Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-09-24
Initials Only" = By Anna katherine Green
A Thrilling Mystery Story of Modern Times

worldly advantages of Miss Challoner. I
allude to"
Wait! the washerwoman in Hicks
street. Sweetwater what have Won got
up your sleeve? You do mean that Brook
iyn washerwoman, don't you?"
The same The department may have
forgotten it, but l haven't. Mr. Gryce.
there's a startling similarity in the two
cases If you study the essential features
only. Startling, I assure you"
Yes, you are right there. But what if
there is? We were no more successful
IN solving that case than we have been
IN solving this. Yet you look and act like
hound which has struck hot scent"
Ihe young man smoothed his features
with an embarrassed laugh.
Il shall never learn" said he mot to
give tongue till the hunt is fairly started.
II you will excuse me, Wen first make
sure OF the similarity l have mentioned.
Then I'll explain myself | have some
notes here, made at the time it was de
cided to drop the Hicks street case as a
wholly ineXplicable one As you know, |
never can bear to say die, and | some
times keep such notes as a possible help
in case any such unfinished matter should
come up again. Shall l read them?"
DO Twenty years ago it would not
have been necessary. | should have re-
membered every detail of an affair so
puzzling. But my memory is no longer
entirely reliable So fire away. my boy,
though ! hardly see your purpose or what
real bearing the affair in Hicks street
has upon the Clermont one. A poor
washerwoman and the wealthy Miss Chal-
Toner! True, they were not unlike in
their end"
THE connection will come later
smiled the young detective, with that
strange softening of. his features which
made one at times forget his extreme
plainness. I'm sure you will not con-
slider the time lost if ask you to con
slider the comparison | am about TO
make, if only as a curiosity in criminal
annals"
And he read:
On the afternoon of December I,
1910, the strong and persistent screaming
of a young child in one of the rooms of
a rear tenement in Hicks street, Brook
Ign, drew the attention of some of the
inmates and led them after several in
effectual efforts to gain an entrance, to
the breaking in of the door which had
been fastened on the inside by an old
fashioned door button.
" The tenant whom all knew for an
honest, hard working woman had not
infrequently fastened her door in this
manner, in order to safeguard her child
who was abnormally active and had a
way of rafting the door open when it
was not thus secured. But she had
never refused to open before, and the
ehild's cries were pitifu
This was no longer a matter of won
der, when, the door having been wrenched
from its hinges, they all rushed in Across
a tub of steaming clothes lifted upon a
bench in the open window, they saw the
body of this good woman, lying inert and
seemingly dead; the frightened child tug
ging at her skirts. She was of a robust
make, tieshy and fair, and had always
been considered a model of health and
energy, but at the sight of her helpless
figure, thus stricken while at work. the
one cry was "A stroken till she had been
lifted off and laid upon the floor. Then
some discoloration in the water at the
bottom of the tub led to a closer exami-
nation of her body, and the discovery of
a bullet hole in her breast directly over
the heart.
AS she had been standing with face
towards the window, all crowded that
way to see where the shot had come from
AS they were on the fourth story it could
not have come from the court upon which
the room looked. 1t could only have come
from the front tenement towering up be-
fore them some twenty feet away. A sin
gle window Of the innumerable ones con-
fronting them stood open, and this was
the one directly opposite.
Nobody was to be seen there or in
the room beyond, but during the excite
ment, one man ran off to call the police
and another to hunt up the janitor and
ask who occupied this room.
His reply threw them all into con-
fusion The tenant of that room was the
best, the quietest and most respectable
man in either building.
Then he must be simply careless and
the shot an accidental one a rush was
made for the stairs and soon the whole
building was in an uproar. But when this
especial room was reached, it was found
locked and on the door paper pinned
up, on which these words were written.
Gone 10 New York. VIII be back at 6 80!
Words that recalled circumstance to the
ianitor. He had seen the gentleman go
inquiry in this direction, though some few
of the excited throng were for battering
down this door just as they had the other
one But they were overruled by the
janitor, who saw no use in such wholesale
destruction, and presently the arrival OF
the police restored order and limited the
inquiry to the rear building, where ii un-
doubtedly belonged
Mr. Gryce" (here SWeetWater laid by
his notes that he might address the old
gentleman more Directly, 81 was with
the boys when they made their first Of
fetal investigation. This is why you can
rely upon the facts as here given.
followed the investigation closely and
missed nothing which could in any way
throw light on the case. It was a mys-
FERROUS one from the first, and lost moth
ing by further inquiry into the details
To Be Continued in Next Issue.