The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1913-06-13
The Clue on the KEYS
Copyright. by w. g. Chapman.)

SAV OOAAOOy HA46I1SU W88 0U800
L'Amour est Mort
Whatever that u.s.
It's French for when Love Is
Dead" Now are you beginning to
see?
! Plain as mud
Il allowed myself to grow serious
then. I knew that I was working on
a mighty slim amount of evidence.
| That bloodstain might have come on
the keys in a hundred different ways
and yet, there was that peculiar coin
cidence that the room was not robbed,
making the motive for killing some
thing besides greed; there was the
fact that no doubt the killing was
done by man, and if it was done by
him, the motive must have been ven
geance of some kind, or jealousy.
And so, in spite of my misgivings, I
| felt rather certain in my own heart
| that the man who had played the pi-
ano was the same one who had killed
the girl. But with that, had not
| progressed so very far, and knew it.
So I turned to the detective.
"'Jim,' said, I've got little bunch
on this thing. It may be right, and
then again it may all be wrong. I'm
going out to look up little angle.
You go ahead and see what you can
find out and then we'll get together
again, later on
1T was still early, too early for the
work that I wanted to do, and so I
started to my house to attend to an
important duty of the night, the tuck
ing away in bed of my little kiddie,
| and giving her the goodnight kiss.
! That's one thing l never can forget,
my home life and the little kiddie
there. It keeps me from risking many
things that l might risk-and the
keeping away from those risks has
saved me more times than one. It's
not best to be too foolhardy in this
business.
And so 1 went out home, stayed
there and sang the little girl to sleep
and then I hurried downtown again.
1t was far after ten by this time and
my work was about to begin.
II had changed my dress. l had
rouged my cheeks and blackened my
eyebrows. My lips bore a coating Of
carmine. l was burlesque queen
in from long run of tank towns and
taking a first good look at big city
after many months of absence And,
of course, 1 was travelling as fast as
was possible.
"The loop district was my first stop.
Cafe after cafe I entered, to linger
a while, watch the crowds and listen
to the music, and then take my cab
again for another place. Gradually
the loop district was worked. l start
ed south, down toward the line Of
cafes which fringed Michigan avenue
and lower State street. A moment or
two l spent in each place, but finally
there came one at which l fingered.
THE piano player was of a different
type from the ordinary men who work
ed in the orchestras. There was
something about his eyes that bespoke
a veritable craze for music. Tall,
slender, yet strong, his body swayed
with the rhythm of the melody he
played, his head shook with the
humping Of the keys, while his
whole soul seemed entwi4ed in the
music he was pounding forth. Some
thing within my brain snapped. I sud-
denly became nervous as l watched
him. l felt that l was shaking with
sensation l could not fathom There
was something about that man which
made me desire to seize him, to drag
him from that piano and force him
to police station. l guess there's a
| lot Of intuition in me, I don't know.
Just the same, l felt that the cabman
outside would not have to carry me
any farther; if my theory was any
good at all, here was the person to
try working it out on.
WAITER called, and handed him
slip of paper, take this to the pian-
list, please
The waiter obeyed. I watched the
man at the instrument as he turned
quickly and received the message
| from the negro. He gazed at the
words l had written and started
slightly. Then he raised his head,
looked in my direction and smiled. l
could see his lips move. It seemed
! that they said certainly On the pa.
per had written Please play "Quand
L'Amor est Mort -
He hesitated a moment as he turn
ed to the piano again, and it seemed
that there swept over him feeling Of
revulsion. Then, almost by force,
the hands were placed on the keys
| and the music began. For a moment
1t seemed ragged and untimely. Then,
as the swing broke its way into his
heart, everything changed. Pealing,
almost laundering forth at times,
plaintive, appealing, the notes trick
ling out like tiny brooks at other mo-
ments, he brought from that tin
panny piano harmony that was al
| most divine. The loud chatter and
brazen laughter of the cafe ceased.
Men and women turned in their chairs
to listen and to watch the better.
Half drunken men leered silently; 9TH
ers who had gone farther into the
cups that sometimes cheer and some
times breed melancholy, began to
weep on each others shoulders and to
apologize for all past misdeeds, real
and fancied. Bar after bar, on went
the music. Stronger, then weaker,
rising and falling, the piece was play
ed. 1t seemed that the pianist had
lost every bit of knowledge of the