The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1912-05-16
THE FACE OF THE CLOCK
AN ADVENTURE OF PETER CREWE-"THE MAN
WITH THE CAMERA EYES"
b. HAIR Id CA RTER


ittducIo VI lHtSe nave
often said to me: "Why do you lay
so much stress upon Peter Crewe's
optical powers when the solution of
many of these cases was due quite as
much to the fertility of his mind and
his deductive powers as to his ability
to remember everybody and every
thing that he had ever SEEM"
My answer to this criticism has
been that, while Crewe possessed in
marked degree the ordinary detec-
tive instinct, yet in almost every case
it was his optical gift that started him
along the correct line of investiga-
ton. 1t was his power of calling up
an exact scene, a footprint on car
pet, misspelled letter in manu-.
script, the slightest deviation from
the normal, which none other could
have discovered, that furnished him
with his clues.
Take, for example, the case Of the
murder of Walter Bentley. Everybody
suspected, or at least sensed the fact,
that he had been killed by Sewell.
But 1t was Crewe who, by means of
this power of his, afforded us proof
positive of Sewell's guilt. Once the
pistol trap had been laid bare, Sewell
was shown to have purchased the
weapon, he was identified by a dozen
persons, a net of circumstantial evil
dence was woven around him, indie
pendently of the confession which he
afterward retracted, and ultimately he
paid the penalty of his crime.
Bentley had moved into his palatial
apartments a month after Sewell va
Gated them. He had rented them
ready furnished, and thus, before he
left, Sewell was enabled to lay his
trap. Had Bentley known who the
last occupant had been he would
never have taken up his abode there;
but Sewell had engineered the matter
so cunningly, having first lived there
under an alias and subsequently Sc
cured Bentley's tenancy through a
series of adroit measures-had worked
the scheme with such perfection that
he got Bentley as his successor. That
cause to hate another, Sewell had
cause to hate Bentley. The man had
ruined him by underselling his Once
a-Year" clock, in the patent on which
flaw existed, and flooding the mar
ket with an inferior product. Then he
had foreclosed mortgage, left SewelI
penniless, and finally alienated his
wife's affections. Sewell had pondered
over these things until he became in
dubitably insane. He should have
been sent to an asylum; but he was
found guilty of murder, for the jury
considered that no lunatic could have
contrived so ingenious conspiracy.
Bentley was highly pleased with his
new apartment, which he considered
bargain. SO it was; that was part
of the lure. When he saw one of his
own brand of "Once-a-Year" clocks
ticking merrily upon the mantel he
laughed and rubbed his hands, think
ing how he had ousted Sewell, the in
ventor. Altogether, Bentley was in a
high good humor.
Gordonia Mansions, where Bentley
lived, was in one of those parts of the
city in which the past and the future
seem to be struggling for supremacy.
1t was an old house and the district
had once been fashionable-was still
so; but just across the street a row of
rookeries had sprung up, inhabited by
Italians of the poorest and most reck-
less character. Pistol duels were COM
mon among them. When, therefore,
Bentley was found dead upon the floor
of his dining-room, an ugly bullet
wound in his head and a hole in the
plaster of the wall, it was decided that
stray shot from the tenements
across the street must have caused
his death. Suspicion was, for time,
drawn toward Sewell, who had been
breathing out threats of murder; but
Sewell had been staying in a country
house 20 miles from Gordonia Man.
sions, and had been there a week at
the time Of Bentley's death. The cor
oner's jury brought in a verdict of
found dead and the matter dropped
out of public notice.
1t was Mrs. Bentley who urged me
to investigate the affair. She had OBJ
tanned her divorce from Sewell, had
married Bentlay, and, knowing the
ruthless and relentless character of
her former husband, besides being
crazed with grief over Bentley's death,
resolved to bring the murderer to JUS
tice. Although / had little faith in
her suspicious of Sewell, / enlisted
Peter Crewe's aid in the matter. The
apartment had been left just as It was
at the time of Bentley's death. Crewe
and went there to investigate. Dust
lay thickly over everything, the bull.
let hole remained in the wall, and the
"Once-a-Year" clock still licked mer-
rily upon the mantel.
Crewe took his station in the door
way and let his eyes travel slowly
around the room. In those long
glances he was photographing upon
the sensitive retina of either eye the
exact presentiment of everything with
in the boundary of those four walls.
Never thenceforward, / knew, would
the smallest particular be forgotten
by him.
stT,l,o b,,IJot ooxoa tbrouob thfc tualI