Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-09-24
Initials Onl y i" By Anna katherine Green
A Thrilling Mystery Story Of Mod9n Times

auude to-"
wait, the washerwoman in Hicks
| street, Sweetwater. what have you got
up your sleeve? You do mean that Brook
! Ign washerwoman. don't your"
! The same. The department may have
forgotten it,, but ] haven't. Mr. Gryce
| there's a startling similarity in the two
cases If you study the essential features
only. Startling, l 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
a hound which has struck a hot scent"
| The young man smoothed his features
with an embarrassed laugh
! 81 shall never learn" said he mot to
! give tongue till the fHnt is fairly started
| If you will excuse me, wen first make
sure of the similarity l have mentioned
! Then III explain myself. | have some
| notes here, made at the time it was de-
! cided to drop the Hicks street case as a
wholly inexplcable 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 I read them?"
do, Twenty years ago 1t would not
| have been necessary ! should have re-
membered every detail of an affair so
puzzlng 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
washcrwoman ana 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
! plainncsS. TIN sure you viii not con-
slider the time lost if | ask you to con
! slider the comparison l am about TO
make, if only as a curiosity in criminal
| annals"
| And he read:
! 'On the afternoon Of December 4,
! 1910, the strong and persistent screaming
of Young child in one Of the rooms of
| a rear tenement in Hicks street, Brook
! lyn, 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
! nfrequenuy fastened her door in this
manner in order to safeguard her child
who was abnormaly active and had
way of rafting the door open when it
was not thus secured But she had
never refused to open before, and the
ohds cries were ptiful.
This was no longer a matter of won
der, when the door having been wrenched
from its hinges, they all rushed in. Across
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 model of health and
energy, but at the sight of her helpless
! figure, thus stricken while at work. the
one cry was "a stroke" till she had been
lifted off and laid upon the floor Then
some discoioration In the water at the
/ bottom Of the tub led to 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 II 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 innumerabe ones con
| fronting them stood open, and this was
| the one directly opposite
Nobody was to be seen there or in
I 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 he simply careless and
| the shot an accidental one. A rush was
made for the stairs and soon the whole
! building was in an upruar But when this
especial room was reached it was found
locked and on the door a paper pinned
| up on which these words were written.
! Gone 20 New York. viii be back at $50!
/ Words that recalled a circumstance to the
janitor He had seen the gentleman go
out an hour before. This terminated all
| 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 We're oVerruled by the
| ianitor 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 It uu-
douhredly belonged
Mr. Gryce" there Sweetwater laid by
his notes that he might address the old
gentleman more direcuy), Il 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 Investigation, rIngal,y
missed nothing which could in any way
throw light on the case. 1t was a mys-
terious one from the first, and lost moth
ing 10y further inquiry into the details.
To Be Continued in Next Issue.