two, each at a road fork or crossing.
On the way passed the Bamberger
house and mile farther on came to
the house Of the murder. A mile and
n half before reaching the latter the
road forked, aud found the circle and
angle. This was the last signal in that
direction. turned and drove back
past the symbols and two miles be-
yond the first / had seen came TO an
other, then another and another, drlv-
ing till 1t was too dark to see them.
Then I put up at a farmhouse and
spent the night. rtr.
expected that might have a chase
before me lasting several days, but |
never dreamed of what ! had really
undertaken. Every morning / 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 ond Of my pilgrim
age. | had started from a point near
Cleveland, followed the "bazed" route
across Illinois to St Louis, thence to
Topeka, thence TO Santa Fe, distance
las the crow fies) of some l,4OO miles.
ON reaching Santa Fe examined ev-
cry route leading In every direction,
finding no symbols ON any Of them,
BY this time had done 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
one else arrived? examined the last
symbol carefully and saw that 1t was
fresh cut. | 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 house near where the last SYM
bol had been cut. and took 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,
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 a tramp came down
the road. ! was IN the yard ut 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 knew that | had found
my man. lie made no secret of his in
tereSt. Why should he? He was some
1000 miles 10y the shortest roads from
where the irst signal had been cut
near the house OF the murder He
went up 10 the circle and angle, looked
, at It squnrely and was proceeding on
his way when covered him with my
, revolver and ordered him to throw up
his hands He turned white, put his
hands over his head, and I ordered
him to walk ON ahead OF me toward
Santa Fe, few miles distant
Taking him TO police station, the
first thing | did after getting there
was TO search him for evidence con
Meeting him with the murder. What
did | find? A ring set with tremen,
dous diamond.
Well, to close mp, II turned out that
about week before the BambergeT
p | la nuns t,,tsgnA Dn.,,,1n al