The Charles Mix new era. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1???-1911, 1910-09-23

side, as there had been an accident
there, and MI. Arnold Armstrong had
been shot. He dressed hastily, gath
cred up some instruments, and drove
to Sunnyside.
He was met by Mr.. Jarvis, who took
just rs he had fallen, was the body of
Arnold Armstrong. There was no
need of the instruments; the man was
dead. In answer to the coroner's
question-no, the body had not been
moved, save to turn it over. 1t lay
at the foot of the circular staircase.
Yes, he believed death had been in
Simultaneous. The body was still some
what warm and rigor mortis had not
set in. 1t occurred late in cases of
sudden death. No, he believed the
probability of suicide might be elm
mated; the wounds could have been
self-infiicted, but with difficulty, and
there had been no weapon found.
The doctors examination was over,
but he hesitated and cleared his
throat.
MIR. Coroner" he said, "at the risk
of taking up valuable time, I would
like to speak of an incident that may
or may not throw some light on this
matter"
The audience was alert at once.
Kindly proceed, DOCTOR" the coro-
ner said.
MY home is in Englewood, two
miles from Casanova" the doctor be-
gan. I'm the absence of DIR. Walker,
a number of Casanova people have
beer consulting me. A month ago
five weeks, to be exact-a woman
whom / had seer came to my
office. She was in deep mourning and
kept her veil down, and she brought
for examination a child, a boy of six.
The little fellow was ill; it looked like
typhoid, and the mother was frantic.
She wanted a permit to admit the
youngster to the Children's hospital
in town here, where I am a member
of the staf, and I gave her one. The
incident would have escaped me, but
for a curious thing. Two days before
Mr.. Armstrong was shot, / was sent
for to go to the Country club: some
n had been struck with a golf-ball
that had gone wild. 1t was late when
l left was on foot, and about a mile
from the club, on the Clayburg road,
I met two people. They were, disput.
ing violently, and / had no difficulty in
recognizing Mr.. Armstrong. The WON.
an, beyond doubt, was the one who
had consulted me about the child"
AT this hint of scandal, Mrs. Ogden
Fftghugh sat up very straight. jamie
Sol was looking slightly skeptical,
and the made a note.
The Children's hospital, you say
doctor?" he asked.
"Yes. But the child, who was en-.
tered as Lucien Wallace, was taken
away by his mother two weeks ago.
| have tried to trace them and failed
All at once | remembered the tele-
gram SEN to Louise by some one
signed f. L. W.-presumably DIR.
Walker. Could the yelled woman be
the Nina Darlington of the message?
But it was only idle speculation. | had
no way of finding out, and the inquest
was proceeding.
The report of the coroner's physi.
clan came next. The post-mortem ex-
animation showed that the bullet had
entered the chest in the fourth left
intercostal space and had taken an
oblique course downward and back.
ward, piercing both the heart and
lungs. The left lung was collapsed,
and the exit point of the ball had been
found in the muscles of the back to
the left of the spinal column. 1t was
improbable that such a wound had
been self-inflicted, and its obliuue
downward course pointed to the fact
that the shot had been fired from
above. In other words, as the muir
dered man had been found dead ut
the foot of a staircase, 1t was prob.
ahls that the shot had been fired -