Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1915-09-09
CHAPTER II-contInued.

1t was a 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. It was not less
than extraordinary.
you don't mean Cazalet seemed
TO be swallowing-"about Henry era
vent"
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 a CLEAN of leaden wisdom.
This was Thursday morning." he
said, $50 l didn't dream of it when it
happened, after all"
You dreamed you saw him lying
dead, and so he was" said Toye. THE
funerals been today. l don't know,
but that seems to me just about the
next nearest thing to seeing the crime
.perpetrated in a 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,
sor mine either, but it's bad end even
for your worst enemy"
The paper fluttered in Cazelet's
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
asceftainable 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 a 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
mite instrument with which it was evil
IDENTITY assumed that the deed had been
committed. There was In fact a close
description of an unusual weapon, q
special constable's very special trun
cheon. 1t had hung as cherished tro
ply on the library wall, from which II
was missing, while the very imprint Of
a silver shield, mounted on the thicl
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 tn,
enterprising sheet that Toye had pro
cured. The inquest, merely opened OIL
the Monday. had been adjourned to tn,
day of ISSUE
I'VE must get hold OF an evening pa
per-" said Cazalet Fancy his owl
famous truncheon! He had it mount
ed and inscribed himself, so that
shouldn't be forgotten how he'd tough
for law and order at Trafalgar Square
That was the man all over!"
His voice and manner achieved tn
excessive indifference which the Emf
, Iish type holds due from itself afte
any excess of feeling. TOye also wa
himself again, his alert mind workin
keenly yet darkly in his acute eyes.
Il wonder II 1t was a murder?" b
speculated. II bet it wasn't deli
crate murder"
What else could It have been?"
Kind Of manslaughter Deliberat
murderers don't trust to chanC
weapons hanging on their victim
walls"
lyon forget" said Cazalet. that !
was robbed as we'll"
do they claim THAR" said HiltC
Toye. Il guess ! skipped some. Whe
does 1t say anything about his beiI
robbed?"
"HereP Cazalet had scanned the ?
per eagerly; his finger drummed upC
the place. 1.-THE police" he read OF
in some sort of triumph. have nc
been furnished with full descripti'
OF the missing watch and trinkets al
the other articles believed to ha
been taken from the pockets OF the q
ceased. What's that but robbery"
You're dead right said Toye.
missed that somehow. Yet who
thunder tracks a man down to n
and murder him in his own home? B
when you've Drained man. becau
you couldn't keep your hands on hi
you might deliberately do all the re
70 make It seem like the work
thieves"
Hilton Toye looked a judge Of
liberation as be measured his irrefl
able words. He looked somethi
more. cazalet could not tear his b