The Springdale news., 1912-11-22

Dl0 you notice his eyeS!' asked !, Davis. It was still too dark for me to see the inspectors face, but 1 felt sure that he was laughing at me. He made me feel that way all too often.
 T didn't" I answered rather cross ly. but what's that got to do with it?"
 I'm afraid, Kent, as I have said be- fore. you will never make a good de- tective. You are entirely too unob- servant of important details. Do you recall my asking early in our investi- gation whether or not Crandall had blue eyes?"
 Yes" I grudgingly admitted. q re- call It."
 As soon as discovered that Gran dall had blue eyes that eliminated him as the probable criminal"
 T don't see your logic"
 I've told you before" said Davis, after pause long enough to permit him to light another cigarette, that there are classes of crime and types of criminals, each strongly marked after it's own sort. l saw right at the start that this crime was of the hid den sort, of the kind that includes con- spiraey. blackmail, secret plotting the kind that requires a skilful sneak. You never in your life found a blue eyed sneak. There are lots of blue eyed desperadoes and burglars. Most of the notorious bad men Of the west were blue-eyed. but you don't find a man with blue eyes shooting or stab ping man In the back or kidnapping child or writing blackmailing let ters."
 While l was not at all convinced by his argument, I felt that it would be useless for me to dispute if, for would be invading comparatively un- known territory. whereas he undou5t. edly had dozens of cases al his finger. tips ready to illustrate his theory. I decided to change the subject.
 T recall. too," said, that you asked if Crandall was left handed. So far as l saw, he is not What of that? Is that another proof of Crandalls in. nocence?"
 No. said Davis. that didn't prove Crandall's innocence. It proved Rou- seris guilt. in fact. 1t was the left. handed clue that put me on the right track and eventually led me to this very cottage"
 For Heavens sake" said I impa. tiently. don't talk in riddles. Go on and explain it.'
 You're not to blame" he continued calmly. for not having seen the left. handed clue. You lack the education. Only person who had seen hundreds and hundreds of envelopes and had studied them closely would have ob- served 1t. You remember that DO. iiceman brought me part Of yellow envelope that had been found in old Andrew Elsers room On 1t was a stamp and part Of the postmark The first thing that l noticed was that the stamp was put on crooked This might mean much or nothing left. handed person stamping letter in Yarlably gets the stamp on crooked It ordinarily is put in the upper right hand corner of the envelope. A right, handed person stamping a letter has the two edges Of the envelope as a guide. Try putting on stamp with your left hand and you will see that your hand comes in such position that the edges of the envelope are hidden and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the stamp Is out of plumb. On the other hand, as a post office inspector. l am we'll aware that in a business house or office where there is large correspondence, an office boy mailing hundreds Of letters at time, Is apt to get most of the stamps on crooked If this yellow let. ter was one that had been mailed In business office. the crooked stamp meant nothing. If, on the other hand. it had been mailed singly or with a few others, 1t was pretty safe betting that the man who mailed 1t was left handed It was easy after l came to Ardway. especially as Rouser was al, ready missing and every one was talk ing about him. to learn that he was left handed"
 ''I still fail to see," said stubborn ly, why you did not suspect Gran dall. There were many things that seemed to point to him-his telephon- ing to Katharine just before she shot herself, his sudden disappearance. the finding of the morphine syringe in his rooms, the Ardway address in his note book, coupled with the fact that Gen eral Parrish had forbidden him the house. do not see how you could help suspecting him."
 4f'll admit that on the surface these things all did look damaging. but against this was the one important fact that he was too weii-balanced- too sane, if I might put it that way. I quickly learned that he was q ropu- table business man. that he was one of the governors in two clubs and you yourself informed me that Katharine Parrish had thought highly of him. No well-balanced man commits crimes of this sort. You might find m insane man conducting a successful business and getting away with it, but it is