The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1911-01-10

something narrowing to communicate.
"Im drug clerk. One day a pre-
scription came in and l put it up.
Hours after 1t had gone out found a
small vial of deadly poison standing
on the board where l had mixed the
medicine. / had taken it up by mis-
take and put enough to kill any one
into the mixture. l darted out to stop
the patient from taking it. A boy
rushed past me selling newspapers
and crying, Sudden death of Banker
Middleton That was the name CIV
en- when the medicine was called for.
II went back to the store, told my
employer that my mother was dying
and left town within an hour. My
secret has preyed on me, but l never
dreamed 1t would involve another
life"
The man had given the key to the
circumstances that had convicted an
innocent man as l had concocted it
for my novel; saw at once that it
was fate and not l who had been writ
ing a detective story. the parts Of
which fate had evolved In its way,
not NINE
In a distant town the drug clerk
had picked up copy Of our paper
containing that installment of my sto-
ry which gave my concocted key, it
being identical with his own act
Later his eye met a newspaper item
that the man who had poisoned Mid
dleton for his money would be exc
cuted in three weeks. He had come
to me as the author of the story, sup
posing that had his secret.
In this sequel to the product Of my
brain l saw what the story itself
would not produce am a newspaper
man, and my newspaper instincts
came to the front
"You come with me-" said. "Put
yourself in the hands of our paper,
and we'll give you the best outcome
to your fatal mistake one can secure
for you"
He assented, and. taking him to the
Office told the story to Heaton.
Shaker he said. thrusting out his
hand and grasping mine in an iron
grip. "The papers nader
Then ! called the drug clerk in and
introduced him to the managing editor
Heaton gave him what money he
wanted and told him to go where he
liked-leaving his address. of course
and keep his mouth shut The next
morning out came scare heads an
nouncing that remarkable combina-
ton detective-fiction exploit had led to
the discovery that George Barton, the
man who had been convicted Of the
murder of Banker Middleton, was In
nocent. This set everybody agog for
the next issue.
In the morning we announced that
the paper had produced drug clerk
whose mistake had caused the poison
ing of Middleton. A hint was thrown
out that an author-detective who wrote
exclusively for the paper had built a
theory of his own as to the cause of
Middleton's death and had written the
story with the intent of bringing out
the real culprit
And so 1t came about that an inno-
cent man was saved from hanging
because people like to read about such
tragedies and because | was instruc-
ed to hang an imaginary character.
But, after all, did it not come about on
the principal of an ad.?
We got the drug clerk of with light
punishment and had Barton up In our
editorial rooms. where | was intro
duced to him as the man who had
saved him from felon's death. He
asked me If had really written the
story on the theory that Middleton had
been poisoned by the mistake of
drug clerk. The look of noncommittal
wisdom | put on was stroke Of
genius 1t claimed nothing for me. but
helped the paper
There was another coincidence which
l have left to the last, for it is the
touching part Barton was engaged to
very lovely girl. she had stood by
him during his trial. confident in his
innocence. Barton asked me to go to
see her, and | did so. The interview
was very affecting. She told me that
II her flance had been executed she be-
lieved she would have gone mad. as
did the heroine of my story. Then
realized that better things had been
accomplished by my serial than the
building up Of newspaper.