The Washington times., 1910-01-20
CHAPTER VIII.
THE GROWING DISASTER


he newspaper item which had
caught my eve and whose con-
tents momentariIy turned me 10
stone was. of necessity. brief
For il recorded a happening-of no ap-
parent widespread fmportanCe-thaJ had
been received at the Office Just oeIoIS
the paper went to press. and had Iounu
asylum in brief wording upon a DICK
page instead Of being amplihed lnlo-~S
Here. word for word, 10 the best Of
nv memory. was the account
''BLATC HFORD DISCOVERS BODY
IN BASIN
Hiram BlatChford. Of the Lniled
States Secret Service. who Is IN Ball-
more on official business. discovered tne
body of a wel-dreSSed man Just on
the side OF the dlsuSed Whlppinger COCK
at abOut ! g. m today The man, whose
clothes and general appearance bore
signs Of struggle had apparently been
thrown from the dock A SuDIneFs SEQ
spike on one Of the piles had caught MS
coat whether as ne sank or as ne Vas
coming uE again, holding him under
water so hat only portion OF MS
shoulder was apOVe surface Inc bOdy
is al the TICTEIe awaiting identification
Detective BiatChfOFd was walking
near the basin shortly after mid
night, when he noticed man moving
cautiously along the Whippinger dock
The fellows furtive actions aroused
BIatChfOrd's suspicious and he acCOSted
him To his surprise, he recognized the
intruder as a WeIl-knOWn business man
from = nearby city be also nOuced
that his clothes were disOrdered and
stained with blood The stranger STAN
Tnered something about having gone 10
the dock 10 meet some one Then ne
took 10 his heels
..RIatchford unable to catch him. ex-
amined the dock by the aid Of a lantern
He saw evident traces Of some sort OF
tussle- Following up his researches ne
came up on blood stains on the wharf
plaukS and stTingpieCe- A clumsy EFFORT
had been made TO wash these away
Looking over the side Of the strlnSplece-
the detective saw the shoulder Of the
drowned man and telephOGed the police
Neither the police nor Mr.. BlaIcn-
ford would dlyUlge- the name OF the
man seen lurking abc:Lt the docks. nor
from what city ne cane It IS believed
ne viii be arrested before tonight The
body Of the victim has not yet been
identified
There ended the hastily written mar
raTive
last Then, a third and fourth time
Not that II contained q Inc that any
Jen-yeaT-Old child could not have
Erasped at first reading but because
my mind refused for the moment to do
anything else
So. Biatchford. n that bulldog way
OF his. had gone over the ground, find
ing everything that was Lherer ana
much that vas not there And ne had
ended by confirming MS vague SuSDl-
Cfons of crime with the discovery OF
the apparent victim Of that crime
drew not one atom Of consolation
from the fact that BIatchford had re-
fused TO give my name 10 the news
papers He liked me-OT had once liked
ule-after a fashion But ne was the
sort Of man TO track down his own
brother If such an act lay in the line
He had. of course, told the police who
was. And they were keeping the news
70 themselves until / should be laid
h. 10 =
10 be published broadcast and thus
N-arninE me and my friends in time 10
let me escape
7 fear that T an essentially selfish
For. in tho-e first moments. il was o.
myself and my own unpleasant prediCa-
ment ina. 7 thought But as my brain
cleared ny fears were again for Mark
He had Iain-knoCked Out-aCrOSS the
stringpieca Of the dock after what had
evidently been a fierce fight And. in
the water below lay the body Of a man,
whose appearance also pointed TO a re-
cent struggle
There was but one inference to be
drawn And the horror Of Il sanded my
throat 10 suHrOcation-
As I stood there, SpetchlesS, shaking
as with palsy at the awful revelation
that forced itself upon me, Mark
emerged from the next room
His face had lost much Of its sicIIly
pallOT. and there WIS new life IN his
lately vacant eyes. The hand that held
The eaudy bathrObe about him was firm
The cold plunge had made another man
OF him
WHAT'S up7'' he asked IN alarm.
catching sight Of me. You look as II
you'd seen a ghost"
q have" I answered vaguely, nv
thoughts still All at SEA
Poor old chap" he went on solicit
ous1y. TOO much excitement and too
little rest A cup Of U,ia~-k coffee VIII
set you up I'll ring for me It must
be almost breakfast time, anyway
How late IS itT
He moved across to the table where
the watch lay.
This has stopped" he said, 'at ten
minutes Of-Why- say" he broke OF in
Il yOurs2"
He had picked up the watch that ]
had rescued the preceding night al
the dock and had laid on the table
when I brought Mark home