The Washington herald., 1912-04-07
Sunday, April 7, 1919.

mailing letters"
While | was not at all convinced by
his argument, | felt that il would be
useless for me to dispute it, for / would
be invading comparatively unknown ter
ritory, whereas he undoubtedly had doz-
ems of cases at his fingcrtips ready to il
lustrate his theory. / decided to change
the subject.
81 recall, too, / said, that you asked
il Crandall was left-handed So far as
saw, he is not. What OF that2 Is that
another proof of Crandal's innocence?"
NO" said Davis, that didn't prove
Crandalls innocence. 1t proved Rou-
ser's guilt. In fact, it was the left
handed clew that put me OH the right
track and eventually led me TO this very
cottage" q
For heavens sake" said | impa-
tiently, 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 clew. You lack the educa-
ton Only person who had seen hun
dreds and hundreds Of envelopes, and
had studied them closely would have
observed it, You remember that a po-
liceman brought ME part OF a yellow
envelope that had been found in old
Andrew Elser's room. On it was a
stamp and part OF the postmark. The
first thing that | 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. II ordinar-
lily is put in the upper right-hand corner
of the envelope. A right-handed per-
son 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 a
position that the edges OF the envelope
are hidden and in ninety-ninc cases out
of hundred the stamp is out OF plumb.
On the other hand, as a poStoffice in
Spector, | am well aware that in busi-
ness house or office where there is a
large correspondence. an Office boy mail
ing hundreds of letters at time is apt
to get most of the stamps on crooked.
If this yellow letter was one that had
been mailed in a business Office the
crooked stamp meant nothing. II, on
the other hand, it had been mailed singly
or with a few others, it was pretty safe
betting that the man who mailed il was
left-handed. 1t was easy after | came
to Ardway, especially as Rouser was al
ready missing and every one was talking
about him, to learn that he was left
handed"
Il still fail to see" said stubbornly,
why you did not suspect Crandall.
There were many things that seemed to
arine just before she shot herself, his
sudden disappearance, the finding of
the morphine syringe in his rooms, the
in,
pied with the fact that Gen. Parrish had
forbidden him the house. ! do not see
how you could help suspecting him"
"Pll admit that on the surface of
things all did look damaging, but against
this was the one important fact that he
was too well-balanced-too sane, il
might put It that way quickly learned
that he was reputable 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 sue
cessful business and getting away with
it, but it is highly improbable that he
could succeed in not betraying his men,
tai condition to his club-fellows or his
women friends. On the other hand, a
man might be sane enough in societys
but you would find the vagaries Of his
brain manifesting themselves in busi-
ness. As soon as | convinced myself
that Crandall was sane and well-bal-
anced, | felt that all possibility of his
being the criminal was eliminated"
DO you mean to tell me-" | cried
angrily, that all criminals are insane?"
YES" said Davis thoughfully, II
mean exactly that The time will come
when our courts will not be punitive but
curative. Men are criminals because
they cannot help it. The great well-bal-
anced majority of people see that in the
observance of the laws the community
has made for itself lies the only hope
of happy, regular life. The unbal-
anced few, the unhealthy product of
unfit parents, in their poor misshapen
brains are unable to comprehend this.
1ney become the rebels against author
ity, the slaves of alcohol and narcotics,
like that poor devil in there. They can
not help themselves, It's the fault of