Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1912-10-09

SOLOldO4S Sl1OI USus QlSW up Ills lOSS,
rubbed his eyes and sprang to his feet.
1T will be daylight in half an hour"
/ heard Davis tell him. 81 want you
to go and get the blackboard and drive
around to where Rouser's body lies.
Bring me any papers you find in his
pockets. Leave his money and his
watch and keys, so as not to arouse
any suspicion of robbery. AS soon as
you have done that l want you to
drive back and pick up the body be-
fore anyone else finds it. Drive with
it to Millervale and leave it there.
Don't talk too much. Tell everybody
that you found the body at the foot
of the precipice and impress on them
that it must have been an accident in
the dark. AS soon as you can convent
emily get away, come back here. Make
sure, though, that nobody follows you"
AS Dol as the constable had gone,
Davis lit a cigarette, turned up his
coat collar and took a seat on a
rough bench just outside the door.
Come on out here, Harding, and
watch the sun RISE he called to me.
l rose hastily from where l had
been sitting gazing stupidity about me
and Joined him on the bench.
There was something you wanted
to ask me, wasn't there?" he said
pleasantly.
There were so many things l want
ed to ask him l hardly knew where TO
begin, but the first thing l blurted out
was:
"Is Hugh Crandall guilty."
"He is guilty only of being in love
with Katharine Parrish against her ia
theirs Wishes he replied.
but surely" I said doggedly, "he
has some connection with the crime
Of the yellow letters. He knew
Young. He knew where to find him.
There are many things about his &C.
lions that to my mind call for expla-
nation"
did you notice his eyes?" asked
Davis. 1t was still too dark for me to
see the inspectors face, but | felt
sure that he was laughing at me. He
made me feel that way all too often.
81 didn't" l answered rather cross
~, but what's that got to do with
it?"
I'm afraid, Kent, as have said be-
fore, you will never make a good de-
t~ective. You are entirely too unob-
servant of important details. Do you
recall my asking early in our ~investi-
cation whether or not Crandall had
blue eyes?"
EYES," 1 grudgingly admitted, II re-
call it,"
"As soon as I discovered that Gran
dali had blue eyes that eliminated him
as the probable criminal"
Il don't see your logic"
1--WE told you BEFORE" said Davis,
after a pause long enough to permit
him to light another cigarette, that
there are classes of crime and types
Of criminals, each strongly marked
after it's own sort. l saw right at the
start that this crime was of the hid
den sort, of the kind that includes con-
spiracy, blackmail, secret plotting
the kind that requires a skilful sneak.
You never in your life found a blue
eyed sneak. There are lots of blue
eyed desperadoes and burglars. Most
of the notorious bad men of the west
were blue-eyed, but you don't find a
man with blue eyes shooting or stab
bling a man in the back or kidnapping
a child or writing blackmailing let
ters."
While | was not at all convinced
by his argument, l felt that it would
be useless for me to dispute it, for I
would be invading comparatively I'M
known territory, whereas he undoubt-
eddy had dozens Of cases at his finger
tips ready to illustrate his theory. I
decided to change the subject.
81 recall, too" l said, that you
asked if Crandall was left-handed. So
far as I saw, he is not. What of that?
Is that another proof Of C%randall's in
n~ocence?"
NO." said Davis, that didn't prove
CrandalIs Innocence. 1t proved Rou-
ser's guilt. In fact. it was the left
handed clue that put me on the right
track and eventually led me to this
very cottage"
For Heavens sake" said I impa.
tiently, don't talk in riddles. Go on
and explain it,"
You're not to blame" he continued
calmly, for not having seen the left
handed clue. You lack the education.
Only a person who had seen hundreds
and hundreds of envelopes and had
studied them closely would have OBJ
served it. You remember that a po.
liceman brought me part of a yellow
envelope that had been found in old
Andrew Elser's room. On it was a
stamp and part of the postmark. The
first thing that I noticed was that the
stamp was put on crooked. This
might mean much or nothing. A left
handed person stamping a letter in.
variably gets the stamp on crooked.
1t ordinarily is put in the upper right.
hand corner of the envelope. A right.
handed person stamping a letter has
the two edges of the envelope as a