Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1910-02-11
THE CULPR|T?
BY SALLY MENDuM.
copyright. 1910. by American Press Asso-
ciation.l

who lived alone in his cottage on the
outskirts of the town. Miller, the head
of q detective firm In the city, twenty
miles distant. was called for by the
town authorities. He went up. looked
the matter over. came to an agreement
with the mayor aud promised to put
some one on the case Immediately. He
was taking his supper in a private
room in "A restaurant when the door
opened and a man of rather seedy ap-
pearance entered.
MIR. Miller, | believe" said the new
conner.
Il am. What can | do for youY"
II was in tue detective business once.
and I'm trying TO get into 1t again. I'd
like to take hold of this Meagher case"
I'm going to send a man up to at
tend to It."
The seedy individual pulled a letter
from his pocket and handed 1t to the
detective to read. 1t was a certificate
from a detective firm that Joel Zim
norman had worked for 1t and done
good service.
Miller's bargain with the mayor had
beer largely contingent upon tracking
and capturing the murderer, q not very
profitable way TO do business. 1t 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 mar told him that he suspected a
certain person and would look for a
clew in that direction. He felt so con-
fident In the mutter that he offered to
work without pay niles he made a
valuable discovery. but stipulated that
he should have the field to himself.
No other detective should be put on
the case. On these terms Mr.. Miller
engaged him and went back to the
city to attend to other matters that
promised more certain results.
Joe Avery, q nephew Of the murder
ed man, lived in Petersville. a much re-
spected young man. with q very nice
wife and two very pretty children.
One day while walking on the street
he picked up a ten dollar bill. He was
In hard luck at the time n very
much delighted at his find. The bill
was partly spent for meat at a butcher
shop. The same afternoon Avery was
arrested for the murder of his uncle
on information furnished by thinner
man. The detective produced a list of
bills, giving their numbers. that he
said he had found in an unused Chin
ney In the murdered mans house. The
list was supposed to refer to $1,000
that the old man kept there. The the
DRY was that the money had been TAX
en- by the murderer. who had unwit-
tingly left the list.
Everybody In the town was surprised
at Avery's arrest. and no n at first
believed him guilty. 1t was not sup
posed that his uncle had any money.
ana II he had the murderer was the
only one who could have known of 1t.
There was a strong case of circum-
stancial evidence against Avery, but 1t
was weakened by Zimmerman himself.
who under cross examination contra
dicted himself as to how. where and
when he had found the list. Experts
disagreed whether 1t was or was not
In the handwriting of Meagher. By
throwing doubt upon this evidence the
prisoners attorney saved his client
from a verdict of guilty. The jury dis.
agreed. but in order TO avoid the ex-
pense Of another trial brought in a YER
dict of not guilty.
Avery had no doubt that he had
been made the victim of a 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
that his acquittal was a case of mot
proved" rather than mot guilty" The
detective who worked up the case
against him had dropped the matter
and was now working for the Miller
detective agency that had employed
him. Indeed, every one seemed salts
fed to let the matter rest except the
man who had narrowly escaped the
gallows and was in consequence living
under the ban of being a murderer.
These were the reasons that induced
Avery to take up the case on his own
account.
Avery made up his mind that his
uDtit iluu OcCH a HOaiRNAs b'NNN -
remembered certain Incidents TO in
dictate 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 be 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. Sew
en- savings banks replied that bank
books to the aggregate amount of
S260.000 had beer issued to n Tim
othy j. Meagher. Avery did not sup
pose that his uncle had a middle name,
but searched the family records and
found that he had. II was John.