Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1912-02-16


en-. with his eyes roaming back and
forth in a sightless stare from her to
myself. muttering and groaning and
totally unheedful of Arthur's com.
mands TO mount the box and drive
home. Finally some one else stepped
from the crowd and mercifully took
the reins. | caught one more glimpse
of her face with Arthur's bent tender.
ly over 1t; then the sleigh slipped away.
An officer shook Zadok by the arm,
and he got up and began to move aside.
Then had mind to face my own fate.
and. hooking up, | met Sweetwater's
eye.
1t was quietly apologize.
Il only wished to congratulate YOU"
SAID he, ION the conclusion of a case
in which | know you are highly in
terested." Lifting his hat. he nodded
affably and was gone before | could
recover from my stupor.
1t was for Clinton TO show his in
dignation. was past all feeling
Farce as an afterpiece never appealed
TO me.
Would | have considered it farce if
l could have heard the words which
this detective was at that moment
! whispering into the district attorneys
ears:
DO you want to know who throttled
Adelaide Cumberland? 1t was not her
brother; it was not her lover; it was
hnr old "a
Give me your reasons. They must
be excellent ones. Sweetwater, or you
would not risk making a second mis-
take in case of this magnitude and
publicity"
"Mr. Fox. they are excellent. But
you shall judge of them. From the
moment Miss Carmel Cumberland over
threw the very foundations of our case
by her remarkable testimony felt that
my work was only half done. 1t was a
strain on credulity to believe Arthur
guilty of crime so prefaced, and the
alternative which Mr.. Moffat believed
| in, which you were beginning to believe
in and perhaps are allowing yourself
| to believe in even now, never appealed
! to me.
81 allude to the very natural Suspi-
cion that the act beheld by your man
Clarke was a criminal act and that
Ranelagh is the man really RESPONSE
bic for Miss Cumberland's death. Some
! instinct held me back from this con-
clusion as we'll as the incontrovertible
! fant fhof ho anIllI houa had hand
in carrying that piece of broken bottle
| into the Cumberland stable or of drop
| ping his engagement ring in the sug-
| gestive place where 1t was found.
| Where. then. should look for the I'M
| known. the unsupported third party?
Among the ten other persons who drop
ped something into that casket.
Most of these were children, but
made the acquaintance of every one.
] spent most Of my Sunday that way;
then. finding no clouded eye among
! them. began a study of the Cumher-
land servants. naturally starting with
Zadok. For two hours ! sat at his
stable fire. talking and turning him
inside out as only we detectives know
how. found him actually over
whelmed with grief-not the grief Of
a sane man. but of one in whom the
very springs of life are poisoned by
some dreadful remorse
"He did not know he revealed this.
He expressed himself as full of hope
that his young master would be ac-
uuitted the next day. But could see
that this prospect could never still the
worm working at his heart and resolv-
ed to understand why. left him os-
tensibly alone, but in reality shadowed
him. The consequence was that In
the evening dusk he led me to the
cemetery, where he took up his watch
at Miss Cumberland's grave. as If 1t
were a Mecca and he a passionate
devotee. / could hear his groans as
he hung to the fence and spoke softly
to the dead. and. though I was too
far away to catch single word.
felt confident that had at last struck
the right track and should soon see
my way more clearly than at any
time since this battling case opened.
"But before | allowed my fancy to
run away with me put in an evening
of inquiry If this man had an abso-
lutte alibi what was the use of vast
ing effort upon him? But | could not
find that he had. Mr.. Fox. He went
with the rest of the servants TO the
ball. which, you know. was held in
Tibbitt's hall. on Ford street. and he
was seen there later. dancing and
making merry in Il way not usual to
! him. But there was space of time
dangerously tallying with that of the
tragic scene at the clubhouse when
he was not seen by any one there.
THAT piece of broken bottle-where
was the rest of it? Sought for almost
Immediately after the tragedy. it had
not been found at the Cumberland
place or on the golf links. 1t had been
looked for carefully when the first
thaw came; but, though glass was pick
ed up. it was not the same glass. The
task had become hopeless and ere long
was abandoned.
"But with this idea of Zadok being
the means of it's transfer from the
Whispering Pines to the house on the
hill felt the desire to look once more,
and while court was In session this
morning | started fresh search-this
time not on the golf links. Tibbitts
hall communicates more quickly with
the Whispering Pines by the clubhouse
road than by the market one So di-
rected my attention to the ground IN
front and on the farther side of the
driveways. And | found the neck Of
that bottle!
"Now, who would do this but Zadok,
who saw in it, he has said. a recep'
tacle for some varnish which he had,