The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1912-12-26


at Ardway-his prophecy had been
right-and was this another in the
terrible chain?
] ran like a mailman toward the
park entrance, where | remembered
had passed a policeman. 1t was
with relief that ! found him still
there.
There's woman--drowned- the
lake!" / gasped, pointing over my
shoulder.
He ran back to the lake with me
and together we waded out in the shall
low water where the body lay. In my
horror at the unexpected sight | had
not stopped Ito note her appearance,
nor could | have told whether she
was young or old, dark or fair.
| looked at her now with more than
| interest-with a feeling of sorrow, or
understanding The deed of Katha-
rine Parrish had brought me to a
closer sympathy with unfortunate per-
sons Influenced to seek death. AS |
saw that this poor girl was young and
| fair / sadly wondered what tragedy
had driven her to drowning.
Never shall l forget the impression
| the picture of this suicide made on
| me! She lay on her back, with long
blonde tresses of well-kept hair float
! ing out on either side of her shapely
| head Her eyes were closed, but her
| shapely brows and long dark lashes
made her face comely even in death.
| Her clothing, / observed, was we'll
made, and though wet and soiled as 1t
was by the water it still gave the i'm
| preston of neatness.
We grasped the body gently by the
arms and drew 1t in to the bank, where
we lifted It to the park bench on
| which | had been sitting.
| Il wonder if there is anything about
her to identify her by? said the pc,
liceman, and together we looked.
| Apparently there was nothing. There
were no rings on her hands, though
| the fingers were those of woman OF
refinement. The officer turned back
the collar of her coat, but the name
of the maker had been cut away.
4
who she was, guess" he said after a
hasty examination. They generally
| try to hide their names"
Eyes, suppose they do | said
alphabetically.
''Ive got to go over to the arsenal
and report this and send for the wag
on. Will you wait till ] come back
l won't be long"
I'll wait" said.
He disappeared up the path and
was left alone with the body. AS
sat there, meditating on the mystery
that had caused SO many other trag'
/ edies, l became conscious of the fact
that one of this girls hands was
closed, as if, even in death, she was
striving to conceal something.
STOPPING over, gently pressed back
the stiffening fingers.
An exclamation of horror came to
my lips as l saw what had been con.
cealed there.
It was little scrap of yellow paper
| could hardly believe my eyes. 1t
must be that this poor girl here was
another of the victims in the battling
/ chain of crime | was seeking to un-
/ ravel. l held the water-soaked frag-
ment up to the light, but there was
nothing on it-not word. Yet there
was no mistaking the color and tex
/ ture of the paper. 1t was undoubtedly
| the same that Louise and / had found
/ in Katharine's room after she had
tried to kill herself 1t was the same
that the police had discovered in An
drew Elsler's room. There was no
question in my mind but that it was
the same that the woman in Ardway
had torn up before she hanged herself
| in the little hotel But what was the
tie between them? What could be the
mysterious import of this yellow let
ter that drove it's recipients to death +?
| Here was one fragment. Perhaps |
could find othef scraps-perhaps the
whole letter. l ran down to the bank
of the lake and began a systematic
search of the water along shore. Foot
| by foot studied it carefully. For ten
minutes l searched unavailingly and
then l caught glimpse of something
! yellow half hidden by an overhanging
| tree. Carefully / parted the branches.
Sure enough, submerged in six inches
of water, were more Of the yellow
scraps. / waded in and, scooping
them up carefully in my hands, laid
them on the. grass to dry, for they
were all but falling apart and 1 hardly
dared handle them. Meanwhile / con-
tinued my search for other yellow
scrars-this time without avail. If she
had carried torn-up letter with her
| as she sprang to death, the other
pieces had fioated away.
At last, convinced that there was
no possibility of recovering more of
them, / gave up my search and re-
turned to where | had spread the re-
covered scraps on the grass. One by
one | studied them. They were evil
! IDENTIFY part of a typewriter letter,
but the ink had run SO that it was
impossible to read single word on
them. From their shape, too, it ap-
peared that they were not consecutive,
so there was little hope of learning
anything from them
Just two of the inky smears seemed
to have a possible meaning.
On one of them / was almost posi-
tive that / could trace the word
youth" On another scrap was a
word that little stretch of the imagi-
nation might decipher as "her."
youth" and her"
They might mean much or nothing.
They might have some bearing on
the great mystery / was trying to
solve. They might have none. Per-
haps they were, after all, erely