The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1911-02-02
THE SCRATCHED
BULLET
BY RUTH GRAHAM
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911.
BY RUTH GRAHAM


explosion. He was counting pile OF
bills at the time. but as soon as he
had finished and thrust them in his
safe he went in next door and found
the occupant. Daniel Jones. sitting In
his 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. surgeon was ex
, tracing the bullet from the wound
and as soon as he had done SO it was
seized upon by detective who stood
waiting for it. The detective rolled
1t I'D in his handkerchief and was
going away with it when ! said to
him:
81 believe you detectives are hum
bugs. making great ado about small
things to keep up an appearance OF
efficiency. I'll bet you a 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
!
is murdered will lead to the discovery
of the person who shot him.
Every WE'LL" / replied, ''if it is so
!, in this case come to my Office. tell
me the story. and I'll give you a hum
dred dollars
/ We exchanged names and addresses
and thought no more about the mat
! ter till I saw it stated in a newspaper
| that man had been tried for the
! murder of Daniel Jones' The jury had
not been ten minutes in coming to
! verdict of justifiable homicide. The
! very next morning the detective with
| whom | had made the bet came into
my Office and claimed hundred dol
lars, l invited him to be seated and
tell me the story.
Il examined the bullet with a 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.
! If | could find pistol with two specks
in the barrel at such distance from
| each other to make those two scratches
on bullet fired from ii would have
The weapon with which Mr. Jones was
killed.
1.-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 al any one. and ] had a hard
time to get anything out of them.
Jones had 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 discharged coach
man who at the time of his discharge
went away muttering curses. These
were the only suggestions l could get
from the family, and ! went to work
on both Of them at once.
II effected an entrance to the house
Of Jones' debtor and found pistol In
his drawer, but of a 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 coacnman who had
been discharged but no pistol in his
possession
81 sat down one day, lit cigar, put
lny feet up on desk and did job of
thinking. / can think out any soluble
problem with cigar in my mouth and
my feet in the air. The murderer, af-
ter shooting Jones. would naturally
be worried about the pistol with
which he committed the deed. since 1t
might be used as evidence against
him. Even the fitting of the ball in it,
considered with other discriminating
circumstances. might convict him. He
would endeavor to get rid of it. How?
He would ether try to lose it. give 1t
away, sell it 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.
I'm pawnshop / found a new re-
volver. only one barrel Of which had
been used. that had been pawned a
day or two after the Jones MUIR
der. focused the suns rays In
the barrel with glass and thought L
saw some scratches, but could not be
sure. bought the pistol. loaded the
barrel that had been used and fred
the ball into tank full Of water, Re
covering the bullet found on it the
scratches was looking for"
The detective paused. and /, taking
up my checkbook, wrote him check
for hundred dollars Handing 1t to
him remarked that the rest OF his
job was doubtless dead easy. but
would like to hear how 1t was man
aged.
81 was not long, be continued, fold
ing the check and putting it In his
pocketbook, Sin finding the person
who had pawned the revolver. He
was tramp and said he had been
walking on a road toward the city
and met man in an auto driving
furiously. The tramp turned to look
at the registered number and made a