Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-20

seen a fly which. in these hygienic days.
finding no cobwebs to entangle him. is
caught in a sheet OF fly paper. finds him
self more and more mired and is finally
quiet with the sticky Stiffness OF despair?
Well | was the fly. | had seen loo
much of circumstantial evidence To nave
any belief that the establishing of my
identity would weigh much against the
other discriminating details. 1t meant inn
prisonment and trial. probably. with all
the notoriety and loss of practice they
would, entail. A man thinks quickly at s.
time like that. All the probable conse-
quences of the finding of that pocket
book flashed through my mind as | eN-
tended my hand Ia take IL. Then / drew
my arm back.
Il don't want it," I said. Look inside.
Maybe the other man took the money
and left the wallet.
The conductor opened IL. and again
there was a curious surging forward OF
the crowd. To my intense disappont-
ment the money was still there.
stood blankly miserable while il was
counted out-five OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES bills.
six twentes and some fives and ones that
brought the total To six hundred and nifty
dollars.
The little man with the notebook in
sisted on taking the numbers OF the
notes. TO the conductors annoyance. IL
was immaterial to me: small things had
lost their power to irritate. / was seeing
myself in the prisoners box. going
through all the nerve-racking routine OF
trial for murder-the challenging of
the jury. the endless cross-examination.
the alternate hope and fear. I believe |
said before that 1 had no nerves. but for
a few minutes that morning 1 was as
near as a man ever comes to hysteria.
l folded my arms and gave myself a
mental shake. l seemed to be the CEN
ter of a hundred eyes, expressing every
shade of doubt and distrust. but / tried
not to finch. Then some one created "A
diversion.
The amateur detective was busy again
with the sealskin bag, investigating the
make of the safety razor and the manu-
facturer's name on the bronZe-green tie.
Now, however. he paused and frowned,
as though some pet theory had been. up-
set
Then from a corner of the bag he drew
out and held up for our inspection some
three inches of fine gold chain. one end
of which was blackened and stained with
blood
The conductor held out his hand for it.
but the little man was not ready to give
il up. He turned to me.
You say no watch was left you? Was
there a piece of chain like that?
mo chain at ALL ! said. sulkily- NO
jewelry of any kind, except plain gold
buttons In the shirt / am wearing.
Where are your glasses?'' he threw at
me suddenly; instinctively my. hand went
to my eyes. My glasses had been gone
their absence. The little man smiled
cynically and held out the chain.
Il must ask you to examine this he
insisted. Isn't 1t a part of the line gold
chain you wear over your ear?
I didn't want to touch the thing; the
stain at the end made me shudder. But
with a bakers dozen of suspicious eyes
well, We'll say fourteen. there Were no
one-eyed men-I took the fragment In the
tips of my fingers and looked at II help
lessly.
Very fine chains are much alike I
managed to say. For all / know. this
got into that sealskin bag. I never saw
the bag until this morning after day
light"
"He admits that he had the bag"
somebody said behind me. How did
you guess that he wore glasses. any
how" to the amateur sleuth.
That gentleman cleared his throat.
There were two reasons" he said. for
suspecting it. When you see man with
the lines of his face dropping. a healthy
individual with a pensive eye-suspect
astigmatism. Besides. this gentleman has
a pronounced line across the bridge or
his nose and a mark on his ear nom tue
chain"
After this remarkable exhibition of the
theoretical as combined with the practi-
cal, he sank into seat nearby, ana, still
holding the chain, sat with closed eyes
and pursed lips. 1t was evident TO all
the Car iiIdl tHC Soiutioh VI eiiS
was a question of moments. Once he
bent forward eagerly and, putting the
chain on the window sill. proceeded to
go over it with a pocket ma gnifying
glass. only to shake his head in disap-
pointment. All the people around shook
their heads, too, although they had not
the slightest idea what it was about.
The pounding in my ears began again.
The group around me seemed to be sud-
denly motionless in the very act of NOV
ing as If hypnotist had called Rigid
The girl in blue was looking at me, and
above the din / thought she said she
must speak to me-something vital. The
pounding grew louder and merged into
a scream. With a grinding and splinter
ing the car rose under my feet. Then IL
FELL away into darkness.
(To be continued tomorrow