Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-04-15
roundly to have that identity !.

EouMuiy 70 nave VhSt NnN'y 49,
cealed" s4
''That would naturally be the muir.
dcrer, wouldn't it!" asked Sedgwick.
mo. don't think co."
1T looks to me &C" said the lawyer
Hes the one naturally Interested IN
concealment."
Pm almost ready to dismiss the
notion OF . murderer at ALL"
why so?" demanded both the
others.
because there was no murder.
probably"
"Hov do you make that out'"
Queried Balm.
From the nature Of the wounds
that caused death"
They look to me to be Just such
wounds as would be made by a blow
with heavy club"
Several blows with heavy club
might have caused such wounds. But
the blows would have had to be de-
livered peculiarly. A circle on the
skull, six inches in diameter, imping-
ing on the right ear, Is crushed In. II
you can imagine man swinging
baseball bat at the height Of his
shoulder, repeatedly and with great
force, at the victims head, you can
infer such a crushing in of the bone.
My imagination hardly carries mo so
far" :,
'.Beatinx down from above would
be the natural way" said Balm.
IA Certainly. No such blow ever
made that wound"
"Then how was II made " asked
sedgwick.
probably by fan from the cliff
to the rocks below.
"And the fall broke the mAnacle
from the right wrist? :"
"The broken manacle was never on
the right wrist"
That's merely conjecture" said the
lawyer
"No; It's certainty. A blow heavy
enough to break that iron, old as 1t Is.
must have left q mark on the flesh.
There was no mari.
"Why should any one put one hand
CT. on woman and leave the other
dangling?"
Suppose the other was not left
dangling?"
where was It, them
ION the wrist Of some other person,
possibly.
"A man had chained the woman to
himself" said sedgwick incredu-
lousy.
More probably the other way
round"
"That's even more unbelievable"
"Not II you consider the evidence.
You will remember that your mysteri-
GUS visitor, while talking with you,
carried heavy bundle. The manacles
were. I infer, in that"
"But what conceivable motive could
the dead woman have in dressing her
self up like a party, going to meet a
man. and claiming him to herself?"
'.When YOU have bizarre crime
Won must look for bizarre motives.
Just 1t present I'm dealing with facts.
The iron was on the left wrist OF the
body; therefore. 1t was on the right
wrist Of the unknown companion. II
is natural to perform q quick deft act
like Swapping on . handcuff, with the
right hand. Hence, presumably, your
visitor was the one who clamped the
eufls,"
"And the man broke on his!'
Eyes. But only after struggle,
undoubtedly. II; could and man
with a badly bruised right wrist,
should consider the traits end in sight.
You'll make inquiries, will you, Mr..
Bain!" II /.
i. ''I will, and I'll keep. an eye on Lon
Schlager and the doc. Anything more
now? II not, I'll say good night
After the lawyer had made his way
into tho darkness, Kent turned to his
host. "This affair 10 really becoming
a We. 7, pretty problem. Why didn't
You tell me Of your meeting with Sim
on p Groot = al,
s.'Who?'
"The patriarch In the circus wagon. I"
"Oh! I'd forgotten. Why, when
was trying to trail the woman, !
CHANGED upon him and asked II he had
seen her. He hadn't"
"FIe had. Also he heard terrified
cry shortly after. The cry, he
thought was in mans voice. Simon
P. Groot isn't wholly lacking In sense
OF observation.
'.Aa mans voice ain q cry? What
could that mean"
"Oh, any one OF several hundred
unthinkable things" said Kent pa
|tient1y.
wait! She must have attacked some
other man, as she did mo. She was
going to a rendezvous, wasn't she?
Then she and the man she went to
meet quarreled, and he killed her BY
throwing her over the cliff."
"And the handcuffs?"
sedgwick's hands went to his head.
THAT, OF course, is the inexplicable
thing. But don't you think that was
the way she met her death?"
mo"
Chen, what do you think?"
Never mind that at present. The
point is that Simon P. Groot naturally
supposed you to have been mixed up
in whatever tragedy there was going.
You've an unfortunate knack OF manu-
featuring evidence against yourself,
Sedgwick. The redeeming feature is
that the sheriff cant very well use 1t
Ito arrest you"
Il don't see why
Kent chuckled Don't you see that
the last thing the sheriff wants to do
lis arerst anybody"
'Nc. I don't"
! z = -. Nd, :, . Po1v, h,,v rad