The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1912-07-05

white as sheet, man! ! said exon
eration---full and clear!s
Coast reassured him with gesture.
'Tt's Just Joy" he explained simply.
He put hts head back against the
cushions, closed hfs eyes and drew 9
hong breath. "How YVES to guess
how all this had been brought about?
was afraid to ask, afraid to surnfge.
even. Tell me, please"
s'Tt came--ifke thunder out Of q
clear sky, Garrett; mono more amazed
than l." Warburton reverted to the
habit OF clipped phrases that charac-
terized his moments Of excitement
81 suppose you know--you've seen the
papers?"
only infrequentiy. I was
bit cowardly about them, pre-
sumo"
Then you hadn't heard about
Bfackstock?' Coast shook his head.
well, his eyes went back on him
were failing during the trial. If you'll
remember. l heard he'd injured them
somehow-with hts wireless expert
ments you know. He went nearly
blind and took himself out Of the
country-to Germany, the papers said,
to consult Berlin specialist, perhaps
to undergo an operation"
"One moment" Coast took deep
breath. did he go alone%
ssCo 7 hnnu Whu90
mo matter. Call it idle curiosity"
We'll, so much for Blackstock-
until the police get wind of him, at all
events. They're trying to locate him
by cable now; haven't heard of any
success that way, however Naturally
But a few days ago Dundas
came to the surface"
Coast started violently. "Dundas!"
''Um-mm; full confession, exculpat-
ing you, discriminating Blackstock.
Corroborative details: letters from
Blackstock--all that sort Of thing.
Furthermore, Dundas told US why
Blackstock feared Van Tuyl: Van
knew something-some dirty business
Blackstock had cooked UP in the west.
Immaterial now; tell you later. Also
Dundas took us to the shop where
Blackstock' bought that gun-sales-
man recalled the transaction. You re-
member how we failed to prove the
gun his?"
'Of course. Go on about Dundas."
We'll i. 1t was Truax's do
ing; nailed Dundas on the street one
day, somewhere east of Third avenue.
The man had been in hiding ever
since Blackstock cleared out; he was
in pretty bad way. broke and seedy;
claimed Blackstock hadn't sent him a
dollar since he disappeared So Dun
das thrown back upon his pen for
means of livelihood, went all to
pieces; couldn't work-had forgotten
the trick-or wouldn't; drank up al
he could raise by pawning things
/. Truax staked him to meal
and drinks, plenty Of drinks; and all
that on an empty stomach made him
maudlin Confessed he was keepiag a.
conscience -remorse gnawing at. his
those are-sSeTy-
thing like that. Then Truax bundled
him into a taxi and brought him to
my rooms 1t was near midnight
got me out of bed; caught cold.
However | own 1t without
conjunction, we worked the poor
devil through the third degree; Sim
ply browbeSt and bullyragged him I'M
til was ashamed of myself. But the
truth oozed out finally, along with
tears-whtsky tears. We hadn't
stinted the bottle.
GAS say, In the end Dundas owned
up to the whole filthy affair, Just as
you told whimpered about selling
his soul to Blackstock, price not de-
posed. We made him sign brief con-
fession, but / knew that wouldn't be
sufficient, and 1t was then too late and
Dundas too far gone to do more with
him. So / called in central Office
man I happened to know, and turned
Dundas over to him to be taken to
a Turkish bath and licked into shape;
and it did the trick, with hearty
breakfast and plenty of black coffee
for a chaser. He was pretty shaky
next morning, but l coaxed him into
a taxi and had him at the district at
torney's Office before he knew what
was up. There he wanted to hedge,
but his signature to the overnight con-
fession took all the starch out OF him,
and he went all over it again, with
stenographer taking It down-type-
written deposition~-all that sort OF
thing - - rassssas,,ess..s~t~..--s,
Meanwhile my friend the detective
had ransacked Dundas' lodging -some
cheap room just off the Bowery-and
found a bundle of letters from Black
stock mostly written during the trial,
when they didn't dare be seen together
hints and orders as to the evidence
Dundas was to give. That settled it.
Dundas was rushed before magfs-
trate and Jailed and the grand. jury
was asked to indict him for perjury.
a1''
e /