Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-24
CHAPTER VIII.
Further uiry.

ieoSiieHt was almost equivalent TO an al
firmative answer to the coroners ques-
ton. AT last she replied:
Il don't know; 1 didn't notice.
This might have been a true statement
but I think no one in the room believed
1t. The coroner tried again.
'Try to think, Mrs. Pierce. 1t is i'm
portant that we should know If Miss
Lloyd was wearing yellow rose
Yes" fared out Mrs. Pierce, angrily
$50 that you can prove she went down
to her uncle's office later and dropped a
piece Of her rose there, But l tell you I
don't remember whether she was wearing
rose or not, and it wouldn't matter if
she had on forty roses. If Florence
Lloyd says she didn't go downstairs, she
didn't"
Il think We all believe in Miss Lloyd's
veracity," said Mr.. Monroe. but it is
necessary to discover where those rose
petals in the library came from. You
saw the flowers in her room, Mrs.
Pierce?''
''Yes. believe 1 did. But 1 paid no at
tention to them, as Florence nearly al
ways has flowers in her ROOM
Would you have heard Miss LLOYD if
she had gone downstairs after you left
herr"
Il don't know" said Mrs. Pierce, doubt
fully.
us your room next to hers?"
mo, not next"
us it on the same CORRIDOR
NO
around a corner?"
yes"
And at some distance?"
Yes" Mrs. Pierce's answers became
more hesitating as she saw the drift Of
Mr.. Monroe's questions. Clearly, she was
trying to shield Florence. if necessary.
at the expense Of actual truthfulness.
Then went on Mr.. Monroe, inexo-
rably, Il understand you to say that you
think you would have heard Miss Lloyd
had she gone downstairs, although your
room is at distance and around cor
ner, and the hall and stairs are thickly
cially, Mrs. Pierce, 1 think you would
scarcely have heard her descend"
Well, as she didn't go down, of course
didn't hear her. snapped Mrs. Pierce
with the feminine way of settling an
argument by an unprovable statement
Mr.. Monroe began on another tack.
when you went to Miss Lloyd's room,"
he said. was the maid. Elsa. there?"
Miss Lloyd had just dismissed her for
the night"
What was Miss Lloyd doing when YOU
went to her room?"
She was looking over some gowns that
she proposed sending to the cleaners"
The coroner fairly jumped. He remem-
ers advertisement. which was even now
in the gold bag before him. Though all
the jurors had seen it, it had not been
referred to in the presence of the women
Recovering himself at once, he said.
Miss Lloyd's maid?"
'Oh, Elsa would pack and send them,
OF course" said Mrs. Pierce, carelessly.
Miss Lloyd was merely deciding which
ones needed cleaning
knnyU <haxy
sent?"
Mrs. Pierce looked little surprised at
this question.
Miss Lloyd always sends her things to
Carter & Browns" she said.
Now, Carter, & Brown was the firm
name on the advertisement, and it was
evident at once that the coroner consid-
cred this damaging admission.
He sat looking greatly troubled, but
before he spoke again Mr.. Parmalee made
young man in my estimation.
We'll" he said, that's pretty good
proof that the gold bag doesn't belong
TO Miss Lloyd
How SOP" asked the coroner, who had
thought quite the contrary.
why, If Miss Lloyd always sends her
goods to be cleaned to Carter & Brown,
why would she need to cut their address
from newspaper and save it?"
AT first l thought the young mans de-
duction distinctly clever, but on second
thought I wasn't SO sure. Miss Lloyd
might have wanted that address for a
dozen good reasons. To my mind, it
proved neither her ownership of the gold
bag, nor the contrary.
In fact, / thought the most important
indication that the bag might be hers Law
In the story Elsa told about the cousin
who sailed to Germany. Somehow that
sounded untrue to me, but I was more
than willing to believe it IL 1 could
1 longed for Fleming Stone who. / felt
sure. could learn from the bag and its
contents the whole truth about the crime
and the criminal.
But l had been called to take charge
OF the case, and my pride forbade me to
call on any one for help
mad scorned deductions from inani-
mate objects. but 1 resolved to study
that bag again. and study it more mi
nutely. ferhaps there We're some threads
or shreds caught in it's meshes that might
point to Its owner. / remembered a de-
tectlve story l read once, in which the
whole discovery Of the criminal depended
on Identifying few dark blue wooden
threads which were found in a small noo1
of candle grease on a veranda roof AS
II turned out, they were from the trouser
knee OF man who had knelt there to
open window. The patent absurdity of
leaving threads from ones trouser knee
amused me very much, but the accommo-
dating criminals in fiction almost always
leave threads or shreds behind them And
surely gold-lnesh bag, with it's thou
sands of links would be a fine tran TO
catch some threads Of evidence. however
minute they might be-
Furthermore, I decided to probe further
INTO that yellow rose business l was not
at all sure that those petals I found on
the moor had anything to do with Miss
Lloyd roses. but it must be question
possible of settlement. If I went about it
IN the right way. AT any rate, though /
nau oennlte work ahead Of me, my duty
just now was to listen to the Forthcoming
evidence, though l could not help think
ing l could have put questions more to
the point than Mr.. Monroe did
VI course the coroner'S inquest was not
FORMALLY conducted as a trial by jury
would be, and SO any one spoke il he
chose, and the coroner seemed really
glad when suggestions We're offered him
At this point Philip Crawford rose.
1T is impossible he said, mot to see
whittier these questions are tending But
you are on the wrong tack, Mr.. Coroner
No matter how evidence may seem to
point toward Florence Lloyd's associa-
ton with this crime. it is only seeming
That gold bag might have been hers and
1t might not. But if she says it isn't,
why, then it isn't! Notwithstanding the
state of affairs between my brother and
his niece. there is not the shadow of a
possibility that the young woman is i'm
plicated in the slightest degree and the
sooner you leave her name out of con-
and turn your search into other
channels, the sooner you will find the real
criminal"
1t was not SO much the words of Philip
Crawford, as the sincere way in which
they were spoken, that impressed me.