El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-28
The Herald's
Daily Short Story

: Have you looked over all of your
fathers effects?" asked the Inspector
Nearly ALL" said the young man,
! all except some papers in his SAFE
1 left them for the executors of his es-
tate
I'VE had better examine them" said
the inspector. Bring them here.
The inspector united two of the
three bundles brought to him by young
Howell, but found them to consist sole
| ly of business memoranda. The third
however, proved to be interesting
Wedged between two government bonds
were about a dozen letters in a womans
handwriting and from them dropped a
photograph. The face was surrounded
by a wealth of tresses that clustered
around the ears and hung to the neck
A band of gold was around the forehead
and big oriental earrings of pendant
shape hung down low.
The inspector turned the picture over.
read the name written on it and whis-
tied softly. Then he put it in his
pocket and began to read the letters
Howell, he said gravely, as he fin
ished, 1T is a hard thing to have TO
tell you, but your father was not all
that he should have been. These let
tiers show that he had been correspond
ing with this woman up to within
month of his death. Some of the ear
treme affection. If 1 am not very much
mistaken this woman was indirectly
your fathers murderer. They had evil
IDENTIFY quarreled and he had tried TO
cast her off, as is shown in some of the
letters. Then she decided to kill him
and succeeded with the contents of that
lacquered box.
AS the insector gazed his hair seemed
to bristle, his face paled and he actu-
ally trembed.
Climb up on your chair quick, quick,
l say, unless you want to die the same
way your father did he suddenly
shouted at the youth. who FASTENED
TO obey the command. but stared in
astonishment at the inspector.
The inspector, too, was standing on
his chair with ruler he had hurriedly
grabbed up, grasped in his hand As
both men watched and listened they
heard from under couch at the fur
ther end of the room a sound of some
thing sliding and writhing toward
them.
The inspectors eyes were wide open
and staring and his face white TO the
lips. AT last he gently descended to
the floor as the sound ceased and ap-
preached the couch. With a quick
kick he showed it across the room and
then showered blow upon blow upon
writhing, squirming thing that shone
a vivid green against the carpet.
There" he exclaimed, wiping the
Precipitation from his forehead as ne
stopped welding the ruler and allowed
the young man to gaze with horror
at the dead body of a tiny green snake
There lies the most poisonous reptile
in the world. That piece of shiny stuff
in the cotton was one of its scales. 1
recognized it at once That is the
deadly Fer-de-Lance whose bite is al
to -bo+ hot
young woman sent your father in that
box, and after doing its work we'll it
evidently got to the top of that couch
from which we heard it drop a few
minutes ago. Now, Princess Pearl,
snake charmer and vaudeville perform
er, we'll get after you
Princess Pearl calculated the
young man, do you mean to say my
father had anything to do with a wo-
man like that?"
1T would seem So replied the in
spector. TT is strange. but true, that
you can generally find some flaw in
the makeup of a man unusually brainy,
like DR.. Howell was. 1t is one of the
idiosyncrasies of nature"
"'Oh, the disgrace of it ALL" moaned
the youth. as he sank to chair. bury
ing his face in his hands.
Inspector DeSlane's next move was to
telephone his office. 1t was Detective
Shaw who answered il.
shaw" the inspector told him, Or.
Howell was murdered and by a woman"
The inspector stopped as he heard an
exclamation of establishment at the
other end of the wire.
There was snake in that little box
that you didn't pay much attention !
to- the inspector went on. and it was !
mailed by the Princess Pearl playing !
at -- theater. Go get her and bring !
her to my office"
Inspector Deslane had hardly reach |
ed his office when the telephone bell |
rang.
when / went to the theater and ar |
rested Princess Pearl she asked to |
be allowed to go into her dressing room |
for a minute. l gave her permission. |
and when she failed to reappear opened |
the door. She was dead and on her
breast was a little green snake"