Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1912-07-17
CHAPTER v.
TWO Discoveries

safcaSJlcally.
| was thoroughly indignant at the
leyity with which the inspector had
received my theory of CrandaPs
guilt. Firmly convinced Of my. sound
logic, the thought Of Davis laughing
at me before Louise ranked. AS I be
gan to expound, as forcefulIy as I
could, the reasons for my belief, he
cut me short.
Come along, Harding" he said in
authoritative tones, we've no time to
lose"
Almost before I knew it I found my
self by his side in the taxicab he had
hailed. In my indignation I had failed
to hear the direction he gave the
chauffeur.
According to your theory, Mr.. De
tective Kent" he said with assumed
gravity, for he was still in chatting
mood, where would be the best place
for us to go next?"
ITO Hugh CrandalPs apartments I
cried, determined to convince him of
my view of the case.
''That is exactly where we are
bound" he replied to my amazement
"But," I stammered, ~ thought from
your manner that you disagreed with
me as to Crandall's guilt"
81 do. I doubt every mans guilt
until il is definitely proved. I admit
there is plenty Of evidence of Gran
dall's connection with the case. l do
not admit that any Of the evidence yet
shows it TO be guilty connection"
Again | started to explain my rea-
sons for thinking Crandall guilty, but
again he refused to listen.
"My dear fellow" he said, Gin my
years of investigating crimes I have
i thoroughly learned one lesson, and
that it the unwisdom of jumping at
conclusions. There is only one rule
that never fails. Collect all the evil
dence possible first and then see to
whom it points. Most detectives, both
professional and amateur, make the
fatal mistake of deciding on a theory
and then setting out to prove it. That
is the reason SO many innocent men
are convicted and so many guilty ones
escape. You can prove almost any
thing about anybody if you work hard
enough. Starting out with the theory
that no such man as Napoleon ever
lived, could gather many convincing
proofs"
He stopped the taxicab at the cor
| ner long enough to gather in an arm
ful of afternoon papers from a news
boy, and began scanning their first
| pages and throwing them aside. From
the disappointment in his face 1
judged he had not found what he was
looking for.
What did you expect to fnd?" /
| asked wonderingly.
Other suicides" he said tersely,
keeping on with his hasty reading.
Though I have known Miller Davis
for years I must confess that I con-
stantly find myself almost dazed by
the seeming rapidity of his mental
processes and their apparently cratic
| course. Here he was rejecting my
theory of Crandall's guilt, yet jumping
wildly to the conclusion that there
would be other suicides, possibly con-
nected with Katharine Farrish's act
and Andrew Esler's DEATH 1t was en-
tirely beyond my comprehension, and
| the next tack Of his mind seemed even
even more puzzling.
do you know anything about art?''
he asked as calmly as if we were hav-
ing an after-dinner chat at the club.
"a little, not much"
eff any one asked you to define
technique I doubt if you could do it.
l do not believe there is a painter or
an art critic who could give a satisfac-
tory definition. Yet any one who
knows even little about painting
knows something of technique. We
know that every painter has his own
technique. Show me paintings by
| Henri, Lawson and Glackens and you
do not have to label them for me to
tell them apart. I recognize the work
of each man by his technique Even
If Lawson painted portrait and Henri
landscape, the individuality of the
| artist would make his work recogniz-
able, though masked by a subject I'M
usual for him. Crime is like art in
| one respect at 1east-technique. Ev-
cry criminal brain has it's own tech
| nique. Any one who has investigated
crime, who has studied evil-doers I'M
der all conditions, who has matched
his wits against theirs, inevitably
comes to recognize types of crimes.
Given any particular crime to trace,
from the very nature of it he is able
to say at once, This is the work of
So-and-so.' Now in the Parrish case
l am confident that a crime OF some
kind has been committed or is even
now being committed. I may not know
what particular thing it was that drove
Katharine Parrish and old Elser to
seek death-in fact I do not know as
yet-but that makes no difference. I
know the type Of crime. I recognize
in the case certain indefnable things
which convince me that behind it all
is a cunning criminal brain that has
planned some far-reaching plot. If it
was deyilishIy Ingenious enough tn