Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-14
CHAPTER I.
The Crime in West Sedgwick.


The Crime in West Sedgwick.
Though a young detective. I am not en-
tirely an inexperienced one, and l have
several fairly successful investigations to
my credit on the records of the central
office
The chief said to me one day: Bur
roughs. if there's a mystery to be I'M
raveled, I'd rather put it in your hands
than to trust it to any other man on the
force.
Because he went on, you go about
it scientifically. and you never Jump at
conclusions or accept them, until they'r re
individually warranted
1 declared myself duly grateful for the
chiefs kind words. but was secretly a
bit chagrined. A detectives ambition is
to be considered capable of jumping al
conclusions. only the conclusions must al
ways prove to be correct ones.
But though l am an earnest and pains
taking worker, though my habits are
methodical and systematic. and though
am indefatigably patient and persevering
! can never make those brilliant deduc.
tions from seemingly unimpOrtant clues
that Fleming Stone can. He holds that
it is nothing but observation and logical
inference, but to me 1T is little short OF
clairvoyance.
The smallest detail in the way Of EVIL
dence Immediately connotes in his mind
some important fact that is indisput-
able, but which would never have oc-
CURED to me. l suppose this is largely q
natural bent of his brain. for 1 have moi
yet been able to achieve it. either by
study or experience.
OF course I can deduce some facts. and
my colleagues often say l am rather
clever at 1t, but they don't know Fleming
Stone as well as l do and don't realize
that by comparison with his talent mine
is insignificant.
And so, it is both by way Of entertain
ment and in hope of learning from him
that I am with him whenever possible
and often ask him to ''deduce' for me
even at risk of boring him. as, unless he
is in the right mood, my requests some
times do.
/ met him accidentally one morning
when we both CHANGED to go into base
ment of the Metropolis Hotel in New
York to have our shoes shined.
1t was about half-past 9. and as l like
to get to my office by 10 O'Clock,
chat with him. While waiting our turn
to get chair we stood talking, and, See
ing pair of shoes standing on a table
evidently there to be cleaned, l said, ban.
teringly:
Now, suppose, Stone, from looking al
those shoes, you can deduce all there is
to know about the owner of them
4 remember that Sherlock Holmes wrote
once, From drop Of water logiciar
could infer the possibility Of an Atlantic
or a Niagara without having seen o.
heard of one or the other but when
heard Fleming Stones reply to my half
laughing challenge. l felt that he had out
done the mythical logician With milo
twinkle in his eye. but with q perfectly
grave face. he said, slowly:
Those shoes belong to a young man
five feet eight inches high. He does no,
live in New York, but. is here to visit his
sweetheart. She lives in Brooklyn, Is
five feet nine, inches tall and is deaf in
her left ear. They went to the theater
last night and neither was in evening
Dress"
"Oh, pshaw!' said I, ''as you are ac-
quainted with this man and know how
he spent last evening. your relation OF
the story doesn't interest me-"
II don't know him., Stone returned
1--WE no idea what his name is, I've
never seen him. and except what I can
read from these shoes I know nothing
about him.
1 stared at him incredulously. as I al
ways did when confronted by his aston
ishing deductions" and simply said:
Tell this little Missourian all about it. :
"It did sound well, reeled off like that
at my air of eager curiosity than at his
own achievement But it's absurdly
easy, after all. He is young man be-
cause his shoes are in the very latest, ex-
| treme not exclusive style. He is five
feet eight, because the size of his foot
goes with that height of man, which, by
the way, is the height Of nine out of ter
men, anyway. He doesn't live in New
York or he wouldn't be stopping at a
hotel. Besides. he would be down town
at this hour, attending to business
Unless he has freak business hours. as
Won and / do / mt in
Yes. that might be. But l still hold
that he doesn't live in New York, or he
couldn't be staying at this Broadway
hotel overnight, and sending his shoes
down to be shined at half-past 9 in the
morning. His sweetheart is five feet nine
for that is the height Of tall girl
know she is tall, for she wears q long
skirt. Short girls wear short skirts. which
make them look shorter still, and tail
girls wear very long skirts. which make
why do they do that" I inquired
greatly interested
81 don't know. You'll have to ask that
of some one wiser than I. But l know
it's fact. A girl wouldn't be considered
really tall if less than five feet nine. Sc
know that's her height. She is his
sweetheart, for no man would go from
New York to Brooklyn and bring lady
over here to the theater and then take
her home and return to New York in the
not in love with her. I know she lives
In Brooklyn, for the paper says there
was a heavy shower there last night
while I know no rain fell in New York
I know that they were out in that rain
for her long skirt became muddy and. In
turn. muddied the whole upper of his left
shoe. The fact that only the left shoe
is SO soiled proves that he walked only
at her right side, showing that she must
be deaf in her left ear. or he would have
oA nf thox cid
know that they went to the theater in
New York, because he is still sleeping al
this hour, and has sent his boots down
to be cleaned. instead of coming down
| with them on his feet to be shined here
If he had been merely calling on the CIR
early for they do not sit up late in thai
borough. I know they went to the the
alter, instead of to the opera or a bali, fol
they did not go in cab. otherwise hel
| skirt would not have become muddied
This, too, shows that she wore a clotf
skirt, and as his shoes are not patent
feathers. 1t Is clear that neither was in
evening dress"
I didn't try to get verification of Elem
| ing Stones assertions: l didn't want any
Scores Of times I had known him to make
similar deductions, and in cases where We
afterward learned the facts he was in
variably correct. So, though we didn't
follow up this matter, / was sure he was
| right. and even II he hadn't been il
| would not have weighed heavily against
his large proportion Of proved successes
We separated then, as we took chairs
| at some distance from each other, and
with sigh of regret that | could never
| hope to go far along the line in which
Stone showed such proficiency, l begaI
! to read my morning paper.
Fleming Stone left the place before
did, nodding a goodbye as he passed me
and moment after. my own footgear be-