The Cairo bulletin., 1911-01-25
THE SCRATCHED
BULLET
BY RUTH GRAHAM
Copyright by American Press Assoc
citation. 1911.

hlilS III the tihlc pul us Soou rs hc
lad finished and thrust them in his
safe he went In next door and found
the occupant. Daniel Jones. sitting In
bis chair with his head down on his
desk. dead
/ My office was In the same building
and hearing OF the murder | went
into Jones' office, A surgeon was ex-
tracing the bullet from the wound,
and as soon MS he had done so II was
seized upon by a detective who stood
waiting for it. The detective rolled
1t up in his handkerchief and was
going away with 1t when | said to
him:
II believe you detectives are hum
bugs. making great ado about small
things to keep up sn appearance or
efficiency. I'll bet you hundred dol
lars to ten that the bullet you have
taken never leads to the discovery OF
the murderer"
"Since you offer large odds I'll take
your bet. think In about one case
In ten the bullet with which man
Is murdered will lead to the discovery
Of the person who shot him"
Every WELL" replied, IF II Is so
In this case come to my Office. tell
me the story. and I'll give you a hun
dred dollars"
| We exchanged names and addresses
and | thought no more about the mat
ter till saw 1t stated In newspaper
that man had been tried for the
murder of Daniel Jones. The jury had
not been ten minutes In coming to
verdict Of justlfiable homicide. The
very next morning the detective with
whom I had made the bet came into
my office and claimed hundred dol
lars. invited him to be seated and
tell me the story.
II examined the bullet with micro
scope" he said. land discovered tiny
scratch on one side and. looking
| further. found another scratch twice
the breadth Of the first about one-third
| the distance around the circumference.
| II could find pistol with two specks
| In the barrel at such distance from
each other to make those two scratches
on bullet fred from II would have
+, the weapon with which Mr. Jones was
killed.
"The next move was of course to
learn of a person or persons who
would have motive for the murder.
The family OF The murdered man were
very loath TO point finger of sus-
picion ar any one aud bad a hard
time to get anything our of them
Jones had a debtor. Evans. whom the
| family admitted TO have pressed so
strongly for payment that the two had
quarreled bitterly about the matter.
| Then there was a discharged coach
man who at the time Of his discharge
went away muttering curses These
were the only suggestions could get
from the family. and | went to work
on both of them ri once.
Il effected IN entrance to the house
| of Jones debtor aud found pistol IN
his drawer but OF different caliber
from the one with which he Jonesl
| had been Killed Besides from other
Indications made up my mind that he
had nothing to do with the murder,
also found the coacnmpn who had
been discharged, but no pistol In his
| possession.
81 sat down one day. Vt cigar, put
| my feet up Oh desk and did IL job of
thinking. | can think out any soluble
| problem with cigar in my mouth aud
| my feet In the air The murderer. ar
ter shooting Jones. would naturally
be worried about the pistol with
| which he committed the deed since II
might be used as evidence against
him. Even the fitting Of the ball In II,
| considered with other discriminating
| circumstances. might convict him. He
would endeavor to get rid OF 1t. How +?
| he would ether try 10 lose 1t. give Il
away, sell II or pawn IT, | rely greatly
on criminals anxiety TO get rid Of In
eliminating articles, There was
chance In this case that the pistol
would find its way into either sec
ond hand store or pawnshop | con.
cluded to go through all there were Of
| both IN the town.
| "ln a pawnshop l found new re-
volver. only one barrel of which had
been used. that had been pawned
| day or two after the Jones MUIR
der. focused the suns rays in
the barrel with a glass and thought
saw some scratches, but could not. be
sure. bought the pistol. loaded the
barrel that had been used and fred
the ball Into q tank full of water Re-
covering the bullet found on It the
scratches was locking for"
| The detective paused and |. taking
| up my checkbook. wrote him check
for hundred dollars. Handing II to
him ! remarked that the rest Of his
| lob was doubtless dead easy. but
would like to hear how it was man
aged
Il was not long" he continued. fold
ing the check and putting 1t In his
| pocketbook, lin finding the person
| who had pawned the revolver. He
was a tramp and said he had been
walking on road toward the city
and met man In all auto driving
furiousy. The tramp turned to look
at the registered number and made a
| mental note OF II. Just then he saw
4. a Al. III.