Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1910-11-04

webs to entangle him, is caught in
| sheet of fly paper, finds himself more
| and more mired, and is finally quiet
| with the sticky stiffness Of despair?
Well, I was the fly. l had seen too
much Of circumstantial evidence to
have any belief that the establishing
| of my identity would weigh much
| against the other discriminating de-
| tails. It meant Imprisonment and
| trial, probabl with all the notoriety
| and loss of practice they would en-
tail. A man thinks quickly at time
| like that All the probable conse-
| quences of the finding of that pocket
| book flashed through my mind as I ex-
tended my hand to take it. Then l
| drew my arm back.
| 81 don't want it, said. Look in
| side. Maybe the other man took the
money and left the wallet"
| The conductor opened it, and again
| there was a curious surging forward
of the crowd. To my intense disap-
| pOlntment the money was still there.
| / stood blankly miserable while it
was counted out-five 500 bills, six
| twenties and some fives and ones that
| brought the total to $3.50.
The little man with the notebook
| insisted on taking the numbers of the
notes, to the conductors annoyance.
| 1t was immaterial to me: Small things
had lost their power to irritate | was
| seeing myself in the prisoners box,
| going through all the nerve-racking
| routine of a trial for murder-the chal-
| longing Of the jury, the endless cross
| examinations, the alternate hope and
fear. I believe I said before that I
| had no nerves, but for a few minutes
| that morning | was as near as man
| ever comes to hySteria.
folded my arms and gave myself
! a mental shake. [ seemed to be the
| center of a hundred eyes, expressing
every shade of doubt and distrust, but
tried not to finch. Then some one
created diversion.
The amateur detective was busy
again with the sealskin bag, investi-
eating the make of the safety razor
and the manufacturers name on the
| bronze-green tie. Now, however, he
| paused and frowned, as though some
pet theory had been upset.
| Then from a corner of the bag he
drew out and held up for our inspec-
| ton some three inches of fine gold
chain, one end of which was black
ened and stained with blood!
The conductor held out his hand for
| it, but the little man was not ready
| to give it up. He turned to me.
"You say no watch was left you?
Was there piece of chain like that?"
mo chain at ALL said sull1ily. mo
jewelry Of any kind, except plain gold
buttons in the shirt | am wearing"
where are your glasses?" he
threw at me suddenly; instinctively
! my hand went to my eyes. My glasses
had been gone all morning, and I had
not even noticed their absence. The
little man smiled cynically and held
out the chain.
II must ask you to examine this,
he insisted. isn't it part of the fine
gold chain you wear over your carp
| didn't want to touch the thing:
The stain at the end made me shud-
der. But with a bakers dozen of sus-
picious eyes-well, we'll say 14-there
were no one-eyed men-I took the
fragment in the tips Of my fingers and
looked at it helplessly.
very fine chains are much alike
I managed to say. For all l know,
this may be mine, but l don't know
how it got into that sealskin bag. RI
never saw the bag until this morning
after daylight"