Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-03-28

didn't your"
The prisoner nodded.
Sure" he said, "the telephone
every time. 1t leaves no records be-
hind 1t and the Bertillon system can't
identify a voice"
Now" the inspector went on,
what does Young say over the tele.
phone to Elser? Something like this
You're an old thief. I've got the
proof. You are stealing somebody's
money. Steal some more and give 1t
to me or I'll tell Unfortunately, in
old Elser's case there was no more
money left to steal. so he killed
Am l right, Young?'
Again the prisoner nodded, and
again he demanded another dose Of
His muscles were again
getting beyond his control. AS Davis
fixed the hypodermic, I asked: but
where does the old maid from Con-
necticut come in? Surely she
wasn't a defaulter."
IT suspect it was the brother with
whom she made her home," said the
inspector.
"Damn her." said Young bitterly"
cit was she who queered the whole
game. We tackled her brother for
five hundred and it came so easily we
decided to make another try. The
weakened old thief, in his terror of
us. told his sister all about It,. She
insisted on coming down here. She
saw Rouser and tried to find the
signer Of the letter. Rouser denied
knowing him. She was a wise old
creature and pointed out that as post
master he must know who got the
mail. Her suspicion of Rouser scared
him stiff. He wanted to give her the
money back, but at first wouldn't
hear to it. She was threatening to
commit suicide if we didn't. He was
so scared that finally consented to let
him square her. wanted to use him
still further and wasn't ready to have
him get cold feet. I gave him the
money, and he went to the hotel late
in the afternoon to see the old girl.
He slipped up to her room and found
her hanging there. 1t gave him such
shock that he dashed back to the
post-office, grabbed his bicycle and
hustled out here as fast as he could
come, where I was waiting to meet
Katharine Parrish"
With difficulty suppressed an ex-
clamation of establishment. could
not doubt that he was telling the truth,
for his story dovetailed SO we'll with
what Louise had told me. Yet 1t
seemed impossible to believe, it surely
was preposterous to imagine that Gen.
eral Parrish, wealthy and honorable as
he was, could have been thief. re-
~ dnNi6nA IN do.
mand an explanation from Young of
why he had sought meeting with
Katharine. ...... la
+, "It's too bad Rouser was so easily
frightened" Davis was saying sar-
castically. "He was so scared that he
left behind in the cash-drawer five
thousand he had just received from
Henry Eberle."
"The accursed fool" screamed
Young in a frenzy of rage that he had
failed to get his hands on this bit of
plumber. "The sneak didn't tell me
that All he said was that Dora Hast.
ings, who was a restaurant cashier
had insisted that it was utterly impos.
sible for her to pay up. The dirty
damned sneak!
In fit of madness he cursed and
cursed again his dead associate, foul
oaths rolling In streams from his
parched lips. Anxiously waited for
his fury to subside to ask him about
Katharine and Hugh Crandall. It
seemed a descration of her woman.
hood to mention Katharine's name in
the presence Of such q man, 30 he
subsidized l merely asked: But what
about Hugh Crandall?"
Damn him. he cried, that was an.
other of my mistakes! l knew Gran
DALI in college. When I got the goods
on old Parrish I thought I could rely
on Crandall, to help me to turn the
trick. q / didn't know he was In love
with the daughter. When told him
about 1t he refused to have anything
to do with 1t and rushed off and squeal.
ed to the general. Much thanks he got
for it! The naughty old general or.
dered him out Of the house and
wouldn't let the daughter have any
thing more to do with him. tried
then to get him in on the scheme, but
it was no 60. For weeks he kept try
ing to worm my secret from me.
fred yellow letter after yellow letter
at the general, but he kept defying me
and all the while Crandall kept after
me to make me give up the papers
I was afraid I'd weaken. There are
times the dope gets me and I hardly
know what I'm doing, so vanished
It struck me that If the general
wouldn't come across maybe the
daughter would. put it up to Gran
dali and we arranged meeting. was
to put the papers in her hands and she
was to pay over the money. slipped
up on the first appointment. and guess
you must have spoiled the second"
still was puzzled. What could be
the terrible mystery in proud old Gen
eral Farrish's life that gave this mis-
creant such a hold on him? 1t was
beyond my imagination to conjecture
so l put the question bluntly to the
prisoner.
"why ask me?" he snarled. you've
got the whole thing-every paper
bearing on it in your pocket there. -
Quickly I snatched the envelope
from my pocket and was about to r1l
it open. At last was to know the
secret that had brought such unhappi
s,>&- fa ~ 10 q