Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-12-28

ence, will not find il difficult to pic
ture the room where this poor wom'
an lived and worked. Bare walls, with
just newspaper illustration pinned
up here and there, bed-tragically
occupied at this moment-a kitchen
stove on which a boiler, half-hlled
with steaming clothes still dubbed
and foamed-en old bureau-a large
pine wardrobe against an inner door
which we later found to have been
locked for months, and the key lost
some chairs-and most pronounced or
all, because of it's position directly be-
fore the window, pine bench support
ing a wash-tub of the old sort.
las it was here the woman fell, this
tub naturally received the closest ex-
animation. A board projected from
its further side. whittier 1t had evil
IDENTIFY been pushed by the weight OF
her falling body; and from its top
hung a wet cloth, marking with its
lugubrious drip on the boards be-
meath the first heavy moments OF ST.
lence which is the natural accompani-
ment of SO serious survey. On the
floor to the right lay half-used cake
of soap just as 1t had slipped from her
hand. The window was closed, for the
temperature was at the freezing point,
but 1t had been found up, and it was
put up now to show the height at
which 1t had then stood. AS we all
took our look at the house wall oppo-
site, a sound of shouting came up
from below. A dozen children were
sliding on barrel slaves down slope
of heaped-up snow. They had been
engaged in this sport all the afternoon
and were our witnesses later that no
one had made a hazardous escape by
means of the ladder of the fire escape.
running, as have said. at an almost
unattainable distance towards the left.
! And that is as far as we ever got.
, The coroner's jury brought in a verdict
of death by means of stab from some
unknown weapon in the hand of per-
| son also unknown, but no weapon
was ever found, nor was it ever set
tied how the attack could have been
made or the murderer escape under
the conditions described. The woman
was poor, her friends few, and the
case seemingly inexplicable. SO after
creating some excitement by it's Pc
culiarities, it fell of its own weight.
But / remembered it, and in many
spare hour have tried to see my way
through the no-thoroughfare 1t pre-
sented. But quite in vain. Today, the
road is as blind as ever, but" here
Sweetwater's face sharpeped and his
eyes burned as he leaned closer and
closer to the older detective-"but
this second case, so unlike the first in
non-essentials but SO exactly like it in
just those points which make the mys-
terry, has dropped a thread from its
tangled skein into my hand, which
may yet lead us to the heart of both.
Can you guess-have you guessed
what this thread is? But how could
you without the one clue have not
given you? Mr.. Gryce, the tenement
where this occurred is the same l Wis
tied the other night in search of Mr..
Brotherson. And the man character
lied at that time by the janitor as the
best, the quietest and most respect
able tenant in the whole building, and
the one you remember whose window
opened directly opposite the spot
where this woman lay dead, was Mr..
Dunn himself, or, in other words, our
late redoubtable witness, Mr.. Orlando
Brotherson."