Omaha daily bee., 1912-10-13
CONFESSION
Continued from, Page 81

vulsion Of terror, and before | was con
scious of what was happening he had
squirmed under my hand, and in an up
ward lunge of his body he had buried
the blade in his neck just below the ear.
"Thcre sn't much blood 1t was
all over in a moment; for the tension of
Klein s muscles seemed suddenly to re-
lax, and he lay quite still.
"For several moments, | could not
bring myself to admit the tragedy that
had occurred It seemed impossible that
| could have inflicted upon this boy any
real bodily harm; for ] had never har-
bored thought of cnmity against him.
| worked over him for Il few moments,
and when | found that could not rouse
him | rushed to the phone. AS soon as
| | lifted the receiver from the hook and
heard Central call Hello. the full reai-
zatiOn that | was in room of dreadful
tragedy seemed to sweep over me and my
voice stopped at my lips. I could not
make a sound. This is the explanation
of the receiver being off the hook; it
was not Klein s effort to summon help,
as has been thought.
81 went back to the bed and tried to
discover the pulse of the figure crumpled
there. | soon learned what had happened.
| had killed man!
"The thought of flight and of escape
surged over me. With the primal instinct
of preserving that life which only few
days ago | had deemed worthless. | rea-
hat Ia1 70
the train; no one had seen me at Frank s
apartment; no one even knew of my pres
ence in this part of the country.
"Without stopping to remove the blood
from my hands | jumped through the
window, and pulling my hat far down
over my face, | hurried back to Frank s
apartment house. | went Immediately to
Franks rooms and turned the door knob,
expecting to 60 in and tell him all that
had occurred. The door was locked. |
did not knock; for in an instant | de-
clded that it would be better to keep the
awful secret to myself. [ slipped noise
lessly down the stairs, seized my suitcase
IN the office and hurried to the station.
A freight train was on the siding wait
ing for the eastbound passenger to pass.
l tried several box cars and, at last, found
one that was empty. In this | rode until
SIX o clock in the morning, when | reached
Wayslde, and took train that landed
me in Chicago the next night. In the
evening papers | read the account of the
arrest of Frank on suspicion of having
murdered his young rival. And the most
damnable part of it all was, that aside
from the alleged motive, the only clews
connecting him with the crime were those
| had furnished - that a man of Franks
size had been seen by policeman turning
n corner near Klein s house few moments
after the murder was committed, the time
having been fixed by the removal of the
receiver from the telephone hook: that
the janitor had stepped out of the base
ment of Franks apartment just before
| entered upon my return visit, and he
had described he as the same type of man
seen by the policeman; but, worst of all
that human blood stains had been found
on the door knob of Frank s apartment,
twenty-four hours later, after suspicion
had begun to center upon him.
81 telegraphed Frank that I was on
my way to him. When | arrived he told
me all that he knew of the case. His only
hope lay in the knowledge of his own in
nocence. He had no alibi; for he had
come home early that evening and had
read until midnight, before going to bed.
He had seen no one between 10 P. NJ.
and the next morning.
"Still, I thought could clear my