Connecticut western news., 1910-02-03
THE CULPRIT2
By SALLY klENDuM.

] the Latter over. cHulr Io an agreement with the mayor ard lh'umiscd to put SOIl.r one on thr case immediately. He Wa; taking his supper i'll d private 1 rCull in d restaurant when the door 1 opened and a mdI of rather seeIy ap~ 1 peaFanCe entered.
 MT. Miller, 1 believe" said tAe new conner
 Il am. What can do for you:"
 "I was in tnp detective business once, and I'm trying to get into it again. I'd like to take ho,d of this Meagher case"
 I'm going to send d man up to at- tend to it.
 The seedy individual pulled letter from his pocket and handed it to the detective to urad. 1t was a certificate from detective firm that Joel Zim- mermam hHi worked fer 1t and done good service.
 Miller's bargain with the mayor had been largely contingent upon tracking | and capturing the murderer, Il not very 1 rrolitable way to do business. It oc- cured to him that if he could get this person cheap he would let him work for awhile-at least long enough to make some development. Besides, the man toll him that he suspected a certain person and would look for Clew in that direction. He felt so con { fident in the matter that he offered tu work without pay unless he made a valuable discovery. but stipulated that he should have the field to himsclf. l lND l the cas-. On these terms Mir. Miller engaged him and went back to the city to attend to other matters that promised r>rn certain rC%ults.
 i Joe Avery, a rcphcw of the murder 1 ed man. lived in Pctersville. much re- ] Spected young man, with n very nice wife and two very pretty children. One day while walking on the street i he picked up a ten dollar bill. He was in hard luck at the time and very i much delighted at his find. The bill was partly spent for meat at a butcher shop The same afternoon Avery was | arrested for the muldHr of his uncle | on information furnished by Zimmer- man. The detective produced list of 1 bills, giving their numbers, that he said he had found in an unused chim- i ney in the murdered mans house. The l list was supposed to refer to STOOD i that the old man kept there. The the 1 ory was that the money had been talk en by the murderer, who had unwit- | tinCly left the list.
 Everybody in the town was surprised 1 at Avery's arrest. and no one at first { believed him guilty. It was not sup posed that his uncle had any money. and if he had the murderer was the only one who could have known of 1t.
 There was Il strong cilse of circum- stancial evidence against Avery, but it was weakened by Zimmerman himself. 1 who under cross examination contra dicted himself as to how. where and l when he had found the list. Experts disagreed whether it was or was not in the handwriting of Meagher By throwing doubt upon this evidence the
 prisoners attorney saved his client from verdict of guilty. The jury dis agreed, but in order to avoid the eS- pense of another trial brought in yer dict of not guilty.
 ANGI1 lluNl IO hbdbA ttAtNA h1 h''N been made the victim of plot and as soon as he gained his liberty set about a bit of detective work to discover the author. The first fact he noticed was ] that with his acquittal the case was dropped. The authorities believed that the murderer had been discovered, but l that his acquittal was case of mot proved" rather than mot guilty" The ] detective who worked up the case 1 against him had dropped the matter and was now working for the Miller detective agency that had employed him. Indeed. every one seemed satis- fled to let the matter rest except the man who had narrowly escaped the gallows and was in consequence living under the ban of being murderer. These were the reasons that induced Avery to take up the case on his own account.
 Avery made up his mind that his uncle had been hoarder. Indeed, he remembered certain incidents to in dicate that such was the case. Some one had discovered that the old man
 had money in his possession and had robbed and murdered him to get pos session of 1t. If his uncle had saved money possibly he might have had something to do with some bank. He sent out a circular letter to all the banks in the state asking if Timothy Meagher had any deposits there. Sev- en savings banks replied that bank books to the aggregate amount of 1 $2G0,000 had been issued to one Tim othy J. Mcagher. Avery did not sup pose that bis uncle had a middle name, ! but searched the family records and found that he had. 1t was John.
 Avery was astounded. He was also ] delighted d-delighted for two reasons.
 First. he was his uncle's legal heir and
 would be rich; "econd. his uncle had undoubtedly had some money iu his
 house and had been robbed as well as murdered Could he find this rob 1 Der he would be cXOnerated and rich.
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