The midland journal., 1915-10-29
CHAPTER lI-contlnued.

1t was sorry sample of his talk.
Hilton Toye did not usually mix the
ready metaphors that nevertheless
had to satisfy an inner censor, of some
austerity, before they were allowed
to leave those deliberate lips. Yet
now, in his strange excitement, word
and tone alike were on the level of
the stage Americans. 1t was not less
than extraordinary.
you don't mean Cazalet seemed
to be swallowing about Henry Cra-
ven?"
Yep"
You don't mean to say he's-dead?"
Last Wednesday night" Toye
looked at his paper, mo, / guess I'm
wrong. Seems it happened Wednes-
day, but he only passed away Sunday
morning"
Cazalet still sat staring at him
there was not room for two of them on
their feet-but into his heavy stare
there came CLEAN of leaden wisdom
This was Thursday morning." he
said, $50 didn't dream of it when it
happened, aIter all.
You dreamed you saw him lying
dead, and SO he was," said Toye. "The
. funerals been today. I don't know,
but that seems to me just about the
next nearest thing to seeing the crime
perpetrated in vision"
"Crime!" cried Cazalet. What
crime?"
Murder, sir!" said Hilton Toye.
"Willful, brutal, bloody murder! Here's
the paper; better read it for yourself.
I'm glad he wasn't a friend of yours,
or mine either, but it's bad end even
for your worst enemy"
The paper duttered in Cazelets
clutch as it had done in Toye's; but
that was as natural as his puzzled
frown over the cryptic illusions of a
journal that had dealt fully with the
ascertainable facts in previous issues
Some few emerged between the lines
Henry Craven had received his fatal
injuries on the Wednesday Of the pre-
vious week. The thing had happened
In his library, at or about half past
seven in the evening; but how crime
which was apparently profound mys-
terry, had been timed to within a min
ute of its commission did not appear
among the latest particulars No ar
rest had been made. No clue was men
toned, beyond the statement that the
police were still searching for a def
mite instrument with which it was evil
IDENTIFY assumed that the deed had been
committed. There was in fact close
description Of an unusual weapon
special constable's very special trun-
cheon. 1t had hung as cherished tro-
ply on the library wall. from which it
was missing, while the very imprint of
a silver shield, mounted on the thick
end of the weapon, was stated to have
been discovered on the scalp of the
fractured skull. But that was little
bit of special reporting, typical of the
enterprising sheet that Toye had pro-
cured. The inquest, merely opened on
the Monday, had been adjourned to the
day of issue.
We must get hold of an evening pa
per-" said Cazalet Fancy his own
famous truncheon! He had it mount
ed and inscribed himself, so that it
shouldn't be forgotten how he'd fought
for law and order at Trafalgar Square!
That was the man all overt"
His voice and manner achieved the
excessive Indifference which the Eng
iish type holds due from itself after
any excess of feeling. Toye also was
himself again, his alert mind working
keenly yet darkly in his acute eyes.
Il wonder If it was murder?' he
speculated. Il bet it wasn't a delib-
crate murder"
What else could it have been?"
Kind of manslaughter Deliberate
murderers don't trust to chance
weapons hanging on their victims
walls
You forget" said Cazalet, that he
was robbed as well.'
DO they claim that?" said Hilton
Toye. Il guess skipped some. Where
does it say anything about his being
robbed?"
"Here!" Cazalet had scanned the pa
per eagerly; his finger drummed upon
the place. "'The police" he read out,
in some. sort of triumph, have now
been furnished with full description
of the missing watch apd trinkets and
the other articles believed to have
been taken from the pockets of the de-
ceased. What's that but robbery?"
You're dead right" said Toye. 81
missed that somehow. Yet who in
thunder tracks man down to rob
and murder him in his own home? But
when you've Drained a man. because
: you couldn't keep your hands off him,
you might deliberately do all the rest
to make it seem like the work Of
thieves"
Hilton Toye looked a judge of de.
liberation as he measured his irrefut-
able words. He looked something
more, Cazslet could not tear his blue