Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-03-23
with Katharine Parrish against her
fathers wishes. he replied.

of the yellow letters. He knew Young.
He knew where to find him. There
are many things about his actions that
to my mind call for explanation"
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.
II didn't" I answered rather cross
ly, "but what's that got to do with IT."
I'm afraid, Kent, as have said be-
fore you will never make good de-
tective. You are entirely too unob-
servant of important details. Do you
recall me asking early in our investi-
cation whether or not Crandall had
blue eyes?"
Yes" grudgingly admitted, II re-
call It," sI
"As soon as I discovered that Gran
dali had blue eyes that eliminated him
Is the probable criminal"
Il don't see your logic" .a.
1--WE told you before" said Davis,
after 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 saw right at the
start that this crime was of the hid
den sort, of the kind that includes con-
spiracy, blackmail, secret plotting
You never in your life found 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 man in the back or kidnapping
child or writing blackmail letters"
While was not at all convinced by
his argument, felt that it would be
useless for me to dispute it. for
would be invading comparatively I'M
known territory, whereas he undoubt-
edly had dozens of cases at his finger.
tips ready to illustrate his theory.
decided to change the subject.
81 recall, too" l said, "that you
asked if Crandall was left-handed. So
far as saw, he is not. What Of that?
Is that another proof of Crandalls in
nocence?"
mo" said Davis, "that didn't prove
Crandalls innocence. 1t proved Rous-
er's guilt. In fact, it was the left-hand-
ed clue that put me on the right track
and eventually led me to this very cot
tage" ,ss 5%r}@u5- -. a~l& - g..
For heavens sake" said l i'm
patiently, 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 person who had seen hundreds
and hundreds Of envelopes and had
served it. You remember that police
man brought me part of a yellow en-
velope 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 invariably
gets the stamp on crooked. 1t ordi-
narily is put in the upper right-hand
corner of the enveloDe. A right handed
person stamping letter has the two
edges of the envelope as a guide. Try
putting on stamp with your left hand
and you will see that your hand
comes in such position that the
edges of the envelope are hidden and
in ninety-nine cases out of hundred
the stamp is out Of plumb. On the
other hand, as postoffice inspector,
I am we'll aware that, in a business
office where there Is a large cores
pondence, an office boy mailing hun
dreds Of letters at time, Is apt to
get most of the stamps on crooked. II
this yellow letter was one that had
been mailed in business office the
crooked stamp meant nothing. II, on
the other hand, it had been mailed
singly or with a few others, 1t was
pretty safe betting that the man who
mailed it was left-handed. It was easy
after came to Ardway, especially as
Rouser was already missing and every
one was talking about him, to learn
that he was left-handed."
II still fail to see" said stubborn
ly, "why you did not suspect Crandall.
There were many things that seemed
to point to him-his teleDhoning to
Katharine just before she shot herself,
his sudden disappearance. the finding
OF the morphine syringe in his rooms,
the Ardway address In his notebook.
coupled with the fact that General
Parrish had forbidden him the house.
I do not see how you could help sus-
pecting him" .s.
"I'll admit that on the surface these
things all did look damaging, but
against this was the one important
fact that he was too we'll balanced
too sane, il might put it that way.
I quickly learned that he was reput-
able business man, that he was one Of
the governors in two clubs. and you
yourself informed me that Katharine
Parrish had thought highly Of him. No
well balanced man commits crimes of
this sort. You might find an insane
man conducting successful business
and getting away with it, but It Is
highly improbable that he could sue
coed in not betraying his mental con-
dition to his club fellows or his women
friends On the other hand. man
might be sane enough in society. but |
you would find the vagaries of his
brain manifesting themselves in bust
ness. As soon as I convinced myself
that Crandall was sane and well bal
q