Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1912-01-26

keep, quiet, SAID CreEe IL VA
ing voice. After this act I want you
to come with me and explain about
the, murder of Mrs. Sanford -.
Quick as a fash the mans left hand
went down toward his hip pocket.
caught it and compressed it firmly be-
tween my own.
We'll done, Langton," said CreWe
in a whisper. Nov, sir, will you come
quietly?"
A SILVER ran through our captlVes
frame. He turned his eyes from one
to another of us. Then he seemed 10
break down and he collapsed IN MS
seat Imply.
IT killed her" he muttered. do
what you like with me. l meant 10
give myself up anyway. Every DAY l
have haunted the district, hoping that
I might be arrested, intending to con-
fess, but l hadn't the nerve. am
glad it's over"
Twill you come now?" said CreWe.
Let me see the last act" he plead
ed. my God, you don't know what IL
means to realize that shall never see
her face again in life, except upon
that screen. I've come here nightly 10
look at her. Let me wait till the end
"On one condition" said Crewe.
"Langton, take the pistol out OF his
left hip pocket"
What I still fail to understand"
l said to Crewe, SIS how you came to
associate this man with the murder.
Even If his photograph were not
among Mrs. Sanford's effects. stil'
there must have been many Of her ac'
quaintances who were similarly abb
sent. To me it all seems like happy
guess"
"The only guess" said Crewe, "was
in the assumption that the murderer
had been an actor in the same COM
pany. And that was rather a prob
ability than a fortunate hypothesis"
"But what enabled you to feel so
sure that you were able to charge the
man directly with the commission OF
the crime?''
LET us go back way" Crewe an
swered. 1.-THE wound, If you remem.
Der, was Immediately beneath the
woman's right arm. The murder had
been committed while she lay back in
her chair"
YES"
did it occur to you that the muir.
derer must have stood in very
cramped position to infict the wound
in such a location? And that 1t would
be almost impossible to drive home
the steel forcibly enough to cause i'm
mediate death?"
II confess that 1t did not. The evil
dence against Sanford seemed so con.
vincing"
when you saw the knife, did you
deduce anything from the fact that
the finger-prints were on the right side
of the blade?"
"Where else would they be?"
take out your pocket-knife. Open
it. Hold it edge upward. So. Now
on which side are the finger PRINTS"
con the left side," l said, much
chagrined.
Then the inference is-?"
"That the murderer was left-hand-
ed"
Exactly; and this accounts for the
position of the wound. If he held the
weapon in his left hand the blow
would fall most naturally where 1t
did. Many people, Langton, are partly
left-handed; that is to say, having
been trained to the use of the right
hand, they revert to their natural in
stinct in moments of excitement. Our
murderer was doubtless one of this
large class; therefore it is not neces-
sary to suppose that he used his left
hand habitually, in which event he
would have left traces that would
have aroused the attention even of the
stupid police. Well, then, when l
went to the moving picture show I was
looking for an unknown man with a
left-handed instinct. Did you notice
nothing in that scene with the mob?"
"He held his pistol in his left
hand" I exclaimed.
Eyes. But you saw it and let 1t
slip through the gates of memory"
Zone more question? Why the
quoits?"
Merely to ascertain beyond doubt
that our friend Sanford was not left
handed himself" said Crewe.