Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1916-05-18

and Then Proceeded to Demonstrate
His Accuracy of Deduction.
We are not encouraged to believe
that the Russian police inspector is the
equal of the trained French official If
Anton Chekhoff's story of the deduc-
tive method in Russia is illustrative.
one morning young man hurried
into the office of an inspector of police
and reported that his master, an officer
of the guard who had been separated
from his wife and lived alone, had
been murdered. He was greatly ex-
cited. The inspector went with him at
once to the scene of the tragedy.
When he arrived at the house he
found the door to the officers bedroom
locked, the key on the inside. The
servants, unable to awake their mas
ter, had concluded that he was dead
The Inspector found the door unin.
jured. He had 1t forced open. The bed
mad been tossed about, the pillows on
the floor. On table near the bed was
the officers watch and some silver
coins. The officer and his clothing
were gone except for single boot that
lay on the floor. The inspector exam
ined the room carefully. The only
thing he found was a partly burned
safety match. 1t was known that the
officer did not smoke and used only
sulphur matches for his candles. He
examined the garden below the win
dow. The grass and some bushes had
been trampled. He found piece of
cotton on some twigs and some fine
threads of dark blue wool At some
distance from the window, in the gar
den under bush, he found the second
top boot.
The inspector came to the conclusion,
from the evidences, that the man mad
been strang.ed and his body taken out
| through the window
The fact tnat the watch and money
were undisturbed showed that the pur,
| pose of the crime was not robbery.
! The safety match indicated that some
| person above the ordinary was con-
nected with the affair, since peasants
or common servants would have only
sulphur matches. The fact that one
boot remained in the room made the
inspector believe that the guardsman
had been killed while he was undress-
ing. The finding of the other boot in
the garden indicated that this one had
been partly removed and had fallen
off while the body was being carried
away.
The inspector in his report recon.
structed the crime: On the evening in
question the guardsman, who had been
on a prolonged debaueh, went to his
room drunk. As he sat on his bed,
taking off one of his boots, he had been
attacked and smothered with the pill
low. During the struggle the candle
was knocked over and afterward one
of the assassins relighted it, striking a
safety match. When the man was dead
his body had been taken out through
the window and carried across the gar
den. As it passed the lilac bush the
remaining boot, partly removed by the
|
off.
The inspector, having arrived at this
deduction, determined to locate the
safety match He went to all the shops
in every direction, but not one of then
carried in its stock such thing as 6
box of safety matches. Finally, a
some distance from the scene OF thu
tragedy, he found shopkeeper whit
had single pack of such matches.
was a broken pack, with one box miss
ing. The shopkeeper remembered pre-
cisely who had purchased this missin!
box. 1t was the wife of the guards
man, a big. masculine woman OF un
usual physical strength. She lived nea
the apartment i'll which the guards
man had been murdered. 1t was nov
night, but the inspector went at ono
to the woman and charged her witt
the murder of her husband.
~ know all about it, he said. TAX
me at once to the place where yol
have concealed your husband!
She got a key from a nail on th
wall and went out into the courtyard
The inspector followed. They fnall
!. reached little house at the end
the garden. The woman unlocked th
door and they entered. BY the light
a candle the inspector saw the lon
) body of a man lying motionless ON
. bed In the corner of the room. ii
approached to examine the murders
l body.
But here his deductions went t
e pieces. The supposed dead man sa
: ND. and the explanation OF all tn
$ tragic incidents appeared. The guards
$ man was going to bed every nigh
D drunk. His wife heard of 1t and wen
a across the garden to his window
g demonstrate with him. He put th
= window up and, seeing who 1t wa
e threw his boot at her. She was
s resolute woman in masculine efficiene.
She climbed In through the window
y thrashed the drunken guardsma
n uo,,nd1y drapped him across the ga